How Wild Blueberries Can Help Combat Heart Disease and Diabetes

Posted on January 28, 2026 by Igor Mitreski

Wild blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium) is a perennial plant native to North America. This berry is rich in polyphenols, particularly flavonoids, which offer significant health benefits. A recent study published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition provides a comprehensive review of the evidence and insights shared at an expert symposium regarding wild blueberries and their link to cardiometabolic health.

Vaccinium angustifolium. Image credit: Σ64 / CC BY 3.0.

Known for their high nutrient content, wild blueberries, or lowbush blueberries, are celebrated for their abundance of anthocyanins and other beneficial compounds.

These polyphenols, contributing to the berries’ vibrant blue hue, have been thoroughly researched for their powerful antioxidant properties.

“Wild blueberries have been valued for centuries,” noted University of Maine professor Dorothy Krimis Zakas, co-lead author of the recent review.

“Traditional wisdom recognizes their significance, and modern research continues to investigate how the unique constituents of wild blueberries contribute to health when part of a balanced diet.”

This review analyzed 12 human clinical trials conducted across four countries and numerous additional studies on the health effects of compounds found in wild blueberries.

The most consistent result from these studies was an improvement in vascular function, indicating better blood vessel responsiveness.

Some trials noted enhanced endothelial function just hours after consuming wild blueberries, while others observed benefits from regular intake over longer periods.

Recent studies have also highlighted the impact of wild blueberries on the gut microbiome.

Thanks to their high fiber and polyphenol content, these berries resist early digestion and are processed by gut bacteria into metabolites that enter the bloodstream.

These metabolites can constitute a significant proportion of bioactive compounds in circulation post-consumption; one study demonstrated that daily intake of freeze-dried wild blueberry powder boosted levels of beneficial bioactive compounds such as Bifidobacterium.

Emerging evidence suggests that consistent blueberry consumption may enhance cognitive abilities, especially thinking speed and memory in older adults, possibly linked to improved circulation and other systemic effects.

For adults at higher cardiometabolic risk, several studies referenced in the review identified meaningful improvements in blood pressure, glycemic control, and lipid profiles, including reductions in total cholesterol, LDL (bad) cholesterol, and triglycerides, following weeks of regular blueberry intake.

“What’s remarkable about wild blueberries is their wealth of polyphenols and nutrients. Their health benefits appear to stem from multiple mechanisms,” explained Sarah A. Johnson, Ph.D., from Florida State University, co-lead author of the review.

“Evidence indicates that these berries may influence various biological pathways related to cardiometabolic health, including vascular function and inflammation, but individual responses may vary.”

“The recent focus on the gut microbiome’s role in health benefits is intriguing and might help researchers understand how to optimize gut health for enhanced wellness.”

_____

Sarah A. Johnson et al. Wild blueberries and cardiometabolic health: A current review of the evidence. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, published online January 24, 2026. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2025.2610406

Source: www.sci.news

UNESCO Establishes Global Standards for Neurotechnology in the ‘Wild West’ Arena

Posted on November 6, 2025 by

This recent initiative is part of a growing global campaign to establish boundaries in a rapidly evolving sector: technology that utilizes data from the brain and nervous system.

UNESCO has developed a set of international standards aimed at the ethical use of neurotechnology, a discipline often likened to “a bit of the Wild West.”

“We cannot control it,” stated Daphna Feinholz, UNESCO’s chief bioethics officer. “It is essential to educate people about the risks, potential advantages, and available alternatives so they can choose whether to proceed or not.”

Feinholz noted that the new guidelines were prompted by two significant trends in neurotechnology. One is artificial intelligence (AI), which presents immense potential for interpreting brain data, and the other is the rise in consumer neurotechnology products, like earphones and glasses that claim to monitor brain activity and track eye movements.

The standards introduce a new data category termed “neural data,” proposing guidelines for its safeguarding. A comprehensive list of over 100 recommendations addresses rights-based issues and even scenarios that currently seem to belong to the realm of science fiction, such as companies potentially using neurotechnology to target subconscious marketing in dreams.

“While neurotechnology could herald a new era of human advancement, it carries inherent risks,” remarked UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. She emphasized that the new standards will “entrench the inviolability of the human heart.”

Billions of dollars have been invested in neurotechnology ventures, from Sam Altman’s investment in August Labs to Merge Labs, a rival of Elon Musk’s Neuralink, and Meta’s recent foray into this field. There is also a wristband that enables users to operate their smartphones and AI Ray-Bans by interpreting wrist muscle movements.

Such investments have led to an increasing demand for regulatory measures. A report released by the World Economic Forum last month called for a privacy-centered framework. Following this, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer introduced the MIND Act in September, inspired by similar legislation from four states aimed at protecting “neural data” starting in 2024.

Advocates for neurotechnology regulation stress the critical importance of safeguarding personal information. UNESCO’s standards highlight the necessity of “mental privacy” and “freedom of thought.”

Nonetheless, some critics argue that legislative measures often stem from dystopian anxieties, potentially hindering meaningful medical progress.

“This bill is fueled by fear. People are concerned about the possibilities this technology brings. The notion of using neurotechnology to read minds is alarming,” commented Kristen Matthews, a mental privacy attorney at Cooley in the U.S.

Technologically speaking, neurotechnology has existed for over a century. For instance, brain waves (EEG) were first documented in 1924, and brain-computer interfaces emerged in the 1970s. Yet the latest surge in investment is likely propelled by advancements in AI that enable the interpretation of extensive data, including brain waves.

“The integration of AI is what has sparked privacy concerns surrounding this technology,” Matthews explained.

Certain AI-driven neurotechnology innovations could significantly transform medicine, aiding in the treatment of conditions from Parkinson’s disease to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

A study published this summer in *Nature* discusses an AI-enabled brain-computer interface capable of decoding sounds from paralyzed patients. Additional research suggests that it might one day be able to “read” your thoughts or at least reconstruct your images based on your focus.

The excitement surrounding some of these developments often generates fear that may not align with the actual risks involved, Matthews argued. For example, the MIND Act claims that “corporate vertical integration” of AI and neurotechnology could foster “cognitive manipulation” and undermine “individual autonomy.”

“I’m not aware of any companies engaging in such actions. It’s unlikely to happen, certainly not within the next 20 years,” she stated.

The current forefront of neurotechnology is enhancing brain-computer interfaces. With the advent of consumer devices, Matthews noted that they could provoke privacy issues that are central to UNESCO’s standards. However, she contends that the concept of “neural data” is too broad a strategy for addressing these concerns.

“This is the type of issue we wish to tackle: monetization, behavioral advertising, and the application of neural data. Yet the existing laws fail to grasp what we’re truly worried about. They’re too vague.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Wild Chimpanzees May Get Tipsy from Fermented Fruit

Posted on September 17, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Two male chimpanzees consuming fruit resembling evergreen plums from *Parinar excelsa* trees in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast.

Aleksey Maro/UC Berkeley

SEI 266487197 — Two male chimpanzees consuming fruit resembling evergreen plums from *Parinar excelsa* trees in Taï National Park, Ivory Coast.

Aleksey Maro/UC Berkeley

Wild chimpanzees forage for fermented fruits, consuming the equivalent of two glasses of wine daily, adjusted for their body size relative to humans.

It has long been recognized that many primates, including chimpanzees, consume substantial alcohol from diets rich in ripe fruits and other vegetation. Some suggest this could explain the human affinity for alcoholic drinks.

Alec Malo at the University of California, Berkeley, and his team sought to quantify the ethanol intake of chimpanzees by collecting fruits from two locations frequented by wild populations and measuring their alcohol content.

The research focused on two habitual populations: Eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthi) in Ngogo, Uganda, and Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Tai Chimpanzee Project, Ivory Coast.

The researchers first observed the fruits being consumed by the chimps via camera traps and only collected those they confirmed were targeted. For fruits in the canopy, they gathered only samples that had recently fallen or were seen in the fall.

Eastern chimpanzees preferred ripe fruits from fig trees (Ficus mukuso), while Western chimpanzees often favored Guinea plums (Parinari excelsa) and fruits from the bitterburk tree (Sacoglottis gabonensis).

The study determined an overall alcohol concentration of roughly 0.3-0.4% in the fruit. Wild chimpanzees consume about 10% of their body weight in fruit pulp daily, Malo explains. They calculated that the chimpanzees ingest around 14 grams of pure ethanol per day at both sites.

A 125 ml glass of wine at 12.5% contains about 12 grams of ethanol. “This also accounts for the fact that chimpanzees average 40 kilograms versus 70 kg for humans,” says Malo. “Thus, we can assert that chimpanzees consume the equivalent of two glasses of wine each day.”

While chimpanzees and humans diverged millions of years ago, both likely encountered fermented fruits similarly, Malo notes.

“These findings indicate that our ancestors were similarly exposed to dietary alcohol,” he states. “The drunken monkey hypothesis suggests this exposure may have evolved an association between alcohol consumption and the rewards from fruit sugars, explaining humanity’s attraction to alcohol today.”

To gauge how much alcohol chimpanzees have in their systems, Malo collected urine samples beneath them, using an umbrella for protection. He’s currently analyzing this data.

Miguel Rulente, from the University of Girona in Spain and not part of the study, states that this research offers the first quantitative estimate of daily ethanol consumption in wild chimpanzees. “It supports the notion that alcohol exposure has deep evolutionary roots within primate diets and possibly influenced human evolution,” he asserts.

However, he cautions that this study has limitations in its implications for humans. “Unlike humans, ethanol consumption in apes is incidental and not intentional, making the leap from natural exposure to our species’ addiction challenging,” he adds.

Neanderthals, Ancient Humans, Cave Art: France

Join new scientist Kate Douglas on a captivating exploration of key Neanderthal and Upper Paleolithic sites across southern France, spanning from Bordeaux to Montpellier.

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Borderlands 4 Review: The Wild, Vibrant Shooter Matures Slightly | Games

Posted on September 17, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

On its fourth installment, the NCE gaming franchise certainly matures, though maturity isn’t typically a term tied to Borderlands, a vibrant, performance-driven shooter from Texas. Known for its blend of adolescent humor, the series takes a turn in Borderlands 4 as developer Gearbox addresses longstanding issues. Featuring a cast of returning characters, the storyline is more globally engaging and less manic than previous entries. Borderlands has reached a new level of maturity, which is long overdue.

Borderlands 4 maintains its signature thick layer of humor, although the jokes can be hit or miss. Nonetheless, the humor is now a bit more polished. It continues to showcase the beloved cel-shaded graphics and intense gameplay involving an arsenal of weapons. The game introduces an even greater variety of guns than its predecessor, allowing players to sift through many options to find the truly exceptional ones suitable for both easier enemies and more intriguing bosses. A solid storyline emerges after the initial hours, leading players down unexpected, entertaining, and sometimes surreal paths.

Set on the planet Kairos, familiar to the series, this setting feels more cohesive than previous ones. The residents of Kairos are under the oppressive rule of a tyrannical timekeeper and must rally the oppressed indigenous populace for a resistance movement. Players will work to eliminate the timekeeper and liberate tribes from surveillance implants. As the story unfolds, numerous side quests and insights reveal themselves, from dungeon-like vaults to loot and environmental puzzles.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/z4qeqPZJTaE?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed" title="Borderlands 4 – Official Gameplay Trailer" height="480" width="854" allowfullscreen="

Players can choose from one of four vault hunters: a siren with summoning abilities, an Exo Soldier known as Super Soldier, a tank armed with a hammer called Forgenight, and a high-tech graviter. Each character brings essential battlefield skills, allowing for various offensive and defensive strategies. With significantly improved movement capabilities, players can utilize grapples, hover bikes, massive jumps, and glides while exploring. This installment also embraces the series’ renowned cooperative gameplay, featuring support for up to four players.

Borderlands 4 is extensive, with the main storyline spanning 20-30 hours, plus plenty of post-story content. However, it isn’t entirely seamless; at times, traversing large distances during missions can be frustrating, and navigation indicators can be inconsistent. Some technical issues were present at launch, especially on PC, leading to crashes despite significant patches. Players have also reported various performance problems here. Nevertheless, Borderlands has come a long way in its evolution, maintaining its core charm while reducing the annoyance factor evident in earlier titles.

Source: www.theguardian.com

“Major Migration” Necessitates Far Fewer Wild Taxes Than Expected.

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Serengeti wildebeest migrations may involve fewer animals than previously believed

Nicholas Tinnelli / Aramie

The “great migration” in East Africa is often estimated to consist of around 1.3 million wildebeest. However, a recent AI analysis of satellite images reveals that fewer than 600,000 animals make this yearly journey across the Serengeti Mara landscape.

This significant migration includes wild zebras and antelopes, as they traverse between feeding and breeding areas in both Kenya and Tanzania, while also evading predators such as lions, crocodiles, and hyenas.

Determining the number of migrating animals is a challenging process, traditionally accomplished through aerial surveys with crew members. These surveys typically cover limited areas, necessitating the use of statistical models to estimate animal density across larger regions.

In contrast, satellite surveys offer a solution to these challenges since a single image can encompass extensive areas, minimizing the chances of double-counting and eliminating the need for metabolic calculations. While manually counting wildebeests over such vast expanses is impractical, AI can aggregate the data effectively. “AI automation enhances count consistency and accuracy,” says Isla Duporge from Oxford University.

In a new study, Duporge and her team developed two deep learning models (U-Net and Yolov8) to identify wildebeest using a dataset of 70,417 manually labeled images. These models were then applied to high-resolution satellite images spanning over 4000 square kilometers, with capture dates of August 6, 2022, and August 28, 2023.

The two AI models returned comparable results: counting 324,202 and 337,926 wildebeests in 2022, and 502,917 and 533,137 in 2023. The apparent disparity between the counts from 2022 and 2023 highlights that the surveys were conducted at different times in August. “[What’s encouraging is that deep learning models with differing methodologies have produced consistent findings,” notes Duporge.

Since the 1970s, earlier estimates of 1.3 million were derived from aerial surveys and have remained largely unchanged. “If we can accurately count all individuals with zero errors based on our results, we estimate the true population size to be around 800,000,” Duporge remarked. “We believe the aerial estimates are inflated, and our count likely reflects a slight underestimation. Some animals may be hidden under trees or outside the survey area, but it’s quite surprising that the count doesn’t exceed 533,137.”

A lower count doesn’t necessarily indicate that the wild population is declining; they may have adjusted their migratory routes. Nevertheless, wildebeests face serious threats, such as habitat loss and fragmentation due to agricultural expansion. Accurately estimating their populations is crucial for implementing effective conservation strategies.

The researchers had previously trained AI models to identify elephants using satellite data, marking the first instance of such a method for conducting individual mammal censuses across large, dispersed populations. The team is now working on a similar approach for detecting and counting African rhinoceroses.

“We should shift towards satellite and AI methods for assessing wildlife populations, particularly for species that inhabit large and diverse landscapes,” suggests Duporge.

The researcher’s model code is now accessible at https://github.com/sat-wildlife/wildebeest

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Wild Ones Review: New Nature Documentary Urges Action to Protect Six Endangered Species

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Panthera Pardus Taliana, a white leopard found in Armenia

Apple TV+

Wild Ones
Apple TV+

The latest nature documentary from Apple TV+, Wild Ones, offers an insider’s perspective, showcasing three expert efforts in a series that truly deserves attention.

The opening narration reminds us that nature faces dire threats, with around 150 species disappearing daily. The mission of the film is to “find, document, and protect” six of the most endangered species, aiming not only to raise awareness but also to prompt action from local officials to prevent extinction.

Camera Trap Specialists Declan Burley, Wildlife Cameraman Vianet Djenguet, and Expedition Leader Aldo Kane embark on a global journey to capture footage of the world’s rarest wildlife.

The first episode leads them into the Malaysian jungle, searching for a rare tiger. Subsequent episodes will take viewers to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to find Gobi Bears, and onto tracking the Javan rhinos, the Gabon gorilla, and Caucasian leopards, in addition to marine life such as the North Atlantic right whale Eubalaena glacialis.

This series employs advanced technology like drones and thermal imaging to produce breathtaking visuals of the animals and their environments. The untouched rainforests of Malaysia—often further from human contact than places visited by astronauts—are just part of the previously unseen natural world that Wild Ones uncovers.

However, the success of the documentary hinges on Burley, Djenguet, and Kane’s emotional engagement, which keeps viewers invested in the animals’ fates. Their reactions, whether witnessing an elusive leopard or the plight of whales caught in nets, leave an indelible mark on the audience.

Seeing three on-screen experts doing their job will hook stubborn fans of the genre

In a poignant moment deep within Taman Negara National Park, Burley reviews footage from a hidden camera, initially excited about capturing a rare Malayan tiger, only to discover that the creature has been maimed by a poacher’s trap.

Burley shares the footage with Djenguet and Kane, his connection to the animals rendering him visibly emotional. Local experts point out that such striking images are vital, sparking action from viewers worldwide. The trio understands their role, but the distress it causes them is undeniable.

While the emotional weight is palpable, the episodes’ lengths and scripted interactions sometimes disrupt the flow. Occasional forced humor and dramatic elements can dilute the impact, making the experience feel less authentic.

Nonetheless, as the series progresses, Burley, Djenguet, and Kane become more at ease on camera, captivating dedicated fans with their expertise and drawing in audiences eager for authenticity.

This series stands out in the realm of nature documentaries, providing an intimate look at the emotional turmoil, physical challenges, and the enduring patience required to produce such content. With dozens of cameras stationed in perilous locations, team members must meticulously return for footage, sometimes after months.

Ultimately, capturing footage of these endangered animals in Wild Ones is not just a visual feast; it’s a compelling call to action aimed at preserving these species for future generations.

Gregory Wakeman is a Los Angeles-based author.

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Scientists Discover That Wild Killer Whales Occasionally Share Food with Humans

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

In the paper published online in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, marine biologists detail 34 interactions where killer whales (Orcinus orca) offered food to humans over the last 20 years. These incidents were reported in oceans worldwide, including locations from California to New Zealand, Norway, and Patagonia. The killer whales provided a diverse array of 18 species: six fish, five mammals, three invertebrates, two birds, one reptile, and one type of seaweed. The authors propose that these occurrences may illustrate a form of general altruism.

Case presented by Towers et al. Wild killer whale (Orcinus orca) utilized prey and other items to incite interactions with humans. Image credits: Towers et al., doi: 10.1037/com0000422.

Altruistic behaviors, such as sharing prey, are prosocial acts that can foster various forms of reciprocity.

Such relationship dynamics lay the groundwork for cerebral development related to the evolution of social norms in species like primates and dolphins.

Despite some cultures among these species benefiting from interactions with other mammals, documented cases of wild animals actively providing for humans are exceedingly rare.

“Orcas frequently share food with one another. It’s a prosocial behavior that helps them build relationships,” remarked Dr. Jared Towers, a researcher at Bay Setrogy.

“We are also intrigued by what they choose to share with people and how that relates to us.”

Dr. Towers and his collaborators, Dr. Ingrid Visser from the Orca Research Trust and Dr. Vanessa Prigollini from the Marine Education Association, collected and analyzed data on the 34 food distribution events they and others encountered.

In 11 cases, people were in the water when killer whales approached them. In 21 instances, they were on boats, and in two cases, they were on the shore.

Some instances were recorded through videos and photos, while others were documented via interviews with researchers.

All incidents had to meet strict criteria for inclusion in the analysis; each case required the whale to approach humans and present items voluntarily.

In every instance except one, killer whales observed the reactions after they offered food, and in seven instances, they initially refused to present it before trying multiple times.

“While domesticated animals like dogs and cats occasionally share food with humans, our study provides one of the first comprehensive accounts of such behaviors in non-domesticated species,” the scientists stated.

“This behavior makes sense, as killer whales are intelligent, social creatures that use food sharing to form relationships with both kin and non-kin.”

“They often hunt prey much larger than themselves.”

“By offering items to humans, they are presented with chances to practice, explore, and engage with the cultural behaviors typical of killer whales, while also learning to manipulate and enhance their interactions with us.”

“We believe that the cognitive abilities and social nature of these animals can help explain these behaviors.”

____

JR Towers et al. 2025. Water Test: An Attempt by a Wild Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) to Provide for People (Homo sapiens). Journal of Comparative Psychology in press; doi: 10.1037/com0000422

Source: www.sci.news

Orca Captured Engaging in a “Tongue Kiss” in the Wild for the First Time

Posted on July 5, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

In a remarkable encounter with citizen scientists off the coast of Norway, a duo of orcas was seen engaging in “kissing” behavior in the wild for the very first time.

The footage captured by the group displays the pair gently nodding at each other, accompanied by “tongue nibbling.”

While similar behaviors have been documented before, this marks the first instance of such interactions being observed in a natural habitat.

During the video, the orcas came within 10-15 meters (30-50 feet) of each other, sharing three brief moments of affection above the water’s surface for a duration of two minutes.

https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2025/07/Orca-kissing-video.mp4

The footage captures a serene moment of connection between the two whales.

“This behavior has only been documented in orcas under human supervision,” said Dr. Javier Almunia from Loro Parque in Spain, as reported by BBC Science Focus. He was part of a recently published study utilizing observation videos from marine environments.

“Witnessing it in the wild indicates that such intricate social behaviors extend beyond captivity and are likely integral to the species’ natural social behavior.”

Orcas are known for their strong social structures, employing intricate behavioral systems to form and maintain social relationships.

For marine biologists, these observations are crucial for understanding orca interactions.

“Gaining insight into the social behavior of wildlife is essential for understanding their communication, bonding, and cooperation—key elements for their survival and well-being,” noted Almunia.

Unfortunately, these wild behaviors are rarely seen and require a fair amount of luck to witness at the right moment.

While studying animals in captivity is safer and more accessible, their behaviors often differ significantly from those observed in the wild.

https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2025/07/Nibbling-at-Loro-Parque.mov

Orcas in captivity have previously been observed “nibbling” their tongues at each other.

A Remarkable Encounter

The video was filmed on January 11, 2024, when two whales were observed by a fortunate group of snorkelers diving in Kavanangenfjord, northern Norway.

This area is known as a gathering spot for marine mammals, making it an ideal location for observing orcas due to its clear waters.

The group had the opportunity to watch the orcas under the guidance of experienced expedition leaders.

However, the study emphasized that while tourist excursions can lead to valuable scientific observations, “it is widely recognized that activities like whale watching and swimming can pose significant risks to wild populations.”

Orcas, often referred to by the misleading nickname “Killer Whale,” actually belong to the dolphin family. The latter portion of this nickname is accurate, as all dolphins are categorized as “toothed whales.”

Nevertheless, the term “killer” is misleading, as there are no documented cases of wild orcas intentionally harming humans.

The name stems from an ancient mariner who observed orcas hunting other large whales.

“They were originally called ‘whale killers,’ a term that evolved into ‘killer whale’,” explained Almunia.

“While orcas are indeed apex predators, they are also incredibly intelligent and social animals with complex cultures and strong familial bonds. They play a critical role as top predators within marine ecosystems.”

About Our Experts

Dr. Javier Almunia serves as the director of Loro Parque Fanfacion, a Spanish organization dedicated to the conservation of endangered parrot and marine species. He specializes in cetacean biology and has participated in numerous initiatives aimed at preserving biodiversity and protecting endangered species.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

From Chimpanzee Banananini to Ballerina Cappuccina: How Gen Alpha Went Wild for Italian Brainwashed Animals

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

WOne of Tim’s eighth graders inquired about his “favorite Italian brain rot animal,” leading to some confusion. “My hearing isn’t the best, so I probably had to ask her to repeat it four or five times,” he reflects.

Tim (not his actual name) was aware of the phrase “brain corruption.” According to Oxford University Press’s Words of the Year for 2024, but he was puzzled by the Italian reference.

After instructing the students to continue their work, he opened his laptop and turned to Google.

He learned that “Italian Brain Corruption” involves a series of absurd, AI-generated animal characters with ridiculous Italian names (like Bombomini Gusini and Trippi Troppi), often showcased in TikTok videos with rapid, nonsensical Italian narration.

Essentially, it’s a meme popular among the emerging Generation Alpha (born 2010-2025) and the younger Gen Z (mostly born 1997-2012). For older individuals—whether they are heavily engaged online or consider themselves meme enthusiasts—it might seem perplexing, as Tim discovered while browsing.

As he shared his findings, he appeared horrified. “This one is Chimpanzee Banana: it’s a hybrid of a chimpanzee and a banana. Bombardiro Crocodilo is a crocodile that resembles a bomber plane. There are also characters that are just cappuccinos with legs…”

Ballerina Cappuccina. Photo: tiktok/@aironic.fun

That’s right, Ballerina Cappuccina: female ballet dancers are fused with coffee cups and often depicted in a relationship with Cappuccino Assassin (you can understand that).

“There’s a backstory to all these characters—lore,” Tim adds, pondering. “Some are even at war with each other, and there are songs about them.”

The kids in his class are intensely fascinated by it, unlike any trend Tim has seen before. “Once one person mentions it, the whole class starts buzzing. They’re obsessed with this Italian brain corruption.”

If you’re reading this and finding your own mind bewildered, it’s understandable. If you were born in a year that starts with a “1,” “Italian brain corruption” might not resonate with you.

However, its widespread popularity among the younger crowd is worth trying to understand, at least as a reflection of the evolution of online culture.

Tralala Rotralala. Photo: Tiktok

The first character to gain traction was Shark Sport Nike sneakers (three per fin); Torara Rotorarara. Shortly after, the voice of a male character first appeared, marking the start of Italian expressions on TikTok in early January.

New characters quickly proliferated on TikTok. Don Caldwell, Editor-in-Chief of Know Your Meme, identified Brr Brr Patapim as an example, describing it as a “material monkey that is also a tree.”

Tung Tung Tung Sahur. Photo: Tiktok/@noxaasht

Notably, there’s also brain rot in Indonesia. Tung Tung Tung Sahur (“This features a stick figure on a bat, telling people to wake up for food during Ramadan”) and Boneca Ambalabu (“A frog with a tire and human legs”) are examples.

Both are accompanied by AI-generated voices that, much like their Italian counterparts, aim to confuse rather than clarify.

“Audio is just as crucial, if not more so than visuals,” Caldwell explains. “They really amp it up, like Tra-la-.lero! tra-la-laLA!—that quintessential Italian sound.”

Is this offensive to Italians? “It seems like Italians are in on the joke,” Caldwell suggests. “I don’t think it is.”

The attraction of Italian (and Indonesian) brain corruption isn’t about being derogatory or harmful—it’s simply absurd.

Caldwell, who has been engaged with memes for 15 years, admits he doesn’t track every fleeting online trend. “But I genuinely enjoy this,” he remarks. “In my view, it’s the better side of memes.”

Bombardiro Crocodilo. Photo: Tiktok/@armenjiharhanyan

The simplicity and speed of creating these videos using tools like ChatGPT have contributed to the meme’s popularity. Users can prompt their AI to visualize something like Bombardiro Crocodilo in their preferred settings. “No prior video editing skills are necessary, nor do you have to use your own voice,” Caldwell notes.

For adults apprehensive of AI advancements, the Italian brain corruption can feel like a harmless indulgence. “It’s a non-threatening application of AI that doesn’t induce existential dread.”

Naturally, young people don’t view it in such a serious light. They spend more time online from an earlier age, significantly influencing digital culture. “You’ve got a super online kid today,” Caldwell remarks. “They grew up around iPads and TikTok, creating content and dictating the biggest cultural trends of the moment.”

Before Italian brain rot, there was the Skibidi Toilet meme, which spread virally from YouTube in 2023, captivating the younger generation of Gen Z, with millions of views.

Tim recalls discussing it in class: “The kids adore it. The term ‘Skibidi’ is now embedded in Gen Z and Gen Alpha vernacular.”

However, its meaning isn’t straightforward and is steeped in ironic ambiguity. “It can signify something good, something bad, or something bizarre… When they refer to it as ‘Skibidi,’ it’s a positive thing, and they’re laughing at it simultaneously.”

Both Skibidi Toilets and Italian brain corruption resist clear definitions, stimulating youthful imaginations with surreal imagery and crude humor while leaving adults scratching their heads with their more subdued humor.

Ebies.

“AI Art” isn’t just a shortcut for older users primarily active on Facebook, Caldwell states. Ebies example (please check). It increasingly cultivates its own lexicon, customs, and meanings that often elude many adults.

It’s intriguing to hear people declare that past memes were superior. Examine the originality of templates such as distracted boyfriends and layered visual jokes demonstrating endless possibilities for meaning-making. However, Caldwell—a millennial himself—suggests that Italian brain corruption represents another evolution in human creativity. “AI produces images, and text-to-speech gives voice, but the humor originates from the real person behind the screen.”

Tim is skeptical, noting that when he sets creative writing tasks for his class, many leap straight into their favorite Italian brain-rotting creatures. “I worry that the AI generation lacks moments for spontaneous imagination, as AI does so much for them. I tell them, ‘This must be entirely our creation. I don’t want chimpanzees bananini.'”

Nevertheless, he has started incorporating the students’ enthusiasm for Italian brain corruption into his lesson plans. In a multiple-choice quiz, one of the options is Tung Tung Tung Sahur.

He now confidently addresses his eighth graders. “My favorite is Blueberrinni Octopussini,” he shares. “It’s an octopus blended with blueberries.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Studies Suggest Pigs Were Domesticated from Wild Boars in Southern China Over 8,000 Years Ago

Posted on June 11, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

China has been recognized as one of the primary locations for the domestication of Wild boar (SUSSCROFA). However, tracing back to the initial stages has proven to be complex. In a recent study, archaeologists examined pig dental calculus (mineralized deposits) from two early Neolithic sites in the lower Jotz River area of southern China: Jintushan (8,300–7,800 years ago) and Kuafukiao (8,200–7,000 years ago). Their findings indicate that pigs consumed food and waste associated with humans, including cooked starchy plants and Human whipworm (Trichuris trichiura). Eggs likely originated from food preparation and feces contaminated materials.

Wild boar (SUSSCROFA). Image credit: Elşad Ibrahimov / CC BY-SA 4.0.

The domestication of certain animals, including pigs, is often linked to the Neolithic Age, when humans started moving from foraging to agricultural practices around 10,000 years ago.

Wild boars are substantial, aggressive creatures that generally live independently, foraging for food in the forest floor.

They possess larger heads, mouths, and teeth compared to domestic pigs.

“Most wild boars exhibit natural aggression, though some can be quite friendly and unafraid of humans,” stated Dr. Ziajin Wang from Dartmouth University.

“Proximity to humans provided them with easier access to food, reducing the need for a robust physique.”

“Over time, their bodies and brains shrunk by about one-third.”

To investigate the domestication of pigs and other animals, archaeologists frequently analyze skeletal structures and track morphological changes over time.

“This method can present challenges since decreases in body size typically occur later in the domestication timeline,” Dr. Wang noted.

“Behavioral changes likely preceded physical alterations, making animals more docile than aggressive.”

Thus, for this study, Dr. Wang and his team applied alternative methodologies, documenting the diet of pigs throughout their lifespan via molars from 32 pig specimens.

Through microfossil analysis of pig teeth, they examined dental calculus from the two earliest human-occupied sites in Jintushan and Kuafukiao, dating back at least 8,000 years.

The researchers identified 240 starch granules, revealing that pigs consumed pre-cooked foods (such as rice and mountain moss) alongside unidentified tubers, acorns, and wild grasses.

“These plants were present during that era and were found in human habitats,” Dr. Wang explained.

Previous studies identified rice in both locations, especially in Kuahuqiao, which benefited from intensive rice farming due to its access to freshwater compared to coastal areas.

Additional research indicated starch residues in crushed stones and ceramics from Kuahuqiao.

“Since pigs cannot cook their own food, it is likely that they were fed or scavenged human leftovers,” asserted Dr. Wang.

Parasite eggs from humans, specifically whipworms (which mature within the human digestive system), were also detected in pig dental calculus.

These tan, soccer-shaped eggs were found in 16 pig tooth specimens.

The pigs must have consumed human feces or contaminated food and water from such waste.

“Pigs have a well-known penchant for consuming human waste, further indicating that these pigs likely cohabitated with humans,” Dr. Wang remarked.

Statistical analysis of the dental structures of Kuafukiao and Jintan pig specimens revealed that their teeth are smaller and comparable to those of modern domestic groups in China.

“As humans began to settle and cultivate their own food, wild boars would have been drawn to these settlements,” Dr. Wang stated.

“These communities generated substantial waste, attracting scavengers in search of food.

This dynamic in animal domestication is termed a symbiotic pathway, where animals are drawn to human environments without the need for direct human action in adopting them.

Data also suggests that early interactions may include domesticated pigs under some level of human control, indicating a trajectory of prey pathways in the domestication process.

“Our study indicates that certain wild boars began their journey toward domestication by foraging human waste,” Dr. Wang concluded.

“This research also underscores the potential connection between pig domestication and the transmission of parasitic diseases in early settled communities.”

The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Jiajing Wang et al. 2025. Early evidence of pig domestication in the lower Yangtze region of southern China (8,000 cal. bp). PNAS 122 (24): E2507123122; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2507123122

Source: www.sci.news

Charming Maniacs in the Wild: Why Does This Adorable Sea Slug Feast on Sunlight?

Posted on May 24, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Locating one of the ocean’s most charming mollusks requires a diver with exceptionally keen vision. This tiny sea slug, Costa Sierra Crosimae—commonly referred to as a leaf sheep—reaches only a few centimeters in length, approximately the size of a fingernail. Their exquisite camouflage makes them hard to spot.

Their vibrant green bodies blend seamlessly with the seaweed they inhabit, which also happens to be their primary food source. An incredible transformation occurs when they consume it.

Similar to terrestrial plants, seaweed contains small structures called chloroplasts within its cells, which facilitate the process of photosynthesis. These chloroplasts harness sunlight energy to convert carbon dioxide into sugars.

When the leaf sheep feed on seaweed, akin to sheep grazing in a meadow, they can digest the sugars they consume. Alternatively, they can retain the entire chloroplasts without damaging them and incorporate them into their bodies for later use.

The features along the back of the leaf sheep resemble small leaves and are known as cerata. Each ceratum houses an extension of the sea slug’s digestive system, filled with chloroplasts, giving it a textured appearance.

Remarkably, these engulfed chloroplasts continue to photosynthesize, generating additional sugars. Therefore, as long as these sea slugs dwell in shallow tropical waters with abundant sunlight, they have a sustainable food source.

The scientist who first discovered this species in the early 1990s on Japan’s Kuroshima Island named it Black Himae.

Since then, divers have been diligently searching for the specific type of seaweed that these leaf sheep prefer, which is exclusively Avrainvillea green algae. These delightful sea slugs have been located in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Costasiella Nudibranch (Sheep Nudibranch) can be found in the Philippines and Indonesia. – Photo Credit: Getty Images

Like other sea slugs that maintain various seaweed species, leaf sheep lay their eggs in a meticulous helix, allowing them to hatch into larvae that drift through the water. Initially, the young sea slugs possess small shells before eventually discarding them to live shell-free.

The process of adopting chloroplasts from seaweed is known as keratoplasia, which can be observed in many other types of ocean slugs. For example, the green Elysian sea slugs (found along the British and other European coasts, Elysia viridis) utilize Codium seaweed (also known as the dead man’s fingers).

While these slugs lack the leaf-like projections seen in leaf sheep, they possess two wing-like extensions that unfold to maximize sunlight absorption for their self-sustaining food factories.

In this position, these marine slugs resemble drifting leaves. Another species, Elysia marginata, not only captures chloroplasts but also performs astonishing feats. Similar to geckos that shed their tails, these sea slugs can separate their heads from their bodies.

This process takes several hours, and while the detached body can survive for days, it does not regenerate a new head. Meanwhile, the original head roams for a while before growing a new body.

This behavior of severing the head may have evolved as a drastic but effective method for eliminating parasite-infected bodies.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Scientists in the Dark as Chimpanzees are Photographed with Drums in the Wild

Posted on May 10, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

Recent studies indicate that wild chimpanzees exhibit a natural talent for drumming, tapping to the rhythms present in their environment.

A significant international collaboration involving researchers from Europe, Africa, and America has concluded that chimpanzees drum with intentional rhythms, striking the trunks and roots of trees as they move and vocalize. These discoveries offer scientists valuable insights into the potential origins of human musicality.

https://c02.purpledshub.com/uploads/sites/41/2025/05/Drumming-Bout-Vesta-Eleuteri.m4v

An adult male western chimpanzee from the Thai East community drumming on a wooden buttress in the Thai forest (Côte d’Ivoire).

“Humans are fundamentally rhythmic beings,” stated Professor Katherine Hofighter from St Andrews University in an interview with BBC Science Focus. “Rhythms permeate our music, dance, and songs, and even in our conversations. This may be part of our evolutionary inheritance, as it is a universal trait among humans.”

To investigate the roots of this rhythm, researchers turned to our closest living relatives.

“Since both language and music are non-fossilized skills, it’s impossible to find them in the geological record and trace their evolution,” remarked the study’s lead author, Vesta Eleuteri from the University of Vienna in an interview with BBC Science Focus. “We must examine other species and investigate the foundational elements that may precede the development of language and music.”

Hobaiter added: “This demonstrates that the elements of rhythm existed long before humans evolved into humans.”

Four images portray an eastern chimpanzee from the son’s community in Budongo Forest (Uganda) drumming with a wooden buttress. – Credit: Adrian Soldati

Recently published research in Current Biology represents the culmination of years of meticulous observations and analyses, encompassing 371 recorded chimpanzee drumming encounters across 11 wild chimpanzee communities in West and East Africa.

“People often underestimate the time commitment required to gather this data,” explains Hobaiter. “While the forest is my happy place, it sometimes means decades of research at each location.”

All recordings were carefully collected, coded, and analyzed. The researchers measured the duration of each drumming sequence, the intervals between hits, and the variability of the rhythms, concluding that these rhythms were not random.

Moreover, individual chimpanzees showcase their own unique styles of drumming. Regional variations also exist among different chimpanzee communities and subspecies.

For instance, West African chimpanzees tend to maintain regular spacing between drum hits, whereas East African chimpanzees display a mix of shorter and longer rhythms.

While the reasons for these differences remain unclear—Hobaiter mentioned they “got a bit crazy”—Eleuteri proposed these variations might stem from social or cultural differences among chimpanzee subspecies.

Habaiter emphasized that these rhythmic distinctions highlight the importance of conservation efforts: “Every group of chimpanzees holds unique significance.”

“Recognizing that distinct populations or subspecies have unique differences is crucial for preservation,” she asserted. “Losing any group could result in the disappearance of a unique culture, music, or rhythmic heritage that can never be restored.”

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About Our Experts

Vesta Eleuteri is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Behavior and Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna, focusing on African elephant communication. She has previously researched chimpanzee drumming at the University of Rome and the University of St Andrews.

Katherine Hofighter is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at St. Andrews University, with 15 years of experience studying primates in Uganda and across Africa. Her research group, The Wild Minds Lab, emphasizes long-term field studies on communication and cognition in wild African apes. She has spent nearly six months in the field and has recently established new research sites in Uganda (Bugoma Primate Conservation Project) and Guinea (Moenvating Chimpanzee Project).

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Review of Monster Hunter Wild: Get Ready for the Ultimate Battles of Your Life!

Posted on February 27, 2025 by Igor Mitreski

aFeathered horses, dust and rain, whisk around you, arrive on a mountain path where purple crystals cover the walls with frost. The weather is still outside, but calm inside the cave at the end of the road. The environment allows you to see what kind of creatures live here. Reidau is a horned wyvern that commands the elements.

You’ve seen it before, but when you unexpectedly appear while you were on another expedition, you descended from the lightning striped sky and sunk its claws into an unfortunate pack of hairy lion-like creatures. You weren’t strong enough to face it, but you’re now. Hopefully.

The next battle is to bite the nail. To try to jump out of the corners and teeth paths of powerful electric bolts and Wyvern, you have to pull out all the tricks you know to wear it out. Fire a grappling hook at a rocky outcrop hanging from the ceiling and bring it over the creature. You blow your mouth while for your mount, leaps back to the dragon’s head, clinging and stabbing with a dagger trying to smash against the wall. You will be flung by, fried, stomped, but you will cling to fight and chew on repair potions at every opportunity.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/a_wNFT4j6qI?wmode=opaque&feature=oembed" title="Monster Hunter Wilds – Launch Trailer" height="480" width="854" allowfullscreen="

Check out the trailer for Monster Hunter Wilds.

Then an even bigger predator appears from anywhere, taking the monster you fought desperately for 25 minutes with just that jaw and throw it like a rag doll. Take a closer look at it: it’s what you fight next.

The 15-hour story of Monster Hunter Wilds is a series of escalating and escalating epic battles with bigger, more ferocious creatures. I didn’t do it for a moment. Within hours, you’d fought against awful giant spiders, supple sand dragons, and a disgusting, overgrown oil chick child. After that, you will face a nasty and dangerous version of the beasts of monster hunter games, especially the last 20 years, in addition to the fierce fire drawings and dragons shooting lightning from their faces. It’s literally all the killers, no fillers, a long way from the old game of slow and heavy. There, they had to collect mushrooms and fight raptors before they could go near the Wyvern.

The fight is relentlessly wonderful. When the monster fell I let out a breath that I didn’t notice that I was holding. With the exception of Dark Souls and their siblings, no game made me feel like Monster Hunter. The adrenaline of these battles, the peerless, perfectly balanced feel of oversized weapons, and the pure malice and dignity of the creatures make this game feel unparalleled thrilling despite having played it in some way since I was a teenager. And it’s far better than it was back then. Not only monsters, but their huge natural habitats also ripple overflowing into life.

“The monster’s huge natural habitat is full of life.” Photo: Capcom

Towards the end of the Wild story, I have to admit that I felt some disappointment creep up. I enjoyed almost all of these creatures’ clashes. But I wasn’t trying much. Certainly, I have had a lot of experience with these games, but I’m used to being eaten or torn apart to bite by a new monster several times before conquering it. During the entire Wilds campaign, I was knocked out only twice.

But Wilds’ story turned out to be a 15-hour interactive tutorial on what makes Monster Hunter great. This is a roller coaster of combat thrills designed to sell newcomers on the concept and acquire the taste of scale and visual splendor that Capcom’s modern game engine brings to his favorite series. The real fun begins afterwards.

After taking on the worst creature I’ve ever seen, in the final quest of the story, I was dumped into a base camp in the jungle and sent to capture a small, sparked bird of prey. I was humbled quickly. Embarrassingly, I became lazy and it knocked me out.

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Monster Hunter isn’t just about swinging giant spears. It is also about studying quarries, learning their weaknesses and delving into the environment for useful plants and materials used to make coatings of potions, tools and arrows that give you the advantage in battle. Experienced players will help the rookie, so it’s about working with other hunters to complement each other’s playstyle. Being a friend’s Monster Hunter mentor is one of the most rewarding multiplayer gaming experiences out there.

This game cannot be reduced to a series of battles. It’s a community of the world, the ecosystem, and the players. You are some hunters, some nature researchers. Wild goes too far towards frictionless fun in the story, but once I was free to explore, I began to feel more connected to my habitat. From battle to battle, instead of being led by a nose or by my Dascho horse, I climbed up the canopy, scouted for the creatures, took out binoculars, discovered an underwater cave full of hidden corners and useful materials from the campsite. I found myself having to switch weapons more frequently, upgrade armor, and re-recognize myself with a nasty array of gems and doodads that gave hunters useful additional skills.

You can spend a lot of time picking up Wild as a rookie and playing through the story. You can stop there, but it will still be worth the price of admission. But I’ll play it length It’s still time.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Practical Applications of Wild Physics: Building a Time Machine

Posted on December 17, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

The bartender said, “We don't serve time travelers here.” A time traveler enters the bar.

OK, yes, you'll almost certainly regret starting this article with such a lame old joke. Most of us, at some point, have wanted to go back in time to fix a mistake or failure. But that's impossible, right?

Well, not necessarily. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity suggests that time travel may actually be possible. We know that matter can bend space-time, and if we bend it enough we may be able to create time loops. Of course, there are many caveats, and researchers have yet to present a working time machine. But that didn't stop them from exploring the possibilities.

Here are five ways time travel could be possible, from sci-fi classics to surprising new ideas. It also introduces some thorny practical obstacles that need to be overcome.

1. Prepare the galaxy laser ring

The main problem with time travel is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, which is 299,792,458 meters per second. This speed limit maintains causation, the idea that the cause must always come before the effect. Thanks to a quirk of Einstein's special theory of relativity and the fact that space and time are intimately connected, traveling faster than the speed of light messes it up. If we could travel faster than light, we would travel back in time. But you can't do that.

The next best thing is to manipulate the fabric of space-time. in…

Source: www.newscientist.com

Lessons from history: Strategies for defeating a wild emu

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

COP load of this

As COP29, the latest round of international climate negotiations, struggles in Azerbaijan, Feedback watches bemused from afar. We have previously covered several COPs and are still on most of the relevant mailing lists. So, as I write this on November 18th, we know that the Climate Action Network's Fossil of the Day is South Korea. That's because South Korea single-handedly blocked a deal by high-income countries to end oil and gas subsidies. Yes, that's enough.

Holding a conference dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a country as heavily dependent on fossil fuel exports as Azerbaijan was always likely to backfire. Feedback believed that diplomacy was about understanding other people's motives, but apparently no one could reconcile what the Azerbaijani government wanted. Soon, President Ilham Aliyev announced that oil and gas “gift from god'', the country's chief negotiator was photographed saying in his opening speech. Apparently they are arranging it A meeting to discuss fossil fuel trading.

Then the conference actually started – or rather, it didn’t really start. On the first day, work stalled within the first hour as several countries objected to the rest of the meeting's agenda. This is how I spent my first day Renegotiating the agendawhile the delegates sat around with nothing to do. Still, climate change is not an urgent problem.

Feedback would like to think things are only uphill from here, but the experience of the past decade suggests otherwise. And I still get shivers when I think about the last night of one of the COPs we attended. It was well past the evening, so the agreement was signed and the party was supposed to start. But then we see young diplomats carrying stacks of take-out pizza boxes into the negotiating room, and we realize that even in the best case scenario, we'll be there until the early hours of the morning. I noticed. Feedback does not endorse this experience or any cases of caffeine addiction associated with it.

Find your inner villain

News Editorial Assistant Alexandra Thompson calls our attention to a brilliantly titled paper about the psychology research repository PsyArXiv.What it means to be a true badass: An experimental investigation of a commonplace concept.”. Its authors, Briana Nguyen and Michael Prinzing, set out to explain what we mean when we say someone is a “bad person.” It's not clear, since both Genghis Khan and Malala Yousafzai could be called villains, but “they are about as different as you can imagine,” they say. Well, quite a bit.

Researchers used a series of online surveys to find out what kinds of people were counted as bad guys and what kinds of people were not. From this, it became clear that “badass'' is a two-layered concept. It has a superficial meaning of being physically strong or having a “fearsome presence.” But there's also a deeper inner meaning about “moral resilience and courage.”

According to the author, Yousafzai embodies this inner evil, while Khan embodies more of the external evil. Feedback is less certain. We read a biography of Khan by John Mann, and he showed remarkable courage in a difficult situation. Still, the distinction between inner and outer badasses sounds plausible.

Feedback sometimes enjoys this kind of research, which delves into the subtle meanings of everyday terms, in quiet moments. A classic example is Harry Frankfurt's book About bullshit. Frankfurt was a philosopher who distinguished between lying (telling a falsehood with the purpose of clearly misleading someone) and bullshit (telling a lie, regardless of its truth or falsity, in order to serve one's own purpose).

About bullshit is useful to read because it explicitly states what we all implicitly understand. Once the concept is clear, it's easier to find examples, which is why June's paper was frankly titled.ChatGPT is bullshit“It's also great to have a term that is accurate and allows for the overused swear words. We think Frankfurt was the worst.

emu in flight

On November 15th, CBS News published twowild and untrainedAn emu (are there other types?) has escaped in South Carolina. They had apparently escaped three months earlier, but their escape didn't garner any attention until 43 monkeys escaped from a medical research facility in the same state. As of November 18th, Six of the monkeys remained at large.. Faced with hordes of marauding monkeys on the run, journalists began looking for similar stories and found (or rather, didn't find) rogue emus.

Feedback doesn't get any lower than at your local police department.Not EMU-SED“However, we would like to reiterate the following point. matthew downhour About Blue Sky: “Okay, if you didn't want them to get out of control and be irresponsible, why did you name them like that?“?That's a good question because the emus' names are Thelma and Louise.

If US authorities are unable to recapture the bird, they may take notes from the Australians. fought a famous short war against wild emus in 1932. surely, The emu decisively won the conflict.But failure is the best teacher.

Have a story for feedback?

You can email your article to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please enter your home address. This week's and past feedback can be found on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Monster Hunter Wild: Discover even fiercer and more intimidating creatures in this exciting action game

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

ohBut out in the desert, the skies begin to darken. You are here to hunt Dosha-gama – fearsome, scaly, lion-like, squashed-faced beasts that roam the dunes in small herds. But a looming storm suggests something much bigger is approaching. Soon, a giant shadow descends from the heavens: Lei Dau, a horned, gold-trimmed dragon who wields lightning. Are you strong enough to face it? Or is it time to flee to the hills?

Monster Hunter is one of Capcom’s most successful game series, but it wasn’t always that way. When I started playing it on the PlayStation Portable in 2006, very few people were interested. It was notoriously cumbersome, demanding, and difficult, and online play didn’t work well. On the other hand, when I moved to Japan in 2008, it was hard not to see someone playing Monster Hunter on the train or in a cafe. It was 2018’s Monster Hunter: World that really made the game a global hit. Technology finally allowed for vast natural settings worthy of gigantic, intimidating, and highly realistic monsters, and smooth online play became a reality.

Watch the trailer for Monster Hunter Wild

“It was a challenge to bring the series to a global level that hadn’t been there before,” recalls Ryozo Tsujimoto, who worked as a designer on the original Monster Hunter, which was released in Japan and North America in 2004, and has led the series ever since.
“In order to make it a global hit, there are some things we haven’t done before… It may not be so visible to players, but compared to the past, we are in much closer communication with our Western offices and staff around the world, so we’re in a much better position than before to listen to player feedback and reactions to the game and decide how to approach the next title.”

Source: www.theguardian.com

Study reveals high prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 virus among wild animals

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

In a new study, a team of scientists from Virginia Tech investigated the extent to which exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, was widespread in wildlife communities in Virginia and Washington, DC, between May 2022 and September 2023. They documented positive detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in six species: deer mice, Virginia opossums, raccoons, groundhogs, cotton-tailed bats, and eastern red bats. They also found no evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was transmitted from animals to humans, and people should not fear general contact with wildlife.

Goldberg othersThis suggests that a wide variety of mammal species were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the wild. Image credit: Goldberg others., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49891-w.

“SARS-CoV-2 could be transmitted from humans to wild animals during contact between humans and wild animals, in the same way that a hitchhiker might jump to a new, more suitable host,” said Carla Finkelstein, a professor at Virginia Tech.

“The goal of a virus is to spread in order to survive. It wants to infect as many humans as possible, but vaccination protects many of us. So the virus turns to animals, where it adapts and mutates to thrive in a new host.”

SARS CoV-2 infections have previously been identified in wild animals, primarily white-tailed deer and wild mink.

This new research significantly expands the number of species investigated and improves our understanding of virus transmission in and between wild animals.

The data suggest that exposure to the virus is widespread among wild animals and that areas with high human activity may be contact points for interspecies transmission.

“This study was prompted by the realization that there were significant and important gaps in our knowledge about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the broader wildlife community,” said Dr. Joseph Hoyt of Virginia Tech.

“Most studies to date have focused on white-tailed deer, but we still don't know what's going on with many of the wildlife species commonly found in our backyards.”

For the study, the researchers collected 798 nasal and oral swabs from animals that had been caught live and released from the wild, or that were being treated at a wildlife rehabilitation center, as well as 126 blood samples from six animal species.

These sites were chosen to compare the presence of viruses in animals across different levels of human activity, from urban areas to remote wilderness.

The scientists also identified two mice with the exact same mutation on the same day and in the same location, indicating that they either both got infected from the same person, or one had transmitted it to the other.

How it spreads from humans to animals is unknown, but wastewater is a possibility, but trash cans and discarded food are more likely sources.

“I think the biggest takeaway from this study is that this virus is everywhere. We're finding it in common backyard animals that are testing positive,” said Dr. Amanda Goldberg of Virginia Tech.

“This study highlights the potentially broad host range of SARS-CoV-2 in nature and how widely it may actually spread,” Dr Hoyt said.

“There is much work to be done to understand which wildlife species, if any, are important in the long-term maintenance of SARS-CoV-2 in humans.”

“But what we've already learned is that SARS CoV-2 is not just a human problem, and we need multidisciplinary teams to effectively address its impacts on different species and ecosystems,” Professor Finkelstein said.

of Investigation result Published in today's journal Nature Communications.

_____

A.R. Goldberg others2024. Widespread exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife communities. Nat Community 15, 6210; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49891-w

This article has been edited based on the original release from Virginia Tech.

Source: www.sci.news

Review of South Park Snow Day: A Wild and Entertaining Playground Melee

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

TIt’s snowing heavily in South Park, Colorado, and young Eric Cartman is looking for a chance to skip school. Huddled in his bed, he clenches his fists and closes his eyes tightly, hoping that the blizzard will worsen to Biblical levels so that the next morning the school can declare a snow day. When he wakes up, the city is in panic – scores of dead, widespread panic buying of toilet paper, and weather so unprecedented that many fear it’s a sign of the end. Of course, he’s overjoyed.

What follows is the titular Snow Day, in which neighborhood children paint a fantasy war on a bright white canvas, in which elves and humans fight according to rules that may change in an instant with the development of a “random” card. Masu. South Park has always been great at capturing the bits of childhood we forget as we grow older, and with the premise of Snow Day!, developer Question Games has captured just such nuggets. I’ll find out. Give some kids a free day and a cardboard sword, and they’ll build an entire universe and bicker about exactly how it works.

What this means for players is the roguelike elements that were completely removed from South Park’s previous two 2D turn-based role-playing games, 2014’s The Stick of Truth and 2017’s sequel The Fractured But Whole It is a cooperative action game with

You can be forgiven for feeling some regret about that parting. Those story-driven games gave us countless gags that were too vulgar to tarnish this fine publication, and the abrupt transition to retro 8-bit graphics when they entered Canada When, for example, they found creative ways to use the medium itself for comedy. Frankly, the writing in Snow Day! isn’t all that sharp. But its advantage is its pick-up-and-play accessibility and unexpected depth as a roguelike.

Battle small children in your ramshackle Tolkien cosplay, deploying basic melee and ranged attacks as you race through the burbs, collecting toilet paper (new gold since panic buying began) and modifier cards. Masu. These are things like dealing extra damage to bleeding enemies or increasing the range of your farts. The more you progress through the match, the more specialized playstyles you can specify, making each battle more interesting.

Especially when a bullshit card drops. This gives you and your enemies ridiculous abilities like laser eyes and meteor showers. They’re done sparingly and are always met with enough ire from Cartman and others to remind you that these rules are supposed to feel like they’re being improvised by a 10-year-old.

Control isn’t always good. In fact, it rarely feels that way, as attack and movement animations are marred by the floating feel and lack of proper weapon feedback. But on snowy days! Keep your brain focused by allowing you to plot more efficient builds. Every card you choose has consequences, as there’s always a tougher battle around the corner and a boss fight at the end of your run. This won’t keep you and your pals in South Park’s perennial winter for as long as popular hangout spaces in co-op games like Fortnite. But for those nostalgic for the days when snow meant freedom, it offers a weekend of farting, chaotic fun.

Source: www.theguardian.com

New Research Shows Comet Wild 2 Contains a Large Amount of Young Solar System Dust

Posted on January 18, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

NASA’s Stardust mission returned rocky material from the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2 (pronounced “Wild-2”) to Earth on January 15, 2006. Comet Wild 2 contains volatile ice, which may have accreted beyond Neptune’s orbit. The Wild 2 sample was expected to be rich in primordial molecular cloud material, i.e., interstellar and circumstellar particles. Instead, it turns out that Wild 2’s interstellar component is very small, and nearly all of the returned particles formed in a wide and diverse region of the solar nebula. Although some features of the Wild 2 material resemble primitive chondrite meteorites, the diversity of its composition attests to a very different origin and evolutionary history from asteroids. Wild 2 has very little impact debris from asteroids, and may have accreted dust from the outer and inner Solar System before the solar nebula dispersed.

Comet 81P/Wild 2. Image courtesy of NASA.

wild 2 is a small comet in the shape of a flat sphere, approximately 1.65 x 2 x 2.75 km (1.03 x 1.24 x 1.71 miles).

Discovered by Paul Wilde on January 6, 1978, this comet has an orbital period of 6.2 years.

Wild 2 is known as a fresh periodic comet. It orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, but it did not always follow this orbit.

Originally, this comet’s orbit was between the orbits of Uranus and Jupiter. On September 9, 1974, a gravitational interaction between Wild 2 and Jupiter changed its orbital period from her 43 years to her 6.2 years.

“Eighteen years after NASA’s Stardust mission returned the first known sample from a comet to Earth, the true nature of the icy object is coming into focus,” says the new study. said author Ryan Oriol, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

“When Stardust launched in 1999, many scientists predicted that the comet’s rocky material would be dominated by the primordial dust that built our solar system, the ‘stardust’ from which the mission takes its name. I was there.”

“But the actual samples told a different story: Wild 2 contained a potpourri of dust formed from various early events in the solar system’s history.”

For Dr. Oriole, the discovery that Wild 2 contained records of “local” events was exciting.

“This comet was a witness to the events that shaped the solar system into what we see today,” he said.

“Because the comet was kept in a cold storage in space for almost its entire life, it avoided the heat and water alterations seen in asteroid samples.”

“Comet Wild 2 contains things never seen before in a meteorite, including rare carbon and iron assemblages and precursors to the igneous globules that make up the most common type of meteorite. . And all of these objects are beautifully preserved within Wild 2.”

“Almost 20 years later, scientists have had enough time to analyze the tiny amounts of material returned from the Stardust mission, less than a milligram (think a grain of sand). You might see it.”

“But this material is dispersed into thousands of tiny particles on a collector the size of a pizza.”

“Almost every Wild 2 particle is unique and has a different story to tell. Extracting and analyzing these grains is a time-consuming process. But the scientific benefits are huge. .”

“Most of the Wild 2 particles have not yet been studied and certainly hold many more surprises. Over time, we will be able to study the samples using new techniques that did not exist at the start of the mission.” Masu.”

“Stardust samples, microscopic particles taken from celestial bodies less than two miles wide, contain a deep record of the past that spans billions of miles. After 18 years of studying this comet, we have We now have a better understanding of the dynamic formative period.”

study Published in Journal November 2023 issue geochemistry.

_____

Ryan C. Oriol. 2023. Comet 81P/Wild 2: A record of the solar system’s wild youth. geochemistry 83 (4): 126046; doi: 10.1016/j.chemer.2023.126046

Source: www.sci.news

Harnessing Nature: Releasing Billions of Engineered Mosquitoes into the Wild to Combat Disease

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Igor Mitreski

Dengue fever is currently endemic in 100 countries, putting half of the world’s population at risk. The threat has increased dramatically, with the number of dengue fever cases increasing tenfold between 2000 and 2019, and the number of cases hitting an all-time high in 2023.

Bangladesh, Peru and Burkina Faso have all seen record outbreaks in the past 12 months, while France, Italy and Spain have also reported cases of mosquito-borne dengue fever.

What’s causing this? Scientists say global warming is making space more hospitable to insects, and that climate change is fueling the rise in this mosquito-borne viral disease. As mosquitoes become more common, we expect the time to outbreak of dengue fever to shorten and the transmission season to lengthen.

This is a worrying situation.But that’s what the sponsoring team decided world mosquito program There is a possible solution. They suggest treating mosquitoes with bacteria that can prevent the development of viruses in the body.

read more:

What are the symptoms of dengue fever?

There’s a good reason dengue fever has been labeled “breakbone fever.” 80% of cases are asymptomatic, but when symptoms develop, symptoms include high fever, muscle and joint pain, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, nausea, and vomiting.

Symptoms begin 4 to 10 days after infection and can last from 2 days to up to a week. DHF (severe dengue fever) manifests as severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, bleeding gums or nose, blood in the stool or vomit, pale, cold skin, and fatigue. Doctors can only alleviate these symptoms because antiviral drugs are not available.

How does dengue spread?

Dengue fever is spread through the bite of an infected female mosquito. Aedes aegypti, typically found in tropical and subtropical regions. Originating from the forests of West Africa, Aedes aegypti They spread around the world during the African slave trade and have continued to hitchhike as a means of human transportation ever since.

other Aedes Other species can also transmit dengue fever, although to a lesser extent. The highly invasive Asian tiger mosquito is the likely cause of dengue infections in Europe. Unlike malaria mosquitoes, which usually bite at night and can be prevented with insecticide-treated bed nets, dengue mosquitoes bite during the day and are very difficult to control.

Mosquitoes are now highly urbanized creatures, admirably adapted to coexist with humans, their preferred blood source. In cities, stagnant water is key to survival, providing spawning grounds and habitat for aquatic larval and pupal development. Mosquitoes breed in small puddles in garbage, used tires, and man-made containers such as flower pots. Thus, humans have been the main driving force behind the success of the dengue mosquito.

How can we fight the spread of infection?

Dengue prevention requires a multipronged attack on mosquitoes, with a focus on insecticide spraying. However, insecticide resistance is developing in mosquito populations around the world, threatening their effectiveness.

what else? Control strategies also include adaptations to eliminate breeding sites or prevent reproduction. Aedes aegypti Prevent spawning in stagnant water (remove debris that could trap water and install covers on water storage containers).

Bacterial toxins are also applied to bodies of water to kill mosquito larvae. These strategies are labor intensive because it is difficult to identify, treat, and eliminate all breeding sites. Therefore, new methods of mosquito control are desperately needed.

The World Mosquito Program (WMP) has devised a non-chemical and non-GMO-based approach for dengue control. Bacteria called Wolbachia which occurs naturally in many insect species; Aedes aegypti.

WMP was found to be “infected”. Aedes aegypti and Wolbachia Prevented the onset of dengue virus in adult women. From a logistical point of view, this method is self-sustaining. Wolbachia It can spread to wild populations because it infects eggs through mating.

WMP reports a significant decrease in dengue cases. Aedes aegypti carry Wolbachia has been released.given that Aedes aegypti Since Zika and Chikungunya viruses are also transmitted, WMP has developed a potential “three-for-one” method of disease control.

It’s no exaggeration to say that mosquitoes are the most hated insects, but despite their notoriety, only a handful of the 3,500 species of mosquitoes transmit disease. They are also important to the ecosystem.

Mosquitoes are a food source for fish, frogs, reptiles, bats, and birds, and they are also pollinators, as male insects suck nectar from flowers (only females drink blood). The WMP approach is species-specific and targeted only. Aedes aegyptiThis is in contrast to the “blunt force” approach with insecticides, which can affect insects other than the target.

The climate change trajectory we are currently on is leading to rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, which will benefit this terrifying little insect and her viral cargo. Therefore, we need as many weapons as possible in our arsenal to combat the growing global dengue threat.

read more:

Source: www.sciencefocus.com

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