Credit: Karolina Grabowska from Pexels Watching someone cry often evokes an emotional response—but according to a new study published Thursday, human tears themselves contain a chemical signal that reduces brain activity linked to aggression. The research was carried out by the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, and appeared in PLOS Biology, a US science journal. … Read more
Side view of the crater Moltke taken from Apollo 10. Credit: Public Domain Japan’s SLIM space probe entered the moon’s orbit on Monday in a major step towards the country’s first successful lunar landing, expected next month. The Smart Lander for Investigating moon (SLIM) is nicknamed the “Moon Sniper” because it is designed to land … Read more
Screenshot of reindeer surveillance. Credit: Current Biology/Furrer et al. Researchers report December 22 in the journal Current Biology that the more time reindeer spend ruminating, the less time they spend in non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep. EEG recordings revealed that reindeer’s brainwaves during rumination resemble the brain waves present during non-REM sleep, and these brainwave … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The holiday season can be hectic. Visitors flowing through our homes, the manic rush of food and gift preparations, finding the perfect party outfit and music playlist, and heading off to your local New Year’s Eve firework display. It’s enough to make the sweat break on the brow of even the … Read more
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new study has found that greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) systems are major sources of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a potent greenhouse gas. The study, conducted by a team of researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a high-frequency continuous automatic monitoring system to … Read more
Assessment of entomopathogenic fungi (EF) against G. platensis adults. a) Efficacy of EF (B. psudobassiana SP-1, B. bassiana CA-1, B. bassiana CA-2, M. brunneum CA-3 and M. robertsii RI-1) using a conidial suspension of 1 × 107 con/mL 7 days post-inoculation. Mean values (±SD) followed by different letters are significantly different according to the Tukey … Read more
Artifacts found at the Chorrillo Grande 1 site include Venetian glass beads (top), horse bones and teeth (middle) and metal artifacts including nails and ornaments (bottom). Credit: Juan Bautista Belardi A new study from a University of Colorado Boulder researcher, conducted with colleagues in Argentina, sheds new light on how the introduction of horses in South … Read more
Credit: CC0 Public Domain Animals cover astonishing distances when they are looking for food. While caribou, reindeer and wolves clock up impressive mileage on land, seabirds are unrivaled in their traveling distances. Arctic terns travel from the Arctic to Antarctica and back as part of their annual migration. Wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) fly the equivalent … Read more
Dr James Rule (L) and Dr Erich Fitzgerald (R) with the Murray River whale fossil at Melbourne Museum. Credit: Eugene Hyland. Source: Museums Victoria New research from the Museums Victoria Research Institute has turned upside down our previous understanding of the evolution of the largest animals ever––baleen whales. Paleontologists Dr. James Rule (Monash University and … Read more
Turquet’s octopus (Pareledone turqueti) lives on the seafloor around Antarctica. Credit: Dave Barnes/British Antarctic Survey If we want to understand the future, it’s often useful to look at the past. And even more useful if you use octopus DNA to peer into worlds long gone. About 125,000 years ago, the Earth was in its last … Read more
