The mountain ridge on Iapetus has been a mystery since 2004. New simulations suggest it formed from rocky debris falling at shallow angles, which would allow for material to move down range and clump up into a continuous mountain range. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
Moons in the solar system come in many different forms. Some are boulder-sized, while one is larger than the planet Mercury. Some are mixtures of rock and iron, while others hide oceans and rocky cores under icy surface ...read more
Requisitioned from farmers, blitzed with anthrax-laden bombs in the 1940s, and made inhospitable to human and animal life for decades, the tiny Scottish island of Gruinard now serves as home to a flock of healthy sheep and a disreputable monument to the birth of biological warfare. The research conducted at Gruinard during the second World War was the very first of its kind, providing proof of concept of a natural microorganism that could be massively weaponized to inflict environmental damage a ...read more
A proud badger sits atop the calf it buried over the course of five days.
Badgers don’t mess around. Of course, we already knew that, but researchers in Utah say they’ve found further proof of the American badger’s industrious ways while studying scavenger behavior in Utah’s Great Basin Desert.
To watch how scavengers behave around a carcass, Evan Buechley, a doctoral candidate at the university rounded up calf remains and staked them out in the desert under t ...read more
The “Resistor Hat.” (Credit: Heidi Arjes/craftimism via Instagram)
These days, a march on Washington, D.C. isn’t complete without the requisite headwear.
Heidi Arjes, a microbiology postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and knitting enthusiast, is combining two of her passions to help science advocates make a bold statement during the upcoming March for Science on April 22.
Arjes, who identifies herself as both an optimist and a yarn addict, started “science-knitti ...read more
If you think house hunting is hard, consider the plight of this snail. It lives only in tide pools in southern Japan. Within those tide pools, it only lives in holes carved out of rock—specifically, holes dug by sea urchins. But it can only move into one of those holes after the hole-digging urchin has moved out. When a second, differently shaped sea urchin moves into the hole, it leaves a gap between its spiny body and the wall of the burrow. It’s this ...read more
A Panther drone en route during a delivery trial run. Credit: Advanced Tactics Inc.
A four-wheeled drone’s first aerial package delivery test showed off a special touch by also driving up to the doorstep of its pretend customer. That capability to deliver by both air and land makes the Panther drone an unusual competitor in the crowded drone delivery space. But the drone’s limited delivery range may pose a challenge in competing against the delivery drones of Go ...read more
A tadpole with its eye transplanted to the tail. (Credit: Blackiston et. al)
A migraine drug has given tadpoles the ability to see out of eyes in their tails.
Researchers at Tuft’s University transplanted the eyes of young African clawed frog tadpoles from their heads to their tails in an effort to study how their nervous system would adapt. They gave some of them the drug zolmitriptan, commonly used to treat migraines, and left others alone. Although nerves are often hesitant to gr ...read more
Meiacanthus atrodorsalis—a pretty little fish with a venomous bite. Photo by Klaus Stiefel via Flickr
“Did you tell her the one about George Losey and the blenny?” Rich Pyle asked with a knowing smirk. Pyle and I were sitting in the living room of legendary ichthyologist Jack Randall for a piece I was writing about him for Hakai Magazine. “It’s a good venom story,” Pyle continued, grinning.
Randall’s eyes lit up with mischievious joy ...read more
