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Bonobos, unlike humans and chimpanzees focus on bonding instead of danger

Bob Yirka
Phys.org
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
bonobos
© Finbarr O'Reilly / Reuters
A small team of researchers in The Netherlands has found that Bonobos, unlike humans and chimpanzees, tend to focus more on feel-good images than on images featuring danger or aggression. In their paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team describes experiments they conducted with several captive bonobos and what they learned about both the bonobos and us humans.

Bonobos are apes that look very much like chimpanzees, but unlike chimps, they are rarely aggressive, preferring to settle their differences by engaging in non-reproductive sexual encounters and other bonding experiences. Bonobos are also different from chimps and humans in that they live in a matriarchal-type society—the females run things. Because of their gentle good nature, bonobos have been the subject of much study, as we humans try to understand why we are so much more violent.

Comment: Buddy, Can You Spare a Banana? Study Finds That Bonobos Share Like Humans

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Telescope

Astronomers see unexpected daily changes in Ceres' bright spots


EarthSky
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
Ceres bright spots

Artist’s concept of Ceres bright spots, based on a detailed map of the surface compiled from images taken from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft. The very bright patches of material are in Ceres’ crater Occator; altogether, astronomers have seen some 130 bright spots on Ceres.
Astronomers using a telescope in Chile have seen unexpected daily changes on Ceres' famous bright spots, suggesting they change under the influence of sunlight.

Astronomers have seen unexpected changes in the dwarf planet Ceres' famous bright spots. The most prominent of the Ceres bright spots lie inside the crater Occator, but there are many bright spots on this little world. One group of astronomers said in December they are likely salt deposits. The spots appeared eye-catchingly strange to the cameras of the Dawn spacecraft when it began orbiting Ceres in March, 2015. Now astronomers on Earth have found ingenious ways to study the bright spots, too, and new work suggests that the spots brighten during the day and also show other variations. These observations suggest that the material of the spots is volatile and evaporates in the warm glow of sunlight.

The work suggests that Ceres may be a much more active world than most of its asteroid neighbors. The new study's lead author, astronomer Paolo Molaro, said:
As soon as the Dawn spacecraft revealed the mysterious bright spots on the surface of Ceres, I immediately thought of the possible measurable effects from Earth. As Ceres rotates the spots approach the Earth and then recede again, which affects the spectrum of the reflected sunlight arriving at Earth.

Comment: Is it possible that Ceres' bright spots might be electric in nature?


For more information on the electric universe theory, read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

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Family

Science explains non-identical identical twins

Colin Moran
The Conversation
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 19:49 UTC
twins
Newspapers recently went wild with a story about identical twin sisters with a difference: they weren't identical. Like all identical twins, Amelia and Jasmine arose from a single fertilised egg so have identical DNA, but somehow look different from each other.

One child has dark skin, black hair and brown eyes while the other has fair skin, light-brown hair and blue eyes. How is this possible? Have the doctors or scientists got it wrong?

No one has got it wrong. They really are identical twins. While this is a rare event - the doctors were as surprised as anyone - genetic and epigenetic research tells us that it is possible. In fact, it is likely to be the result of common biological processes that are going on inside all of us all of the time - although, typically, with less visually striking effects.

Comment: See also:

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Sun

No green stars - here's why

Phil Plait
Slate
Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:12 UTC
green sun
Go outside on a dark, moonless night. Look up. Is it December or January? Check out Betelgeuse, glowing dully red at Orion's shoulder, and Rigel, a laser blue at his knee. A month later, yellow Capella rides high in Auriga.

Is it July? Find Vega, a sapphire in Lyra, or Antares, the orange-red heart of Scorpius.

In fact, any time of the year you can find colors in the sky. Most stars look white, but the brightest ones show color. Red, orange, yellow, blue... almost all the colors of the rainbow. But hey, wait a sec. Where are the green stars? Shouldn't we see them?

Nope. It's a very common question, but in fact we don't see any green stars at all. Here's why.
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Bulb

Researchers develop a $9 gadget that detects viruses in a matter of minutes

Mae Chan
Prevent Disease
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:56 UTC
virus
Japanese electronics giant Toshiba in collaboration with Osaka University has developed a sensor that detects infectious viruses in minutes compared to existing technologies that take eight hours.

Faster diagnosis will help not only in preventing the development of severe symptoms but will also reduce the possibility of contagion.

"Think about how many methods of treatment exist today, both holistic and conventional, which can prevent the spread of viruses. This technology will allow the average person to begin prevention protocols almost immediately once they are aware of the viral infection," said Dr. Thomas Chastanga commenting on the media release.

Comment: Considering that humans are populated with viruses even when not ill, how accurate can this kit be?

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Info

Bacteria have been evolving resistance to copper's antibacterial properties since the Bronze Age

Misti Crane
Phys.org
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 00:00 UTC
bacterial resistance copper
© Researchers say bacteria have been developing copper resistance for thousands of years. Photo by Juan Gaertner/Shutterstock
Researchers say bacteria have been developing copper resistance for thousands of years.
Human use of copper dating back to the Bronze Age has shaped the evolution of bacteria, leading to bugs that are highly resistant to the metal's antibacterial properties.

Large amounts of copper are toxic to people and to most living cells. But our immune systems use some copper to fend off bacteria that could make us sick.

More copper in the environment leads to more bacteria, including E. coli, that develop a genetic resistance. And that could pose an increased infection risk for people, said Jason Slot, who directed a new copper-resistance study and is assistant professor of plant pathology at The Ohio State University.

Today, copper is widely used, including in animal feed and to make hospital equipment - areas that could be particularly conducive to bacteria developing even greater resistance, Slot said.
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Black Cat 2

Paint it black hole: World's darkest material now available as spray paint


RT
Thu, 17 Mar 2016 03:13 UTC
Vantablack
© surreynanosystems.com
The world's blackest material, Vantablack, is now available in spray paint form, expanding its capabilities beyond the space and defense industries into the imagination of the commercial sector to turn 3D objects into non-reflective 2D "black holes."TrendsViral

The spray on version, Vantablack S-VIS will be easier to apply than the original and can be used on larger, more complex objects made up of a wider variety of materials.

Vantablack, which is made from carbon nanotubes, was created two years ago by UK company Surrey NanoSystems and traps 99.965 percent of incoming light - making three dimensional objects appear two dimensional.

Comment: Neato!

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Galaxy

Black hole's 'feeding frenzy' produces light flashes as bright as 1,000 suns


RT
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 02:07 UTC
black hole energy emissions
© NASA/Reuters
30 British astronomers report the brightest black hole flare in recent years, as they observe red flashes erupting with the power of a thousand suns.

The flashes of light, which lasted no more than a fraction of a second, were seen emitting from a black hole named V404 Cygni, 7,800 light-years from Earth.

The jets of intense optical flare emitted by the black hole were very short in duration, approximately 10 times faster than the average human blink, but each had an immense power output.

The impressive spectacle was captured in July 2015. Scientists have been studying the explosive eruptions ever since.

V404 Cygni was the first definite black hole to be identified in the galaxy and appears vividly when it is actively consuming surrounding material.

Astronomers had been observing this particular black hole as it brightened dramatically while devouring an orbiting companion star.
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Cow Skull

An impossible find: Fragments of dinosaur DNA may be preserved in pregnant T. rex


RT
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 21:17 UTC
T-rex skeleton
© Pawel Kopczynski/Reuters
The original skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton is shown at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany December 16, 2015.
Scientists believe there may be fragments of dinosaur DNA preserved in a pregnant T. rex found in Montana. The 68 million-year-old find may also shed light on the evolution of egg-laying and dinosaur gender differences.

"We have some evidence that fragments of DNA may be preserved in dinosaur fossils, but this remains to be tested further." assistant research professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, Lindsay Zanno, told Discovery News.

The T. rex in question has retained its medullary bone, proving it was pregnant. The medullary bone is only present during egg laying and it could possibly retain preserved DNA.

Zanno explained how the medullary bone functions during egg laying:
It's a special tissue that is built up as easily mobilized calcium storage just before egg laying," she said. "The outcome is that birds do not have to pull calcium from the main part of their bones in order to shell eggs, weakening their bones the way crocodiles do.
It's a tricky bone to find. "You'd have to cut up a lot of dinosaur bones to have a good chance of finding this," Sarah Werning of the University of California, Berkeley explained. One would have to cut open fossils, potentially demineralizing them - not something researchers would normally voluntarily do.

However this pregnant T. rex's femur was already broken when the team that discovered the medullary bone received it.

Scientists were able to identify the medullary bone because of a material, found to be consistent with known medullary tissues from ostriches and chickens - keratan sulfate.
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Calculator

Fermat's Last Theorem solved by Oxford professor


Voice of America
Wed, 16 Mar 2016 15:18 UTC
Professor Andrew John Wiles
© Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press
Princeton University mathematics professor Andrew John Wiles poses next to "Fermat's Last Theorem" written on a chalkboard in his Princeton, N.J., office Tuesday, Jan. 6, 1998.
A British mathematician has won the Abel Prize in math for solving an ancient math theorem.

On Tuesday, Andrew Wiles was given the award, which is considered the Nobel Prize of math, by Norway's Academy of Science and Letters.

The academy said Wiles was chosen "for his stunning proof of (French mathematician Pierre de) Fermat's Last Theorem by way of the modularity conjecture for semi-stable elliptic curves, opening a new era in number theory."

Wiles solved the problem in 1994 at the age of 62. Fermat's Last Theorem, posited in 1637, "was the most famous, and long-running, unsolved problem in the subject's history."

Wiles told The Guardian newspaper that he discovered the theorem at the age of 10.

"What amazed me was that there were some unsolved problems that someone who was 10 years old could understand and even try. And I tried it throughout my teenage years," Wiles told The Guardian. "When I first went to college I thought I had a proof, but it turned out to be wrong."

Wiles' work has been described as an "epochal moment" and has allowed researchers to advance the study of mathematics in new ways.

In addition to the prestige, Wiles will receive $710,000 at the award ceremony May 24 in Oslo.
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