This week in science: hold the pickles

Tunicates are odd forms of phyla Chordata, superficially similar to vertebrates in terms of evolution and development. Most look about as dumb and plant-like as it’s possible to be and still technically be a metazoan animal. The colonial forms, like the sea pickles, may descend from ancient lines. But here’s something new in their behavior:

Ric Brodeur, a research biologist at the NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Newport, Ore., said that beachcombers in Oregon have been walking the beaches there for decades, but he has started getting reports of pyrosomes washing up on the beaches only in the past few months. He has also been going to sea on research cruises since the 1980s and saw his first pyrosome only in 2014. He believes the high abundance is related to unusually warm ocean conditions along the coast that resembles pyrosomes' normal habitat.

Gosh, I wonder what could possibly be causing warmer oceans? And how can science ever be sure to be an arbitrary, 100 percent metaphysical godlike certainty anyway?

• No, no, no: Anonymous did not hack secret NASA evidence about hidden alien life.
• Scientists say up to a third of the marine megafauna might have gone extinct a few million years ago, leaving the resultant population familiar to us a lot less rich than it was. One like culprit was changing coastlines during a global climate shift …
• Silicon Hills, aka Austin, gets a tech shout out in The Hill:

In just three decades, the Austin region has transformed from a sleepy university and state government town into a national driver of economic activity and innovation. We are a destination city for entrepreneurs, millennials and breakfast taco aficionados.

• Interesting thought piece for a lazy summer evening:

Then there’s a third option which is gaining ground in some scientific circles, panpsychism. In this view, the entire universe is inhabited by consciousness. A handful of scientists are starting to warm to this theory, but it’s still a matter of great debate.

from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2ucdnkO