David Scott does the feather hammer experiment on the moon | Science News Science News 2024-10-23 | David Scott does the feather hammer experiment on the moon | Science News
Beluga whales shake their melons | Science News Science News 2024-05-02 | Two belugas at an aquarium bob their heads up and down, shaking their blobs of forehead fat — called melons — at one another. One of five distinct melon shapes that the whales make, “shake” seems to be associated with courtship and sexual behaviors, a new study suggests.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/belugas-communicate-warping-forehead-fatVideo: J.T. Richard et al/Animal Cognition 2024
This robot can anticipate a person’s smile — and smile back | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | By analyzing hundreds of videos, Emo learned how to predict facial expressions from human muscle movement. The robot demonstrates its skills by smiling in sync with researcher Yuhang Hu.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/robot-predicts-smile-facial-expressionVideo: Yuhang Hu
Studying the atmosphere during a total solar eclipse | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | Central Washington University undergraduates Eli Pugsley (left) and Jo Burke (right) launch a weather balloon from a pier in Wills Point, Texas, to collect information about the eclipse’s effect on the atmosphere. Along with their professor, space physicist Darci Snowden, the team from Ellensburg, Wash., were one of many teams along the path of totality taking part in NASA’s Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/totality-scientists-studied-planets-reactions-solar-eclipseVideo: Adam Mann
Watch how a fruit fly handles a split-belt treadmill | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | Fruit flies walk normally on a treadmill that moves at a steady pace on both sides (left). Flies can also adjust to a treadmill that has two different speeds (right). Careful analyses of stepping patterns revealed that flies' middle legs helped keep the fly moving ahead.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fruit-flies-walk-treadmills-behaviorVideo: B.G. Pratt et al/bioRxiv 2024
Watch a fruit fly run on a treadmill | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | Made of simple belts, pulleys and motors and covered with a nonstick enclosure, this tiny treadmill enables scientists to study fruit flies as they walk normally.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fruit-flies-walk-treadmills-behaviorVideo: B.G. Pratt et al/bioRxiv 2024
How to test a chickadee’s memory | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | A black-capped chickadee stores sunflower seeds in an artificial arena made of 128 different perches and pockets. These birds excel at finding their hidden food stashes. The aim of the setup was to see how their brain stores and retrieves the memory of each hidey-hole. Researchers closely observed five chickadees, comparing their caching behavior with the activity from nerve cells in their hippocampus, the brain's memory center.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/chickadees-memory-food-neuroscience-birdVideo: S. Chettih et al/Cell 2024
What fish made this sound? | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | In the Pacific Ocean, researchers have recorded a mysterious noise dubbed the “cascading saw.” The nickname comes from the sound’s shape when graphed as pitch over time — sawlike teeth that rapidly tumble downward. The species responsible for the noise is unknown.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fish-ocean-animals-environment-communication-behaviorVideo: Jill Munger/Conservation Metrics
Researchers record fish sounds underwater | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | Marine ecologist Ashlee Lillis uses an underwater microphone attached to the end of a long pole to record the sounds that fish make.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fish-ocean-animals-environment-communication-behaviorVideo: Fiona Campbell/Big Blue Tech Diving
Hear a plainfin midshipman fish growl | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | A plainfin midshipman growls at a crab that researchers added to the fish’s nest.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fish-ocean-animals-environment-communication-behaviorVideo: Fish Sounds, Audrey Looby
How Flint is coping 10 years after the water crisis began | Science News Science News 2024-04-29 | The Flint water crisis began 10 years ago this April and continues today. The residents of Flint, Michigan, have been grappling with the mental and physical health effects of this disaster. But the community is working to help residents heal.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/flint-water-crisis-mental-health-community
Tracking babies’ gaze can tell researchers about capacity for language Science News 2024-04-26 | By tracking infants' gaze patterns (red dots) as they look at a computer screen, Rain Bosworth’s team can figure out what captures their attention. Infants around 6 months old, for example, tend to lock their eyes on the hands of people using American Sign Language.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/rain-bosworth-deaf-children-sign-language
The bonang’s most beautiful harmonies | Science News Science News 2024-03-26 | In one experiment, 170 U.S. participants listened to synthetic musical notes with timbres modeled after the bonang — a collection of small gongs played in a Javanese gamelan. The video tracks people’s pleasantness ratings for chords with these artificial bonang notes. The intervals that people identified as most pleasant did not align at all with Western mathematical rules for nice harmony — but did they did map pretty well onto a musical scale used in Javanese gamelan music, the slendro scale (marked in dashed lines). Read more: sciencenews.org/article/timbre-harmony-music-scales-cultureVideo: R. Marjieh et al/Nature Communications 2024
Exactly when are chords pleasant? | Science News Science News 2024-03-26 | Here, 196 U.S. participants judged the pleasantness of octaves played with synthetic musical notes. The video tracks how people’s ratings for chord pleasantness as the interval between the notes changes. As the interval approaches 12 — a supposedly perfect octave marked with a blue vertical line— pleasantness ratings spike. But they peak just before and after this “ideal” octave interval, when sound pulsates slightly.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/timbre-harmony-music-scales-cultureVideo: R. Marjieh et al/Nature Communications 2024
Japanese tit gesture to mates by fluttering their wings | Science News Science News 2024-03-26 | Researchers have observed Japanese tits (Parus minor) fluttering their wings to noiselessly tell mates to enter the nest first. It is the first known case of symbolic gesture in a nonprimate animal.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fluttering-wings-bird-body-languageVideo: Toshitaka Suzuki
These birds gesture “after you” | Science News Science News 2024-03-26 | A female Japanese tit perches on a branch and flutters her wings. Soon after, her mate enters their nest followed by the female. Similar observations of eight mating pairs suggest that fluttering happens only when birds are in the company of their mates. Because the fluttering is directed at the mate rather than the nest, scientists suspect that these birds are using gestures to communicate a complex message. This is a first in birds.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/fluttering-wings-bird-body-languageVideo: Toshitaka Suzuki
See how AI nudges a human’s decisions in a cooking game | Science News Science News 2024-03-25 | A human (left) and AI (right) collaborate to cook soup containing tomatoes (red and green objects) and/or onions (beige objects). In this case, the AI, but not the human, knows that the duo will receive a bonus if the human serves the soup. The second half of the video shows the result of a new training method in which an AI learns how to influence human behavior. Here, the AI has figured out that if it places a dish (white circle) next to the stove, the human will use it to deliver the soup, at the bottom of the screen.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/ai-learning-cooperative-cooking-game-artifical-intelligence-overcookedVideo: Joey Hong/UC Berkeley
Watch a parrot “beakiate” along a bar | Science News Science News 2024-03-09 | In this video, a rosy-faced lovebird (Agapornis roseicollis) moves across an experimental setup meant to study beakiation. The bird stretches its neck and grabs onto a thin bar, releases the bar from its feet, swings its body to the side and then grasps the bar again with its feet in a new location. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/parrots-move-branches-beakiation-animals-physicsVideo: E. Dickinson, M.W. Young and M.C. Granatosky/Royal Society Open Science 2024
Watch a pollinator check out a fake flower | Science News Science News 2024-03-09 | Nocturnal pollinators like this hawkmoth rely on scent cues to find flowers. Using faux flowers, researchers tested the insect’s ability to locate night-blooming flowers that are normally fragrant and those whose scent is degraded by pollutants. Here, the moth easily finds a fake bloom emitting the scent of a pale evening primrose. But when certain air pollutants that can build up at night were added to the mix, moths had trouble homing in on the blooms.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/air-pollution-hard-pollinators-find-flowersVideo: Jeremy Chan/University of Washington, Seattle
Watch what monarch caterpillars do when fed toxic milkweed sap | Science News Science News 2024-03-09 | Age makes a big difference in monarch caterpillars' willingness to drink the defensive toxin-rich "milk" that wells up from wounds in milkweed plants, lab experiments show. It's dangerously gluey for the youngest and tiniest stage of monarch caterpillars. As they grow through five stages, they eventually switch from rejecting a pipette of it to eager drinking, as seen in this video. The finding suggests that rather than nipping milkweed leaves to let the sap run out and disarm the plant, the biggest caterpillars may actually be seeking it.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/monarch-caterpillar-milkweed-butterfly-bingeVideo: A. Betz, R. Bischoff and G. Petschenka/Proceedings of the Royal Society B 2024
Meet the first egg-laying amphibian found to feed its young milk | Science News Science News 2024-03-07 | Watch as a female ringed caecilian (Siphonops annulatus) feeds her young a fat-rich, milk-like fluid. Her babies (smaller caecilians) nuzzle near the opening to her reproductive system. Soon after, the mother releases the nutritious fluid produced in her oviduct. The wormlike creatures are the first amphibians known to feed hatchlings this way. This video is 600 times faster than the original.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/caecilian-egg-laying-amphibian-feed-milk-animalVideo: P.L. Mailho-Fontana et al/Science 2024
See what happens when insects fly near an artificial light | Science News Science News 2024-01-30 | In field experiments in Costa Rica, researchers used high-speed infrared cameras to track insect flight around artificial lights. When insects flew over a light source, they routinely turned on an axis and dove toward the ground (shown). These insects kept their backs to the light, even if they crashed. Other insects flew in circles around the light or flew up in a steep climb, losing speed until they couldn’t fly any higher. The observations suggest that artificial light messes with how insects orient themselves to the ground.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/insects-artificial-light-moth-direction-pollutionVideo: S.T. Fabian et al/Nature Communications 2024
Watch what happens when fluid is sucked into a sprinkler | Science News Science News 2024-01-30 | A sprinkler that sucks water in instead of spewing it out rotates in the opposite direction as a normal sprinkler, physicists report. Viewing the innards of such a sprinkler was key to understanding why. Within the sprinkler, two jets form, visualized here by using lasers to illuminate microparticles added to the water. In this high-speed video, the water is sucked into the ends of the S-shaped tube (one end visible at top left) and enters the inside of the sprinkler (center) where two horizontal jets form. Those jets collide and emerge at an angle, creating four asymmetric vortices. The sprinkler was fixed in place for this video, but when released, it spins clockwise.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/lawn-sprinklers-suck-water-physicsVideo: Applied Math Lab/NYU
Watch a honeybee steal pollen off the backs of bumblebees | Science News Science News 2024-01-30 | A thieving honeybee (Apis mellifera) snags pollen off the body of a red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius). Because honeybees aren't good at collecting pollen from woolly thistle, the bumblebees — which get pollen stuck on their hairy bodies — appear to be too good a target to pass up. This behavior, previously seen in several areas in the United States, has now been observed in Italy.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/honeybees-italy-steal-pollen-bumblebeesVideo: T. Londei and G. Marzi/Apidologie 2023
A numbat has trouble keeping cool | Science News Science News 2024-01-18 | A video from a thermal imaging camera (temperature scale on the right) shows a numbat walking into a warmer area from a cooler area. The surface temperature of some parts of a numbat’s body can increase to 35° Celsius or more, suggesting the animals rapidly heat up in the sun. The finding suggests that, as the climate warms, numbats may need to keep their termite foraging forays short to avoid overheating. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/numbats-overheat-climate-change-marsupialsVideo: Christine Cooper
STEVE reveals some of its secrets | Science News Science News 2024-01-18 | This high-res video of STEVE taken in August 2022 reveals smaller structures in the purple glow than researchers could see before in long-exposure photos.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/steve-airglow-complex-physicsVideo: Y. Nishimura et al/JGR Space Physics 2023
STEVE emerges from another aurora-like glow | Science News Science News 2024-01-18 | In March 2015, citizen scientist Ian Griffin captured this footage of a red SAR arc mutating into a purple STEVE streak.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/steve-airglow-complex-physicsVideo: C. Martinis et al/Geophysical Research Letters 2022
Testing a bottlenosed dolphin’s electroreception | Science News Science News 2024-01-18 | A bottlenosed dolphin primed to respond to an electric stimulus places its snout in the experimental apparatus. If the dolphin sensed an electric field, it would swim away quickly. If not, it would stay put for several seconds. A new study indicates that bottlenose dolphins can pick up on currents the scale of microvolts, similar to the weak electrical pulses their prey emit.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/bottlenosed-dolphins-sense-electric-fields-hunt-preyVideo: Tim Hüttner
Watch fluid flow around a marine snow particle | Science News Science News 2024-01-18 | Tiny particles (white dots) within a seawater-filled chamber show the rate at which fluid flows around this flake of marine snow as it falls. The flake is surrounded by an invisible sticky mucus that slows the fluid movement. The small particles move more slowly in a comet tail–shaped region in the flake’s wake. The chamber is designed to keep the sinking snowflake in view of the camera.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/comet-tails-mucus-marine-snowVideo: Rahul Chajwa and Manu Prakash/PrakashLab/Stanford University
Watch a cat play fetch | Science News Science News 2023-12-14 | Most cats that play fetch picked it up on their own, a study of cat owners suggests. The felines tend to dictate when a fetching session begins and ends. In this clip, Bear, a Sphynx cat, purrs while retrieving a crinkly foil ball tossed by his owner, study coauthor Elizabeth Renner. “He really loves fetch,” she says.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/cats-fetch-playVideo: Elizabeth Renner
Watch a female frog play dead and ward off a male mate | Science News Science News 2023-11-30 | Suddenly looking dead can free a female frog from a male’s intense embrace in the just-grab-her mass mating frenzies among European common frogs (Rana temporaria). In this lab tub setup, a male grabs one of the two females and locks himself against her in mating position. She eventually just goes limp as if dead, and he lets go and pursues the other female in the tub. The first female sprawls with legs stretched out until the new couple bumps into them. Then the “dead” female revives and moves away. Regardless of whether the first female had any control over going immobile when she did, the fake death released her from the male.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/faking-death-female-frogs-mate-maleVideo: C. Dittrich and M-O Rödel/R. Soc. Open Sci. 2023
Creating fog could help corals survive climate change | Science News Science News 2023-11-30 | Too much sunlight can lead to coral bleaching, much like excessive heat can. By creating artificial marine fog using arrays of misters mounted to ships, like what’s seen in this video, researchers hope to shield reefs such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from harmful rays.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/coral-reef-survival-fog-seaweedVideo: Southern Cross University
Dive into the Galápagos’ newly discovered deep-sea coral reefs | Science News Science News 2023-11-30 | Using a remotely operated vehicle, researchers captured the marvels of pristine coral reefs recently found hundreds of meters below the surface of the ocean. Shown are various creatures the team observed on deep-sea reefs in the Galápagos Islands Marine Reserve, including one dubbed Cacho De Coral.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/two-new-deep-sea-coral-reefs-galapagosVideo: Schmidt Ocean Institute
Watch a hummingbird fly through a small hole to visit a feeder | Science News Science News 2023-11-30 | In an experimental setup to study how hummingbirds navigate narrow gaps, wild-caught Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) had to fit through holes smaller than their wingspan to reach a feeder filled with nectar. How they are able to do that was a mystery: While amazingly acrobatic in the air, the tiny birds have stiffer, less bendable wings than other kinds of birds. Although too fast to see at normal speed, this bird tucks its wings close to its body to dive-bomb through the hole. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/hummingbirds-fly-spaces-narrow-wingsVideo: Marc Badger
See in slow motion how a hummingbird navigates a narrow gap | Science News Science News 2023-11-30 | A male Anna’s hummingbird crosses an 8-centimeter-wide opening, smaller than its 12-centimeter wingspan. Viewed from the side and below, the bird first flies though the hole at a sideways angle in the first clip, fluttering its wings to avoid hitting the barrier. In the second video clip, the hummingbird tucks its wings back against its body as it passes through the hole like a bullet. The clips show each style of flight first at actual speed and then one-twentieth normal speed. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/hummingbirds-fly-spaces-narrow-wingsVideo: Marc Badger
Dinosaurs for dinner! | Science News #science #dinosaurs #thanksgiving Science News 2023-11-23 | A turkey may not be as fearsome as a T. rex, but the bird is a dinosaur all the same.
Watch an animation of what happens when exoplanets collide | Science News Science News 2023-10-11 | Two exoplanets collided in a smashup that left behind a glob of hot, vaporized rock and a debris cloud. Astronomers first observed the afterglow of the collision in infrared light. Then, 900 days later, they saw the pulverized planets’ star dim as impact debris drifted in front of it, between the star and Earth.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/exoplanet-collision-first-afterglow-infrared-lightVideo: Alice Hopkinson/Las Cumbres Observatory
Just like matter, antimatter falls under gravity’s pull | Science News Science News 2023-10-06 | Researchers contained antihydrogen atoms within the ALPHA-g apparatus using magnetic fields. The team measured how the atoms fell when they were released. As the antimatter escaped, it hit the walls of the apparatus and annihilated. The researchers counted how many atoms went up and down by detecting those annihilations, as depicted in this animation. Most atoms went down, confirming that gravity pulls antimatter toward Earth, rather than repelling it.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/antimatter-falls-down-matter-einsteins-gravityVideo: Keyi "Onyx" Li/U.S. National Science Foundation
Watch Sericomyxa perlucida move | Science News Science News 2023-10-06 | The protist Sericomyxa perlucida, meaning “transparent silken slime,” was reported in 2021 and represents not just a new genus and species but a whole new family.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/watch-microbial-life-earthVideo: K. More, A. G.B. Simpson, S. Hess/J. of Eukaryotic Microbiology 2021 (CC BY 4.0)
Watch Euplotes eurystomus move | Science News Science News 2023-10-06 | With no brain or nervous system, Euplotes eurystomus can move skinny projections called cirri with enough coordination to walk across a surface. This video has been slowed down by a factor of four.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/watch-microbial-life-earthVideo: B.T. Larson et al/Current Biology 2022 (CC BY 4.0)
Watch Lacrymaria hunt | Science News Science News 2023-10-06 | This teardrop-shaped single cell, a kind of Lacrymaria, hunts by shooting out a long necklike projection. The neck can follow fleeing prey until the enlarged end gets a grip.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/watch-microbial-life-earthVideo: S.M. Coyle et al/Current Biology 2019
Watch Daimonympha friedkini spin | Science News Science News 2023-10-06 | The recently discovered protist Daimonympha friedkini has the one-celled equivalent of a rotating head. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/watch-microbial-life-earthVideo: E. Hehenberger et al/J. of Eukaryotic Microbiology 2023 (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
How NASA’s OSIRIS-REx will return bits of an asteroid to Earth | Science News Science News 2023-09-22 | After a three-year trip aboard the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, a capsule containing dust and rocks from the asteroid Bennu will make a fiery plunge into the Earth’s atmosphere on September 24, as seen in this simulation. Once the capsule is released, OSIRIS-REx will fire its jets to deflect itself onward to asteroid Apophis under the new name OSIRIS-APEX. Meanwhile, the capsule will fly toward Earth like a fireball. Although jostled during the rough descent, the sample will be protected from the intense temperatures of reentry by the capsule's heat shield. As the capsule nears the ground, it will pop a parachute and gently drift the rest of the way down in Utah where, if all goes well, scientists can collect their long-awaited delivery.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/nasa-osiris-rex-return-asteroid-bennu-earthVideo: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
Birds with more complex vocal skills are better at problem-solving | Science News Science News 2023-09-22 | More than 200 birds from 23 species were given different cognitive tests to gauge their intelligence. One of the problem-solving tasks asked birds to pull a cork lid off a glass flask to access a tasty treat (bottom left). Comparing these tests with birds’ ability to learn songs and calls showed that the better vocal learners are also better at problem-solving. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/birds-complex-vocal-skills-problem-solversVideo: J.-N. Audet
Watch a Gans’ egg-eater snake eat an egg | Science News Science News 2023-09-14 | Open wide! This Gans' egg-eater snake swallows a bird egg whole, uses its spine to crack the egg open, ingests the contents and regurgitates the shattered shell.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/snakes-big-gulp-gans-egg-eaterVideo: B.C. Jayne/Journal of Zoology 2023
Watch rats engage in play behavior with researchers and each other | Science News Science News 2023-07-28 | To explore how a specific brain region in rats might relate to their well-documented play behavior, researchers tickled rats on their bellies and backs and played chase-the-hand. Rats also played together, chasing and play-fighting. Ultrasonic giggles, processed to make them audible to humans, coordinate social play and show that the rats are having fun.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/playful-behavior-rats-area-brainVideo: Natalie Gloveli and Jean Simonnet
A rubbery plastic with weak spots tears slower than with tough ones | Science News Science News 2023-07-12 | A rubbery plastic polymer with weak cross-linkers, shown on the left, requires more stretching force to tear than a similar polymer with stronger cross-linkers, shown on the right. Adding the weak cross-linkers to rubber could lead to tougher car tires and less microplastic pollution.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/tear-resistant-rubber-tough-tiresVideo: S. Wang et al/Science 2023
Wildfire smoke forecast July 10-13, 2023 | Science News Science News 2023-07-12 | In the coming days, wildfire smoke may continue to sweep across Canada and the northeastern and midwestern United States. The forecast shown predicts when and where particulate matter 2.5 microns and smaller may occur, with darker colors indicating more air pollution. Read more: sciencenews.org/article/wildfire-smoke-health-air-quality-pollutionVideo: BlueSky Canadafiresmoke.ca
Watch a tick get lifted by static electricity | Science News Science News 2023-06-30 | An electrically charged nylon ball attracts a nearby tick (Ixodes ricinus), lifting it to the object’s surface by electrostatic forces. Since static charges are common on vertebrates, ticks might leverage the free ride to make the jump to potential hosts.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/static-electricity-pull-ticks-hostsVideo: S.J. England, K. Lihou and D. Robert/Current Biology 2023
Watch a snow fly walk after losing its legs | Science News Science News 2023-06-30 | Snow flies may drop one or more legs to prevent themselves from freezing. Even missing multiple limbs, one fly (shown here) can navigate over snow in the wild.Read more: sciencenews.org/article/trick-snow-flies-survive-self-amputationVideo: Dominic Golding et al/bioRxiv 2023
These snow flies amputate their freezing limbs | Science News Science News 2023-06-30 | A thermal camera can pick up the moment ice begins to form in a snow fly’s leg and track when the insect self-amputates it. Colors represent temperatures, shown from warmer (yellow) to colder (purple). Read more: sciencenews.org/article/trick-snow-flies-survive-self-amputationVideo: Dominic Golding et al/bioRxiv 2023
