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Showing posts from September, 2021

Complete Transits through the Arctic between the Atlantic and Pacific

 Satellites have provided a precise instrument for constantly observing shifts in the Arctic ice since 1979. Every summertime the Arctic ice cover decreases to what researchers name its "minimum" before winter begins and ice cover increases. The visualization below shows the annual minimum Arctic sea ice extent from 1979 through 2020. In 2020, the Arctic minimum sea ice-coated area was 3.36 million sq km (1.30 million sq. km).  In 2021 the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice decreased to 4.72 million sq km (1.82 million sq mi). It's 12th-Lowest on Record. Such changes will have a marked effect on the global economy and geopolitics. The beginning of operating shipways such as the Suez Canal has resulted in tremendous economies in the trip distance and thus costs for the transportation business. A comparable alternative could be opened up in the coming decades by cruising through the Arctic. Nowadays, whole transits over the Arctic are infrequently performed; the causes for t

Brain size vs. body weight of various animals and humans visualized

The graph created by Reddit user Heresacorrection shows brain size compared to the bodyweight of different animals.  The color of every point represents the distance from the best-fit line (dotted in grey). It serves as a proxy for the encephalization quotient, which ranks relative brain size. You can see that humans have an enormous brain for their size out of all mammals. The data was taken from the article. Tartarelli, G., Bisconti, M. Trajectories and Constraints in Brain Evolution in Primates and Cetaceans. Human Evolution Brain size typically rises with animal body size.  In animals, it is believed that the larger the brain size, the more brain weight will be possible for more complicated cognitive tasks. Nonetheless, large animals require more neurons to serve their bodies and manage muscles. Therefore, relative rather than absolute brain size makes for a ranking of animals that better matches the observed complexness of behavior. There are a lot of other evolutionary pressures