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2023-07-11 @ 19.17.27 ∈ In English
2023-07-07 @ 19.20.07 ∈ In English
Stressed rattlesnakes found to calm down in the company of a nearby ‘friend’
In highly social animals, such as mammals and birds, this phenomenon is well studied. Now, researchers have examined social buffering in rattlesnakes and found that the presence of a second snake significantly reduced rattlesnakes' change in heart rates after they experienced disturbance. It is the first evidence of social buffering in reptiles.
2023-07-05 @ 16.59.57 ∈ In English
2023-07-03 @ 19.59.33 ∈ In English
Men are hunters, women are gatherers. That was the assumption. A new study upends it.
Their findings — published in the journal PLOS One this week — is that in 79% of the societies for which there is data, women were hunting. [Moreover], this wasn't just opportunistic killing of animals that the women happened upon. The vast majority of the [time] "the hunting was purposeful. Women had their own toolkit. They had favorite weapons. Grandmas were the best hunters of the village."
2023-07-01 @ 20.53.03 ∈ In English
Pace off: NASA Goddard acoustics chamber and US marine band turn up the volume
The acoustics chamber isn't like a concert hall, despite how its name might sound. Instead, the chamber replicates the harsh sound environment of a rocket launch by blasting sound waves at a spacecraft to make sure it can withstand the journey into orbit.
2023-07-01 @ 19.35.51 ∈ In English
2023-06-30 @ 13.22.42 ∈ In English
Artificial neural network study explains why biting flies are attracted to blue objects
[The ANN, trained to process visual information in a way similar to that of the fly brain, had] trouble telling the difference between blue objects and animals. This suggested that an inability to distinguish between animals and blue objects is the reason for the attraction to blue objects by flies.
2023-06-27 @ 19.13.01 ∈ In English
Seasonal specialization in butterflies determines responses to a changing climate
"The small white butterfly is better than the green-veined white butterfly at reproducing over the summer but has poorer winter survival. It appears to be a 'summer specialist' and the green-veined white butterfly a 'winter specialist.'"
2023-06-23 @ 11.55.22 ∈ In English
As Arctic warms, caribou and muskoxen slow biodiversity loss
Diversity declined by about 0.85 species per decade when herbivores were excluded, whereas this decline was only about 0.33 species per decade when they were allowed to graze. The scientists attributed this to herbivores keeping species such as shrubs, dwarf birch and gray willow in check so that other plants could better flourish.