In a lab mouse version of The Truman Show, researchers from Harvard Medical School constructed a little world for a new paper. An eight-inch-wide platform raised 20 inches off the ground stood at the center, covered in mouse bedding. All around curved a tall LED screen, blank until a white, disorienting stripe flashed to one side or the other.The researchers were looking for head direction cells in the mouse, which act as an inner compass in the brains of humans, insects, animals and fish. While ...read more

In the animal kingdom, the general rule is the larger you are the longer you live. Elephants and whales are some of the longest living groups of animals on the planet, and they are respectively the largest organisms on land and in the ocean. Conversely, mice, and other rodents tend to experience much shorter lifespans. However, one strange counterexample is the contrast in lifespan among different sized dog breeds. It is well-known that large dogs don’t live as long as their smaller relatives. ...read more

[embedded content]On Aug. 16, 2020, a lightning strike sparked a wildfire at Cima Dome in the Mojave Desert and burned about 1.3 million Joshua trees, leaving behind a standing graveyard of the iconic trees. “They take hundreds of years to get to the size that they are,” says Bri Montoro, a project manager with the Nevada Conservation Corps, in the video. “Seeing them burnt is beautiful and devastating.”Drew Kaiser, a botanist with the Mojave National Preserve, watched the habitat burn i ...read more

When actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with aphasia in the spring of 2022, it ignited interest in what exactly the condition is and how it affects those who have it. While Willis later received a more specific diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia in February of this year, the two conditions are closely linked.Primary Progressive AphasiaIn general, aphasia is classified as a neurogenic language disorder that causes a loss of language — both the ability to produce language and the ability to unde ...read more

Chytridiomycosis, the most destructive disease to ever affect vertebrates, moves swiftly. As a doomsday disease affecting amphibians, it often begins when a microscopic zoospore propelled by a squiggly flagellum tail collides with the skin of a frog. From there, it penetrates the tissue and through a complex process widens the infection and produces new zoospores.The disease tends to affect the keratin-producing skin in the frog’s groin and legs and throws off the amphibian’s normal regulati ...read more

According to the myth, handsome Narcissus once gazed at himself in a pool of water and fell in love with his own reflection, a self-obsession that would ultimately doom him.While we can be grateful to this cautionary tale for inspiring the term narcissism, it seems a tad unfair for us to fault one Greek youth for being fascinated by his own appearance. After all, humans have been obsessed with their reflections for millennia, and that obsession would trigger the development of one of the greates ...read more

What's more appetizing than a mouthful of fluffy feathers? Not much, apparently, for a rare type of arthropod from the planet's remote past.That's because around 105 million years ago, ancient beetles fed on the feathers of the dinosaurs. In fact, fossilized remains trapped in amber recently revealed this relationship between the arthropods and the theropods, according to a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.(Credit: CN IGME-CSIC) The larval molts of the beetles w ...read more

Recently, Kobi Gal, an AI researcher at Ben-Gurion University and the University of Edinburgh, asked GPT4 to generate messages for SciStarter, based on self-determination theory (the motivation behind people's choices). Kobi and his team created an AI-powered recommendation system for SciStarter as described here, here, and here.And here are the motivation messages from GPT4 based on Self-Determination Theory to motivate SciStarter.org volunteers:Autonomy: "As a SciStarter.org volunteer, you ha ...read more

Just minutes into his latest six-part docuseries The End is Nye, Bill Nye gets drenched in a rainstorm. Later on, a hurricane sends him hurtling into a car’s windshield. In a later episode, he explodes in a fiery inferno after being struck by debris from a wayward comet. Don’t worry: Nye, the science educator and engineer who became a household name in the 90’s thanks to his much-loved Bill Nye the Science Guy show, meets his (fictional) demise in every single episode. In a recent intervie ...read more

Decades of conflicting reports seem to have finally resolved into a clear, buzz-killing picture, while yet another study confirms it: No amount of alcohol consumption will protect against disease or extend your lifespan, according to a sweeping review published in late March.The meta-analysis, printed in the Journal of the American Medical Association, draws on more than a hundred studies involving nearly 5 million people.The researchers found that just 25 grams a day for women and 45 for men � ...read more