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Discoblog

Posts Tagged ‘rainforest’

Video: See the First Aerial Footage of an Uncontacted Amazonian Tribe

In the rainforest along the border between Brazil and Peru, an indigenous tribe is ignoring the 21st century and living life the old-fashioned way. Experts believe this “uncontacted tribe” has had no direct contact with mainstream society, but the Brazilian government has known about the tribe for 20 years and routinely flies above the settlement to check on the inhabitants’ well-being.

NOw, the BBC has released the first ever video footage of this tribe, which had previously only been seen in photographs:

The footage was filmed in cooperation with the Brazilian government, and was featured on the BBC’s Human Planet series. It was shot in the summer of 2010 along the Peru-Brazil border using a zoom lens that allowed the crew to film from more than a half-mile away.

(more…)

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February 4th, 2011 Tags: Amazon, Brazil, Indians, Peru, rainforest, South America, tribes, uncontacted tribe, video
by Patrick Morgan in Events, Pollution Solutions (& Disasters), Top Posts, Where We Came From & Where We're Going | 3 Comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

If You’re Looking for New Drugs, Follow the Bright Bugs

Tiger beetles’ color warns predators that they taste bad Seeking out new chemicals that could help scientists develop new medicines and drugs might not be so hard after all—maybe we just need to look for bright colors.

When insects like ladybugs, tiger moths and many others don brilliant hues, they’re saying, “Don’t eat me—I’m full of toxins and taste terrible.” The insects have to get those chemicals from somewhere, and the mostly likely candidates are the plants they live and feed upon. Scientists from the Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute in Panama say that these plants, with their weird cocktails of toxins, could be best the best sources of new drugs for humans, if we could only find them.

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July 9th, 2008 Tags: pharmaceuticals, rainforest, unusual organisms
by Andrew Moseman in Diseases, Injuries, & Other Ailments, The Wide (& Strange) World of Animals | 1 Comment | RSS feed | Trackback >





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      Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.

      Discoblog also includes the daily feature NCBI ROFL, in which two prone-to-distraction grad students post real scientific articles with funny subjects. Email your tips to ncbirofl [at] gmail.com. Follow the ROFL feed here.

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