Most animals see the world differently than humans, and now it's a little easier to see through their eyes. Using two cameras and some software, the system can create videos that show people what a scene looks like to different species.
“We went outside to photograph birds in the trees, and only then did the brightness of the ultraviolet-colored sky sink in,” he says. Bella Vasas at Queen Mary University of London. “The color of the sky for most animals is different from the color of the sky for us.”
Vasas and colleagues used two commercial cameras housed in 3D-printed cases to record video in both visible and ultraviolet light. They then ran that footage through the software they developed to estimate the wavelengths of light that a particular animal sees with the naked eye. The program processes video frames to reflect the perspective of a particular animal.
The results include a colorful video showing a bee watching a caterpillar reveal hidden body parts to fight off predators, and a close-up of a jumping spider. The camera system works best within 2 meters (6 feet) of the animal, which is not moving so fast that the camera loses focus. Daniel Hanley Co-authored by researchers at George Mason University in Virginia. He says the method works on many insects, spiders, lizards, turtles, birds and mammals.
The “gold standard” for this type of research, he said, is hyperspectral imaging, a technique that can capture uniform wavelengths of light across the visible and ultraviolet spectrum. Jolyon Troscianko at the University of Exeter, UK. But while such equipment costs him more than $20,000, a new camera system costs only a few thousand dollars. This could allow it to be used more widely for photographing moving, life-like animal exhibits. “Imagine a bird of paradise that shows color instantly,” he says.
Understanding time can be challenging, as Einstein demonstrated time’s relativity and how it can be experienced differently based on an object’s speed. But what about the animals’ experience of time? Many animals around the world have lived incredibly long lives, defying the odds. So, what is the world’s longest-living animal species?
Scientists have been studying the secrets of longevity, and the species on this list may offer hints about living longer and healthier lives in the future. Let’s take a look at some of the world’s longest-living creatures.
Humans are the longest-lived land mammals
A photo of Jeanne Calment in 1995 at the age of 120. Photo courtesy: Pascal Parrot/Sygma/Getty Images
A photo depicts Jeanne Calment, recognized as the world’s oldest person, who lived an astonishing life of 122 years and 164 days. Despite smoking after every meal, she attributed her long life to her lack of stress and her sense of humor. She passed away in 1997 at the age of 117, outliving her only daughter and grandson, who both died much younger.
The longest-lived aquatic creature – glass sponge
Stalked vitreous cavernoma (hexatinerid) of Borosoma photographed at Maruru Seamount.Photo credit: National Marine Sanctuary/Wikipedia
One of the longest-lived creatures on Earth is the vitreous cavernosa, estimated to live up to 15,000 years. Found in all oceans, its unique ability to generate electrical impulses throughout its body sets it apart from other species.
The longest-living bird – Parrot Cookie
Cookie the pink parrot, photographed at Brookfield Zoo, USA, in 2008. Photo: Nimesh Madhavan/Wikipedia
Cookie, a male pink parrot recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, lived to the age of 83. He outlived the next longest-living pink parrot by 52 years.
Longest living rodent – naked mole rat
Close-up of a naked mole rat (Heterocepalus glaber) in its underground burrow.Photo courtesy: Getty Images
Naked mole rats, known for surviving 18 minutes without oxygen and resistance to cancer, are burrowing rodents with long lifespans. One male was reported to have lived 37 years, making it the longest-living rodent on the planet.
The longest-lived invertebrate – ocean quahog
The oldest marine quahog is thought to be over 500 years old and is known as “Min”.Photo courtesy of Bangor University
The ocean quahog’s age is estimated by counting its shell stripes, with one specimen found to be 507 years old. It was named “Ming” after the Ming dynasty that ruled China when it was born.
The longest-lived turtle – Aldabra giant tortoise
Adwaita, a giant Aldabra tortoise, rests in a cage at Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, India, on April 25, 2005. Photo by Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
The Aldabra giant tortoise is the longest-living turtle, with the oldest individual reaching 255 years. It is a species native to the Seychelles’ Aldabra Atoll, known for its large population living in the world’s largest turtle habitat.
Longest living fish – Greenland shark
Greenland shark or Greenland sleeper shark (Somniosus microcepalus) swimming along the St. Lawrence River estuary in Canada.Photo credit: Alamy
The Greenland shark, estimated to live to between 252 and 512 years, is the longest-lived shark species due to its slow metabolism in cold oceans.
The longest-lived dog – Bobbi
A photo taken on February 12, 2023 shows Bobi, the world’s oldest dog according to Guinness World Records, at her home in the village of Conqueiros, near Leiria, Portugal.Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty Images
Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro de Alentejo, lived to the age of 31, surpassing previous records as the oldest dog in history. However, there are claims that this age may be incorrect.
All living things must eat in some way…whatever the shape of their mouth. And there are some truly bizarre mouths in the animal kingdom. Some of the most unusual examples are enough to surprise you.
Unfussy Eater
Striped mackerel
Photo credit: Alex Mustard/naturepl.com
Most animals are relatively picky, preferring only plants or only meat, and tend to rely on one strategy when foraging or hunting.
Mackerel are unusual in that they use two different feeding methods, filter feeding and particulate feeding, and switch between them opportunistically as needed. Particulate feeding involves capturing each prey item individually, like sharks and penguins.
Filter feeding is the way bivalves and baleen whales eat, and requires scraping bits of food out of the water. Mackerel uses the underside of its gills. The gills have overlapping bone hooks called gill akirs. As a makeshift sieve to catch prey suspended in the water.
All fish have gill rakers, and variations in their appearance are sometimes used to identify species. When the prey is small and numerous, such as in a swarm of plankton, filter feeding can yield more food with minimal effort.
For large prey or sparse prey, it is better to feed with particulate bait. Even when surrounded by thousands of other fish in schools, mackerel keep their bellies full by not being too picky about how they eat.
Rapid Inflation
Gulper eel
Photo credit: Norbert Wu / Minden / Naturepl.com
Food is scarce in the deep sea, so the animals living there must cherish every meal. Few animals take this as seriously as the gulper eel. Gulper eels are also known as pelican eels because they share similar characteristics with birds.
Gulper eels have huge, loosely hinged mouths that are about a quarter of their body length. Their mouths are paper-thin, fragile, and unwieldy, so they hide their mouths when not feeding. Gulper eels have long, whip-like tails, but they are not fast enough to chase prey.
Instead, they float and wait, camouflaged in the darkness of the deep ocean. When a school of crustaceans or squid approaches, the eel lunges forward, quickly opening its origami mouth and swallowing large amounts of water.
After the attack, the eel’s mouth becomes fully inflated, making it look silly, like a candy or a balloon. It then slowly pushes excess water out of its gills before swallowing its unlucky prey. We are obsessed with this distinctive feature.
Bottom Feeder
Sea urchin
Photo credit: Sergio Hanquet / Naturepl / Nature in Stock
The mouth of a sea urchin is on the underside, which is probably the least unusual way to eat a sea urchin. The interior of a sea urchin is a complex pyramid-shaped structure made of hard calcareous calcium carbonate. Substances also found in corals.
The pyramid is made up of triangular plates, each with a hook-shaped tooth at the end. Like the crane machines found in old arcades, the pyramid can move up and down and tilt. You can also move each plate to scrape, grab, dig, and even smash rocks.
The individual plates are ground while sliding against each other, so they are ready for cutting at any time. The entire device is precisely controlled by a network of wire-like muscles. With the help of powerful jaws, sea urchins greedily eat food. A single colony of these spiny starfish relatives can destroy an entire kelp forest by chewing through rocks and uprooting seaweed.
The sea urchin’s biological claw machine, properly called Aristotle’s lantern, is so unique that it has inspired engineers to design new machines to scoop up soil samples on Mars.
The Ultimate Underbite
Cookie cutter shark
Photo courtesy of NOAA Image Library
Back in the 1970s, several U.S. Navy submarines returned from missions with damaged sonar equipment. Initial fears about the enemy’s new weapon disappear when the culprit turns out to be a cookie-cutter shark.
Cookie-cutter sharks, as their name suggests, leave perfectly round cuts in large fish and marine mammals (as well as the rubber covers of submarine sonar domes). These parasites make a living by stealth and deception, floating underwater until something big and tasty approaches.
They sneak up on you and hug you with their thick, fleshy sucker lips. The shark locks itself in place. It digs in with its thin upper teeth and cuts through the flesh with the razor-sharp teeth of its lower jaw. Twisting and turning, they move their mandibles back and forth like a bandsaw, cutting out perfectly round discs of flesh before sneaking back into the dark depths of the ocean.
Cookie-cutter sharks are harmless to humans and merely a pest to their larger prey, but they occasionally cause nuisance to marine activities, damaging unprotected equipment and communication cables.
Monster Mouth
Lamprey
Photo credit: Blue Planet Archive
Several Hollywood creatures, including the sandworm Dune, the kraken Pirates of the Caribbean, and from the Sarlacc Return of the Jedi, a stylized version of a lamprey’s mouth. There’s something deeply unsettling about the concentric rings of sharp teeth that reach deep into the black depths of a monster’s throat.
In reality, lampreys are evolutionarily ancient animals that separated from other vertebrates more than 500 million years ago, before jaws and bones evolved. Lampreys can latch on to large fish, whales, and even sharks using a combination of suction and hooks made of keratin (a protein that claws are made of).
Lampreys spend several days using their sharp, piston-like, rough tongues to burrow into the flesh of their prey and suck in its blood and body fluids. Lampreys’ frightening appearance and unpleasant lifestyle have given them a bad reputation.
In fact, lamprey larvae are important members of the ecosystem, filtering river water and sediment like bivalves, and are also an important food source for benthic predators such as sturgeon.
A Large Plate of Food
Humpback whale
Photo credit: John Cornforth
Humpback whales only eat between spring and fall, when they vacation in the Arctic and Antarctic waters where prey is abundant. With stomachs to fill and time limited, they rely on a creative strategy known as “bubble net hunting” to get the job done.
Humpback whales often travel in groups, diving beneath their prey and then slowly rising to the surface in a spiraling motion while blowing bubbles. The bubbles scare and confuse small fish called krill and crustacean prey like shrimp.
With the help of long fins, the whale rotates more and more tightly, concentrating future prey in dense masses near the water surface. Eventually, they take turns lunging forward, opening their mouths and punching through the solidified prey, swallowing tens of thousands of liters in one gulp.
Whales force water through their mouths, filtering it through sieve-like baleen plates on the roof of their mouths. Fish and krill are trapped inside strong, flexible hairs, ready to be swallowed whole by hunters.
Sawtooth Throat
Leatherback turtle
Photo credit: Tui De Roy/naturepl
Leatherback turtles spend most of their lives in the open ocean, tracking prey into deep water during the day and shallow water at night. They are always on the lookout for jellyfish, their favorite food, but will also eat other soft snacks, such as squid and small crustaceans.
Leatherbacks act like natural pest control, controlling jellyfish populations and protecting juvenile fish and beaches from nuisance swarms, as each leatherback turtle eats hundreds of kilograms of jellyfish per day.
Jellyfish are squishy, so they can be difficult to track down, especially if they don’t have teeth or claws. Leatherback turtles use their delicate, scissor-like jaws to cut jellyfish into easily digestible pieces. Additionally, the leatherback’s throat is lined with backward-pointing spines that prevent slippery prey from escaping once captured (jellyfish can survive being cut in half, after all).
Leatherbacks can also eat poisonous organisms such as jellyfish, so the spines likely provide some protection from the stinging cells of their prey.
Nutcracker
Paku fish
Photo credit: Jean-claude Soboul/Nature.pl
Yes, cheese! The pakuu fish has many flat, square teeth in its mouth, giving it a human-like smile. Pakuu fish, also known as “vegetarian piranhas” because of their body shape and color, prefer freshwater “trail mix” rather than raw meat.
Their molar-shaped teeth do an excellent job of crushing the hard shells of nuts and seeds that irritate other animals, and provide a reliable source of fat and protein despite their plant-based diet. To do. Paku fish are the gardeners of the Amazon, playing an important ecological role in dispersing seeds across river tributaries and floodplains.
The most famous of Pacu’s fish, the tambaqui, can grow to the size of a golden retriever. At 1 meter (3 ft) long and 30 kg (66 lb), it is the second largest fish in the Amazon after the arapaima.
Tambaqui is a popular food in South America and is often sold in bone-in cuts like pork ribs. They also appear on the exotic pet market, but they require experienced keepers and really huge aquariums to thrive.
Cat Got Your Tongue?
Penguin
Photo courtesy of Alamy
Penguins are agile underwater predators, flying around like torpedoes while chasing fish. And squid. But how do they keep their prey from squirming and escaping their grasp?what is the answer The birds are already in the mouth.
A penguin’s mouth and tongue are covered with hard, backward-facing spines called papillae. This is the same function that makes a cat’s tongue feel like sandpaper. However, you don’t want to be licked by a penguin. Not only are the spines large, but they are also sharp (they bleed easily if you lick them).
The spines help bite into slippery prey and transport it to the bird’s throat. A penguin’s tongue is also very muscular, so it’s probably used to push and manipulate food into its mouth, just like in humans. However, unlike us, penguins do not have the genes to detect sweet, bitter, and umami (umami) tastes, so they cannot taste the fish they eat.
Scientists think penguins lost their sense of taste because they didn’t use their senses. Not only do penguins swallow their food whole, but the proteins needed to send taste signals to their brains malfunction in cold temperatures.
A strange phenomenon called visual masking can reveal the time scale of perception, but its underlying mechanisms are not well understood.
Colored plots show neural activity recorded in mouse visual cortex (V1). Each row of tick marks represents the spikes of a different neuron. Although researchers can predict the target side from neural activity with near-perfect accuracy, animal subjects often get incorrect masked trials due to how brain regions downstream of V1 process this information. I am.Image credit: Gail other.
Have you ever wanted to make something invisible? It turns out your brain can do it.
Unfortunately, this is a limited superpower. In visual masking, we do not consciously recognize another image when it appears in rapid succession.
But the timing of those images is important. For masking to work, the first image must flash very quickly, and the second image must follow rapidly (on the order of 50 milliseconds).
Don't get me wrong, the first image doesn't stay in view very long, but it's definitely long enough to be recognizable without the second image or mask.
Scientists discovered this phenomenon in the 19th century, but why and how the human brain does this remains a mystery.
“This is an interesting observation, that your perception doesn't accurately reflect what exists in the world,” said Dr. Sean Olsen, a researcher at the Allen Institute.
“Like other optical illusions, we think this tells us something about how the visual system works and, ultimately, the neural circuits underlying visual perception.”
In a new study, Dr. Olsen and colleagues take a closer look at the science behind this bizarre illusion and show for the first time that it also occurs in mice.
When the mice were trained to report what they saw, they were also able to pinpoint the specific areas of the brain needed for the visual masking illusion to work.
Dr. Christoph Koch, also from the Allen Institute, said, “Our research has narrowed down the region of the brain responsible for perceiving the world around us.''
“What are the steps from the time the photons rain down on your retina to when you actually become consciously aware of what you’re seeing?”
When a rain of photons hits our retina, the information follows a predetermined path from the eyeball through several different areas of the brain and into the highly-processed areas of the cortex, the wrinkled outermost shell of the brain. It ends with
Previous research on visual masking has led scientists to believe that neurons in the early part of the brain in the retina and its pathways are activated even when a person is unaware that they are looking at an image. I know. In other words, your brain sees things without your knowledge.
To explore where unconscious sensations turn into conscious perceptions and actions, scientists first asked 16 mice to move a small mouse in the direction of rapidly flashing images in exchange for a reward if they chose the correct direction. I trained him to spin a Lego wheel.
I then added different masking images on either side of the screen, immediately after the target image.
Adding a mask prevented the animal from performing the task correctly. This means that the animal can no longer recognize the original target image.
Because visual masking had never been tested in mice before, the authors had to create a task for mice, in which the images and the way they were presented were different from those used in previous human studies. I meant that.
To confirm that the optical illusion they showed to rodents was also relevant to us, they tested it on 16 people.
It turns out that human perception (or lack thereof) and mouse perception of this particular visual masking illusion are very similar.
The researchers then used a special technique known as optogenetics, which allowed them to quickly suppress activity in cells or areas throughout the brain with flashes of light.
They targeted this inhibition to the mouse's primary visual cortex, known as the first part of the cortex where visual information from the eyes enters higher cortical areas of the brain.
By turning off the primary visual cortex the moment the masking image appeared, they were able to completely block visual masking after the target image. Even though the masking image was visible, the mouse reverted to accurately locating the first image. the current.
This result implies that conscious perception is occurring in the visual cortex or in higher regions of the cortex downstream.
“This is consistent with the general idea in the field that the cortex is the seat of conscious cognition in mammals, including ourselves,” Dr. Koch said.
Although this study narrowed down the region responsible for conscious perception to the cortex, there are still many regions of the cortex that may be involved.
Further studies will need to silence these other areas to test their effects on visual masking tasks.
“We're starting to put some limits on where masking is occurring,” Dr. Olsen said.
“We think this is a good paradigm to track to track other areas that are listening to the primary visual cortex and essentially fusing the flow of target and mask information in the brain. Masu.”
of findings It was published in the magazine natural neuroscience.
_____
SD Gale other. Visual cortex is required for posterior masking in mice. nut neurosi, published online on November 13, 2023. doi: 10.1038/s41593-023-01488-0
This spotted hyena (Crokuta Crokuta) is a natural in front of the camera, while its mother and siblings watch closely in the background. This playful shot was taken by Wim van den Heever in Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya.
Southern Stingray
As the sun rises over the coast of the Cayman Islands, southern rays (Dashatis Americana) are captured in this striking split-level snap by the photographer, Alex Mustard, as they wander on a sandy beach.
Slug Sucking Sap
A brightly fluorescent animal known as the sap-sucking slug (Costasiella crocimae) is captured by Mustard, crawling on green algae just off the coast of northern Indonesia. This sea slug has a special ability to preserve the chloroplasts of the algae they feed on, allowing them to photosynthesize.
Eurasian Brown Bear
Deep in the forests of Finland, Andy Rouse took an action shot of a Eurasian brown bear (Ursus Arctos Arctos) after a short soak in the pond, the body trembles dry. These mammals can weigh up to 480 kilograms and are common in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Spotted Fritillary Larva
In the grasslands of the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria, Guy Edwards took a colorful photo of a spotted fritillary (Melitaea Didyma) larvae. It eventually transforms into a butterfly, its wings becoming bright orange with brown spots.
White Winged Snowfinch
The majestic white-winged snowfinch (Montifringilla Nivalis) is captured braving a snowstorm in the Swiss Alps by Mateusz Piesiak. It is a relatively large and sturdy bird, reaching up to 19 centimeters in height.
Fruit Bat
This bewildered fruit bat has its nose and throat swabbed as part of an effort in the Republic of Congo to better understand how zoonotic diseases such as Ebola are transmitted to people. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Congo Medical Research Foundation collected blood and saliva samples from about 100 fruit bats.
Grimes is getting into the toy business with “Glock,” the character she voices for Curio’s new line of screenless AI plush toys.
The toy is not affiliated with Grok, an AI chatbot backed by Grimes’ ex-Elon Musk. Musk described xAI’s Grok as having a “rebellious personality” and a willingness to answer “tough questions that most other AI systems would refuse.” That sounds vulgar if you ask me.
Grok, Gabbo, and Grem, on the other hand, are designed to encourage play. In a conversation with Misha Sallee and his partner Sam Eaton, the Curio founder said: Published on Curio’s blogGrimes said she encourages children’s creativity early on through dynamic conversations rather than a static list of prompts.
“The idea of bringing more imagination or making it easier to access imagination within one’s current existence, rather than just observing it within other beings such as screens, movies, and books. I like it,” she said.
in Curio announcement videoGrimes said she doesn’t want her kids to be “in front of a screen” but is “really busy.”
Image credits: antique
Curio says the toys can have full conversations, allowing children (or adults) to practice their communication skills. Glock is an anthropomorphic rocket ship, voiced by Grimes. There’s Gabo, who looks like a Game Boy stuffed animal with arms and legs. And then there’s Grem, a cyan rabbit with hearts on his cheeks. The beta version of the toy is Pre-order possible Through Sunday, the price is $99 each. Recommended for children from 3 years old to her 7 years old. Grimes and Musk’s oldest child is named XÆA-Xii and she is 3 years old.
The stuffed animals answer questions about how rocket ships are made and play games with the user, encouraging the development of children’s listening and conversation skills. Inside the stuffed animal is a rechargeable, Wi-Fi-connected speaker and microphone, connected to an app that parents can set up and monitor interactions with their children.
“When I think about kids, my goal is to keep as many hearts out of this as possible. Basically, how many iPads can we replace?” Grimes said with Eaton and Sally. He said this in a conversation.
She later added: “I think the more we verbalize things, the more we’re forcing people to use their working memory. You know, there are little things here and there that make our brains just a little bit better. ”
Grimes became involved with Curio after answering a question. post “Children’s teddy bears talk to children and give them peace of mind at night.” About the future of AI-integrated toys.grimes answered “It would be great if it was safe,” she said, and she would be happy if children could have “a culture ship in a teddy bear at heart.”
The line launches about a week after a competitor to Musk’s ChatGPT (named Grok) began rolling out to X Premium Plus subscribers.
“Grimes is the voice of the toy, and this rocket just so happens to be named Grok and was made before the announcement of the Grok AI, so there’s some interesting overlap between him and Grimes,” Sally said. said in a conversation.
Curio has filed a trademark for Grok on September 12 this year. xAI files trademark for Grok on October 23rd. Curio’s Grok stands for Grocket, as the Grimes children spend a lot of time around rockets since their father is the owner of SpaceX. The Washington Post reported.
grimes and musk Currently in custody battle The couple has filed child custody lawsuits in California and Texas over their three children.
(Absurdly, by the time we realized that the Grok team was also using this name, it was too late to rename both AIs, so now the AI named Grok is There are two of them. I can’t wait for them to become friends. I can’t believe it. Even the AI can’t avoid showing up to school and meeting other kids…
in post Regarding the name, Grimes said that by the time Curio realized that xAI’s Grok team was also using that name, “it was too late for either AI to change its name.”
“I currently have two AIs named Grok, and I can’t wait for them to be friends,” she said. “I can’t believe that even an AI can’t avoid showing up at school and meeting other kids with the same name lol.”
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