They get a lot of smack, but wild boars are actually helping forest biodiversity
zmescience.com – Some forests have strong allies in wild boars.
Source: Wildlife disturbances as a source of conspecific negative density-dependent mortality in tropical trees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, .
Una partícula diminuta podría alterar las leyes de la física
nytimes.com – No es el próximo bosón de Higgs, todavía. Pero la mejor explicación, según los físicos, tiene que ver con formas de materia y energía no conocidas actualmente por la ciencia.
Source: Sz. Borsanyi, et al. Leading hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic moment from lattice QCD. Nature, 2021.
Our ancestors left Africa both with and without modern brains
arstechnica.com – The genus Homo originated with a brain that still had ape-like features.
Source: Marcia S. Ponce de León, et al. The primitive brain of early Homo. Science, 2021.
Our brain is hard-wired to make life more complicated rather than simple. Here’s a simple lifehack
zmescience.com – Scientists found that people are biased against subtractive solutions.
Source: Gabrielle S. Adams, Benjamin A. Converse, Andrew H. Hales, Leidy E. Klotz. People systematically overlook subtractive changes. Nature, 2021.
Why do gorillas beat their chest? New study shows they don’t ‘bluff’
zmescience.com – Male gorillas beat their chest to signal dominance to other males, but also their reproductive value to females.
Source: Edward Wright, et al. Chest beats as an honest signal of body size in male mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei). Scientific Reports, 2021.
'Tantalizing' results of 2 experiments defy physics rulebook
nbcnews.com – Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works.
Source: LHCb collaboration, et al. Test of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays. arXiv, 2021.
These viruses are the most likely to trigger the next pandemic, according to scientists
livescience.com – A new online tool ranks viruses by their potential to jump from animals to people and cause pandemics.
Source: Zoë L. Grange, et al. Ranking the risk of animal-to-human spillover for newly discovered viruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021.
Brain Organoids Grown in a Tiny 3D-Printed System
azom.com – Scientists from MIT and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras have grown small amounts of self-organizing brain tissue, known as organoids, in a tiny 3D-printed system that allows observation while they grow and develop.
Source: Ikram Khan, et al. A low-cost 3D printed microfluidic bioreactor and imaging chamber for live-organoid imaging. Biomicrofluidics, 2021.
Prior to the Chicxulub impact, rainforests looked very different
arstechnica.com – Plant fossils from Colombia show a turnover from conifers to today's forests.
Source: Mónica R. Carvalho, et al. Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern Neotropical rainforests. Science, 2021.
The Type of Material and Fabric Layer Amount in COVID-19 Masks Matter
azom.com – A new study by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has found that wearing a face mask can safeguard a person and others from Covid-19, but the kind of material and how many fabric layers are utilized can considerably influence the risk of exposure.
Source: Taekyu Joo, et al. Evaluation of Particle Filtration Efficiency of Commercially Available Materials for Homemade Face Mask Usage. Aerosol Science and Technology, 2021.
Mysterious X-rays are flaring out of Uranus
livescience.com – Uranus is always full of surprises.
Source: W. R. Dunn, et al. A Low Signal Detection of X‐Rays From Uranus. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 2021.
