SCIENCE BOND

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Cervidae Genus: Rangifer Scientific Name: Rangifer Tarandus Type: Mammal Diet: Herbivore Size: 1.6-2.1m (63-82in) Weight: 60-320kg (132-705lbs) Top Speed: 80km/h (50mph) Life Span: 12-15 years Lifestyle: Herd The reindeer (also known as the caribou) is found in large herds in the very north of the world. Reindeer inhabit both the Arctic Tundra and the North Pole regions which include parts of North America, Europe and Asia. The reindeers hooves adapt to the season so in the summer when the tundra is soft and wet, the reindeers footpads become sponge-like in order to get a bigger surface area on the damp group. In the winter, the reindeers footpads shrink and tighten, exposing the rim of the hoof which cuts into the ice and crusted snow to stop the reindeer from slipping. The changes to the reindeer hooves during the winter enables the reindeer to dig do...

The hidden world of the ocean's tiniest organisms has been revealed in a series of papers published in the journal Science. An international team has been studying samples of plankton collected during a three-year global expedition. They have so far found 35,000 species of bacteria, 5,000 new viruses and 150,000 single-celled plants and creatures.They believe that the majority of these are new to science. Dr Chris Bowler, from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in Paris, told BBC News: "We have the most complete description yet of planktonic organisms to date: what's there in terms of viruses, bacteria and protozoa - we finally have a catalogue of what is present globally."Planktonic organisms are minute, but together they make up 90% of the mass of all of the marine life in the oceans. They include viruses, bacteria, single-celled plants and creatures (protozoa). They form the very base of the food chain, and produce - through photosyn...

  This agile arachnid from the desert uses a gymnast’s trick to escape from threatening situations: It cartwheels its way out of danger. When danger comes calling, the spider first assumes a threatening posture. If the danger persists, the spider runs and, about half the time that running turns into cartwheeling which is twice as fast. Terrain is not a challenge: the spider can spin across flat ground as well as up and down hills.  Rather than attempting to cartwheel away, the spider propels itself toward the source of the threat, perhaps invoking the theory that the best defense is a good offense. In the barren sand dunes where the spider lives, running away can prove pointless because there is no place to hide. The high temperatures of its desert habitat would be fatal to the spider if it persisted in this high-energy routine for long, so cartwheeling is thought to be an escape option of last resort. Even before the spider had been officially named, its behavior insp...

The world's oldest stone tools have been discovered, scientists report.They were unearthed from the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya, and date to 3.3 million years ago. They are 700,000 years older than any tools found before, even pre-dating the earliest humans in the Homo genus. The find, reported in Nature, suggests that more ancient species, such asAustralopithecus afarensis or Kenyanthropus platyops, may have been more sophisticated than was thought. "They are significantly earlier than anything that has been found previously," said Dr Nick Taylor, from the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) in France and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. "It's really quite astonishing to think what separates the previous oldest site and this site is 700,000 years of time. It's monumental."The first tools from the site, which is called Lomekwi 3, were discovered in 2011. They were spotted after researchers took a wrong turn as they ...

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B by the teams of Dr. Gregory West (Assistant Professor at the Université de Montréal) and Dr. Véronique Bohbot (Douglas Institute researcher and associate Professor at McGill University and the Douglas Research Institute of the CIUSSS de l'Ouest-de-l'Île de Montréal) shows that while video game players (VGPs) exhibit more efficient visual attention abilities, they are also much more likely to use navigation strategies that rely on the brain's reward system (the caudate nucleus) and not the brain's spatial memory system (the hippocampus). Past research has shown that people who use caudate nucleus-dependent navigation strategies have decreased grey matter and lower functional brain activity in the hippocampus. Video gamers now spend a collective three billion hours per week in front of their screens. In fact, it is estimated that the average young person will have spent some 10,000 hour...

The completion of the UK's biggest commercial space project is facing several months of delay. Inmarsat of London has confirmed that the roll-out of its Global Xpress next-generation satellite network is on hold while Russia probes the latest failure of a Proton rocket. Six Protons and their payloads have now been lost in the past five years. Inmarsat's third GX satellite was due to be the next customer in line, but this flight has now been postponed. The company says it will wait until it hears the results of a Failure Review Oversight Board before making any decisions on what to do next. Rupert Pearce, Inmarsat's CEO, commented: "This incident involving a failed Proton launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome is extremely unfortunate and will inevitably delay our launch plans for our third Global Xpress satellite. "This is the third time our Global Xpress programme has suffered launch delays because of Proton launch failures. "Although in the past...

Name:German Shepherd Origin:Germany Size:66cm (26in) Weight:43kg (95lbs) Life Span:12 years Group:Herd German Shepherds are highly active dogs, fearless, but not hostile and often are described in breed standards as self-assured and never shy.The breed is marked by a willingness to learn and an eagerness to have a purpose. Shepherds can become over-protective of their family and territory, especially if not socialised correctly. Due to their loyal nature Shepherds bond well with children they know. While typically approachable, Shepherds do not become immediate friends with strangers. German Shepherds are highly obedient and not easily distracted,  but due to their self-strong will must be trained by a firm hand.