Fundamental biological reality means that a birth mother can be certain that she is genetically related to her child (aside from the case of surrogacy or egg donor IVF).
On the other hand, paternity cannot be accurately known without genetic testing. This can lead to false paternity attribution, where a man unknowingly raises a child not genetically related to himself, or fraud regarding paternity if the man is deceived into such a situation.
In some cases, relationship conflicts may prompt men to have their children undergo genetic testing. Additionally, with the increase in consumer genetic testing for ancestry and health conditions, more men are incidentally testing today.
However, Australian academic Professor Michael Gilding argued that this data was biased as it only targeted men with doubts about their paternity. He suggested a more realistic figure of about 3%, based on accompanying data from genetic and medical studies.
It is difficult to accurately measure the proportion of children who are not biologically related to their fathers – Credit: Maskot
Recent data from a US study published in 2022 found that 7% of users discovered they had paternity inaccuracies.
Similarly, a genetic sampling study in the Netherlands in 2017 estimated that just under 1% of fathers were unknowingly genetically unrelated to their children. A recent Swedish study with over 2 million families suggested that this number is around 1.7% and decreasing.
While these recent numbers are lower than earlier claims, they still indicate a significant impact on some men and children.
This article addresses the question, “How many fathers are unknowingly raising children who are not biologically theirs?” (submitted via email by Dave Shaw).
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Engaging in daily running without adequate rest can be a beneficial but ambitious choice for overall fitness. Running is a great cardiovascular exercise that should not be discouraged, especially when done consistently. Regular physical activity also has significant mental health benefits.
However, running every day without rest can increase the risk of overuse injuries such as shin splints, tendonitis, and stress fractures. The repetitive stress on the same muscles and joints without proper recovery time can lead to these issues. The knees are particularly susceptible to injury due to the weight-bearing nature of running.
Credit: TravelCouples
It is crucial to listen to your body and not ignore persistent pain or discomfort, as it could signal the onset of overuse injuries. Practicing proper running technique, wearing suitable footwear, and gradually increasing mileage can help reduce injury risk. Additionally, incorporating strength training exercises to support muscles around the knees and other joints can enhance stability and protection.
Experts recommend including rest days in workout routines to allow for muscle recovery and adaptation to running demands. Active rest days, involving low-impact activities like swimming, cycling, or yoga, can benefit streak runners. Taking breaks is essential for healing minor injuries and maintaining physical well-being.
This article addresses the query (“Is it safe to run every day, should I abandon my running to save my knees?”) posed to Chloe Dickinson via email.
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The concept of Marine Cloud Brightening revolves around the idea that by making clouds brighter or whiter, more sunlight is reflected back into space. This ultimately helps reduce the amount of heat absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and offers a respite from the effects of increased carbon emissions.
Clouds in marine environments are believed to benefit the most from such brightening efforts. But how exactly does one go about brightening clouds, and does it work as effectively as theorized?
Scientists primarily suggest spraying aerosols, such as fine sea salt particles, to brighten clouds. These aerosols act as “condensation nuclei” within the clouds, promoting water vapor to form more liquid droplets and creating denser, brighter clouds. A similar effect can be seen with pollution particles.
Fun fact: Some clouds can contain 500,000 kg (or £ 1.1 million) of water. That’s about 100 elephants -Photo Credit: Getty
However, the challenge lies in ensuring the particles sprayed are of the right size to effectively brighten the clouds at the appropriate time. Additionally, achieving significant sunlight reflection requires scaling up the operation sufficiently. There is also the concern of unforeseen impacts on clouds and climate.
Current research efforts mainly involve small-scale experiments and computer simulations, though some real-world studies have raised questions. For instance, a bright cloud experiment in Arameda, California was halted in May following warnings from local authorities reported in the media.
Experts have suggested that useful insights can be gleaned from “natural” experiments as well. Observations near the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii showed that aerosols generated naturally during the eruption led to a 50% increase in cloud cover. 。
Ultimately, the decision on whether to pursue large-scale marine cloud brightening rests with policymakers, who require convincing evidence. As scientific understanding and the climate crisis evolve, attitudes may shift.
This article addresses the question (I asked from Besariany Shepherd, Derbyshire) “Is Marine Cloud Brightening useful for fighting climate change?”
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This year’s winner Close Up Photographer of the Year has just been announced. The overall winner is a stunning image of two stag beetles, captured by Subetrana Ivanenko, and appropriately titled “Titan’s collision.”
Each year, stag beetles engage in intense battles for mating rights, and this image perfectly captures the dramatic clash between two males in a mesmerizing setting.
Andres Lewis Dominges Blanco from Spain secured the young close-up photographer award with a vibrant photo of a European Hachikui with insects on its beak.
Other notable mentions include a breathtaking image of the Andesquema emerging from the rainforest, captured by a camera trap.
Insect section winner
Two Lucanus Cervus beetles competing for dominance in the Russian Voronezh region. Photo credit: Svetrana Ivanenko/Cupoty
Butterfly and dragonflies winner
Attombo (Archineura Incarnata) resting on a rock near a flowing waterfall at Tenshiyama Nature Reserve in Zhejiang Province. Photo credit: Yong Miao/Cupoty
Invertebrates Portrait Division – 3rd place
A lynx spider blending in yellow flowers in an Austrian garden (Ooya Manko). Photo credit: Manfred Auer
Underwater section runner-up
Leafy sea dragon swimming with a rough bullseye fish (Pempheris Klunzinger) in Rapid Bay, South Australia. Photo credit: Jenny Stock/Cupotey
Young photographer division winner
European Hachikui flying with insects on its beak. Captured in southern Spain in spring 2023. Photo credit: Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco/Cupoty
Animal category winner
Andeskuma standing amidst dense foliage in the tropical rainforest of Eco Palacio Nature Protection Area, La Chorrera, Colombia. Photo credit: Santiago J. Monroy Garcia/Cupoty
Fungi division winner
Ear-pick mushrooms growing in pine cones, about 15mm tall. Photographed in New Forest, UK. Photo credit: Barry Webb/Cupotey
Read more:
Plant category winner
Moss covered in dewdrops in a garden in the Netherlands. Photo credit: Piet Haaksma/Cupotey
Young photographer category – 3rd place
Detailed macro shot of a spherical tobimushi infected with Pandora Batalata fungus. Photographed in Berlin, Germany. Photo credit: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas/Cupoty
Animal section – 3rd place
Pine marten captured by a motion-activated camera in the forests of Kiskunság, Hungary. Photo credit: Csaba Daróczi/Cupote.com
Intimate landscape category winner
Etched tunnel of the Ips typographus larva under bark in Le Monar, French Alps. Photo credit: Jean-Philippe Delobelle/Cupoty
Invertebrate animal portrait category winner
Caerostris spider resting on a stick in a Malaysian jungle. Photo taken in Semenyih near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Photo credit: Alain Gibbs
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Botanical runner-up
Spiranthes spiralis wild orchid captured in a spiral shape symbolizing natural regeneration. Photo taken in Toulouse, France. Photo credit: Sébastien Blomme/Cupoty
Underwater category – 3rd place
Coral reef goby protecting eggs on a blue sac in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia. Photo credit: Said Rashid/Cupoty
Spider category winner
Female LaTrodectus tredecimguttatus consuming prey in Abruzzo National Park, Italy. Photo credit: Pierluigi Rizzo/Cupoty
Studio Art Division winner
Microscopic observation of crystals of amino acids beta alanine and L-glutamine. Photo credit: Rob Blanken/Cupoty
Animal category runner-up
Pair of Rhinolphus hipposideros bats returning to abandoned iron ore mine. Photo taken in Börzsöny hills, Hungary. Photo credit: Imre Potyo/Cupoty
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Underwater category winner
Struggling Acanthurus chirurgus fish caught in lizard’s jaws. Photo taken in Kona, Hawaii, USA. Photo credit: Gabriel Jensen/Cupoty
Young photographer sector – 3rd place
Detailed macro shot of Muscidae sp. fly feeding on Sarcophagidae sp. fly. Photo taken in Brandenburg, Germany. Photo credit: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas/Cupoty
Bacterial section runner-up
Group of dandelions emitting spores in Kuribayashi, Spain. Photo credit: Jose Luis Gigirey Gonzalez/Cupoty
Current policies of governments around the world are likely to result in global warming of between 1.9 and 3.7°C by 2100, with potentially more to come in the 22nd century.
“Each year, 2,100 people continue to emit more CO2 as global temperatures rise,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Stripe, a California-based software company that invests in carbon removal technologies. states.
His conclusions are based on a review of more than a dozen studies published over the past five years, looking at the implications of current policies over the past five years. According to these studies, the world is most likely to warm between 2.3 and 3°C by 2100.
However, these numbers do not fully take into account the uncertainties about future emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of human actions and how the climate system will respond to those emissions. Including these uncertainties gives a wider range of 1.9–3.7 °C.
These numbers reflect the most likely range of scenarios from the 5th to 95th percentile. This means that even with current policies, there is a small chance of a maximum warming of 4.4°C this century.
The good news is that all recent studies agree that very high emissions scenarios are currently unlikely. For these, warming of 4°C or more before 2100 is the most likely outcome.
That's because the worst-case scenarios considered by climate scientists were never all that plausible to begin with, Hausfather says, but it also reflects real progress in limiting emissions growth. and coal is currently expensive.
If climate policies strengthen and technological advances continue to exceed expectations, future emissions could be even lower than assumed in these studies, but this is not guaranteed and The rise of energy-hungry technologies like intelligence could do the opposite.
“It's definitely possible to imagine a world where AI accelerates rapidly and near-term emissions increase beyond what we think will happen today,” Hausfather says.
But he doesn’t think AI-related emissions will make much of a difference in the long term. “It’s certainly not in line with rapid emissions reductions, but it’s hard to see that in itself putting us on track for a significantly different end-of-the-century outcome,” Hausfather says. .
Paleontologists have discovered ancient DNA and truffle-like fungal spores, including at least one colorful species. Upland More (Megalapteryx didinus) an extinct species of giant flightless bird endemic to New Zealand.
Boast et al. We report ancient DNA and spores from inside two coprolites in the highland MOA (Megalapteryx didinus) that reveals the consumption and possible dispersal of ectomycorrhizal fungi. Image credit: Jiji et al. , doi:10.1098/rsbl.2024.0440.
Fungi like truffles have fruit bodies that never fully open and have no way to expel the spores.
Other fungi do this by wind, but fungi like truffles rely on animals to consume them and disperse their spores.
Overseas, such fungi, including true truffles, are generally monotonous, have a strong aroma, and are very attractive to mammals.
In contrast, New Zealanders are often brightly colored, resembling fallen fruit on the forest floor.
These fungi may have relied on fruit-eating birds for dispersal, but there is little evidence that modern native birds eat them.
Ecologists have long debated that the original disperser must have been an extinct bird, but this has never been demonstrated.
In new research, Dr. Alexander boasts about Manaki.
The specimen was discovered in Hodges Creek Cave, near the Upper Takaka River basin in northwest Nelson and Takaha Valley (TV) in Fiordland on New Zealand’s South Island.
“Previous studies on coprolites have already shown that extinct MOAs ate brightly colored fruits and other plant matter, but new analysis shows that MOAs actually fed on these colorful truffle-like fungal species. ,” the researchers said.
“This discovery adds weight to the idea that these fungi have specifically evolved to be attractive to fruit-eating birds.”
“The MOA would have been good at dispersing fungal spores. Comparisons with its distant cousin The Ostrich, which retains food for about 36 hours after eating it, suggest that the MOA would have carried spores into the intestines over long distances.” It shows that we were able to do it.”
“But given that large birds are going extinct, what if these fungi are driving the dispersal they once depended on?”
“What will ultimately happen to these evolutionary anachronisms? Species that rely on other species to establish and thrive on things that are no longer there?”
“Furthermore, how might this loss affect the resilience and ability of current native forests to regenerate and expand?”
“Remaining species of herbivorous subterranean birds such as Weka are unlikely to compensate for the loss of MOA in dispersing these fungi.”
“In turn, this may have a knock-on effect on overall forest resilience today.”
“Forest species such as beech in New Zealand have evolved symbiotic relationships with native fungi, such as those detected at MoA Poos, benefiting regeneration and resilience, and the native fungi in the mix help improve forest resilience. may decrease.”
team’s paper Published in journal biology letters.
_____
Alexander P. Boasts et al. 2025. Coprolite DNA and spores reveal that the colorful truffle-like fungus endemic to New Zealand was consumed by the extinct MOA (Dinornithiformes). Biol. Lett 21(1):20240440; doi:10.1098/rsbl.2024.0440
The flexible battery pouch filled with strategically placed holes is more breathable than cotton. This may be the ideal power supply for wearable sports and fitness devices built directly in clothing.
“This is especially convenient for athletes wearing electronic devices for a long time. It is a smart clothing for similar applications that require both fitness tracking, medical monitoring devices, and reliable performance.” Say. LIN XU At Yale University.
To design a new battery, XU and his colleagues have created a long rectangular hole pattern on a pouch cell battery. This is a type of lithium battery similar to a flat bundle with a limited bending ability. The simulation shows whether the arrangement of a rectangular hole is stretched or folded 180 degrees compared to the pattern of alternative holes including square and circles.
“One task was to maintain enough active materials to keep the battery energy density high. Masu. “It was necessary to balance mechanical elasticity and electric performance.”
If you stretch 10 % or fold, the design of a strong battery can resist physical stress and withstand power bulbs. Stretching and folding experiments were executed 100 times, respectively. Tests with temperature and humidity showed that the battery was twice as breathable as cotton.
As a practical demonstration for possible use, researchers have woven the battery into a white coat and tested the performance while the wearer was running around. The holes can quickly disrupt the heat of the battery, so they do not feel pain or sweat on the wearer's skin.
Since the battery still requires more wear tests, researchers plan to test their performance on commercial health monitoring devices and sports equipment.
We are also investigating ways to optimize production. Automated manufacturing must provide consistent holes and sealing to avoid the leaks and shorts of battery pouches.
Charging station for electric cars in British Cornwall
Mat Cardie/Getty Image
Electric vehicles (EVs) are currently limited to gasoline and diesel. And the improved reliability is more than a fossil fuel -driven car every year because of the still technology.
Robert Elliott At the University of Birmingham, his colleagues analyzed nearly 300 million records from the forced British road. MotIt indicates the status, age, and mileage of all vehicles on the road between 2005 and 2022. This covers a total of about 29.8 million vehicles.
The results showed that the average life expectancy of EVS was 18, 4 years or more, it was 16 years, exceeding the average diesel vehicle in 8 years, and in 18. At present, the average EV covers 200,000 kilometers over a lifetime, exceeding 187,000 km, where the gasoline counter part clocked up, but has not reached 257,000 km, which reaches on average.
Elliott says that the result is not only a gasoline and diesel -run alternative, but also proves that it has already defeated them. The survey also shows that long -term reliability has improved. The possibility that the EV fails and reach Scrapheap in a specific year is about six times faster than the diesel, about twice the speed of gasoline vehicles.
“The early electric car was not so good and I couldn’t trust it,” Elliott says. “But I think the main point is that technology is very rapidly improved.”
“We are not an environmental crusade. I just want to give facts. Electric vehicles and batteries have been alive, have improved their skills, and have been improved again since this research,” he says. 。
MOT data does not contain information about the amount required for maintenance and repair cars between tests, but only overall life. Other research from the United States shows The maintenance cost of an electric vehicle is about $ 0.06 per mile, but for an internal combustion engine, the value is $ 0.10 per mile.
Rachel Aldred At Westminster University in the UK, it is said that if you leave the gasoline and diesel vehicles, you will be profitable to fight climate change and air pollution, but EVs emphasize that the EV is not a silver bullet.
“It’s still a very inefficient and limited solution,” ALDRED. “If most people are avoiding a private car, lack of physical activity, road injury, and [residual] The pollution is also the same -although it is obviously much better [than petrol or diesel vehicles]。 She says walking, or equivalent cycling and public transportation should be a priority for those who can use these modes.
Food -up, torch light, knife Sharp: Viewers in the UK are ready for different delicious finale Traitor Tonight, at a video game show, a TV game show is trying to drive away the ruthless (strictly non -realistic) murderers walking between them.
For psychologists -Experts and armrests- Traitor This is the gold mine of the unauthorized human behavior, which is disassembled and analyzed. And it's not just psychology. Game theory, human evolution, and criminal science are only a few of the scientific fields that provide clues to Makabeli's dynamics.
I found something that I really needed to win to investigate a betrayal (academically speaking …) Traitor。 Warning: If there is no latest information on the show, there is a spoiler first.
Please be careful about compatible bias
“Having a strong feature seems to be that others are influential and potentially intimidating,” says a forensic psychologist. Kuala LightHost A Podcast About Traitor With a colleague at the British Chester University. She selects contestants such as shadows (too intelligent), Ellen (too emotional), and Armani (too much confidence).
Their falls are likely to be linked Compatible biasThe characteristics of human beings that most of us comply with social norms. Individuals who do not fit may be hated or distrustful.
This is not a place of altruism
Emily EmotThe London University College's evolution anthropologist says that players should not be able to “do not actually exist in evolutionary literature.”
“Remember, it's not a cooperative game,” she says. “It's a deceptive game, a survival game. You need to be there to win, so it's a mistake to commit some players because they trust the nearby people. “
Emot says that we have evolved to go ahead of others. Therefore, altruistic behaviors found in the show are said to have selfish benefits behind them. And such obvious altruism is not a bad tactic, whether you are faithful or traitor.
“In the context of the game, cooperative is functioning as a signal for reliability. A good example may not be open to the shield. [which protects you from the next murder] During the show task. “
However, here is Makabeli's intelligence. Because everyone knows the rules of the game, excellent players do not take altruistic actions at face value. “In this game, you may have an impure motivation for you, so it’s not a honest signal,” says Emot.
So be careful of wonderful people. an Thousands of messages analysis Between players DiplomacyGames that share similarities TraitorExcessive polite players have discovered that they are more likely to betray others.
Be careful of bias in the group
“We know from social psychology that they have what they are called when they form a social group. Bias in the groupAnd this can really accelerate TraitorLight says. “”[Contestants] Display priority actions to those in the group with them. This is why everything did not work for Mina after recruiting Charlotte as a traitor.
Charlotte is recruited as a traitor by Mina
BBC /Studio Rambert
For Mina, who was always looking for a female traitor, her group was a so -called sister relationship she created. “She identified it as a sister relationship. She used this word well,” says Light. “The problem is that Charlotte had already had a faithful person and a strong group's identity, and when she was hired by her will, she did not have the loyalty to the new group. did.”
And what happened? Charlotte immediately crossed Mina, and Mina was voted the next night.
Light says that the same group's bias can lead to a flock thinking when the player is voting, which can lead to an unrogical trust in people in the game.
What is a good liar?
A nervous or inconsistent answer to the question is generally considered doubtful, even if someone tells the truth. That's because these actions are tied to a stereotype about what a liar is doing. The better gifts are always those who say the same thing. Emma BarrettPsychologist and criminal scholar at the University of Manchester University.
“One of the most notable things is the same story in the exact same way, and they don't really explain it in detail when they re -speak it,” she says. The story may sound plausible, but repeatedly adds details as you remember. “People sometimes make a mistake in consistency, but that's not a way to work with real memories.”
Think like a scientist
Hunting for the traitor -Introduction to the 3rd season of the traitor
BBC /Studio Rambert
Faithful people are not very good at it TraitorBut another tactic that they can use is to encourage suspicious traitor to speak more than they want. Barrett says.
“If you are faithful, the good strategy to detect a traitor is to subtly encourage them as they speak.” “For example, if you want to know if you are a police officer and someone gave you a false address, one of the questions you might ask is,” Oh, how do you get there? What is your nearest station?
If you are suspicious, try a game theory?
The majority of information is always lost to the minority based on sufficient information. Based on this, it was created by Russian psychologist Dimitry Davidoff mafia -Which parlor game Traitor Based on the 1980s. since then, mafia It is used as the basis of many game theory experiments and models.
The good news is that Davidoff is not correct at all. He believed that the probability of a faithful person to keep the bad guys away is better than a coincidence. But many the study The model discovered that the possibility of victory was almost equal, and was leaned in support of people who were faithful to live games for the weight of the lie that the traitor had to talk about.
In other words, forget cold mathematics. If you really want to win TraitorYou must be just injustice than anyone else.
The deepest blue hole in the world, also known as an ocean sinkhole, can be found off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It plunges to a depth of at least 420 meters (1,378 feet), remaining unexplored by researchers.
Local divers discovered the lake, named “Ta’am Dja” or “Deep Sea” in Mayan, over two decades ago. In 2021, scientists attempted to measure its depth using an echo sounder, estimating it to be 275 meters (902 feet). However, a later expedition in 2023 employed a device called a conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) profiler, revealing a depth of 420 meters (1,378 feet) without reaching the bottom.
Blue holes are naturally formed vertical-walled caves on the ocean floor, typically found in coastal regions with soluble rock formations like limestone. These geological formations may reach only a few tens of meters in depth and could be interconnected with underwater cave systems.
Due to poor water circulation, blue holes lack oxygen in their depths, posing challenges for organisms. Some microorganisms thrive in these conditions by consuming sulfur-based compounds like hydrogen sulfide. Additionally, creatures such as foraminifera and nematodes have been discovered living in blue holes, prompting further exploration to unveil the mysteries of Ta’am Dja’s deep blue waters.
This article (by Preston Levy of Norwich) addresses the question, “What are Mexican Blue Holes?”
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A recent comprehensive study has uncovered the significant health benefits and potential drawbacks of Ozempic and Wegovy. Groundbreaking research has shown that weight loss medications, such as Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RA) like Ozempic and Wegovy, can have a total of 61 effects on the body, most of which are positive.
These drugs function by imitating the hormones naturally created in the body to regulate appetite, thereby promoting a sense of fullness and reducing hunger.
“Given the novelty and increasing popularity of these medications, it is crucial to thoroughly investigate their effects on various bodily systems to gain a comprehensive understanding of their benefits and risks,” said the study’s lead researcher, Dr. Ziyad Al Ali, an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Washington, USA.
The research team, led by Al-Aly, discovered that these weight loss drugs could lower the risk of 42 health conditions while increasing the risk of 19 others.
The Positive Effects of Weight Loss Drugs
Published in Nature Medicine, the study analyzed data from 2 million individuals with diabetes, with approximately 216,000 using GLP-1RAs and the rest on other diabetes medications that do not include GLP-1RAs. The results suggested numerous health benefits for those using weight loss drugs, including a decreased risk of cardiovascular issues like blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes, aligning with previous research findings.
Additionally, beyond the known benefits, researchers discovered potential advantages in unexpected areas. Despite concerns about GLP-1RAs potentially causing suicidal thoughts, new research found positive impacts on neurological health. Users experienced reduced risks of conditions such as suicidal ideation, self-harm, substance use disorders, psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, and bulimia.
Al-Aly proposed that the mechanisms responsible for weight loss could also influence these outcomes. The drugs act on brain receptors associated with impulse control, reward, and addiction, potentially explaining their efficacy in curbing appetite and addiction disorders.
Furthermore, individuals using these drugs were less prone to cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, likely due to reduced brain inflammation. They also exhibited lower risks of seizures, bacterial infections, and pneumonia.
Although these medications do not serve as cures (the researchers noted a 10-20% risk reduction for these conditions), the benefits, especially for conditions like dementia with limited treatment options, remain significant.
The Hidden Risks of Weight Loss Drugs
Despite the numerous potential benefits of GLP-1RA drugs, there are also associated risks. Users showed increased susceptibility to gastrointestinal issues such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, low blood pressure, and arthritis. Surprisingly, researchers identified a heightened risk of rare but severe pancreatic and kidney diseases.
“GLP-1RA drugs offer a wide array of health benefits,” Al Ali stated. “However, they are not without risks. Our findings underscore the importance of monitoring these drugs closely due to their broad usage and potential risks.” He emphasized the need for caution.
While the results could guide clinical care, some researchers raised concerns about the study’s design not considering other potential effects. They cautioned that interpretation should proceed with care, as the differences between individuals using GLP-1RAs like Ozempic and those who do not may stem from factors beyond the drug itself.
“Studies like this should be approached with caution, as individuals were not randomly assigned to GLP-1RA treatment,” explained Professor Stephen O’Rahilly, Director of the Wellcome MRC Metabolism Laboratory at the Metabolism Research Institute in Cambridge. He further stated that while the study provides reassurance on the drugs’ safety, caution remains necessary.
The researchers from the University of Washington recognized that their findings only observed associations and did not prove causation for the benefits or risks of GLP-1RAs. Additionally, the study participants primarily comprised older white men, indicating a need for future research to encompass a more diverse population.
Despite this limitation, the findings anticipate future research targeting a broader demographic. O’Rahilly suggested that the results offer reassurance regarding the risk/benefit balance of long-term GLP-1RA use in diabetic patients, creating anticipation for forthcoming investigations.
Comprehensive List of GLP-1RA Effects
Positive Effects
The study revealed that drugs like Ozempic could significantly reduce the risk of 42 health conditions, including:
shock
aspiration pneumonia
liver failure
respiratory failure
cardiac arrest
Bulimia
schizophrenia
pulmonary hypertension
Postoperative respiratory complications
liver cancer
sepsis
stimulant use disorder
pneumonia
Thromboembolic disorders
pleural effusion
hemorrhagic stroke
chronic phlebitis
opioid use disorder
inflammatory bowel disease
cannabis use disorder
bacterial infection
acute pulmonary embolism
acute kidney injury
Aftereffects after thrombosis
pneumonia
heart failure
gangrene
alcohol use disorder
suicidal thoughts
seizure
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
osteomyelitis
myocardial infarction
muscle pain
heat
deep vein thrombosis
Coagulopathy and clotting disorders
ischemic stroke
Neurocognitive disorders
urinary tract infection
chronic kidney disease
anemia
Negative Effects
The study also indicated a heightened risk of 19 health conditions associated with drugs like Ozempic, including:
During the Stone Age, the operation of stone tools provides evidence that it was not exclusive to humans, despite the popular image of early humans sitting around campfires or hunting. Even wild chimpanzees ( Pantosloid ) have been observed using stones to open nuts. They place a nut on a flat rock (called an anvil) and strike it with another stone (a hammer), or sometimes with a thick branch.
Research from Africa’s Tai National Park shows that chimpanzees have been using these tools for over 4,000 years. This suggests that the use of stone tools may be a trait inherited from common ancestors, although it’s also possible that different species learned this independently.
Other primates, like capuchin monkeys in Brazil and long-tailed macaques in Thailand, have also been observed using hammer and anvil technology. The capuchin monkeys take up to eight years to master the skill, using stones weighing up to 1 kg (2.2 pounds) to crack nuts, with evidence of this behavior dating back at least 3000 years.
While humans are known for using more advanced stone tools, animals also have their own versions – Credit: Mikroman6
Stone tools are not exclusive to primates either. Otters use stones to crack open shellfish and extract sea snails, while crows in New Caledonia drop hard nuts from heights onto anvils to open and access the contents.
Although stone tool use was once thought to be unique to Homo sapiens, archaeologists have found evidence of stone tool use by earlier human species like Homo habilis. Stone tool manufacturing remains a key aspect of human evolution, connecting ancient actions with the use of these tools. The discovery of other primates using stone tools challenges some of the oldest archaeological sites.
In 2022, archaeologists in Argentina proposed the idea that stone tools found in Brazil 50,000 years ago might have been created by capuchin monkeys, not humans. The quartz tools are similar to those created by present-day capuchin monkeys.
The use of stone tools by monkeys raises questions regarding the origins of tool use between humans and monkeys – CREDIT: chain45154
If these ancient tools were indeed made by monkeys, it would extend the timeline of their stone tool use by thousands of years and raise questions about when Homo sapiens arrived in South America.
Archeologists have also noted similarities between monkey-made stone fragments and human cutting tools, suggesting that early humans may have been influenced by accidental creations to develop their own tools. The discovery raises questions about the origins of the oldest stone tool artifacts.
This article answers the question, “Are we the only species to have passed the Stone Age?” posed by Juanita Andrade via email.
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Understanding food chains in ancient ecosystems is one of the goals of paleoecology. Direct evidence of these interactions is rare and includes fossils with stomach contents and bite/teeth marks. A rare occurrence of bite marks on the neck vertebrae of a giant azhdarchyd goat larval vertebral column specimen from the Greater Sublineage of Alberta, Canada. was recorded. Approximately 76 million years ago. Based on the size and shape of the tooth marks and comparisons with modern animals, the authors suggest that crocodiles bite pterosaurs, but it is unclear whether this is active predation or scavenging. I couldn’t do it. Signs of giant pterosaurs are rare, so this provides novel details about how they fit into this ancient ecosystem.
Fossilized neck bones of a young boy Cryodrakon Boreas It shows signs (right part of specimens 2 and 8) that do not indicate that it was bitten by a crocodile-like creature 76 million years ago. Image credit: Brown et al. , doi:10.1017/jpa.2024.12.
The 76-million-year-old neck vertebrae were excavated in July 2023 in the Dinosaur Park Formation in Alberta, Canada.
The preserved (i.e. incomplete) length of the specimen is 5.8 cm. The estimated total length of the vertebrae is 9.4 cm.
The specimen has a circular puncture mark 4 mm wide from a crocodile tooth.
“Peterosaurus bones are very delicate, so it's very unusual to find fossils that were clearly chewed by another animal,” said Dr Caleb Brown, a palaeontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. states.
“This specimen is even rarer because it is a juvenile.”
The punctured vertebrae belong to a larva (estimated wingspan 2 m) Cryodrakon Boreasa species of giant azhdarchid pterosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Canada.
Adults of this species will be as tall as a giraffe with a wingspan in an area of 10 m.
“With an estimated wingspan comparable to some of the largest azhdarchids, creedracon And other large azhdarchids were probably significant terrestrial foragers,” said the paleontologist.
“Bite marks, implanted teeth, and stomach contents indicate that the azhdarchid pterosaurs were fed by velociraptrines and crocodiles.”
Cryodrakon Boreas. Image credit: David Maas.
In this study, they used micro-CT scans and comparisons with other pterygoid bones to confirm that they were the result of an actual crocodile bite, rather than fossilization or damage during excavation. I did.
“It helps document species interactions from this time,” said Dr. Brian Pickles, a paleontologist at Reading College.
“While we can't say whether the palace was alive or dead when it was bitten, the specimen is a juvenile that crocodiles sometimes preyed on in prehistoric Alberta more than 700 million years ago, or removed.” It shows that it shows a pterosaur.”
study Published online today Journal of Paleontology.
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Caleb M. Brown et al. Larval vertebral vertebrae with putative crocodile bites from a Campanian in Alberta, Canada. Journal of Paleontologypublished online on January 23, 2025. doi:10.1017/jpa.2024.12
Dinosaurs dominated the athletics ecosystem of middle-aged middle for about 160 million years, but their biological geographical origin is still well understood. The oldest clear dinosaur fossils appeared in southern South America and Africa, 230 million years ago, and most authors propose that the southern western Gondwana is likely to be the center of its origin. However, the high diversity of these early groups suggests the history of older evolution. A new study led by University College London shows that dinosaurs, and perhaps the closer species of the main dragon as a wider group of lords, may have spread radially in the low latitude area of Gondwana. I am.
Nyasaasaurus It may be the most known dinosaur, or it may be a close-related species of early dinosaurs. Image Credit: Mark Witton / London Natural History Museum Management Committee.
“The oldest, the oldest dinosaur fossils are about 230 million years ago and have been excavated in the south of Brazil, Argentina, and Zimbabwe,” said Dr. Universi College London. Student Joel Heath and his colleagues.
“However, the difference between these fossils suggests that dinosaurs had already evolved for a while, indicating that their origin was millions ago.”
The authors have discovered that the earliest dinosaurs appeared in hot equatorial areas of the Gondwana Super continent (currently Amazon, Congo Basin, and the Sahara Desert).
“Dinosaurs have been well studied, but I'm not sure where they came from. The fossil records have a big gap and cannot be received at face value,” said Heath.
“Our modeling suggests that the oldest dinosaurs may have originated on the low-latitude of Gondwana in the western part.”
“This is a hot and dry environment that has been considered so far, and is composed in areas like deserts and savannas.”
“So far, no dinosaur fossils have been found in Africa and South America, which once formed this area of Gondwana.”
“However, this is due to the difficulty of access and the lack of research efforts in these fields relatively due to the lack of research efforts, and that researchers have not yet met the right rock. There is a possibility.
In this study, we used dinosaurs and their nearly related reptiles, evolved systematics, and geography at the time.
It was not an area where fossils were not present, but by treating the area on the earth where fossils were not found as missing information, the gap of fossil records was supplemented.
Initially, the number of early dinosaurs was much larger than reptile relatives. These contained crocodile, fake nests, and the ancestors of wing dragons.
In contrast, the earliest dinosaurs were much smaller than their descendants, as large as chickens and dogs than humans. Diprodox。
They walked on two legs (it was a bipedal), and most of them were miscellaneous animals.
210 million years ago, the eruption of volcanoes caused dinosaurs to be dominant after many of the reptiles, the relatives of dinosaurs, were extinct.
The new modeling result shows dinosaurs and other reptiles originated in low-latit Gondwana, later spread radially outside, and later in the southern part of Gondwana and later in Europe, Asia, and North America. It suggested that it could have spread to.
The background of this origin comes from the fact that the oldest dinosaurs were found in the southern part of the Gondwana continent and the intermediate point between the place where many fossils of the nearby species were found in the northern Lolacia. 。
Because it is uncertain about how the oldest dinosaurs are related to each other and how they were related to the closest species, researchers are models based on the three proposed evolutionary trees. Was executed.
They discovered the strongest background on dinosaur’s low-latit Gondovana, which was traditionally considered to be a dinosaur, but not a dinosaur itself, as the ancestor of the Title Dinosaur.
One of the three major dinosaur groups, including tsutos and later herbivorous animals Stegosaurus and TriceratopsStrangely, it does not exist in the early fossil record of the dinosaur era.
If the Sillesaurus is the ancestor of the tillage, this will help you fill this gap in the evolution genealogy.
“Our research has suggested that the early dinosaurs may have adapted well in hot and dry environments,” said Philip Manion, a professor of University College London.
“Of the three major dinosaur groups, one group is dragonodes, which includes the following: Bronto Saurus and DiprodoxIt seemed to maintain the low latitudes of the earth and prefer a warm climate. “
“The other two groups, beast legs and birds have developed the ability to generate their own body temperature in the Jurassic Million years later, and can prosper even in cold areas, including extreme areas. There is evidence to show.
Joel A. Heath Other。 Considering the unevenness of the sampling, it suggests that the dinosaur origin has a low ancient latitude. Current biologyReleased online on January 23, 2025. Doi: 10.1016/J.Cub.2024.12.053
President Donald Trump issued two executive orders targeting the promotion of electric vehicles and wind power by the Biden administration.
These technologies are crucial in combating climate change, but the orders could hinder their growth.
Advocates for electric vehicles and green energy criticized the decision.
On Monday, President Donald Trump significantly impacted two rapidly growing environmentally friendly technologies in the United States, electric vehicles and wind power, through two executive orders.
These orders were aimed at countering the Biden administration’s efforts to boost these technologies, which have been gaining momentum in the drive to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. energy sector. President Trump also announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, where countries commit to reducing carbon emissions to combat global warming.
One of Trump’s presidential orders rescinded several climate-focused directives, including standards on tailpipe emissions to promote electric vehicle adoption. This move was criticized by electric vehicle advocates, who argued that it could harm America’s competitiveness in the global automotive market.
Trump’s other order temporarily halted federal approvals for offshore wind energy projects in federal waters and restricted federal agencies from issuing new permits or loans for wind energy projects, both onshore and offshore. The order falsely claimed that wind power could lead to higher energy costs and harm marine life, such as whales, despite no known links according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The orders faced backlash from advocates of electric vehicles and wind power. Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, criticized the move, stating that it contradicted Trump’s goal of freeing up energy production in the U.S.
The adoption of electric vehicles and wind power has been increasing in recent years. Electric and hybrid vehicles accounted for 20% of new car sales in the U.S. in 2024, and sales are projected to continue growing. Wind power is also predicted to be a significant source of new energy capacity in the U.S. by 2050.
President Trump has been known to criticize wind power, attributing whale deaths to offshore wind projects and making unsubstantiated claims about health risks associated with wind turbines. Climate groups have warned that Trump’s executive orders could harm global environmental efforts and hinder green job growth.
Despite these challenges, advocates believe that clean technology will continue to progress, regardless of regulatory obstacles. President Trump’s orders could face legal challenges, particularly regarding California’s stricter tailpipe pollution standards, which aim to reduce air pollution and combat climate change.
Orchid Stigmatodactylus sikokianus Lives in cool, dark forests
Tetsuro Ikeda
A type of orchid that eats fungi has an ingenious method of self-pollination. The secret lies in the orchid’s mysterious finger-like appendages.
“I knew there had to be something more to it than just looking weird,” he says. Kenji Suetsugu at Kobe University in Japan.
Mr. Suetsugu has been interested in this work for some time. Stigmatodactylus sikokianus This is because orchids live in the shady forests of Japan and feed on soil bacteria throughout their lives without relying on photosynthesis. Orchids have a pinky-like appendage under the stigma, a sticky part that receives pollen during copulation.
To investigate the purpose of the appendages, the researchers observed flowers in the wild, set up pollination experiments in the lab, and tracked changes in orchid flower structure using a fluorescence microscope.
They noticed that if there are no insects visiting orchids for pollination, the flowers begin to wilt. As the finger-like appendages drooped, they gradually moved toward the stigma, bringing the pollen into contact with the sticky receptors.
The appendage thus acts “like a bridge,” transporting orchid pollen in a self-pollination trick, but only as a last resort, Suetsugu says. The wilting mechanism allows the plant to tolerate pollinators, but acts as a failsafe to ensure that the plant can reproduce even if the insects never arrive. The discovery “highlights how nature can come up with creative solutions to common problems,” Suetsugu said.
The next step is to remove the appendage entirely to see what difference it makes in the timing and efficiency of pollination. Katarina Nagar At the Australian Tropical Herbarium.
This appears to be the first time such a self-pollination trick has been formally documented, although observations in the early 1990s suggested that two other closely related orchid species also use the unusual appendage for self-pollination. Mr. Nalgar points out that this suggests that.
Viruses are infectious agents that affect all living things, including humans. A common human virus called herpes simplex virusor HSV, can cause cold sores, genital infections, fingertip and eye infections. When HSV infects the eye, it is called: HSV keratitis. This infection can cause visual impairment, blindness, and swelling of the brain.
The standard way for doctors to treat HSV infections is with an antiviral drug called . Acyclovir. However, the drug has been found to be no longer effective in treating some HSV infections. Persistent infections are called Acyclovir resistance infection. Therefore, scientists are searching for new ways to treat HSV infections.
Scientists at Nanjing University in China tested 502 natural compounds to determine if any could be used to treat HSV keratitis. The researchers took kidney cells from African green monkeys, treated them with these natural compounds, and infected them with the virus.
After two days, they examined the cells under a microscope to see how much damage each compound prevented compared to untreated infected cells. control sample. Out of all 502 compounds tested, the one that best protects cells from viral infection was found to be present in purple passionflower. The name of the compound is Harmol, And they reported that it inhibited more than 90% of HSV in kidney cells.
The scientists further investigated Harmol’s anti-HSV properties by testing whether it was toxic to host kidney cells. If Harmol is toxic to uninfected cells, it may kill the cells instead of protecting them from the virus. They tested nine concentrations of harmol on cells, ranging from 0 micromolar to 250 micromolar harmol. They found that the compound protected against viruses and did not kill host cells at a concentration of 12.5 micromolar.
They then studied how harmol affects virus replication and the production of viral proteins and particles within host cells. They found that Harmol inhibited HSV growth and reproduction, even in acyclovir-resistant infections. Scientists also reported that Harmol treatment inhibited HSV growth when added before, during, and after HSV infection. However, the sooner it is added, the more effective it is, and it is most effective when added before infection.
The scientists then tested whether Harmol worked in mice. They wanted to determine whether Harmol would be safe and effective for treating live animals with HSV keratitis, rather than cells alone. First, the scientists investigated whether Harmol solution could be safely applied to the eyes of mice. They applied Harmol to the eyes of one group of mice and saline to the eyes of a control group. They examined the mice’s body weight and cornea over a five-day period and found that Harmol had no effect on either compared to mice given saline. They suggested that this means Harmol is a safe treatment for mice with HSV keratitis.
Next, the scientists infected three groups of mice with HSV. They treated the first group with acyclovir, the second group with Harmol, but left the third group untreated. They administered Harmol eye drops daily for five days and observed the mice on the third and fifth day. They reported that Harmol-treated mice performed better than untreated mice in all the characteristics they observed. Harmol-treated mice fed HSV had less damage to the cornea, less eyelid inflammation, less weight loss, decreased corneal thickness, and central nervous density compared to untreated mice fed HSV. was high. They found that this was also true in mice infected with acyclovir-resistant HSV.
The researchers concluded that Harmol can reduce the early symptoms of HSV keratitis in mice. Therefore, they proposed that Harmol could be an antiviral agent against HSV. Because harmol and acyclovir interact differently with acyclovir-resistant HSV, scientists believe the two compounds must inhibit HSV in different ways. However, they noted that one limitation of the study was that the mice were only tested for five days after infection. They said further researchers should investigate the long-term safety and efficacy of Harmol treatment for HSV keratitis.
If dinosaurs really did appear near the equator, life would have been particularly hot and dry.
Mark Whitton/Natural History Museum Trustees
Dinosaurs may have first evolved near the equator, rather than far south in the Southern Hemisphere as previously thought. Modeling studies suggest they originated in areas covering what is now the Amazon rainforest, the Congo Basin, and the Sahara Desert.
“Given the gaps in the fossil record and the evolutionary tree of dinosaurs, it is very likely that this is the central point of dinosaur origin,” he says. Joel Heath At University College London.
Dinosaurs evolved during the Triassic period, which lasted from 252 million to 201 million years ago, but there is “considerable” uncertainty about when and where they evolved, Heath said. The oldest known fossils of these animals are about 230 million years old, but there are enough features to suggest that dinosaurs have already been around for millions of years. “There must have been a lot going on in terms of dinosaur evolution, but we don't have the fossils,” he says.
At this time, the Earth looked very different. All the continents were combined into a single supercontinent called Pangea, shaped like a C with its center straddling the equator. South America and Africa were located in this southern hemisphere part and were fitted together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The earliest known dinosaurs lived in the southern parts of these two continents, in present-day Argentina and Zimbabwe, where dinosaurs were thought to have originated.
To learn more, Heath and his colleagues built a computer model that works backwards in time from the oldest known dinosaurs to the group's origins. They considered uncertainties such as gaps in the fossil record, possible geographic barriers, and ongoing questions about how the earliest dinosaurs were related to each other to create dozens of versions. has been created.
Most of these simulations concluded that dinosaurs first appeared near the equator, with only a few supporting a southern origin.
Paleontologists have tended to believe that dinosaurs couldn't have originated near the equator, Heath said. One reason for this is that no early dinosaur fossils have been found in the area. Moreover, it was a difficult place to live. “It was very, very dry and very hot,” he says. “It is believed that dinosaurs could not have survived in such conditions.”
However, most models do not. “This suggests something that we didn't really think was possible until now,” Heath says.
In fact, there may be a more prosaic explanation for the lack of early dinosaur fossils found near the equator. Paleontologists tend to conduct excavations in North America, Europe, and more recently China. “There are many areas of the planet that are completely ignored,” says Heath. He added that geologists have not found many rocks of suitable age in the area associated with the findings that can be excavated. “It may not be exposed in a way that we can easily investigate.”
But evidence supporting Heath's idea has recently come to light. On January 8th, researchers david loveless At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, oldest known dinosaur Originally from northern Pangea. They discovered what they call a species new to science. Avaitum Banduiche, sauropodomorphs related to long-necked dinosaurs such as diplodocus That evolved later. The research team discovered the 230-million-year-old rock in Wyoming's Popo Aggie Formation.
If dinosaurs were already present north and south of Pangea that long ago, there's no way the middle of the equator would be closed off to them, Heath said. “They must have been crossing the area.”
The wheel of time turns, the cycle repeats and another Jurassic Park movie is coming out this year. Feedback has faint hopes due to the presence of director Gareth Edwards, who proved in Monsters and Godzilla that he can direct films featuring huge creatures. But still, yawn.
While we all wait with bated breath, YouTuber CoolioArt is supplying dinosaur footage to keep us sated. They are using the animation tool Blender to redo key scenes from the original Jurassic Parkin order to give the Velociraptors feathers. So far, they have done the kitchen scene and the climactic scene in the visitor center (just before, spoiler alert, the Tyrannosaurus rex saves the day).
Given the amateur nature of the project, the animations are really good. However, one problem remains: the raptors are still way too big. You see, despite his reputation for careful research, Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton was a bit prone to getting things badly wrong.
Crichton's biggest scientific fail was controversial his 2004 climate change novel State of Fear. This features environmental terrorists who fake natural disasters to convince the world of the dangers of global warming. They have to do this because, in the universe of the bookall the scientific evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are heating up the climate is flared or faked.
There is even a series of pages entirely dominated by graphs from weather stations in the US that show local temperature declines, and which are meant to be more meaningful than the trend in the average global temperature for some reason. Crichton also recycles the myth that the warming trend is an artefact of “urban heat islands”. It's like a terrible Reddit thread in book form.
Even Jurassic ParkCrichton's most famous creation, wasn't immune. He wanted to feature a dromaeosaurid dinosaur, as they were understood to be fast and intelligent hunters – contrasting with the lumbering T. rexUnfortunately, the scariest ones had a name that Crichton didn't think was cool – Deinonychus antirrhopus – so he used every detail of that species but incorrectly called them Velociraptor.
That's why, in the books and films, an adult Velociraptor is about as tall as a human being. In reality, a Velociraptor was about as tall as a turkey. Feedback imagines that an angry Velociraptor could still cause problems for a human being, but it's just not the same when the terrifying predator is about the size of the average toddler.
The irony is that the evidence that dromaeosaurids had feathers was pretty equivocal in the 1990s, so it was justifiable to present the raptors as featherless – but not to triple their height.
Which explains why CoolioArt has overdubbed some of the dialogue in the kitchen clip. When the girl whispers “What is it?”, a female voice dubbed over the boy's now cheerily says “It's a Deinonychus“. 10/10, no notes.
AI for rOAds
Sometimes, on a gray Monday when the column is due, Feedback can be found hastily scratching around for story ideas because nobody has done anything especially within silly sight of us. However, on Monday 13 January the following item dropped into our lap.
The UK government announced that it was going to “unleash AI” because of its “vast potential” to improve the country's decaying public services. This vision of the future is called the AI Opportunities Action Plan. Feedback feels that the name could have used a bit of work: it abbreviates to AIOAP, which sounds like the Terminator movie Arnold Schwarzenegger will make when he's 85 and an old-age pensioner himself.
The AIOAP contains a lot of proposals, one of which caught Feedback's eye. to BBC News“AI will be fed through cameras around the country to inspect roads and spot potholes that need fixing”.
Like a rabbit caught in headlights, or, more aptly, like a driver heading straight for a pothole because they're being tailgated and there's no room to steer, Feedback found ourself staring blankly forward into space, stunned by the visionary nature of this vision .
It's not that we doubt that AI could be trained to spot potholes. On the contrary: it would probably do it rather well. Instead, we are concerned that this might be solving a non-existent problem.
The BBC reported in March 2024 that English and Welsh roads are blighted by potholes, with a backlog of repairs estimated to cost £16.3 billion. That is a long way short of “Elon Musk buying Twitter” money, but it's still roughly equivalent to the GDP of Jamaica. Furthermore, Feedback can attest to a deep familiarity with the numerous potholes in our local area , many of which have gone unrepaired for months.
The problem, in short, doesn't seem to be lack of knowledge about where the potholes are. We wouldn't have a backlog that would cover the cost of building several skyscrapers if the potholes weren't being logged. This is doubly so for any road busy enough to have cameras on it.
Instead, the problem seems to be getting the actual repairs done. Feedback doesn't see how the AI will help with that. No, we need to turn to genetics.
The only solution is an army of Ron Swanson clones to go and fill the potholes.
Got a story for Feedback?
You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week's and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.
The melodious high-pitched sound of birdsong is not something typically associated with the vastness of space, usually serving as a delightful indication of the arrival of spring. However, to the surprise of many, scientists at China’s Beijing Aviation University have recently stumbled upon a similar occurrence over 100,000 kilometers away from Earth.
Through the analysis of data collected from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) satellite, researchers have pinpointed a phenomenon referred to as “chorus waves,” which consist of bursts of electromagnetic radiation traveling along Earth’s magnetic field lines.
If one were to venture into space, this sound would remain unheard due to the absence of air for sound waves to propagate. Interestingly, upon conversion into an audio signal for examination, this “chirp” is actually the auditory representation of these waves.
So, what exactly causes these electromagnetic chirps? Contrary to expectations, it is not a celestial songbird. In reality, chorus waveforms are relatively common. However, the peculiarity lies in their location, as highlighted by their distance from Earth.
The energy transfer induced by chorus waves prompts electron acceleration to speeds nearing that of light, crucial for the formation of Earth’s radiation belts which shield against the sun’s energetic particles.
While these accelerated particles contribute to the magnificent aurora borealis, they are also dubbed “killer electrons” due to the hazards they pose to satellites, astronauts, and crucial communication systems.
Typically, these waves are found around 51,000 km (32,000 miles) away, in a region influenced by the “magnetic dipole effect,” defining the Earth’s magnetic field with north and south poles.
However, a 2016 study published in nature unveiled that for the first time, these chorus waves have been observed at distances up to 165,000 km (103,000 miles) from Earth, in regions where the magnetic field is distorted and dipole effects are absent.
Furthermore, these waves exhibit similar properties to those closer to Earth, lasting around 0.1 seconds with frequencies reaching nearly 100Hz (akin to the noise of a revving car engine).
Chorus waves are part of the complex magnetic field system that causes auroras – Photo credit: Getty
Why is this discovery significant? It indicates that Earth’s environmental conditions are not prerequisites for wave generation as previously assumed by scientists.
“Though this finding does not refute existing theories… it certainly prompts a deeper investigation,” remarked Professor Richard Horne, head of space weather at the British Antarctic Survey, not involved in the study.
“The unexpected presence of chorus waves in this region calls for further exploration in areas where the Earth’s magnetic field displays substantial deviations from the dipole.”
Chorus waves play a vital role in shielding Earth from solar storms, yet they also pose potential dangers. Enhanced understanding of these waves can lead to better protective measures.
Horne expressed that this breakthrough “will significantly enhance our comprehension of these waves and refine our capacity to forecast them.”
Many species of birds use shed snake skin when building nests, but this behavior is poorly understood. In a new study, Cornell University ornithologists used comparative and experimental approaches to suggest that the evolution of this behavior is mediated by nest morphology and predator community. They used a series of experiments and comparisons to test four hypotheses (nest predation, nest microbiota, nest ectoparasites, and social signaling) that snake skin confers fitness effects, and the predation hypothesis found support for.
Great Crested Flycatcher (Myialchus crinitus) are famous for using snake skin to construct their nests. Image credit: Barbara Taylor/Macaulay Library.
“What do snakes eat? They eat a lot of rats and small mammals,” said Dr. Vanya Lower, lead author of the study.
“Given the evolutionary history of harmful interactions between small-bodied predators that are commonly eaten by snakes, these predators should become fearful of snake skin in their nests.”
“It may change the decision-making process for whether or not to nest.”
“Birdwatchers have been recording the use of snakeskin in nests for centuries, and have speculated that snakeskin occurs more frequently in hollow nests, but no one has tested this theory. There was no one there.”
“We were trying to understand why birds spend so much time and effort finding this strange substance.”
First, Dr. Lower and his colleagues looked at the literature and found that 78 species in 22 families have been reported to use shed snake skin for nest building.
All but one of these species are passerines, and in a comparative analysis, the researchers found that this behavior was disproportionately observed in cavity-nesting species.
Next, they examined a subsample of North American species, all of which are reported to use snake skin for nest construction, and found that between cavity-nesting species and open-cup nesting species, snake skin We investigated whether the proportion of nests with
The analysis suggested that the proportion of nests with snake skin was approximately 6.5 times higher in cavity nests than in open cup nest species.
“The proportion of nests that had snake skin in the nest description was about 6.5 times higher in cavity nests than in open cup nests,” Dr. Lower said.
“This was really, really cool and suggested to us that these two completely independent data series were telling very similar stories.”
To test the benefits that cavity-nesting birds derive from snake skin, scientists investigated how snake skin reduces nest predation, reduces harmful nest ectoparasites, and benefits birds. We investigated whether they can alter the microbial community or serve as a signal of parental quality. Parents make more efforts to raise their children.
Of these ideas, the results supported the nest predation hypothesis, but only in cavity nests.
For the experiment, the authors placed two quail eggs in more than 60 nest boxes and more than 80 inactive robin nests set up around Ithaca’s Monkey Run Natural Area. Cavity nests and open cup nests were simulated.
Some nests received snake skins collected from local snake breeders, while others did not.
Every three days for two weeks, the team used a ladder to climb through the monkey run to the nest and check for eggs.
Trail cameras revealed that while small mammal and bird nest predators visit open cup nests, only small mammals, namely flying squirrels, visit nest boxes.
“If you were in a hive like that and you had snake skin, you would have a much better chance of surviving those 14 days,” Dr. Lower said.
“The benefits of the material are most strongly expressed in hollow nests.”
Paleontologists have discovered ancient bear footprints in Honseca Cave in northern Spain. Distinguishing cave bear and brown bear tracks is complicated, but cave bears are thought to be most likely to leave tracks at Honseka.
Cave badger (Ursus Spelaeus) was a very large bear that formed the sister lineage of extant brown bears and polar bears.
These animals lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene, but went extinct about 24,000 years ago.
It measured 2.7 to 3.5 meters (8.9 to 11.5 ft) in length, up to 1.7 meters (5.6 ft) at the shoulder, and weighed 225 to 500 kg.
People may have had occasional encounters with cave bears.
Despite their name, they did not actually live in caves, only using them for hibernation.
Nitrogen isotope data from giant crushed molars and their bones indicate that cave bears were primarily herbivorous, with leaves as their staple food.
“Cave bear footprints are not uncommon in the soft sediments of caves on the Iberian Peninsula, and many speleologists are well aware of their presence,” said Dr. Ana Mateos of the Center for Human Evolution and Human Research (CENIEH). .
“However, until now these fossil traces have not been the subject of systematic study.”
“In fact, only one study of this kind has ever been carried out in Romania's Ursilor Cave.”
Cave bear restoration (Ursus Spelaeus). Image credit: Sergio de la Larosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Mateos and his colleagues discovered 16 cave bear footprints in Honseca Cave in Palencia, Spain.
The footprints were assigned to Ursichnus europaeus This is the first record of this species discovered in a cave on the Iberian Peninsula.
“We performed a scan of the footprint surface and its surroundings using a laser scanner that creates a three-dimensional cloud of millions of points, and combined this with a photogrammetric model.” said Dr. Adrian Martinez. CENIEH technician.
“This model has been used to take various measurements of footprints and compare them with those of other caves in Europe, such as the Ursilol Cave in Romania.”
“Furthermore, by processing the model, we were able to generate images that highlight the shape of individual footprints,” added Dr. Alfonso Benito, also from CENIEH.
“The shape of the toe impressions and the length of Urushiro's and Honseka's claw marks suggest that in both cases they belong to the cave bear, which went extinct about 28,000 years ago, rather than to brown bears.”
“Unfortunately, before scientists knew about their existence, some of the footprints were destroyed by the footprints of amateurs who had not paid attention and visited the interior of the cave,” said Jesús of CENIEH. Dr. Rodriguez said.
“Therefore, one of the goals of this type of research is to highlight the value of these fossils and promote their preservation.”
of study Published in this month's magazine Ichnos.
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J. Rodriguez others. Cave bear footprints (Ursichnus europaeus Diedrich, 2011) from Honseca Cave, Palencia, Spain. Ichnospublished online on January 9, 2025. doi: 10.1080/10420940.2024.2446153
Study published in the magazine Natural Earth Science: Planetary researchers used high-resolution images and compositional data captured by orbiting satellites to understand the geology of thousands of kilometers of hills in the northern and western lowlands. Maurus Gorge, a plateau located on the highland side of the hemisphere bisection boundary of Mars.
Rising hundreds of meters above the surrounding lowlands, two Martian hills reveal bright areas rich in clay minerals. Image credits: ESA / TGO / CaSSIS / NASA / JPL / MSSS / Murray Lab.
A research team led by scientist Joe McNeil from the Natural History Museum in London found that the mounds are the remains of ancient highlands that retreated hundreds of kilometers after erosion carved out the landscape billions of years ago. .
These actions played a key role in shaping the Martian landscape, which separates the planet's low-lying northern hemisphere from its high-lying southern hemisphere.
This mound is made of layered deposits containing clay minerals, formed by water interacting with rock over millions of years.
These clay layers are sandwiched between older non-clay layers below and younger non-clay layers above, marking distinct geological events in Mars' history.
“These mounds are incredibly interesting because they preserve the complete water history of this area within an accessible, continuous rock outcrop,” Dr. McNeil said.
“They are prime locations for future missions aimed at determining whether Mars once had an ocean and whether life could exist there.”
The authors also found that these mounds are geologically connected to nearby plains. Oxia Planum -ESA's Rosalind Franklin spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2028 searching for signs of past and present life.
“Mars' lack of plate tectonics means it still has much of its ancient geology, so Mars is a model of what early Earth was like,” McNeil said. the doctor said.
“The more missions that visit Mars, the more we will be able to dig deeper into our planet's history and discover how life began.”
“As part of the Natural History Museum's mission to transform natural history science, our research focuses on providing solutions from and for nature.”
“This research is part of our Planetary Origins and Evolution research theme, which explores the origins and systems that underpin the evolution of the Earth, Moon, and planetary systems.”
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JD McNeil others. Dichotomous regression and aquatic alteration of Noachian Mars are recorded in highland remnants. Nat. Earth Science published online on January 20, 2025. doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01634-8
This article is based on a press release provided by the Natural History Museum, London.
Near-Earth asteroid 2024 PT5 is in an Earth-like orbit and remained very close to Earth for several months at the end of 2024.
2024 PT5 captured a brief flyby from September 29 to November 25, 2024. Image credit: University of Colorado.
2024 PT was first detected on August 7, 2024 by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope at the University of Hawaii in Sutherland, South Africa.
This asteroid poses no danger to Earth, but its orbit around the sun closely matches that of our planet.
The object, which is about 10 meters (33 feet) wide, appears to be composed of rock that broke off from the moon’s surface and was ejected into space after a major impact.
“There was a general idea that this asteroid might have come from the moon, but when we discovered that this asteroid is rich in silicate minerals, it became conclusive proof. The silicate minerals are not the kind found on asteroids, but rather the ones found in the moon’s rocks. Dr. Teddy Kaleta Astronomer at Lowell Observatory.
“It doesn’t seem to have been in space very long, perhaps only a few thousand years, because there was no cosmic weathering to cause its spectrum to turn red.”
Using observations from the Lowell Discovery Telescope and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, Dr. Kaleta and his colleagues show that the spectrum of sunlight reflected from the surface of 2024 PT does not match its spectrum. showed. A known asteroid type. Instead, the reflected light more closely matched the moon’s rocks.
This discovery doubles the number of known asteroids thought to originate from the Moon.
“Asteroid 469219 Kamooarewa was discovered in 2016 in an Earth-like orbit around the sun, indicating that this asteroid may also have been ejected from the lunar surface after a major impact,” the astronomers said. said.
“As telescopes become more sensitive to smaller asteroids, more potential lunar boulders will be discovered, and scientists studying the moon as well as scientists studying rare asteroid populations will It creates exciting opportunities for everyone.”
“If a lunar asteroid could be directly related to a specific impact crater on the Moon, studying it could provide insight into the cratering process on the pockmarked lunar surface.”
“Also, material collected from deep on the moon’s surface in the form of asteroids passing close to Earth could be available to future scientists for study.”
“This is a story about the moon told by asteroid scientists,” Dr. Kaleta said.
“It’s an unusual situation where we go out to study asteroids and end up wandering into new territory in terms of the questions we can ask for PT5 in 2024.”
of findings On January 14, 2025, Astrophysics Journal Letter.
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Theodore Caleta others. 2025. On the origin of the near-Earth asteroid moon2024 PT5. APJL 979, L8; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ea8
A strange continent-sized structure (red) lurks beneath the planet's surface
Edward Garnero. SW French, BA Romanowicz, Geophys. J. Int. 199, 1303, 2014.
Two giant blobs deep within the Earth may remain stable for billions of years despite powerful internal fluctuations, according to an analysis of seismic waves reverberating across the planet.
“When a major earthquake occurs, the entire earth expands and contracts like a bell.” arwen Deus At Utrecht University in the Netherlands. “The earth becomes an instrument.”
Decades ago, measurements of such seismic waves identified two strange continent-sized structures, one under the Pacific Ocean and one under Africa. They extend for almost 1000 kilometers from the outer core to the lower mantle, the slowly moving layer between the Earth's crust and core.
Because seismic waves pass through these objects more slowly, they are called “large low shear velocity regions” or LLSVPs. However, little is known about its composition and origin.
To gain further information, Deus and her colleagues analyzed how these regions attenuate the energy of seismic waves, in addition to changes in wave speed. Such measurements reveal information about the temperature, composition, shape, and size of the LLSVP.
The researchers expected that the structure, which would be hotter than the surrounding area, would significantly attenuate seismic waves. “Lo and behold, we found the opposite,” says Deus.
To explain the lack of decay at high temperatures, the researchers propose that LLSVP must be composed of minerals with large crystals that are stable in heat. This also suggests that these regions are highly viscous and can maintain stability as the mantle moves around them.
This stability could mean that these objects are very old, dating back to the formation of planets at least 500 million years ago, and possibly more than 4 billion years ago, Deus said. They may act as repositories of primordial material, unchanged since the Earth formed, that sometimes reaches the surface via volcanoes.
A new report predicts that power outages lasting more than eight hours will increase in the United States in the coming years due to climate change. Extreme weather events caused by climate change, such as cyclones, are making it challenging to cope with these outages. Severe weather events that occur simultaneously, like wildfires during heat waves, are already causing more prolonged power outages, according to a study published in the journal agreement.
From 2000 to 2023, 80% of power outages in the US were weather-related, and this number is expected to rise further due to the increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events accelerated by climate change. These events not only come with economic costs but also health risks, disrupting essential services like heating, air conditioning, and medical equipment.
While it may not be possible to prevent weather events, researchers believe that tracking patterns can help in better preparing for power outages and distributing aid effectively. Understanding when and where power outages coincide with severe weather events can help mitigate their impact, particularly as aging power grids and climate change lead to more severe weather.
A study analyzed weather events from 2018 to 2020, finding that nearly 75% of US counties experienced significant power outages during dangerous weather events. The study also observed an increase in simultaneous power outages and wildfires along the West Coast from 2018 to 2020.
Researchers are now working on simulating different dangerous weather combinations in various regions to develop effective response plans across the country. Doctoral student and lead author of the study, Vivian Do, emphasized the importance of understanding these patterns to minimize the societal impact of power outages during severe weather events.
The decision to urinate involves a complex combination of both physiological and social considerations. However, the social aspects of urination remain largely unknown. More specifically, timing urination (i.e., synchrony) and triggering urination by observing similar behavior in others (i.e., social contagion) occur in humans across different cultures. It is thought that it probably occurs in animals other than humans as well. in new paper in diary current biologyScientists have discovered that urination is socially contagious in chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, measured through more than 600 hours of total outbreak records in 20 captive chimpanzees at Japan's Kumamoto Sanctuary. is reported. Their results suggest that socially contagious urination is an overlooked aspect of social behavior and potentially widespread.
<div id="attachment_102786" style="width: 590px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://cdn.sci.news/images/enlarge12/image_13596e-Chimpanzees.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-102786" class="wp-image-102786 size-full" src="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/01/image_13596-Chimpanzees.jpg" alt="A chimpanzee eats leaves in the Kumamoto Preserve. Image credit: Onishi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.052." width="580" height="436" srcset="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/01/image_13596-Chimpanzees.jpg 580w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/01/image_13596-Chimpanzees-300x226.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px"/></a><p id="caption-attachment-102786" class="wp-caption-text">A chimpanzee eats leaves in the Kumamoto Preserve. Image provided by: Onishi <em>others</em>., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.052.</p></div>
<div>
<p>"In humans, urinating together can be considered a social phenomenon," said Kyoto University researcher Ena Onishi, lead author of the study.</p>
<p>There is an Italian proverb that says:<em>People who don't pee at work are either thieves or spies.</em>'(<em>Chi non piscia in compagnia o è un ladro o è una spia</em>), In Japanese, the act of urinating with another person is called ``.<em>connection</em>""</p>
<p>"This behavior has been expressed in art across cultures for centuries and continues to appear in modern social contexts."</p>
<p>"Our study suggests that this phenomenon may have deep evolutionary roots."</p>
<p>"We found that chimpanzees, our closest relatives, tend to urinate in response to the urination of nearby individuals."</p>
<p>Researchers decided to study this behavior after noticing that the chimpanzees at the sanctuary seemed to urinate at about the same time.</p>
<p>It reminded me of human behavior and I thought it might be comparable to a contagious yawn.</p>
<p>To find out, they recorded the urination behavior of Kumamoto chimpanzees over 600 hours, including 1,328 urination events.</p>
<p>They analyzed observational data to see if the chimpanzees' pees were significantly synchronized in time.</p>
<p>They also investigated whether it was influenced by nearby individuals or shaped by social factors.</p>
<p>The evidence showed that micturition events during observation were significantly more synchronized than would be expected if the chimpanzees simply urinated at random times on each other.</p>
<p>Physical proximity to the first urinator also increased the likelihood of contagious urination.</p>
<p>Interestingly, individuals with lower dominance rankings were more likely to pee when others were peeing.</p>
<p>This finding suggests that urinary patterns are influenced by social class and that behavior tends to flow along dominant structures.</p>
<p>"We were surprised to find that transmission patterns are influenced by social status," Dr. Onishi said.</p>
<p>"Since there have been no previous studies of contagious urination in any species, we draw parallels with contagious yawning, another semi-voluntary physiological behavior."</p>
<p>"Based on this, we initially expected that the social effects might be similar to those seen with yawns, such as stronger contagion between socially close pairs."</p>
<p>"However, our results showed no evidence of effects related to social intimacy."</p>
<p>"Instead, we observed a clear effect of social status, with lower status people being more likely to defer to others' urination."</p>
<p>"This was an unexpected and interesting result because it opens up multiple possibilities of interpretation," said lead author Dr. Shinya Yamamoto, also from Kyoto University.</p>
<p>"For example, it may reflect covert leadership in synchronizing group activities, strengthening social bonds, or attentional biases between subordinate individuals."</p>
<p>"These findings raise interesting questions about the social function of this behavior."</p>
<p><span style="color: #808080;">_____</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #808080;">Ena Onishi <em>others</em>. 2025. Socially contagious urination in chimpanzees. <em>current biology</em> 35 (2): R58-R59;doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.11.052</span></p>
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“tuber “It is a genus of ectomycorrhizal fungi that produces paragenic fruiting bodies known as truffles,” said lead author Dr. Gregory Bonito of Michigan State University and colleagues.
“Many tuber The seeds are well known for their unique aroma and wide range of culinary uses. ”
“Like many other truffle-forming fungi, tuber The species lost the ability to forcefully release spores into the air and instead relied primarily on fungivores to ingest and distribute the spores. ”
“Mycivores such as porcupines, squirrels, pigs, and humans… tuber Sensitive to volatile compounds produced by truffles. ”
One of two new species, Tuber crable veratumis named after the truffle dog and Monza, the dog who discovered it with trainer Lois Martin.
The other is tuber cumberlandensis named after the Cumberland Plateau where it was discovered by Margaret Townsend and her truffle dog, Luca.
“There is a long history of using specially trained dogs, and less frequently pigs, to track the scent of truffles. tuber “In the wild,” the researchers said.
“Truffle hunting dogs are also regularly used for commercial truffle harvesting, as they can find consistently mature truffles faster than other methods such as raking.”
“Raking the soil to find and harvest truffles can have a devastating effect on both the roots and ascus of the plant host.”
“It could also lead to the harvesting of immature truffles.”
“However, a well-trained truffle hunting dog will always find mature truffles, reducing harvest effort and maximizing harvest quality.”
“As such, the use of truffle dogs to harvest commercial truffles has become the standard method used by truffle growers around the world.”
meanwhile Tuber crable veratum It is only known in eastern Tennessee, USA. tuber cumberlandens It has been opportunistically harvested for commercial sale from orchards in eastern North America.
“Historically, attention has been focused on the cultivation and sale of European truffle species, but there is increasing interest in the cultivation, wild harvesting and sale of North American truffle species,” Dr. Bonito added. .
“More and more people are trying their hand at growing truffles, which means more truffle dogs are needed to sniff out these fungal fruits because they grow underground.”
“If you have $20,000 worth of truffles growing underground, you have to find them before they rot. That's why dogs are so important.”
This finding is reported in the following article: paper in diary mycosis.
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Arasan Sou others. 2024. tuber cumberlandens and T. cannileveratumtwo new edibles tuber A species of eastern North America discovered by truffle hunting dogs. mycosis 116 (6);doi: 10.1080/00275514.2024.2407755
A massive flood called the Zanclean Flood ended the Messinian salinity crisis that lasted from 5.97 million to 5.33 million years ago, according to a new study led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).
One of the scenarios being discussed for ending the Messinian Salinity Crisis 5.33 million years ago is the catastrophic backfilling of the Mediterranean Sea by the Zanclean Flood. Micallef others. They present clear onshore and offshore evidence that this deluge spilled over a shallow marine corridor in southeastern Sicily into the nearby underwater Noto Gorge. This aerial photo shows a ridge eroded by a major flood, located northeast of Masseria del Volpe, in southeastern Sicily. Image credit: Kevin Sciberras and Neil Petroni.
“The Zanclean Flood is an awe-inspiring natural phenomenon, with flows and velocities that seem dwarfed by any other known flood in Earth’s history,” said the study’s lead author, C.A. said Dr. Aaron Micallef, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.
“Our study provides the most convincing evidence yet of this unusual event.”
During the Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean and evaporated, creating vast salt deposits that transformed the region’s landscape.
Scientists have long believed that this dry period would gradually end and that the Mediterranean Sea would be reclaimed over 10,000 years.
However, the discovery in 2009 of an eroded channel stretching from the Gulf of Cadiz to the Alboran Sea called this idea into question.
The discovery points to a single major flooding event lasting between two and 16 years, which became known as the Zanclean Flood.
Estimates indicate that the outflow of this megaflood was between 68 and 100 Sverdraps (Sv), where 1 sievert is equivalent to 1 million cubic meters per second.
In their research, Dr. Micallef and his colleagues combined newly discovered geological features with geophysical data and numerical modeling to provide the most comprehensive picture of the megaflood to date. did.
The researchers investigated more than 300 asymmetric streamlined ridges in the corridor across the Sicilian Sil, a submerged land bridge that once separated the western and eastern Mediterranean basins.
“The morphology of these ridges corresponds to erosion by large-scale turbulence, mainly in a north-easterly direction,” said Professor Paul Carling from the University of Southampton.
“They reveal the immense power of the Zanclean Flood and how it changed the landscape and left a lasting mark on the geological record.”
Scientists sampled the ridge and found that it was overlain by a layer of rock debris containing material eroded from the sides of the ridge and surrounding areas. This indicates that it was deposited there rapidly and with great force.
This layer lies right on the boundary between the Messinian and Zanclean periods, where the Great Flood is thought to have occurred.
Using seismic reflection data, a type of geological ultrasound that allows scientists to see layers of rock and sediment beneath the Earth’s surface, the authors found a “W-shaped” shape on the continental shelf east of Sicily’s Sill. discovered a waterway.
This channel, dug into the ocean floor, connects the ridge to the Noto Gorge, a deep underwater canyon located in the eastern Mediterranean.
The shape and location of the channel suggest that it functioned like a giant funnel.
When the mega-flood flowed into Sicily’s Sill, this channel is thought to have carried the water towards the Noto Valley and into the eastern Mediterranean.
The research team developed a computer model of the flood to simulate how the water behaved.
The model shows that floodwaters change direction and increase their strength over time, reaching speeds of up to 32 meters per second (72 miles per hour), carving deeper channels, eroding more material, and increasing their length. This suggests that they may have been transported over long distances.
“These discoveries not only reveal a critical moment in Earth’s geological history, but also prove that landforms persist for five million years,” Dr. Micallef said.
“This opens the door to further research on the Mediterranean coast.”
of study Published in a magazine Communication Earth and Environment.
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A. Micallef others. 2024. Land-to-sea indicators of the Zanclean Flood. common global environment 5,794;doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01972-w
The vast alien planet has fierce winds blowing around its equator at nearly 30 times the speed of sound on Earth.
Lisa Nortman He and his colleagues at the University of Göttingen in Germany used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile to observe WASP-127b, a gas giant exoplanet more than 500 light-years from Earth. Although slightly larger than Jupiter, it is one of the least dense planets we know of.
The researchers expected the light signal from the planet’s atmosphere to have one distinct peak, but instead they found two distinct peaks.
“It was a little confusing,” Nortman says. “But when we analyzed the data a little more carefully, it became clear that there were two signals. I was very excited – my first thought was that it must be some kind of super-rotating wind. I thought that right away.”
The researchers concluded that the two mountains were caused by rapid winds from the jet stream near the equator, with half of the wind moving toward Earth and the other half moving away from it. The wind appears to be made up of water and carbon monoxide, and appears to be moving at 33,000 kilometers per hour, the fastest wind ever measured on Earth.
“We’re talking about nine kilometers per second. Even Jupiter’s wind speeds are on the order of a few hundred meters per second, so this is actually an order of magnitude bigger.” vivian parmentier at Oxford University.
He says that if you were in this wind, you wouldn’t be able to feel such extreme speeds because it would be moving around you at the same speed. But because the wind moves from the hot side of the Earth, which is always facing the star, to the cold side, which is always in darkness, you will experience a temperature difference of several hundred degrees in a few hours.
Researchers don’t know why WASP-127b has such extreme winds, but Nortman said the planet has certain peculiarities, including a low density and an unstable orbit around its star. It is said that there are certain characteristics that may play a role. “However, no clear connection has been established between those facts and particularly strong winds.”
Donald Trump holds executive order announcing the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
On January 20, a crowd at a stadium in Washington, D.C., erupted in cheers as U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord on stage. of order He said the move was to prioritize “America first.” But environmental groups condemned the decision, saying that withdrawing the world's second-largest greenhouse gas emitter from the agreement would simultaneously cede U.S. influence in international negotiations to rival clean energy giant China. , argued that it would make climate change even worse.
“This is an issue where the United States and the Trump administration are shooting themselves in the foot,” he says. David Waskow at the World Resources Institute, a global environmental nonprofit organization. “That would be ignoring the United States.”
This is the second time President Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is a landmark agreement reached in 2015 to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages. It took three years for the initial withdrawal in 2017 to be formalized under UN treaty provisions, and the US only left for a few months before former President Joe Biden rejoined the country in 2021.
The deal now requires a year for withdrawal to be formally recognized, at which point the U.S. will be the only major economy not part of the deal. Other countries that have not signed are Libya, Yemen and Iran.
“This is definitely not good news for international climate action,” he says. Li Shuo At the Asian Social Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Unlike the United States' first withdrawal, this second withdrawal came at a time when the country's ambitious emissions reduction ambitions were already facing geopolitical, social, and economic obstacles. he says. Last year saw record levels of global emissions, while average global temperatures rose above 1.5°C for the first time.
A U.S. withdrawal would leave the country with no leverage to drive further emissions cuts, potentially creating an excuse for countries around the world to scale back efforts to tackle climate change. “The momentum of climate change around the world was declining even before President Trump was elected,” Lee said.
But Waskow said the U.S. withdrawal does not mean “the bottom has dropped” in global climate action. Countries responsible for more than 90 percent of global emissions are still committed to the Paris Agreement. Wind and solar energy, electric vehicles, batteries and other clean technologies also play a much bigger role in the global economy now than they did when the U.S. first left, he said.
“The rest of the world is also transitioning to clean energy,” he says. Manish Bapna at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental advocacy group. “This doesn't stop that transition, it slows it down.” But it raises questions about what role the U.S. will play in shaping that future, he says.
Looming is China, which controls many of the key clean energy industries, from solar panels to batteries, and is increasingly exporting its technology to the rest of the world. “The United States would not only be ceding influence over how those markets are formed, but also the duration of those markets,” Waskow said. “I don't think other countries think of the United States first when they think about who they should engage with.”
The global retreat from climate action also comes as the new Trump administration moved quickly to reverse, abandon, or block the policies of its predecessor in a flurry of executive orders issued on its first day in office. These include banning federal permits for wind energy and reversing policies introduced by Mr. Biden to promote electric vehicles. Other plans aim to expand fossil fuel development on federal lands, coastal waters and Alaska and increase natural gas exports to settle further orders. I declare It's a “national energy emergency.” “We train, baby, we train,” he said in his inaugural address.
Strategic naps can help you recover from sleep deprivation
Jean Gaumi/Magnum Photo
Sleep researchers devote their careers to understanding how and why we sleep. So what do they do to get a better night’s rest?
It may be comforting to know that even experts don’t always practice what they preach. “I think you’ll find that a lot of sleep researchers are terrible at sleep,” he says. Malcolm von Schantz At Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
This article is part of a special series exploring important questions about sleep. Click here for details.
But what many of them agree on is that consistency is key. Here’s what else they had to say:
make a plan
“It’s all about prioritization and planning. For example, I’m a night owl and like to go to bed late and wake up late, so I try not to have meetings before 10am. I’m thinking ahead about the timing of my daily rhythm in terms of what works best for me and how I can adjust my schedule to support that.”
“We keep the lights in our house pretty dim when the sun goes down, turn on as many indoor lights as possible in the morning, and make sure to open the blinds to let some sunlight into the house as soon as the sun goes down. I think it’s really important to minimize night light and maximize morning light.
The source of the newly detected fast radio burst, FRB 20240209A, is located 2 billion light-years from Earth, on the remote outskirts of an ancient elliptical galaxy with a mass of more than 100 billion solar masses. The remnants of young stars that theorists believe would generate such bursts of radio waves should have long died out in this 11.3 billion-year-old galaxy are detailed in two supplementary studies. Astrophysics Journal Letter this discovery shatters the assumption that fast radio bursts emanate only from regions of active star formation.
Gemini image showing the host galaxy (cyan crosshair) and local ellipse of FRB 20240209A. Image credit: Shah others., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc.
“The conventional wisdom is that fast radio bursts (FRBs) originate from magnetars formed by collapsing supernovae,” said Taraneh Eftekari, an astronomer at Northwestern University.
“That doesn’t seem to be the case here. Young, massive stars die out as core-collapse supernovae, but we see no evidence of young stars in this galaxy.”
“Thanks to this new discovery, it is becoming clear that not all Feds are born from young stars.”
“Perhaps there is a subpopulation of FRBs associated with older systems.”
“This new FRB shows that just when we think we understand an astrophysical phenomenon, the universe can turn around and surprise us,” added Wen-Fai Feng, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.
“This ‘dialogue’ with the universe is what makes our field of time-domain astronomy so incredibly thrilling.”
FRB 20240209A was discovered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in February 2024.
FRBs are short, powerful bursts of radio waves that flare up and disappear within milliseconds, producing more energy in one quick burst than the sun emits in a year.
However, FRB 20240209A flared up multiple times. During the first burst from February to July 2024, the same source produced 21 additional pulses.
After the research team located the FRB, astronomers quickly used telescopes at W.M. Keck and Gemini Observatories to study the environment surrounding the event.
Surprisingly, rather than discovering young galaxies, these observations revealed that the FRB’s origin lies 2 billion light-years from Earth, at the edge of a neighboring galaxy 11.3 billion years ago.
To learn more about this unusual host galaxy, the researchers used high-performance computers to run simulations.
They discovered that this galaxy is extremely bright and incredibly huge – 100 billion times the mass of our Sun.
“This appears to be the most massive FRB host galaxy ever. It’s one of the most massive galaxies out there,” Dr. Eftekari said.
Although most FRBs occur inside galaxies, the authors tracked FRB 20240209A to the outskirts of its homeworld, 130,000 light-years away from the galaxy’s center, where there are few other stars.
“Of all the FRB populations, this FRB is the furthest from the center of its host galaxy,” said Vishwangi Shah, a graduate student at McGill University.
“This is both surprising and interesting because FRBs are expected to occur inside galaxies, often in star-forming regions.”
“The location of this FRB so far outside its host galaxy raises the question of how such an energetic event could occur in a region where new stars are not forming.”
According to the research team, FRB 20240209A likely originated within a dense globular cluster.
Such clusters are promising sites for magnetars that may have formed through other mechanisms, such as the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a white dwarf star under its own gravity, or in conjunction with older stars.
“The globular cluster origin of this repeating FRB is the most likely scenario explaining why this FRB is located outside of its host galaxy,” Shah said.
“Although we do not know for a fact whether there is a globular cluster at the FRB’s location, we have submitted a proposal to use NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope for follow-up observations of the FRB’s location.”
“If so, this FRB would be only the second FRB known to exist within a globular cluster. If not, consider other exotic scenarios for the origin of FRBs. You will need to.”
“It’s clear that there is still a lot of interesting discovery to be made about the Fed, and that its environment may hold the key to unlocking its secrets,” Dr. Eftekari said.
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T. Eftekari others. 2025. A huge, stationary elliptical main galaxy that repeats high-speed radio bursts FRB 20240209A. APJL in press. arXiv: 2410.23336
Vishwangi Shah others. 2025. A source of high-speed radio bursts that repeat on the outskirts of a quiet galaxy. APJL 979, L21; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc
A ridge in southeastern Sicily eroded by the Great Flood
Kevin Sciberras and Neil Petroni
The jumbled deposits of rocks found on a hilltop in southeastern Sicily are left behind by the Great Flood, the largest known flood in Earth's history, which refilled the Mediterranean Sea five million years ago.
Rock deposits and eroded hills in this part of the Italian island of Sicily are the first evidence found on land of a mega-flood, scientists say. pole curling at the University of Southampton, UK. “You can actually walk around and look at it,” Carling said.
About 6 million years ago, during the so-called Messinian salinity crisis, the Mediterranean Sea separated from the Atlantic Ocean and began to dry up. Vast salt deposits were formed during this period, and sea levels may have fallen by more than a kilometer.
About 5.3 million years ago, water once again began to flow through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers initially thought the giant waterfall near Gibraltar had been reclaimed over tens of thousands of years.
But in 2009, a massively eroded channel was discovered at the bottom of the strait, suggesting more sudden deluges could occur. Since then, this evidence has continued to grow.
Carling said the flood first filled the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea. The eroded topography of the ocean floor suggests that it then spilled into the eastern basin over an underwater ridge known as the Sicilian Sill.
team members Giovanni Barreca The professor at the University of Catania in Italy, who grew up in southeastern Sicily, suspected that the land there was also formed by the Great Flood. So he and his fellow researchers took a closer look at the rock samples and analyzed them.
Sure enough, we found that the intricate deposits near the tops of some hills contained rocks that had been eroded from deeper layers and somehow transported to the top of the hills. “You can tell by their nature that they come from a lower level,” Carling says. “And they were carried over this hill.”
Many of the hills themselves have a streamlined shape, resembling the hills of Montana carved out by the great floods caused by the bursting of ice dams at the end of the last ice age. “They're very distinctive,” Carling says. “And only a very large, massive flood could streamline a feature of this magnitude.”
Detail of a Sicilian ridge formed by a huge flood
Daniel Garcia Castellanos
The researchers estimated that at the peak of the flood, water was flowing at about 115 kilometers per hour, covering the top of the hill, which is about 100 meters above modern sea level, with about 40 meters of water.
Researchers also investigated the ocean floor around Sicily and found further evidence of the deluge, including eroded ridges and channels. Their modeling suggested that the entire Mediterranean Sea was backfilled between two and 16 years, but the main flooding event in Sicily probably lasted only a few days, Carling said.
Drugs like Ozempic and Wigovy, called GLP-1 agonists, offer more benefits than risks when taken for their approved uses, according to a comprehensive analysis of their effects on 175 conditions. However, the same may not be true for people who are taking the drug for other purposes.
“In this new area of GLP-1, we wanted to really map the benefits and risks for all the conditions that we thought were relevant,” he says. Jiyad Al Ali at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
These drugs are best known for helping control type 2 diabetes and treating obesity. They mimic the hormone GLP-1 in the body, which lowers blood sugar levels and keeps you feeling full for longer.
Dozens of studies suggest that GLP-1 agonists may also reduce the risk of many other conditions, from heart disease to dementia to substance use disorders. These studies have involved hundreds or thousands of people and have focused on one or a few symptoms at a time, but now that millions of people are using the drug, they are much more This means that less frequent effects can be investigated, Al Ali said.
To get a more comprehensive picture, he and his colleagues examined the health records of more than 200,000 diabetic patients who took GLP-1 agonists over a four-year period in addition to standard treatment. They also looked at 1.2 million people with diabetes who received only standard treatment over the same time period and assessed both groups' risk of developing 175 different health conditions.
The research team found that people who took GLP-1 agonists had a lower risk of 42 diseases. For example, the risk of heart attack was reduced by 9% and the risk of dementia was reduced by 8%. The probability that this group would suffer from suicidal ideation or substance use disorders such as alcohol or opioid addiction was also approximately decreased by 1/10. .
However, there were also downsides for people taking GLP-1 drugs. They were more likely to experience known side effects, such as nausea and vomiting, as well as previously undescribed side effects. These include a 15% higher risk of kidney stones and more than double the risk of pancreatic inflammation or drug-induced pancreatitis. In total, 19 conditions were at increased risk, but taking GLP-1 drugs had no significant effect on risk levels for most of the conditions evaluated, including bronchitis, rheumatoid arthritis, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ta.
The fact that these drugs affect such a wide range of symptoms remains surprising, but it is unclear exactly why they have this effect. “They're reducing obesity, which is the root of all disease. If you treat obesity, the heart, kidneys, brain, and everywhere else will benefit later,” Al-Aly said. They also reduce inflammation, which commonly damages organs, and appear to target parts of the brain associated with addiction, he says.
One problem with this analysis is that the research team did not report the actual number of people affected by each condition, making the results difficult to interpret. Daniel Drucker from the University of Toronto and has worked with obesity drug companies. Reducing the risk of common conditions such as heart attacks and dementia is probably worth taking seriously, but the association with rare conditions like pancreatitis is so small that the risk is low for most people. He says it's unlikely. Al-Aly said the research team plans to publish specific numbers of cases in future studies.
Overall, this study provides reassurance that the benefits of GLP-1 agonists outweigh the risks, at least for patients with type 2 diabetes and obesity. “There are no red flags with this group,” he says. stefan trapp He is a professor at University College London and has worked with obesity drug companies.
However, the situation may be different for people who do not have these conditions, such as people who are not obese and buy drugs to lose weight. “I don't know if the benefits outweigh the risks,” Drucker said.
What's the difference between time spent in bed and bank balance? No, this isn't the start of a terrible joke – and the answer isn't as simple as you think.
We all have the odd occasion where we stay up too late and don't get enough sleep. Think of it like splurging on an expensive dinner. I probably shouldn't, but I hope it doesn't hurt my bank balance too much.
This article is part of a special series exploring important questions about sleep. Click here for details.
However, not getting enough sleep on a regular basis is a problem for many people, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports: One-third of adults spend less than 7 hours a night – Sleep debt can accumulate and have serious implications for your physical and mental health (see Why your chronotype is key to knowing how much sleep you need). Just like paying off a financial debt, getting your sleep back requires a plan.
Part of the problem is that we may not realize how much sleep debt we have and how negatively it is affecting us. in one studyFor example, participants were randomly selected to work 4, 6, or 8 hours per night for 14 consecutive days. Ultimately, those who slept less than six hours showed cognitive impairments equivalent to up to two full nights of no sleep. However, even though they felt unwell after a few days, from then on, those who underwent sleep restriction did not necessarily realize that their cognitive performance continued to decline. “A tired brain cannot recognize how tired it is.” Russell Foster,a…
An estimated 15% of American adults (260 million people) and 9 million Britons participated in last year’s Dry January. And recent scientific discoveries show that just one month of abstaining from alcohol can have many lasting benefits. Here’s what you can expect, including a timeline of the changes you’ll experience after a year of sobriety.
Search for dark matter
Neutrinos themselves are elusive, but they are beginning to disrupt the search for dark matter. They appear where they are not wanted…and no amount of rock can prevent them.
How Ozempic will change the world
This weight loss drug revolutionized the health industry, breaking sales records and making headlines around the world. Obesity rates in the United States have fallen by 2 percent since the drug was introduced, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down.
invisible
The urge to be invisible goes back a long way. Hunters and soldiers have been finding ways to camouflage themselves for centuries, but scientists are inching closer to making things truly invisible. Using new materials and technologies, we can hide ourselves from sensors…and soon we will be able to hide ourselves from human eyes.
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How to make your New Year’s resolutions last:Why so many New Year’s resolutions fail…and how to make positive new habits stick forever.
Best coffee machines for making perfect homemade coffee: Want to take your morning wake-up juice to the next level?Tech expert Alex Hughes puts your taste buds to the test with the cups of five coffee machines.
Q&A:Your questions answered! This month: How can I shake off the January blues? Is the cat liquid? What is Tally Monster? How can I burn more calories while walking? What happens (to my body) when I quit vaping? Why can’t I lose weight when I drink alcohol? How can I see Jupiter?
Have you ever glanced around the dinner table and pondered about your parents’ favorite among your siblings? If you’re the youngest, you might want to look away.
A recent meta-analysis published in the Psychology Bulletin reveals that eldest daughters tend to receive preferential treatment from their parents.
Researchers examined 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and 14 databases, involving 19,469 participants, to explore how birth order, gender, temperament, and personality traits impact parental favoritism. The study showed that both mothers and fathers more often favored their daughters as compared to sons.
In terms of birth order, older siblings tended to receive more autonomy, which was viewed as preferential treatment. This favoritism was also evident in the amount of money spent on children and the level of control exerted by parents.
Children who exhibited responsible and organized traits were also more likely to be favored by their parents, indicating that parents may find them easier to manage and respond positively to.
Both mothers and fathers were more likely to favor their daughters over their sons. – Photo credit: Getty
“Parental differential treatment can have long-lasting effects on children,” stated lead author Dr. Alexander Jensen, an Associate Professor at Brigham Young University, USA.
“This study sheds light on which children are more susceptible to the impacts of favoritism, whether positive or negative.”
Jensen and his team also discovered that siblings receiving less favorable treatment often had poorer mental health and strained family relationships.
“It’s worth noting that this study is correlational and doesn’t explain why parents favor certain children,” Jensen added. “However, it does highlight areas where parents may need to be more mindful of their interactions with their children.”
Australopithecus had a varied but plant-based diet, as indicated by stable isotope data analysis from seven human specimens collected in Sterkfontein, South Africa, 3.5 million years ago.
Lüdecke others. claim that Australopithecus In Sterkfontein, mammalian meat was not regularly consumed. Image credit: Cicero Moraes / CC BY-SA 3.0.
“Tooth enamel is the hardest tissue in the mammalian body and can preserve the isotopic fingerprint of an animal’s diet for millions of years,” says geochemist Dr Tina Lüdecke from the University of the Witwatersrand. said.
“When animals digest food, a biochemical reaction involves light isotopes of nitrogen (14yeah). ”
“Therefore, the breakdown products produced in their bodies include a high proportion of 14N.”
“When these light nitrogen compounds are excreted in urine, feces, or sweat, the proportion of heavy nitrogen increases (15N) It provides the body with this light nitrogen compared to the food it takes in. ”
“This means that herbivores have higher nitrogen isotope ratios than the plants they consume, and carnivores have higher nitrogen isotope ratios than their prey.”
“Therefore, the higher the 15From N 14The higher the N ratio in the tissue sample, the higher the trophic position of the organism in the food web. ”
Nitrogen isotope ratios have long been used to study the diet of hair, nails, bones, and many other organic materials in modern animals and humans.
However, in fossil materials, these measurements have until now been limited to samples only tens of thousands of years old, as the organic material degrades over time.
In the new study, Luedecke and colleagues used a new technique to measure nitrogen isotope ratios in the enamel of fossilized teeth that are millions of years old.
They found that the nitrogen isotope ratio in tooth enamel was Australopithecus Abundances varied but were consistently low, similar to herbivore populations, and much lower than modern carnivore populations.
They conclude that the diets of these hominins, although diverse, consisted largely or exclusively of plant-based foods.
Therefore, Australopithecus did not regularly hunt large mammals, as Neanderthals did millions of years later, for example.
Although researchers cannot completely rule out the possibility that they occasionally consumed animal protein sources such as eggs or termites, there is evidence that their diet was primarily vegetarian.
“Our method opens up exciting possibilities for understanding human evolution and has the potential to answer important questions, such as when did our ancestors start incorporating meat into their diets?” And was the onset of meat eating associated with an increase in brain volume?” said Dr. Alfredo Martínez García, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.
“This study represents a major step in extending our ability to better understand the diets and nutrient levels of all animals to multi-million-year scales.”
“This study provides clear evidence that the diet did not include large amounts of meat.”
“A pioneering application of this new method was pioneered at the Sterkfontein site, which continues to make fundamental contributions to science 89 years after the first hominin fossils were discovered there by Robert Bloom. We are honored to have received this recognition,” said Professor Dominic Stratford, Director of the Center. Research in Sterkfontein Cave.
Tina Ludecke others. 2025. Australopithecus In Sterkfontein, very little mammalian meat was consumed. science 387 (6731): 309-314;doi: 10.1126/science.adq7315
A century ago, American astronomer Edwin Hubble was the first to prove that this so-called “spiral nebula” lies about 2.5 million light-years away from the Milky Way. To date, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has achieved the most comprehensive survey of the Andromeda Galaxy. It took more than 10 years to collect the data. This colorful portrait which captures the glow of 200 million stars and was created from over 600 snapshots.
This is the largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble observations. A panoramic view of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy, 2.5 million light years away. Image credit: NASA/ESA/B. Williams, University of Washington.
The Andromeda Galaxy (Mesier 31) is located 2.5 million light-years away and is the closest large galaxy neighbor to the Milky Way.
Hubble's sharp imaging power can resolve more than 200 million stars in the galaxy and detect only those stars brighter than the Sun. They look like grains of sand on a beach. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Andromeda's total population is estimated to be 1 trillion stars, with many less massive stars falling below Hubble's sensitivity limit.
“Imaging the Andromeda Galaxy was a difficult task because it is a much larger target than the galaxies that Hubble regularly observes, often billions of light years away,” Washington said. said university astronomer Zhuo Chen and colleagues.
“The complete mosaic was performed under two Hubble observing programs. In total, it required more than 1,000 Hubble orbits spanning more than 10 years.”
The Andromeda Galaxy is tilted 77 degrees to Earth's perspective and is seen almost head-on. Areas of interest include (a) a photobombing of bright blue clusters of stars embedded within the galaxy, background galaxies visible in the distance, and some bright foreground stars that are actually within the Milky Way; Masu. (b) NGC 206 is Andromeda's most prominent nebula. (c) A young population of newborn blue stars. (d) Satellite galaxy M32. This could be the remnant nucleus of a galaxy that once collided with Andromeda. (e) A dark dust band across countless stars. Image credit: NASA/ESA/B. Williams, University of Washington.
“This region is structurally unique and more sensitive to the history of galactic mergers than the northern disk mapped by the PHAT survey.”
“The combined program collectively covers Andromeda's entire disc, which is tilted 77 degrees to Earth's field of view and viewed almost head-on.”
“The galaxy is so large that the mosaic is assembled from about 600 separate fields of view.”
of result described in the paper. astrophysical journal.
_____
Zhuo Chen others. 2025. Fast. Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Southern Treasury. I. Ultraviolet and optical photometry of over 90 million stars in M31. APJ 979, 35;doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad7e2b
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