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Scientists Say Toads Can Predict Earthquakes

Posted by samzenpus on from the does-the-toad-think-it's-safe? dept.

reillymj writes "Researchers claim toads sensed a severe earthquake last year five days before it hit. Last spring's L'Aquila earthquake devastated the medieval city of the same name in Italy. Five days earlier, a group of biologists noticed some toads behaving strangely in a pond nearby that would later be the quake's epicenter."

9 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Pfft by somersault · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They didn't predict it. They CAUSED it.

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    which is totally what she said
    1. Re:Pfft by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative

      Scientists are doing a lot of strange things nowadays ...Scientists Use Gene Splicing To Create Real "Cadbury Easter Eggs"

  2. Useful by VisualD · · Score: 5, Funny

    So all we need now is a way of measuring this reliably and we canALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD

  3. Facepalm by DryGrian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The pinnacle of scientific achievement, obviously.

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    For optimal comment enjoyment, take red pill now.
  4. Don't RTFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's right. Don't read it. I'm going to summarize it for you:

    Some scientists noticed frogs acting "strange". A couple days later, an earthquake followed. Scientists wondered if the frogs were somehow aware of the earthquake. They had no particular reason to believe they were. Other scientists interviewed on this matter say probably not. People retroactively attribute all kinds of things to big events that follow.

    The article ends: "For now at least, the hunt for a way to predict earthquakes must continue."

    That's it. You're welcome.

    1. Re:Don't RTFA by VJ42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's right. Don't read it. I'm going to summarize it for you:

      Some scientists noticed frogs acting "strange". A couple days later, an earthquake followed. Scientists wondered if the frogs were somehow aware of the earthquake. They had no particular reason to believe they were. Other scientists interviewed on this matter say probably not. People retroactively attribute all kinds of things to big events that follow.

      The article ends: "For now at least, the hunt for a way to predict earthquakes must continue."

      That's it. You're welcome.

      No, I heard the researcher on the radio yesterday; the toads unexpectedly left the area for a few days & whilst they were gone, the quake hit; the toads returned after the quake, she had a couple of hypotheses about how the toads could detect the coming quake, but freely admitted she had no strong evidence for them.

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      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    2. Re:Don't RTFA by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No, I heard the researcher on the radio yesterday; the toads unexpectedly left the area for a few days & whilst they were gone, the quake hit; the toads returned after the quake

      I'm sorry to be the one to have to burst this bubble, but toads cannot travel far enough in a couple of days to leave the large area affected by an earthquake. And if they just so happened to be right out the outlying portion of the area affected by the earthquake, then they would have been too far away from the epicenter to have detected it anyway, if they could, which they can't, because they are toads.

  5. Real funny thing by oldhack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Nowadays, I can't tell the difference between your typical slashdot stories and April Fool's Day stories.

    Everyday is April Fool's day here.

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    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
  6. Excellent Technological Breakthrough by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now that we have frogs to predict the earthquakes, we can more effectively employ sheep bladders to prevent them!

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    Similar to the upcoming US election results