Arachnophobia can make humans flee at the sight of a brown recluse, black widow or even a daddy long legs, but animal predators of spiders know no such fear. That's why, paleobiologist George Poinar Jr. explains, some spider species have developed the defense of deception. They masquerade as a much less desirable prey—ants—and Poinar's recent paper in Historical Biology presents an early record of an ant-mimicking spider in fossilized resin.
Researchers have for the first time discovered evidence of microplastic contamination in archaeological soil samples. The team discovered tiny microplastic particles in deposits located more than 7 meters deep, in samples dating back to the first or early second century and excavated in the late 1980s. Preserving archaeology in situ has been the preferred approach to managing historical sites for a generation. However, the research team say the findings could prompt a rethink, with the tiny particles potentially compromising the preserved remains.
Our squishy gray matter conducts its activities through an orchestra of waves. With many tasks operating in tandem, how our brain keeps distinct oscillations from tangling has long been a puzzle. Now US researchers have found the direction of traveling brain waves align with their type of task, with learning processes flowing one way and recall actions bouncing back the other direction. "These findings… help us better understand how the brain supports a wide range of behaviors that involve precisely coordinated interactions between brain regions," explains US National Institutes of Health neurologist Uma Mohan.
Source: sciencealert.com
mindblowingscience reblogged
A type of flu virus that used to sicken people every year hasn't been spotted anywhere on Earth since March 2020. As such, experts have advised that the apparently extinct viruses be removed from next year's flu vaccines. The now-extinct viruses were a branch of the influenza B family tree known as the Yamagata lineage. Scientists first reported the apparent disappearance of Yamagata viruses in 2021. At that time, experts speculated that precautions taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 — such as masking and social distancing — had not only driven the overall number of flu cases to historic lows but may have completely snuffed out this type of flu virus.
masking works👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Over two three-month periods, researchers sampled air quality at five sites along metro Atlanta interstates and highways. When compared to similar sites without vegetation, the researchers found a 37% reduction in soot and a 7% reduction in ultrafine particles at sites with natural or ornamental vegetation. The findings appear in the journal PLOS ONE. “Trees and bushes near roadways don’t solve the problem of air pollution caused by motor vehicles, but they can help reduce the severity of the problem,” says lead author Roby Greenwald, associate professor in the Georgia State University School of Public Health.
Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed ultra-thin semiconductor fibers that can be woven into fabrics, turning them into smart wearable electronics. Their work has been published in the journal Nature. To create reliably functioning semiconductor fibers, they must be flexible and without defects for stable signal transmission. However, existing manufacturing methods cause stress and instability, leading to cracks and deformities in the semiconductor cores, negatively impacting their performance and limiting their development.
Long overdue and sorely needed, research into chronic fatigue syndrome has picked up speed since the pandemic illuminated the lasting and debilitating effects of long COVID. The possible causes of chronic fatigue syndrome, otherwise known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS, remain elusive despite this new research effort, although they are slowly coming into focus. Past viral infections triggering an overactive immune system and malfunctioning mitochondria depleting cells of energy are possible explanations for how chronic fatigue syndrome develops. Now a new study based on mice suggests that some drugs used to treat depression, which commonly accompanies ME/CFS, could also ignite the condition.
Ammonia is one of the most widely produced chemicals in the world, and is used in a great many manufacturing and service industries. The conventional production technology is the Haber-Bosch process, which combines nitrogen gas (N2) and hydrogen gas (H2) in a reactor in the presence of a catalyst. This process requires high levels of temperature and pressure, resulting in substantial power consumption. Indeed, ammonia production is estimated to consume 1%–2% of the world's electricity and to account for about 3% of global carbon emissions. In pursuit of more sustainable alternatives, researchers affiliated with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) have developed an electrochemical nitrogen reduction process using catalysts made of iron oxide and molybdenum disulfide. Because the process is electrochemical, it does not require high temperature and pressure.
Source: phys.org
How stable are planetary systems? Will Earth and its seven siblings always continue in their steady celestial paths, or might we one day be randomly ejected from our cosmic home? Physicists understand the rules that govern the orbits of two celestial bodies, but as soon as a third is added (let alone a fourth, fifth, or hundredth) the dynamics become far more complex. Unpredictable instabilities arise, in which an object may be randomly ejected into space or fall into its host star. The so-called "three-body problem" has troubled scientists for centuries (and more recently forms the premise of a bestselling series of science fiction novels and a new Netflix adaptation). One obstacle to understanding it has been that we know relatively little about how common it is for such catastrophic instabilities to arise. In a new study published in Nature, we and our colleagues have shed some light on this question. In a survey of nearby stars, we found as many as one in dozen pairs of stars may have devoured a planet, likely because the planet developed a "wobble" in its orbit and fell into the star.
Source: phys.org
It's no surprise that your dog can learn to sit when you say "sit" and come when called. But a study appearing March 22 in the journal Current Biology has made the unexpected discovery that dogs generally also know that certain words "stand for" certain objects. When dogs hear those words, brain activity recordings suggest they activate a matching mental representation in their minds. "Dogs do not only react with a learned behavior to certain words," says Marianna Boros of the Department of Ethology at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, one of the paper's co-first authors. "They also don't just associate that word with an object based on temporal contiguity without really understanding the meaning of those words, but they activate a memory of an object when they hear its name."
Birth defects affect about 3% of babies born in the United States each year. The work, published in the journal Science Advances, identified crucial genetic interactions during the earliest stages of embryonic development that predicted birth defects characteristic of Cornelia de Lange syndrome and may offer clues about the genetic origins of many types of birth defects. Cornelia de Lange Syndrome is a genetic condition that affects many parts of the body, characterized by distinctive facial features, growth delay, intellectual disability, and limb abnormalities. The syndrome is caused by mutations in genes involved in the regulation of gene expression and development.
Scientists have discovered the fossilised skull of a giant river dolphin, from a species thought to have fled the ocean and sought refuge in Peru’s Amazonian rivers 16m years ago. The extinct species would have measured up to 3.5 metres long, making it the largest river dolphin ever found. The discovery of this new species, Pebanista yacuruna, highlights the looming risks to the world’s remaining river dolphins, all of which face similar extinction threats in the next 20 to 40 years, according to the lead author of new research published in Science Advances today. Aldo Benites-Palomino said it belonged to the Platanistoidea family of dolphins commonly found in oceans between 24m and 16m years ago. Surviving river dolphins were “the remnants of what were once greatly diverse marine dolphin groups”, he said, which were thought to have left the oceans to find new food sources in freshwater rivers.
Source: theguardian.com
mindblowingscience reblogged
A type of flu virus that used to sicken people every year hasn't been spotted anywhere on Earth since March 2020. As such, experts have advised that the apparently extinct viruses be removed from next year's flu vaccines. The now-extinct viruses were a branch of the influenza B family tree known as the Yamagata lineage. Scientists first reported the apparent disappearance of Yamagata viruses in 2021. At that time, experts speculated that precautions taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 — such as masking and social distancing — had not only driven the overall number of flu cases to historic lows but may have completely snuffed out this type of flu virus.
this is why the rollback of safety precautions is so sad to me. Imagine how much more healthy we’d be as a society if we’d done like, just 5 years of this before we put it aside. How many more Strains of things would have just died out. Even COVID could have. Deeply sad.
Unique adaptations allow wild animals to survive temperature extremes that would quickly kill an unprotected human. For example, certain animals can withstand bitterly cold weather, thanks to the insulating properties of the hollow hairs that make up their coats. Little has been known about these hairs, but now researchers have discovered that their inner structure changes with the seasons. The researchers will present their results today (March 17) at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Billions of years ago, Mars was home to abundant water, and its Gale crater contained a lake. Gradually, the climate changed, drying the red planet and creating the dusty desert world we know today. Now, an international team of researchers led by Imperial has found signs that water was abundant in Mars' Gale crater—a 154km-diameter basin just south of the equator—long after the planet was thought to have become dry and inhospitable. The findings have implications for our understanding of Mars' changing climate, as well as where we now look for signs of habitability.
An international piece of research, led by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has found clues to the nature of some of the brightest and hottest stars in our universe, called blue supergiants. Although these stars are commonly observed, their origin has been an old puzzle that has been debated for several decades. By simulating novel stellar models and analyzing a large data sample in the Large Magellanic Cloud, IAC researchers have found strong evidence that most blue supergiants may have formed from the merger of two stars bound in a binary system. The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A researcher from The University of Queensland has discovered a remarkable new genus of fluffy longhorn beetle while camping within a rainforest in the Gold Coast hinterland. The freshly named Excastra albopilosa was found by School of the Environment Ph.D. candidate James Tweed, who nearly mistook the beetle for bird droppings. A paper on the discovery has been published in the Australian Journal of Taxonomy. "I was walking through the campsite at Binna Burra Lodge one morning and something on a Lomandra leaf caught my eye," Tweed said. "To my amazement, I saw the most extraordinary and fluffiest longhorn beetle I had ever seen. "Measuring 9.7 millimeters, it was a striking red and black beauty covered in long white hairs."
Source: phys.org