Science & TechnologyS


Laptop

Pet parrots were taught to video call each other — and they loved it

Andy Corbley
Good News Network
Wed, 03 May 2023 16:29 UTC
parrot video call animal communication behavior
© Matthew Modoono/NorthwesternEllie, an 11-year-old Goffin’s cockatoo, video chats with a friend.
Wild parrots tend to fly in flocks, but when kept as single pets, they may become lonely and bored

Over 20 million parrots are kept as pets in American households, and a study wanted to see if these social birds would enjoy video calling each other just like humans.

The Birds of a Feather study recruited more than a dozen parrot owners and their birds, to see if parrot loneliness, a real danger to the birds' mental health, could be improved through access to video calling.

It's no word of a lie to say that platforms like Zoom, Skype, and Facetime saved lives during the strict lockdowns during COVID-19, but humans aren't the only creatures capable of utilizing and benefiting from video calls to friends.

The study, organized by Northwestern University in collaboration with scientists from MIT and the University of Glasgow, taught the parrots to initiate video calls with other parrots by instructing them to ring a bell, and then touch the picture of another parrot on a tablet screen to start the call.

Comment: Further from the Smithsonian:
[T]hey found that the parrots took advantage of the opportunity to call one another, and they typically stayed on the call for the maximum time allowed during the experiment. They also seemed to understand that another live bird was on the other side of the screen, not a recorded bird, researchers say. Some of the parrots learned new skills from their virtual companions, including flying, foraging and how to make new sounds.

"I was quite surprised at the range of different behaviors," co-author Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, an animal-computer interaction researcher at the University of Glasgow, tells the Guardian's Hannah Devlin. "Some would sing, some would play around and go upside down, others would want to show another bird their toys." Two weak, older macaws, for example, became very close and even called out to one another "Hi! Come here! Hello!" from their respective screens.

The birds forged strong friendships, which researchers measured by how frequently they chose to call the same individual. Parrots who initiated the highest number of video calls also received the most calls, which suggests a "reciprocal dynamic similar to human socialization," per the statement.

The experiment also brought parrots and humans closer together — on both sides of the screen. Some birds were even reported to have developed attachments to the human caretakers of their virtual friends.

Video chatting can't replace the social interactions that would occur in the wild, but it may be a viable option for improving the lives of parrots that are already in captivity, the researchers note. In addition, it may be beneficial for birds that cannot interact in person. Pet parrots are highly susceptible to a deadly disease called avian ganglioneuritis, which can make it dangerous for human owners to plan in-person parrot playdates.


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Bacon

FDA approves genetically modified pork for super market shelves

Katie Daviscourt
The Post Millennial
Fri, 12 May 2023 00:00 UTC
pig/meat
© unknownModified: Pig and Meat
The GMO pork will be sold as German-style sausages and reportedly provides adequate nutrition for human consumption...

It looks like Americans will never have to worry about a shortage of "sausage" as the sale of genetically modified pigs has officially been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Scientists at Washington State University developed the altered pork by using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, which takes DNA seen as more "desirable" and aritifically injects that DNA into other livestock, Daily Mail reports.

The GMO pork will be sold as German-style sausages and reportedly provides adequate nutrition for human consumption.

Washington State University professor Jon Oatley, who led the research on this project, explained that the project's critical goal was to not only improve the quality of meat but also the ability for livestock to thrive in harsh environments, something he says will help increase protein sources in countries that are underdeveloped, the outlet reports. He said:
"The original intent in making these animals was to try to improve the way that we feed people. And we can't do that unless we can work with the FDA system to get these animals actually into the food chain."
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Question

Mysterious, ultra low-frequency noises detected in Earth's atmosphere — and scientists can't explain them

Ben Turner
Live Science
Sat, 13 May 2023 11:35 UTC
Solar-powered balloons detected strange rumblings at a height of 70,000 feet above the Earth's surface. Scientists can't identify them.
stratosphere
© GettyAn image of the cloud-filled stratosphere from space.
Solar-powered balloons launched into the Earth's stratosphere have recorded a series of mysterious rumblings, and scientists can't pinpoint their origins.

The noises, detected by specialized instruments at 70,000 feet above the Earth's surface, are known as infrasound because they are so low-pitched they are inaudible to human ears. Picked out from among a wash of hidden low-frequency sounds — including thunder, ocean waves, rocket launches, cities, wind turbines and even planes, trains and automobiles — the strange infrasounds have so far defied explanation.

"[In the stratosphere,] there are mysterious infrasound signals that occur a few times per hour on some flights, but the source of these is completely unknown," lead investigator Daniel Bowman, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, said in a statement.

Beginning around 9 miles (14.5 km) above the Earth's surface and extending upwards to a height of roughly 31 miles (50 km), the stratosphere is the layer of atmosphere above our own. Filled with ultraviolet-blocking ozone, the stratosphere is a calm place, with little turbulence. The majority of sounds at this altitude originate from ultra low-frequency reverberations from the Earth's surface.
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Cassiopaea

Best of the Web: Moon mystery: China, Japan scientists have no answers for space gear disappearances

Peter Aitken
Fox News
Sat, 13 May 2023 00:24 UTC
japan space
© Natsuko Fukue/AFP via Getty ImagesThis file photo taken on Sept. 26, 2018 shows Takeshi Hakamada, CEO of Japanese firm Ispace, holding a press conference to explain about the ipsace lunar lander and rover of its lunar program Hakuto-R in Tokyo.
China and Japan have addressed mysterious circumstances around disappearing space equipment, including a lunar lander that would have completed Japan's potential first successful moon landing.

"It has been determined that there is a high probability that the lander eventually made a hard landing on the moon's surface," Takeshi Hakamanda, founder and CEO of Japanese spaceflight company Ispace, said of the venture.

The company clarified shortly after that engineers had observed that the remaining propellant in the Hakuto-R spacecraft may have been "at the lower threshold and shortly afterward the descent speed rapidly increased," the New York Times reported.

Comment: See also:

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Info

New discoveries double number of 'irregular' Saturn moons, bringing total count to 145

Jeff Hetch
Sky & Telescope
Fri, 12 May 2023 19:18 UTC
The Minor Planet Center is announcing a bevy of new moons for Saturn that will bring its total to 145 (and break Jupiter's record).
Saturn's New Moons
© K LyThis diagram shows the present-day orbits of the 41 new moons published so far, color-coded by the direction of their orbits (blue for prograde, in the direction of Saturn's rotation, and red for retrograde). The diagram is shown to scale; the size of the Earth's moon's orbit is shown for comparison at lower left.
Saturn has reclaimed the record for most moons in the solar system with the discovery of 62 new moons. All are only a few kilometers in size and have orbits far from the planet that indicate their origin: Saturn captured these rocks at some point in the past.

As of press time, the Minor Planet Center (MPC) has published the orbits of 41 new moons in a series of announcements, called Minor Planet Electronic Circulars, issued between May 3rd and 10th. Brett Gladman (University of British Columbia, Canada) said May 11th that the center would release orbits for an additional 21 moons shortly. That will bring Saturn's total moon count to 145, including 24 "regular" moons, which formed around the planet, and 121 smaller, "irregular" moons on wide, elongated, and tilted orbits. The new reports more than double Saturn's number of irregular moons, leaving Saturn far ahead of Jupiter's 95 moons, which had put Jupiter in first place earlier this year.

The torrent of Saturnian discoveries comes from a series of observations that Edward Ashton (now at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan) and colleagues, including Gladman, made with the Canada France Hawaii Telescope from 2019 to 2021. Their initial goal was to study the sizes of moons orbiting Saturn, and in 2021 they reported the size distribution of the small irregular moons. The larger amount of smaller moons indicates a recent (100 million years ago) collision between two objects around Saturn. To record faint moons down to a couple kilometers in size, the group stacked series of images, a method used previously to search for moons around Uranus and Neptune, but not previously for Saturn.
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Info

Most powerful cosmic explosion spotted by astronomers

Ben Turner
Live Science
Thu, 11 May 2023 23:59 UTC
Astronomers have spotted a giant explosion releasing over 100 times more energy than the sun will release across its entire lifetime. A monster black hole is likely to blame.
Black Hole
© John A. PaiceAn artist's impression of a black hole sucking in a cloud of hydrogen gas.
Astronomers have spotted the most powerful cosmic explosion ever seen — a mysterious, years-long eruption 10 times brighter than any observed supernova.

Astronomers spotted the event, named AT2021lwx, 8 billion light-years from Earth. Releasing roughly 100 times the energy the sun will release over its entire lifetime, the strange explosion burst into activity when the universe was 6 billion years old.

"We came upon this by chance, as it was flagged by our search algorithm when we were searching for a type of supernova," study lead author Philip Wiseman, an astronomer at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said in a statement. "Most supernovae and tidal disruption events [bright flashes that occur when black holes tear apart wandering stars] only last for a couple of months before fading away. For something to be bright for two plus years was immediately very unusual."

The cause of the mysterious explosion is unclear, but astronomers think it's most likely the result of a gigantic cloud of hydrogen gas thousands of times larger than our sun being gobbled up by a supermassive black hole.
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Info

Entire colony of ants recorded 'feigning death'


University of South Australia
Thu, 04 May 2023 17:23 UTC
ants feigning death
© S. 'Topa' PetitPolyrhachis femorata ants feigning death.
They're well known for their industrious work, but now a species of ant on Kangaroo Island is also showing that it is skilled at 'playing dead', a behaviour that University of South Australia researchers believe is a recorded world first.

Accidentally discovered as researchers were checking pygmy-possum and bat nest boxes on Kangaroo Island, a colony of Polyrhachis femorata ants appeared to be dead... until one moved.

Researchers believe the ants were 'playing dead' as a defensive strategy to avoid potential danger.

Published by CSIRO, this is the first time that a whole colony of ants has been recorded feigning death, and the first record of the Polyrhachis femorata ant species for South Australia.

Wildlife ecologist, UniSA's Associate Professor S. 'Topa' Petit, says she was surprised to discover a colony of what appeared to be dead ants in one of the nest boxes.

"The mimicry was perfect," Assoc Professor Petit says. "When we opened the box, we saw all these dead ants...and then one moved slightly.

"This sort of defensive immobility is known among only a few ant species - in individuals or specific casts - but we don't know of other instances when it's been observed for entire colonies.

"In some of the boxes containing colonies of Polyrhachis femorata, some individuals took a while to stop moving, and others didn't stop. The triggers for the behaviour are difficult to understand."

Assoc Prof Petit says that nest boxes may present an opportunity to study the ants' death-feigning behaviours, which are of great interest to many behavioural ecologists investigating a diversity of animal species.
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Info

Archaeologists map hidden Northern Territory landscape


Flinders University
Fri, 05 May 2023 17:02 UTC
Sea Level Flooding Mangrove
© Flinders University
Scientists at Flinders University have used sub-surface imaging and aerial surveys to see through floodplains in the Red Lily Lagoon area of West Arnhem Land.

These ground-breaking methods showed how this important landscape in the Northern Territory was altered as sea levels rose about 8,000 years ago.

Their discovery shows that the ocean had reached this, now inland region, which has important implications for understanding the archaeological record of Madjedbebe — the oldest archaeological site in Australia.

The findings also provide a new way to understand the rock art in the region, which is recognised globally for its significance and distinctive style.

By examining how sediments now buried beneath the flood plains changed as sea levels rose, the researchers can see how the transformation of Red Lily Lagoon had resulted in the growth of mangroves that have supported animal and marine life in a region where ancient Indigenous rock art is located. This transformation has, in turn, fostered an environment that has inspired the subjects and animals in the ancient rock art.

In their findings published in in the scientific journal PLOS ONE today, the researchers say environmental changes at the lagoon are reflected in the rock art because fish, crocodiles and birds were featured in the art when the floodplain transformed to support freshwater habitats for new species.
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Blue Planet

Scientists discover secret 'symmetries' that protect Earth from the chaos of space

Anna Demming
Live Science
Tue, 09 May 2023 21:15 UTC
inner solar system
© BlenderTimer / PixabayThe inner solar system should be a chaotic mess, according to physical models. New research could explain its relative stability.
Earth probably shouldn't exist.

That's because the orbits of the inner solar system planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are chaotic, and models have suggested that these inner planets should have crashed into each other by now. And yet, that hasn't happened.

New research published May 3 in the journal Physical Review X (opens in new tab) may finally explain why.

Through a deep plunge into the models for planetary motion, the researchers discovered that the motions of the inner planets are constrained by certain parameters that act as a tether that inhibits the system's chaos. Besides providing a mathematical explanation for the apparent harmony in our solar system, the new study's insights may help scientists understand the trajectories of exoplanets surrounding other stars.
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Satellite

James Webb Space Telescope reveals young star Fomalhaut's disk In unprecedented detail

Kit Gilchrist
Sky & Telescope
Mon, 08 May 2023 19:46 UTC
Fomalhaut dust rings young star JWST
© NASA / ESA / CSA / A. Pagan (STScI) / A. Gáspár (University of Arizona)This image of the dusty debris disk surrounding the young star Fomalhaut is from JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument. It reveals an inner belt, akin to the solar system's asteroid belt but dustier and more extended; an intermediate belt; and a previously imaged outer belt that's analogous to our Kuiper Belt. The inner two belts had never been imaged before.
Continuing its run of ground-breaking discoveries, the James Webb Space Telescope has snapped the clearest images yet of the dusty disk around the young star Fomalhaut.

Fomalhaut, a bright, young star 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus, illuminates a disk of planet-forming debris. Such debris disks contain clues about exoplanets and even smaller bodies that would otherwise remain hidden.

András Gáspár (University of Arizona) and his team present in Nature Astronomy images of the Fomalhaut system taken by the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The images reach a resolution and sensitivity far beyond the capability of earlier instruments. The team also analyzed new images taken by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, in which the star's light is blocked using a coronagraph.

Previously, Hubble, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and other telescopes have shown a far-out debris ring surrounding Fomalhaut that's akin to the Kuiper Belt in our solar system. Analysis of the system's brightness at different wavelengths had also suggested the presence of a dusty inner disk. Now, the new JWST images reveal unprecedented detail, including a new belt inside the first, an extended inner disk, and a gap between the two. They also show what might be a dust cloud in the outer, previously detected ring.
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