Brooding Squid Discovered

The mothering instinct is inherent in many animals, but completely absent in others. For instance, humans care for their children for 18 (or more!) years, while the giant tortoise lays her eggs on a moonlit beach and then abandons her progeny to make their own way in their watery world. Scientists have always considered the squid to be a follower of the latter style of parenting; however, deep-sea explorers were recently surprised to discover a female squid caring for a large sac of eggs.
This protective behavior was demonstrated by the female Gonatus onyx squid, a common species found in surface waters, and was caught on tape by marine biologist Brad Seibel of the University of Rhode Island and his colleagues. The video evidence of the squid puts to rest a long controversy, said squid expert Eric Hochberg of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California. Hochberg was part of a team of researchers that proposed the existence of brooding squid five years ago based on the retrieval of a trawl bucket in 1996 that contained a relatively small number of extraordinarily large eggs along with an adult Gonatus onyx squid. "We just always had assumed that octopuses carry eggs and squids lay them on the bottom," said Hochberg. But the discovery of the Gonatus onyx changes these previous assumptions and, according to Hochberg, "there may be other deep-sea squids that are carrying their eggs."
These particular squids care for their precious cargo between 5,000 and 7,000 feet below the surface off California's central coast, just above the inky abyss of the Monterey Canyon. Because surface waters and the ocean floor are considered the two most productive depths for marine life, this middle-depth location may explain why the squid's parenting behavior was not observed until now. According to Siebel, "Researchers tend to skip this zone." The squids are probably brooding in this area to hide from predatory whales and seals, which also tend to ignore the middle depths while hunting.
Most squids lay 10,000 to 100,000 small eggs and leave them on the ocean floor where only a few survive to adulthood. But by watching over their eggs for six to nine months until they hatch, the newly discovered brooding squid enhances the survival odds of each egg, thereby allowing them to lay fewer and larger eggs.
The female Gonatus onyx carries approximately two to three thousand eggs in an open-ended sac she holds with hooks in her arms and keeps oxygen flowing to the eggs by circulating water through the sac. But after the eggs are ready to hatch, the mother probably dies, said Seibel. "Most squids lay eggs and die in one season," said Seibel. Because the egg sac blocks the squid's mouth, it's very difficult to eat with it and there's no evidence she can release it to feed and then pick it up again. Scientists have compared squids that are carrying freshly laid eggs to those holding older eggs that are ready to hatch. The squids with mature eggs are physically wasted and ready to die, whereas those with younger eggs look much healthier. The female squids accumulate fat stores while they grow and then expend it during the brooding period, which may last up to nine months. Scientists theorize that the squids' metabolism slows considerably during brooding to conserve energy and that prolonged muscle degeneration gradually provides increased buoyancy to support the eggs. They also believe the high lipid content of the females' digestive gland provides the fuel necessary to survive the brooding period.
This discovery is a prime example of how an important food source for shallow-water species and birds can also require deep waters for its survival. For this reason, Siebel says, it's important for people to think twice before signing on to any disposal project or other plans that can pollute deep ocean waters.
Click here to watch a video of a squid carrying a tubular pouch of thousands of eggs.

Is Maternal Instinct Really Instinct?

Are you one of those women who never felt like she had the "maternal instinct"? Are you still nervous that you won't know what to do when your baby cries? Are you still waiting for it to magically kick in now that you're pregnant? Many women experience such anxiety, but researchers are now studying whether maternal instinct may in fact be something we learn and not something we're born with.
One scientist who believes that mothering behavior is learned and not instinctual is Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California at Davis and author of Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection. Hrdy has studied primates for more than three decades and believes that the desire of a mother to care for a child depends on her desire to be a mother and the amount of time spent bonding together. Although she concedes that maternal responses exist, she believes they are biologically conditioned, but not true instincts. In an interview with Salon.com she said, "A woman who is committed to being a mother will learn to love any baby, whether it's her own or not; a woman not committed to or prepared for being a mother may well not be prepared to love any baby, not even her own."
Hrdy argues that human babies are genetically engineered to convince their parents that they are worth raising, citing the plumpness of human babies (not seen in other primates) and their irresistible smile as examples. And given the right circumstances, even fathers can display maternal behavior, as seen in 1986 when a small boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Jersey Zoo in the United Kingdom and was - surprisingly - protected by an otherwise aggressive male silverback gorilla.
According to Hrdy, natural selection is the primary reason that males do not typically display maternal behavior. The paternity of a child can always be questioned, and if a male were to spend his time tending to offspring that were not his own, he could be limiting his own gene pool. But because maternity is never in doubt, females are more naturally inclined to tend to babies.
Hrdy acknowledges that in order to survive, babies must become attached to a caregiver, but she contends that the individual need not be the infant's biological mother. It is simply because of birth and lactation that the baby will probably form its closest relationship with its mother and she in turn will be motivated to care for the baby.
According to Craig Kinsley, PhD, "The mammalian female brain expresses a great deal of plasticity and creativity in service to, and in support of, reproduction. In other words, mothers are made, not born."
Kinsley and his colleagues in the departments of psychology at the University of Richmond and Randolph Macon College have shown that upon becoming a mother, a female rat's learning, memory, time management and efficiency improve. The brains of these rats actually change to enhance spatial ability and reduce fear and anxiety to help the new mothers care for and protect her offspring. In addition, the new rat mothers developed better hunting skills, taking just 70 seconds to track, attack and kill a cricket, compared to the 290 seconds it took childless rats.
Scientists on the other side of the maternal instinct debate have begun monitoring brain waves of new parents and have discovered maternal brain activity that points to genetic hardwiring. Researchers at Medical University of South Carolina found that mothers had a more widespread reaction to their infant's cries than in response to an unrelated infant's cries, and a greater response than the baby's father. While fathers showed increased activity only in parts of the brain thought to be more involved in thinking, distinguishing between sensations, and motor planning (posterior neocortical and cerebellar regions), mothers showed an increase in those areas as well as the limbic and basal forebrain regions, which are important in emotional responses.
According to Jeffrey Lorberbaum, MD who led the study, "Mothers may be very attuned to their own infant as they activate widespread brain regions including ancient regions believed to be important in rodent maternal behavior. Fathering behavior may be less hardwired and a more recent evolutionary phenomenon as fathers only activate newer regions of the brain involved in sensory discrimination, cognition, and motor planning in response to cries."
However, Hrdy maintains that "maternal responses that are biologically based are surely going on in the human species." But she believes that the bonding that takes place between mother and child occurs due to the flood of chemicals and hormones that occurs during pregnancy and after birth, and deepens the longer the baby is close. But this is not the definition of an instinct and although we may be vulnerable to maternal impulses, we are not "controlled or defined by them."
Learn more: http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol39/pregnancy_health_fitness.asp

Attracting the Life You Desire

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have all the luck? Good things always seem to happen to them: they are promoted at work, they succeed at every new thing they try, they have a fabulous spouse and great kids. Are some people truly luckier than others, or is there more to it than mere luck? One theory, called the Law of Attraction, claims our personal energy vibration attracts similar energy vibrations, and this attraction can help you become happier, get ahead, and even cure illness.
According to the Law of Attraction, everything vibrates at a certain frequency and magnetically attracts similar vibration frequencies. In essence, like attracts like. According to this theory, if you are angry with the world, you will attract angry people and aggravating situations; conversely, if you are at peace and happy with the world, then you will attract like-minded people and experiences. Believers insist this attraction can even help you attain your life's goals. For instance, if you desire more financial wealth, believe that you already have more money and your new frequency will attract financial gain. However, keep your thoughts positive. Thinking too much about what you don't want can change your frequency to attract exactly what you were trying to avoid.
There is evidence that ancient civilizations were aware of the magnetic power of positive vibrations. For example, Cleopatra wore a large naturally magnetic lodestone on her forehead to slow down the aging process. Author Wallace D. Wattles, in his book The Science of Getting Rich, refers to the theory as having a "…Hindu origin, and has been gradually winning its way into the thought of the western world for three hundred years. It is the foundation of all the Oriental philosophies, and those of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Hegel and Emerson…." Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and the ancient Babylonians also make reference in their texts to this powerful secret.
In modern society we often refer to this theory as positive thinking or self-fulfilling prophecy. And the energy and vibrations we all emit can even be used to cure illness and disease, according to believers. The method, called magnetic therapy, uses very strong magnets (a generic refrigerator magnet is about 10 gauss while magnets used in healing range from 450 gauss to 10,000 gauss) and practitioners believe the magnets can improve circulation, relieve muscle pain, and treat depression and other mental illness. Until recently, modern medicine viewed the Law of Attraction and magnetic therapy as quackery and mere placebo effect, but several key studies of their positive effects are causing many to rethink their position.
A recent study at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, showed that magnetic stimulation of the brain can ease severe depression. The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), works on the principle that the brain can be manipulated by small electric currents because brain cells communicate with each other and pass instructions by pulses of electricity. The trick with TMS is to set up the fields over the particular area of the brain that needs retuning. After two weeks of treatment, half of the patients showed a 50 percent improvement in symptoms. Half the patients also had no need for further treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), while all those who had been given a placebo treatment continued to need ECT. Researchers at Imperial College in London have used electromagnets placed over the cerebral cortex of people with incomplete spinal-cord injuries and have reported improvement in the patients' ability to move their limbs and feel sensation. Additionally, in a study at the Medical University of South Carolina, 20 depressed patients who had not been helped by medication underwent treatment for 20 minutes a day for two weeks while 10 had a magnet applied to their scalp but no treatment. In half of the 20 patients, symptoms were reduced by 50 percent, while none of the group of 10 improved.
Critics of the Law of Attraction and magnetic therapy argue that the studies cited by proponents are flawed and un-scientific, that there is no solid evidence for their effectiveness, and believe all the hype is a marketing scheme to sell books, products and movie tickets. Other skeptics raise troubling questions such as: If a child is abused, does that mean the child intended it in some way? Or, if I want to improve my relationship but my spouse doesn't, what will happen?
Read more: http://parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/breathingspace/vol27/pregnancy_health_fitness.asp