Kisses, Oceans, and a T-Rex

This week’s required reading is as follows:

New Ocean Forming in Ethiopia — Mother Nature’s contingency plan for melting polar ice caps.

In 2005, a gigantic, 35-mile-long rift broke open the desert ground in Ethiopia. At the time, some geologists believed the rift was the beginning of a new ocean as two parts of the African continent pulled apart, but the claim was controversial.

Now, scientists from several countries have confirmed that the volcanic processes at work beneath the Ethiopian rift are nearly identical to those at the bottom of the world’s oceans, and the rift is indeed likely the beginning of a new sea.

(Via Kristin)

Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings — Doing a fine job of it, too.

Cytomegalovirus, which lives in human saliva, is generally innocuous, but when introduced during a pregnancy it can be extremely dangerous, killing unborn babies or causing birth defects like deafness or cerebral palsy. However, if cytomegalovirus is introduced to a woman in small doses before she conceives, she will build an immune resistance to it. Optimally, kissing the same male for six months prior to pregnancy gives the woman’s immune system the practice it needs to render cytomegalovirus impotent.

Could a Human Beat a T. Rex In Arm Wrestling? — Who doesn’t love a good dinosaur article?

“First, we’re assuming that the T. rex won’t just eat the person, right?” asks Jack Conrad, a vertebrate paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Right. This is a sanctioned match, and killing your opponent is strictly against the rules. Who’s coming out on top?

Also from the article: “There are dozens of hypotheses about what the T. rex used its arms for . . .,” one presumes that seizing the boy has been ruled out.

Tags: Dinosaurs, Global Warming, Required Reading, Science!