The Haversack: Alien planets, arachnid sex/vision, and reporters arrested in America; EDIT: Added humming bees

I was perusing the internet for interesting facts that I can spout at parties, which will either make you the coolest guy there (if you're partying with geeks), or clear the way to the drink table (at any other party with normal people). Either way, a win in my book. Nothing popped up that was worthy of a post by itself, so here's another edition of the Heward's Handy Haversack.

First up...

Habitable "super-Earth" discovered (?)

Scientists say they may have discovered a planet about 4.5 times as massive as Earth that could be potentially habitable due to its being located in the "habitable zone" of its star.

"It's the Holy Grail of exoplanet research to find a planet around a star orbiting at the right distance so it's not too close where it would lose all its water and boil away, and not too far where it would all freeze," Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told SPACE.com. "It's right smack in the habitable zone — there's no question or discussion about it. It's not on the edge, it's right in there."

Orbiting a star in the constellation Scorpius, the affectionately dubbed GJ 667C (Seriously fellas? Couldn't come up with a better name real quick for the news story? I mean, it costs you like 20 bucks to register it with NASA. Couldn't find that in the budget?), the planet is only 22 light years away. The planet is part of a triple star solar system; scientists say that while the other stars are "pretty far away" because the system is spread out, it would look really neat.

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

Bees hum specific tunes based on health

From the UK, beekeepers in Scotland have begun to use iPad sized devices that record and analyze the humming in a hive. Mr. Evans, an electronic engineer turned beekeeper, developed the device after several "bad encounters" with hives that were about to swarm. He wanted to be able to get a better feel for what was going on inside the hive before he was stung to death by thousands of bees.

His invention is based off the previous work of a Mr. Woods in the 1950s. He developed an "apidictor" which analysed the humming of bees in the hive. The problem with this device, it seemed to Mr. Evans, was that the beekeeper still had to visit the hives and insert a microphone into their swirling cloud of death.

His monitor used digital algorithms to recognize the different sorts of hums, and then sends that information back to a central master unit.

Hopes are that this device will help to increase honey production by more accurately gauging the health of the honey bees. It may also help scientists determine what is causing the bee population to fall by figuring out what was going on in their little worlds right before their sudden collapse. Also, fewer beekeepers will be stung in the face.

Speaking of innovation in the world of insects...

Spiders develop detachable penis

As an answer to the age old question "How do I have sex with my lady and not get subsequently eaten alive?", spider scientists have come up with a solution. Just ditch your penis.

The orb-web spider apparently has two of them, after all. This spider has evolved to be able to ditch their entire palp, analogous to a penis, (as opposed to just the tip, like many other spiders...Just the tip. Just for a second. Don't eat me!) and attempt to escape becoming a meal on wheels. The cool thing is that the palp keeps on pumpin' after it is detached. In fact, while only 20% of spider sperm makes it in while attached, up to 80% gets deposited total.

In other arachnid news...

Jumping spiders have unique, green light based vision

There are a variety of different mechanisms creatures have developed to be able to judge distance. Humans use what is called "binocular stereovision", where our brain judges distance by triangulating data viewed at different angles by our two offset eyes. Some insects "move their heads side to side to create an effect called motion parallax — nearer objects will move across their field of vision more quickly than objects farther away."

The jumping spider, which pounces on its prey from the sky, doesn't adjust the focus of its eyes, which are also too close for human like vision. Japanese researchers have found that they judge distance by comparing the blurriness in one image to another.

Rather than having a single layer of photoreceptor cells, the retinas in the spider’s principal eyes have four distinct photoreceptor layers. When Terakita and his colleagues took a close look at the spider's principal eyes, they found that the two layers closest to the surface contain ultraviolet-sensitive pigments, whereas the deeper layers contain green-sensitive pigments.

However, because of the layers' respective distances from the lens of the eye, incoming green light is only focused on the deepest layer, while the other green-sensitive retinal layer receives defocused or fuzzy images. The researchers hypothesized that the spiders gauge depth cues from the amount of defocus in this fuzzy layer, which is proportional to the distance an object is to the lens of the eye.

To test this the researchers put some spiders and fruit flies in a jar, bathed the thing with various types of light, and saw what happened. Sure enough, in green light these spider ninjas accurately pounced on their prey. In red light, however, the spiders consistently jumped too short.

Scientists think that this could have possible implications for vision systems in future robot designs.

Great, just what we need. Cyborg jumping spiders with super vision.

You know what's more frightening than cyborg spiders?

Congressman orders arrest of reporter for...reporting...

Hailing a new age for government transparency, the Chairman on the U.S. House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment (I bet the have the best team T-Shirts) ordered the arrest of a reporter during a top secret, very exclusive, open session of the subcommittee. Open, as in, anyone can watch if they wanted.

The heinous crime that the reporter committed was not having the proper press credentials. Which would be cool, except that the reporter (One Josh Fox) repeatedly attempted to get the credentials previously so that he could film this hearing for a documentary. The requests were denied, despite the fact that there was plenty of room for cameras (which I'm sure is just as shocking to you as it was to me, cause watching the Science Committee's Subcommittee on Energy meetings sounds about as awesome as being trapped in a cage with a sexually frustrated panda).

No reason was given for the credentials being denied to Mr. Fox.