Skulls in the Stars

“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.

• Peruvian Coffee: Matching Consumption With Production. Though Peru makes and exports awesome coffee around the world, locals primarily drink Nescafé! Krystal at Anthropology in Practice looks at this seeming cultural disconnect, and draws an analogy with Soviet sausages to help explain what is possibly going on.
• How do we know…? Where we are in the Galaxy. Astronomers seem to have a pretty clear idea of the Sun’s location within the Milky Way galaxy, but how do they know? Niall at we are all in the gutter gives a concise introduction to the science behind our galactic positioning.
• Going green… literally. Though human beings have devoted a lot of effort to drawing energy from sunlight as a renewable energy source, we’re just amateurs in the process compared to plants! Brian at the Berkeley Science Review Blog describes two recent innovations in the understanding and implementation of plant-like photosynthesis.
• All quiet on the Alpine Fault? A couple of weeks ago, New Zealand was shaken up by a very strong earthquake. This wasn’t necessarily a surprised, as it is a seismically active area, but what is surprising is how quiet the nearby Alpine Fault has been. Is it “due” for a massive earthquake? Chris of Highly Allochthonous looks at the history of the region and the inevitability of an Alpine Fault earthquake.
• Can tiny marine plants steer some of the world’s biggest storms? Finally, Vivienne of Outdoor Science looks at a surprising hypothesis — that tiny phytoplankton that permeate regions of the ocean actually have an influence on the location and severity of hurricanes in the region!

Check back next Monday for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!