Clam That Was Killed Determining Its Age Was Over 100 Years Older Than Estimated 366
schwit1 writes "In 2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as 'Ming,' they killed it instantly. Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise."
Science is Inherently Destructive (Score:2, Informative)
Science destroys to understand. LHC smashes particles to examine their innards.Biologists dissect cadavers to examine their innards. Geologists smash rocks to examine their innards.
In this case, the fact that the animal was still alive should have been indication enough that science should leave the old boy alone, or attempt only explicitly non-destructive examination. This sounds a lot like Indiana Jones's style archaeology...
Scientists also killed the oldest living organism (Score:5, Informative)
ironic idiocy (Score:4, Informative)
They killed the animal to measure on the inside, which they thought would be easier, but:
on the second count, the researchers concentrated on the growth rings on the outside of the shell.
So, the more precise measurement came from the outside, and they killed the oldest living animal for nothing but stupidity. I sincerely hope that instead of accolades, they get nothing but scorn from their colleagues.
Re:Scientists also killed the oldest living organi (Score:2, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Clone
Re:Shame on them (Score:5, Informative)
It was actually named after the Ming Dynasty - which was around when the clam started life. Even with the additional 100ish years added, the name still fits as the Ming dynasty was still around at the time.
Re:Shame on them (Score:5, Informative)
The summary incorrectly states they killed it to examine it. In reality, it was frozen upon capture (standard procedure as they were gathering samples for study) and was long dead by the time they opened it for study, or realized it was hundreds of years old.
Re:Non-destructive testing (Score:4, Informative)
there is a HUGE difference between a 10 year old tree and a 100 year old tree
But not so much visible difference between a 400 year old tree compared to a 500 year old tree.
Also, there are two places to count clam rings - and the hinge is generally used as the better one (though opening the clam to see the hinge rings kills it), though in this case due to SOO many rings, the ones on the inner hinge were not as easy to count as the ones on the outer shell - hence some (or one in four) were missed.
Re:"When the rockets go up.... (Score:5, Informative)
Werner von Braun said those words
No, he didn't [youtube.com]. That was the brilliant mathematician, comedian and pianist Tom Lehrer [tomlehrer.org] putting words into von Braun's mouth.
That doesn't necessarily discount your assertions about von Braun's complicity with the Nazi regime, but you should know better than to call someone a "stupid sack of shit" based off a (pretty obviously) fake quote that was meant as a joke.
Re:Time to do some testing on clam killers ... (Score:2, Informative)
What kind of asshole kills something just to check its age ?
The kind of asshole who doesn't deserve to live.
Poe's Law [wikipedia.org] may be relevant here
But it's worth noting that these clams [naturalengland.org.uk] are fished commercially:
People do eat quahogs, although this is more common in North America, Iceland and Norway than in the UK. Commercial fisheries for the bivalve suddenly increased enormously in the mid-1970s, and have remained at those levels ever since.
As a vegetarian scientist, I'm actually a bit uncomfortable with field expeditions to collect (and kill) scientific specimens. But in this case, the scientists may actually be saving far more of these clams (e.g. from commerical fishing) than they are killing themselves - by raising awareness of the age of these clams.
Re:Wow, this _is_ kind of a shame (Score:2, Informative)
That said, that fungus seemed to hit a few other species hard as well in the past.
Re:Shame on them (Score:4, Informative)
Clam shells use up CO2 from the ocean and various minerals. So looking at the "age rings" like the rings of trees you get an idea how fast the clam was growing each year. And hence you get an idea about the sea water composition at that specific year in the area where the clam lived. However I could imagine the clam might have moved quite far over its life time.