Scientists find cocaine in shrimps in Suffolk rivers

Scientists found cocaine in freshwater shrimps when testing rivers for chemicals, a study said.

Researchers at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Suffolk, tested 15 different locations across Suffolk.

Their report said cocaine was found in all samples tested. Other illicit drugs, such as ketamine, were also widespread in the shrimp.

The researchers said it was a "surprising" finding.

Professor Nic Bury, from the University of Suffolk, said: "Whether the presence of cocaine in aquatic animals is an issue for Suffolk, or more widespread an occurrence in the UK and abroad, awaits further research.

"Environmental health has attracted much attention from the public due to challenges associated with climate change and microplastic pollution.

"However, the impact of 'invisible' chemical pollution (such as drugs) on wildlife health needs more focus in the UK."

The study, published in Environment International, looked at the exposure of wildlife, such as the freshwater shrimp Gammarus pulex, to different micropollutants.

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More gray whales are risking their lives for shrimp cocktail

By Elizabeth PennisiOct. 26, 2017 , 12:00 PM

HALIFAX, CANADA—Among cetaceans, gray whales are the curmudgeons: They’re often reclusive and set in their ways, spending much of their time nosing alone along the Arctic Ocean bottom for tasty invertebrates. But a dozen gray whales along the coast of Washington state are showing that even loners can get social. Using special suction cup tags with cameras and sensors—plus high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth—marine biologists have found that a small party of whales has started detouring 200 kilometers to feast on ghost shrimp during their annual northward migration—and that the party is getting bigger all the time. That behavior reveals that even gray whales can learn new tricks from their companions, the scientists say.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the whales are spending “a lot” of time together, said John Calambokidis, a marine mammal researcher at the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, here at this week’s biennial meeting of the Society for Marine Mammalogy.

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How a tiny shrimp fires a savage shock wave using just its claw

27 October 2017

By Aylin Woodward

This reef ain’t big enough for the both of us. Two pistol shrimp face each other, each spreading open its giant snapping claw – nearly half the size of its body. One or both of them then snaps the claw shut in its opponent’s direction, firing off a powerful water jet at speeds up to 30 metres per second.

These shrimp shootouts are rarely fatal, but can leave the loser retreating with missing claws or puncture wounds. But the high-speed squirt isn’t what harms their target – it’s the resulting shock wave. Now we have glimpsed how this unfolds in fine detail.

If you stick your head under coastal tropical waters, you may hear a sound like chestnuts crackling as they roast. At a volume of about 200 decibels – louder than a .22 calibre rifle shot – these pops are some of the loudest in the ocean, second only to sperm whale clicks.

Originally, marine scientists thought the sounds were produced by the impact of the shrimps’ claws closing. Now, we know that they ring out when an air bubble collapses around the watery salvo, much as when bubbles form in our joints and rapidly collapse as we crack our knuckles.

Prior work didn’t explore precisely how this bubble forms, says Phoevos Koukouvinis at the City University of London. “We knew the bubbles were there, but we didn’t know what they looked like.” So his team sought to unravel the mystery by simulating what happens after the shrimp shuts its claw at different speeds.

Read on  

Dig it! Two new shrimp species found in burrows at the bottom of the Gulf of California

May 12, 2017

Although the Santa María-La Reforma lagoon complex in the Gulf of California is one of the most important areas for shrimp fishery, little is known about the crustacean species that live in the burrows dug in the bottom.

In addition to presenting two species new to science, researchers Drs. José Salgado-Barragán, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Manuel Ayón-Parente and Pilar Zamora-Tavares, both affiliated with Universidad de Guadalajara, México collaborated to build on the knowledge of small shrimp species living there. The study is published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

Over the span of about two years - between 2013 and 2015, the scientists conducted series of surveys of the bottom-dwelling crustaceans in Bahía Santa María-La Reforma lagoon, located in the southwest Gulf of California. Following a thorough examination of the collected specimens, they recorded five shrimp species of three genera, inhabiting burrows dug into either mud, sand, or sandy-mud. Two of these species turned out to be previously unknown.

Read more at:

Cheap solar cells made from shrimp shells

The materials chitin and chitosan found in the shells are abundant and significantly cheaper to produce than the expensive metals such as ruthenium, which is similar to platinum, that are currently used in making nanostructured solar-cells.

Currently the efficiency of solar cells made with these biomass-derived materials is low but if it can be improved they could be placed in everything from wearable chargers for tablets, phones and smartwatches, to semi-transparent films over window.

Researchers, from QMUL's School of Engineering and Materials Science, used a process known as hydrothermal carbonization to create the carbon quantum dots (CQDs) from the widely and cheaply available chemicals found in crustacean shells. They then coat standard zinc oxide nanorods with the CQDs to make the solar cells.

Dr Joe Briscoe, one of the researchers on the project, said: "This could be a great new way to make these versatile, quick and easy to produce solar cells from readily available, sustainable materials. Once we've improved their efficiency they could be used anywhere that solar cells are used now, particularly to charge the kinds of devices people carry with them every day.

Read more at:

Video: Frog breaks up fight between two shrimps

Could this be the most bizarre animal video on YouTube?

First there was a cat sitting on a wall like a human, later followed by this sloth stroking a feline companion.

The latest weird clip features an assertive frog breaking up a fight between two shrimps in a no-holds barred underwater battle.

It begins with the two Indian whisker shrimp coming to blows at the bottom of a fish tank, ferociously attacking each other with their spindly legs.

The fight is quickly broken up when the frog plunges to the bottom of the tank between the warring pair, before a caption pops up: ‘Not in my tank.’

It has racked up thousands of hit since it was uploaded to the video-sharing site earlier this month.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/24/video-whisker-shrimp-fight-is-broken-up-by-a-frog-4101495/

Shrimp has 'silk-spinning skills'

A tiny underwater creature spins silk in order to bind together its sand grain house, researchers have discovered.

The shrimp, Crassicorophium bonellii, produces fibres that combine barnacle cement biology with spider silk production techniques.

The resulting "gossamer threads" are sticky and salt-water resistant.

The Oxford team says this is a new example of "nature's way of engineering a highly functional material".

Their discovery is published in the journal Naturwissenschaften.

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15699346

Read more here ...

CD and DVD players to employ shrimp technology

Click to enlarge

Metro.co.uk, Monday 26 October 2009, p20.

Crustacean Color Control System Decoded

Anna Salleh, ABC Science Online

July 28, 2009 -- Popular crustaceans like lobsters, crabs and prawns owe their success to a unique color control system, according to a new genetic study.

Australian zoologist Nick Wade of the CSIRO Food Futures Flagship in Brisbane and colleagues reported their findings in this week's issue of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

"We identified that this particular coloration system is only found in crustaceans," said Wade. "It's not found anywhere else in the animal kingdom."

Wade researched the crustacean color system for his PhD while at the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

Most people like their lobsters, crabs and prawns to come in nice strong colors because this is a sign the animals are good quality, said Wade.

"If the animal was all white people wouldn't be willing to pay much for it," he said.

But, said Wade, for crustaceans their color is key to their survival because it enables them to camouflage themselves and communicate with mates.

Scientists have long known that central to the color system of crustaceans is the carotenoid pigment astaxanthin, present in the shells of the animals.

A protein called crustacyanin is known to bind to astaxanthin and twist the pigment in various ways, changing the wavelength it reflects from red to a whole spectrum of colors, depending on how the molecules interact.

When a lobster is cooked, the crustacyanin protein is destroyed and the color of the shell returns to the orange of the free carotenoid.

The interaction between astaxanthin and crustacyanin is behind the myriad of colors that adorn various lobsters and prawns, said Wade.

"We're talking about going from the red end of the spectrum to the blue end of the spectrum," he said.

"That's the entire length of the visible spectrum. This protein is able to do something that no other protein can do."

Wade and colleagues wanted to know how widespread this color system is in the animal kingdom.

They looked for the gene responsible for crustacyanin in a whole slew of different animals but could only find it in crustaceans.

Wade said this simple "one molecule, many colors" system could have been key to the success of crustaceans, which occupy a bewildering diversity of habitats.

"What we're doing is starting to identify the genetic basis of biodiversity," he said.

Apart from genetics, other factors that influence the color of crustaceans are their dietary intake of carotenoids and the background color of their environment, said Wade.

Wade added that in the future the crustacean system could be used to develop new food dyes.

It could also be used to develop new indicators of acidity and temperature since both these factors can affect the protein-pigment complex, and thus affect color.

"You could engineer the protein to do more than it used to do," he said.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/28/crustacean-color.html