Great ape's consonant and vowel-like sounds travel over distance without losing meaning

Scientists have shown that orangutan call signals believed to be closest to the precursors to human language, travel through forest over long distances without losing their meaning. This throws into question the accepted mathematical model on the evolution of human speech according to researchers from the University of Warwick.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-great-ape-consonant-vowel-like-distance.html

Birds' eye size offers clues to coevolutionary arms race between brood parasites, hosts

Eye size likely plays a role in the contest between avian brood parasites—birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other species—and their hosts, who sometimes detect the foreign eggs and eject or abandon them, scientists report in the journal Biology Letters.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-birds-eye-size-clues-coevolutionary.html

Zeroing in on the origins of Earth's 'single most important evolutionary innovation'

Some time in Earth's early history, the planet took a turn toward habitability when a group of enterprising microbes known as cyanobacteria evolved oxygenic photosynthesis—the ability to turn light and water into energy, releasing oxygen in the process.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-zeroing-earth-important-evolutionary.html

Birds' eye size offers clues to coevolutionary arms race between brood parasites, hosts

Eye size likely plays a role in the contest between avian brood parasites—birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other species—and their hosts, who sometimes detect the foreign eggs and eject or abandon them, scientists report in the journal Biology Letters.

Great ape's consonant and vowel-like sounds travel over distance without losing meaning

Scientists have shown that orangutan call signals believed to be closest to the precursors to human language, travel through forest over long distances without losing their meaning. This throws into question the accepted mathematical model on the evolution of human speech according to researchers from the University of Warwick.

Zeroing in on the origins of Earth's 'single most important evolutionary innovation'

Some time in Earth's early history, the planet took a turn toward habitability when a group of enterprising microbes known as cyanobacteria evolved oxygenic photosynthesis—the ability to turn light and water into energy, releasing oxygen in the process.

Simple steps improve digital learning

"One thing that can get lost in digital teaching is the process of building social relationships. This network building normally takes place during coffee breaks, shared lunch and in the queue at the toilet or coffee machine," says Gunhild Marie Roald, an associate professor in NTNU's Department of Education and Lifelong Learning.

Microscopic metavehicles powered by nothing but light

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in creating tiny vehicles powered by nothing but light. By layering an optical metasurface onto a microscopic particle, and then using a light source to control it, they succeeded in moving the tiny vehicles in a variety of complex and precise ways—and even using them to transport other objects.

Researchers explore what drives animal infanticide

At the end of the 1970s, infanticide became a flashpoint in animal behavioral science. Sociobiologist Sarah Hrdy, then a Harvard Ph.D. student, shared her observation in her published thesis that whenever a new langur male entered an established colony, infants would either begin to disappear or show evidence of wounds. Hrdy concluded this was done to eliminate the progeny of rivals and free up now infant-less females for mating. The work provoked an uproar.

Grain size discovery boosts sorghum potential

Researchers at The University of Queensland are optimistic that the value and versatility of one of the world's top crops will be improved following the discovery of genes which could increase the grain size of sorghum.

In Guatemala, archaeologists uncover hidden neighborhood in ancient Maya city

Scientists have been excavating the ruins of Tikal, an ancient Maya city in modern-day Guatemala, since the 1950s—and thanks to those many decades spent documenting details of every structure and cataloguing each excavated item, Tikal has become one of the best understood and most thoroughly studied archaeological sites in the world.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-guatemala-archaeologists-uncover-hidden-neighborhood.html

Dynamic twists and loops can enable DNA to modulate its function

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are known to influence every aspect of DNA activity, but how this happens has not been clear.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-dynamic-loops-enable-dna-modulate.html

In Guatemala, archaeologists uncover hidden neighborhood in ancient Maya city

Scientists have been excavating the ruins of Tikal, an ancient Maya city in modern-day Guatemala, since the 1950s—and thanks to those many decades spent documenting details of every structure and cataloguing each excavated item, Tikal has become one of the best understood and most thoroughly studied archaeological sites in the world.

Dynamic twists and loops can enable DNA to modulate its function

When people think of DNA, they visualize a string-like double helix structure. In reality, the DNA double helix in cells is supercoiled and constrained into loops. This supercoiling and looping are known to influence every aspect of DNA activity, but how this happens has not been clear.

Bird poop reveals that when birds migrate, their gut bacteria change

The trillions of bacteria living in our guts play a crucial role in our ability to digest food and fight off disease. All other animals also have communities of bacteria living inside them, that scientists call microbiomes, and learning about them can help scientists put together a more complete picture of how those animals interact with the world. In a new study in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers used tiny radio trackers to follow the movements of birds that migrated between The Bahamas and Michigan, and they found that the same individual birds' gut bacteria were different in the two locations. And to figure that out, the scientists had to get up close and personal with a lot of bird poop.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-bird-poop-reveals-birds-migrate.html

Drugs in river at UK's Glastonbury music festival harming fish: scientists

High levels of illegal drugs have been found in a river running through Britain's Glastonbury music festival site, endangering a rare species of fish and other wildlife, scientists said on Tuesday.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-drugs-river-uk-glastonbury-music.html

Bird poop reveals that when birds migrate, their gut bacteria change

The trillions of bacteria living in our guts play a crucial role in our ability to digest food and fight off disease. All other animals also have communities of bacteria living inside them, that scientists call microbiomes, and learning about them can help scientists put together a more complete picture of how those animals interact with the world. In a new study in the journal Molecular Ecology, researchers used tiny radio trackers to follow the movements of birds that migrated between The Bahamas and Michigan, and they found that the same individual birds' gut bacteria were different in the two locations. And to figure that out, the scientists had to get up close and personal with a lot of bird poop.

Aftershocks rattle quake-hit Crete as Greek PM to visit

Aftershocks rattled Greece's largest island Crete on Tuesday, a day after a strong earthquake that killed one person, damaged hundreds of buildings and left many homeless.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-aftershocks-rattle-quake-hit-crete-greek.html

Ford to add 10,800 jobs making electric vehicles, batteries

Ford and a partner company say they plan to build three major electric-vehicle battery factories and an auto assembly plant by 2025—a dramatic investment in the future of EV technology that will create an estimated 10,800 jobs and shift the automaker's future manufacturing footprint toward the South.

source https://techxplore.com/news/2021-09-ford-jobs-electric-vehicles-batteries.html

NYC to hire forecaster, beef up warnings after Ida flooding

New York City is planning to hire a private weather forecaster, install more drainage features and issue earlier and more aggressive warnings to residents under a new plan to respond to heavy rainfall like the deadly deluge Hurricane Ida dropped on the city earlier this month.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-nyc-hire-beef-ida.html

How SNPs can be used to detect disease pathways

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new computational tool that can identify pathways related to diseases, including breast and prostate cancer, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms. SNPs, which refer to mutations in a person's DNA, are the most common type of genetic variation among people. The researchers hope that the tool can help them discover new pathways that have been previously overlooked.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-snps-disease-pathways.html

Deep dive into global Twitter posts reveals possible drop in negativity towards COVID-19 pandemic

The devastation and distress brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to millions of lives goes without question, but trying to gauge an entire planet's changing perception of the disease over time can seem an almost impossible task.

source https://phys.org/news/2021-09-deep-global-twitter-reveals-negativity.html

Drugs in river at UK's Glastonbury music festival harming fish: scientists

High levels of illegal drugs have been found in a river running through Britain's Glastonbury music festival site, endangering a rare species of fish and other wildlife, scientists said on Tuesday.

Aftershocks rattle quake-hit Crete as Greek PM to visit

Aftershocks rattled Greece's largest island Crete on Tuesday, a day after a strong earthquake that killed one person, damaged hundreds of buildings and left many homeless.

NYC to hire forecaster, beef up warnings after Ida flooding

New York City is planning to hire a private weather forecaster, install more drainage features and issue earlier and more aggressive warnings to residents under a new plan to respond to heavy rainfall like the deadly deluge Hurricane Ida dropped on the city earlier this month.

How SNPs can be used to detect disease pathways

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a new computational tool that can identify pathways related to diseases, including breast and prostate cancer, using single-nucleotide polymorphisms. SNPs, which refer to mutations in a person's DNA, are the most common type of genetic variation among people. The researchers hope that the tool can help them discover new pathways that have been previously overlooked.

Deep dive into global Twitter posts reveals possible drop in negativity towards COVID-19 pandemic

The devastation and distress brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to millions of lives goes without question, but trying to gauge an entire planet's changing perception of the disease over time can seem an almost impossible task.