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If you only have six weeks of a seventeen year life to live above ground, there’s no better way to go out than on a high note — or at least a very, very loud one.

That’s only a tiny segment of this stunning short film about the life of the cicada by Samuel Orr, that was six years in the making.

Orr’s goal is to make a full-length picture from the 200 hours of footage he gathered, and he’s started a Kickstarter page to let the wings of his project unfurl.

We have to say, it isn’t often a nature film can bring us to tears, but this one hit the mark.

Full story at Vimeo via Huffington Post.

Wonders of nature.

If your looking to invest in property, it appears intellectual property is the place to be considering that an incredible forty percent of the U.S.’s economic gain is in this area.

So, how much is your brainchild worth and how does one go about protecting it…or finding out if it’s even yours in the first place?

Check out this infographic by UpCounsel and find out.

Via UpCounsel.

Like infographics? So do we.

Tell someone that you hail from the Land of the Flowland People and you’re bound to get a few strange looks, whereas identifying yourself as a Hoosier doesn’t leave a question in anyone’s mind (that you’re a huge basketball fan, right?).

Turns out, all those names for places between Navel of the Moon (Mexico) and Land of Settlement (Canada) once meant something else, so cartographers Stephan Hormes and Silke Peust decided to relabel a map of the United States with an historical touch that provides a fascinating glimpse of the past.

Full story at Atlas of True Names via Slate.

Historical maps.

It’s hard to imagine a world where Steve Jobs wasn’t a much-loved and much-missed innovation star, but his own prediction of his legacy wasn’t so rosy back in 1994.

During his time at NeXT, with his bright return to Apple still in the future, he explains that technological innovations have nothing on the Renaissance masters whose work can be appreciated for hundreds of years, while creations like his fade within a decade.

“All the work that I’ve done in my life will be obsolete by the time I’m 50,” Jobs, still shy of his 40th birthday, says in the video below. “The Apple 2 is obsolete now, Apple 1s were obsolete many years ago, the Macintosh is on the verge of becoming obsolete in the next few years.”

While his work may not stand the test of time, it seems his person will continue to inspire for some time to come.

Full story YouTube via CNET.

Remembering Steve Jobs.

Lung transplant patients without diabetes live twice as long as those with the disease, according to new research.

“Only 30 percent of lung transplant recipients survive beyond ten years. It was thought that the effects of diabetes, which manifest in the longer term, would not be significant to the health of these patients. However, our research suggests that diabetes is not a side issue, it’s a critical issue for lung transplant patients,” says researcher Kathryn Hackman of Monash University.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Hey Paul Studios/Flickr

No matter where you are or the weather, here’s the solution. Cat owners beware, however.

A lesser-known but common reading comprehension disorder, S-RCD, can easily be missed in early readers, experts warn.

“When a child is a good reader, it’s assumed their comprehension is on track. But 3 to 10 percent of those children don’t understand most of what they’re reading,” says researcher Laurie Cutting of Vanderbilt University Peabody College of education. “S-RCD is like this: I can read Spanish, because I know what sounds the letters make and how the words are pronounced, but I couldn’t tell you what the words actually mean,” Cutting says.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks/Flickr

Naked mole rats are small, hairless, subterranean rodents that have never been known to get cancer, despite having a 30-year lifespan, and biologists have identified the chemical that may explain why.

“A lot of cancer research focuses on animals that are prone to cancer,” says researcher Vera Gorbunova at the University of Rochester. “We think it’s possible to learn strategies for preventing tumors by studying animals that are cancer-proof.”

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Vick/University of Rochester

Scientists are testing endangered manatees in captivity and in the wild for heart problems using a table built to hold the heavy animals.

“There are a lot of gaps in our knowledge base on basic anatomy and physiology of manatees due to the obvious limitations of working with a 1,000- to 1,500-pound animal that spends its entire life in the water,” says Trevor Gerlach, an intern in the aquatic animal health program at the University of Florida.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: Lowry Park Zoo

The report that mouse lemurs have distinct personalities doesn’t come as a shock to staff at the Duke University Lemur Center. “Pesto is very chatty. Asparagus gets beat up by the girls. Wasabi is mean as sin, and her favorite flavor is human fingers,” says researcher Sarah Zehr.

Anyone who has ever owned a pet will tell you that it has a unique personality. Yet only in the last 10 years has the study of animal personality started to gain ground with behavioral ecologists, says Jennifer Verdolin of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center.

But for animals living in captivity, Verdolin hopes that personality studies like hers will help researchers determine which individuals are best candidates for breeding programs or for reintroduction back into the wild, as has been done with the North American swift fox, the giant panda, and the golden lion tamarin.

Full story at Futurity.

More research news from top universities.

Photo credit: David Haring, Duke Lemur Center