Mind Soup

MIND SOUP : In a televised live appearance on the German television, Paul the octupus predicted that Spain will win the World Cup finale which is scheduled on Sunday night. Netherlands fans started getting edgy, especially after seven correct predictions made by the lower invertebrate earlier this season, latest of which was the defeat of Germany to Spain on Wednesday. (Reuters) "That was fast -- it looks like a clear-cut victory for Spain," said Tanja Munzig, spokeswoman for Sea Life in Oberhausen. She was surprised by his speed in picking Spain. For some matches it took Paul 70 minutes to decide. Also, according the Associate Press , Paul has predicted that Germany will win over Uruguay for third place. (Reuters) Meanwhile, other animals are predicting the outcome of the final World Cup game too. "A parakeet, long tailed parrot, named 'Mani' has also been forecasting match results. Mani has become the talk of the town after predicting that the Neth...

The  turritopsis nutricula  species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. Why I am particularly interested about this? Well, partly because I am majoring in biology and have taken a whole course about lower invertebrates such as jellyfish and other slimy animals, but the huge part is because of the huge capability this animal presents to the scientific world! If scientists could discover the mechanism of this reversion of cells, this can advance the medical field tremendously, possibly by regenerating failing organ cells such as liver cells, heart cells or even brain cells. Here's the original post from the Mother Nature Network   (check this article about the animals with the longest life span, very interesting) , via Maurice Salem . Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scient...