Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
We didn’t get many entries in the “Guess the Nobel Prize” contest, with the prize being an autographed book with a special commissioned drawing by yours truly. To enter and see the rules, go to the earlier post and leave your guesses there (or below). (You have to guess one person who will win in the three science categories plus the literature prize.)
I have no guesses myself, but I already have plenty of books!
It’s Nobel Prize season again, and again I’ll have my annual contest, which almost nobody ever wins. Your job is to guess the Nobel Prizes for this year in all four following categories:
You must get all four right to get the prize, which is an autographed copy of either Why Evolution is True or Faith Versus Fact (your choice). And in the book, besides making it out to you, I will add a genuine PCC(E) drawing an animal of your choice.
You can make only one guess per category (no saying “it could be X or Y or Z”). For areas in which more than one person can win—science prizes can be shared by up to three people—it’s best to name just one person, for if you name someone who doesn’t win, you lose the whole category.
Put your choices below. What do you have to lose?
If several people guess all four right, the first entry wins.
The Prize Awards will begin on Monday, with announcements on these dates:
PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE – Monday 5 October, 11:30 CEST at the earliest
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Wallenbergsalen, Nobel Forum, Nobels väg 1, Solna
http://www.nobelprizemedicine.org
nobelforum@nobelprizemedicine.orgPHYSICS – Tuesday 6 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien, KVA), Sessionssalen, Lilla Frescativägen 4A, Stockholm
www.kva.se/pressroom
eva.nevelius@kva.seCHEMISTRY – Wednesday 7 October, 11:45 CEST at the earliest
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sessionssalen, Lilla Frescativägen 4A, Stockholm
www.kva.se/pressroom
eva.nevelius@kva.seLITERATURE – Thursday 8 October, 13:00 CEST at the earliest
The Swedish Academy (Svenska Akademien), Börssalen, Källargränd 4, Stockholm
http://www.svenskaakademien.se/en
louise.hedberg@svenskaakademin.se
Every year I post a video of Nathan’s July 4 hot-dog-eating contest, and every year readers respond with a near-universal “ECCH!” And the results are nearly always the same. This year, competitive eater Joey Chestnut, 36, won for the 13th time in 14 years, beating his previous record by one dog. Remember, these are dogs with buns, and remember that the pace was 7.5 dogs per minute!
Here’s Chestnut’s world-record performance, conducted under pandemic conditions this year: no crowd to cheer on the gluttony, contest inside rather than outside, and only five contestants.
I do love my dogs (I’m from Chicago after all), preferably dragged through the garden.
The woman’s record was set by Miki Sudo:
The Coney Island tradition allowed betting this year. The coronavirus crisis forced some changes, too. Spectators weren’t allowed to watch in person. Competitors were separated by clear barriers. And the people bringing them fresh supplies wore masks.
“It was hard, but I knew I was fast at the beginning,” Chestnut said on ESPN. “The dogs were cooked really well today. At minute 6 is where I missed the crowd. I hit a wall. It took a little more work to get through it.”
Miki Sudo ate 48.5 hot dogs to win the women’s division and set a world record. It’s her seventh title, more than any woman ever.
Here’s Sudo’s new record:
Reader Laurie sent me a link to the BBC’s presentation of some winners of Nature TTL’s Wildlife and Landscape Photography Contest. I’m having trouble braining today (enforced solitude does that), so, for your delectation, here are my favorites. The BBC’s captions are indented. The fourth photo is a stunning example of crypsis (camouflage).
First, the winner among 7,000 entries.
French photographer Florian Ledoux took the winning photo, entitled “Above the Crabeater Seals”, in Antarctica.
Landscape winner: “Shadow Game” by Marek Biegalski.
“An aerial image taken in Tuscany in autumn light. A flock of sheep was hiding in the shade from the sun under the shadow of a tree.”
Wildlife category, highly commended: “Breathing”, by Bence Mate, taken in Romania.
“A brown bear growls a warning of its presence to an interloper, his breath vanishing slowly in the windless forest.”
Macro category, highly commended: “Nothing here but this tree” by Catilin Henderson, taken in Australia.
“The lichen huntsman (Pandercetes gracilis) is an incredible species of tree-dwelling spider from Australia’s tropical north. Its astounding camouflage enables it to blend perfectly with tree bark and lichens, and it’s nearly impossible to spot by day.
“At night, I went searching for these spiders with a torch, using their reflective eye-shine to discover their hiding places in plain sight.”
Landscape category, highly commended. “Flower Power” by Brandon Yoshizawa, taken in USA.
“An incredible display of man and nature. The exhaust plume of a SpaceX rocket is lit by the low sun at twilight.
“The plume takes on the shape of a flower with the trail almost looking like a broken stem, as it shoots out from behind the snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains.”
You can read more about the photos, and see more, at the BBC site.
Meet (or should I say “Meat”?) Leah Shutkever, who specializes in eating large quantities of food in short periods of time. In other words, she’s a competitive eater, a job (or avocation) which fascinates me. She’s not fat or anything, and she’s probably a landsman, which makes me kin—and proud. Her performance here is unbelievable: she demolishes a six-pound steak, complete with fries, onion rings, and a side salad, in only 13 minutes. (The restaurant where she’s meeting the challenge, Catllemens Grill Harrogate, gives you a whole hour to finish to get the meal for free. She finishes, setting a record, in less than a quarter of that time.)
Somehow I found this video mesmerizing, and watched the whole thing. If you wish to skip the intro, start at 3:22 . Her YouTube channel is here, where you can watch her dispatch pancakes, burgers, and chicken with equal speed and alacrity. A notable one is where Leah polishes off four Big Macs, four McDonald’s milkshakes, and four large fries in—get this—6 minutes and 15 seconds! Eight pounds of pigs in blankets in 33 minutes!
It looks as if today’s post will be on science, which is good because I’m sure that you, like me, are tired of the endless and often depressing news about politics.
My Modern Met (click on screenshot below) has a selection of winners from the 2019 Bird Photographer of the Year contest, now in its fourth year. (You can see all the winners here.) I’ve chosen seven that appeal to me, but you can see all the winners at the link in the last sentence.
I’ve put the captions and credits below the photos, but My Modern Met has more information on how each photo was made and the circumstances of its making.
And of course we must have a duck!
h/t: Merilee
Meet Leah Shutkever, formerly a Woman of Size who lost a ton of weight, hits the gym six days a week, and, on the side, is one of the most accomplished competitive eaters in the UK. Here is her story, along with some of her Food Challenges.