This SMART BARN helps scientists study animal movement #science #animalbehavior

From Science Magazine. The Scalable Multimodal Arena for Real-time Tracking of Behavior of Animals in laRge Numbers (SMART BARN) is outfitted with cutting edge tracking and imaging technology to study collective behavior in animals. Research/Figures/Footage: Nagy et al. Science Advances 2023 Photo: NASA Music: Southbeats/Looperman Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adf8068

These meat-eating plants won the evolutionary jackpot

From Science Magazine. Carnivorous plants have evolved all kinds of traps and tricks to capture their prey, from the snapping jaws of Venus flytraps to the slippery walls of pitcher plants. While we often think of evolution as a process driven by strong selective pressure and big payoffs, researchers recently found that doesn’t always have…

How researchers push and pull metal for cleaner cooling

From Science Magazine. Read the paper here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg7043 Traditional cooling devices like air conditioners rely on refrigerants that can harmful to humans and the environment. Materials scientist Ichiro Takeuchi and his research group have developed a cooling device free of typical toxic refrigerants, instead relying on a physical property of certain metal alloys. These alloys…

How AI is pushing medical robotics toward autonomy

From Science Magazine. Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in medical robots are bringing a new era to medicine. Advanced medical robots can perform diagnostic and surgical procedures, aid rehabilitation, and provide prosthetics to replace limbs. The combination of extraordinary advances in robotics, medicine, materials science, and computing could bring safer, more efficient, and more widely available…

Slow motion tongues offer a snapshot of evolution

From Science Magazine. Read the article: https://www.science.org/content/article/how-tongue-shaped-life-on-earth An early interest in reptile feeding behavior led evolutionary biologist Kurt Schwenk to study the tongues of lizards. Like Charles Darwin’s finches, the various forms and functions of lizard tongues help piece together the story how the diversity of reptiles and amphibians evolved. In this video he explains…

Here’s how much water lakes around the world have lost

From Science Magazine. Some of the most notable lakes in the world, from the Great Salt Lake to Poyang Lake, have shrunk dramatically in recent decades. But because most lakes lack long-term, on-the-ground measurements, it was hard to say whether this was a widespread phenomenon. Now, researchers have published a first-of-its-kind data set to look…

Quakes and blasts help scientists understand Earth’s elusive inner core

From Science Magazine. Read the story: https://www.science.org/content/article/scientists-probing-secrets-earths-inner-core-saved-life-planet About the size of Pluto, Earth’s inner core is made of solid iron and helps power the magnetic field that protects life from harmful space radiation. For more than a century, seismic waves have helped researchers identify and characterize the core’s properties. Science reporter Paul Voosen wrote about…

Honey bees perfect their waggle dances by learning from elders

From Science Magazine. Read the paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ade1702 Read the Perspective: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg6020 The waggle dance performed by honey bees is a complex behavior that communicates directional information. In a recent paper, researchers demonstrated that younger bees learn critical parts of this dance from older, more experienced bees. Bees that learn without the benefit of teachers have…

How the Tonga volcanic eruption rippled through the earth, ocean and atmosphere

From Science Magazine. *This video has been re-published to correct the frequency range of infrasound, and the chemical structure of water. Read the papers: "Atmospheric waves and global seismoacoustic observations of the January 2022 Hunga eruption, Tonga" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo7063 "Water vapor injection into the stratosphere by Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai" https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq2299 "Global fast-traveling tsunamis driven by atmospheric…