In November 2013, a four-year-old captive beluga whale moved to a new home. She had been living in a facility with other belugas. But in her new pool, the Koktebel dolphinarium in Crimea, her only companions were dolphins. The whale adapted quickly: she started imitating the unique whistles of the dolphins, and stopped making a signature beluga call altogether.
“The first appearance of the beluga in the dolphinarium caused a fright in the dolphins,” write Elena ...read more
Anthropologist Teresea Fernandez-Crespo examined megaliths, or stone burial sites, in north-central Spain to learn more about how farmers lived in the Late Neolithic. (Teresea Fernandez-Crespo)
We’ve heard how great times used to be, and I don’t mean in 1950s America.
For eons, our hunter-gatherer ancestors shared their spoils with one another, didn’t own much and had very little social hierarchy. Sure, it wasn’t all kumbaya and high-fives. But the fact that individuals ...read more
A New Zealand tui (Credit: Auckland Photo News)
Birds are territorial creatures, and they’ll passionately defend their chosen area from unwanted intrusions. For some songbirds, it doesn’t even take a physical breach to draw their ire — if you’re a lovely singer, they’ll attack.
New Zealand’s tui songbirds certainly aren’t doing the “jealous performer” stereotype any good. Males of the species will fend off rival males encroac ...read more
Back in May I discussed a paper published in PNAS which, I claimed, was using scientific terminology in a sloppy way. The authors, Pearce et al., used the word “neuropeptides” to refer to six molecules, but three of them weren’t neuropeptides at all. The authors acknowledged this minor error and issued a correction.
Now, it emerges that there may be more serious problems with the PNAS paper. In a letter published last week, researchers Patrick Jern and colleagues say that the ...read more
A pit on the moon’s surface. (Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
Turn-of-the-century science fiction posited the existence of aliens living deep within the surface of the moon.
Someday, those subterranean creatures could very well be us.
New data from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has uncovered a 30-mile-long cave under the moon’s surface, likely the relic of lava flows on the surface. Though the existence of lava tubes isn’t something new, th ...read more
Is this dog soooo in love with you, asking for another treat, or just panting from the heat and slurping up its own drool? New research suggests dogs’ facial expressions are an attempt at communicating with us. (Credit Lars Curfs/Wikimedia Commons)
Hey dog owners, you’re not imagining it: Researchers think your pooch may be trying to say something with a pout or pleading eyes.
Everyone who lives with dogs may be rolling their eyes right about now and saying &ldq ...read more
(Credit: Shuttershock)
We’ve seen drones modeled after geckos, insects and if you’ve watched Black Mirror there’s no way you can forget the massive bee drone swarms. Now, scientists are looking to one of nature’s best fliers, the albatross, for tips to help drones fly longer distances.
The albatross is one of the world’s largest living birds, with a wingspan of up to 11 feet across. It can fly hundreds of miles in just one day, while exerting ve ...read more
