72331249
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sciencehabit writes:
Mice and rats communicate in the ultrasonic frequency range, and it’s thought that cats evolved the ability to hear those high-pitched squeaks to better hunt their prey. Now, a new study suggests that sensitivity to higher pitched sounds may cause seizures in some older cats. After receiving reports of the problem, nicknamed the “Tom and Jerry syndrome” because of how the cartoon cat is often startled by sounds, researchers surveyed cat owners and examined their pets’ medical records, looking for insight into the types and durations of seizures and the sounds that provoked them. In 96 cats, they found evidence of the syndrome they call feline audiogenic reflex seizures. The most common types of seizure-eliciting sounds included crinkling tinfoil, clanking a metal spoon on a ceramic feeding bowl, and clinking glass. The severity of the seizure ranged from brief muscle jerks to more serious episodes where the cat lost consciousness and stiffened and jerked for several minutes.
72324435
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sciencehabit writes:
Researchers have found a way to deliver gene-activating molecules called transcription factors into specific tissues of a living animal for the first time. The approach, which many have written off as too technically challenging, prevented a form of liver damage in mice—though it has many more technical hurdles to clear before it can be used in other tissues, or in people.
72208873
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sciencehabit writes:
Underneath the bubbling geysers and hot springs of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming sits a volcanic hot spot that has driven some of the largest eruptions on Earth. Geoscientists have now completely imaged the subterranean plumbing system and have found not just one, but two magma chambers underneath the giant volcano.
72204673
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sciencehabit writes:
Despite Benjamin Franklin's best efforts with a kite and a key, the phenomenon of lightning remains a scientific enigma. Now, researchers have developed a new tool that could help them solve some of lightning’s mysteries. By using cosmic rays, space-traveling particles that constantly rain down on our atmosphere, scientists report they can peek inside thunderstorms and measure their electric fields, helping them pinpoint the conditions that cause storms' electrical outbursts. The advance could help researchers predict more precisely when and where lightning is most likely to strike and get people out of harm's way in time.
72200099
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sciencehabit writes:
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has taken its first stab at quantifying the hazard from earthquakes associated with oil and gas development. The assessment, released in a preliminary report today, identifies 17 areas in eight states with elevated seismic hazard. And geologists now say that such induced earthquakes could potentially be large, up to magnitude 7, which is big enough to cause buildings to collapse and widespread damage.
72176123
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sciencehabit writes:
A British graduate student says he’s found a way to tell the difference between male and female stegosaurs, and perhaps dinosaurs in general. But critics are already attacking the study’s methodology and ethics. “I would have rejected this paper on a number of grounds,” says Kevin Padian, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
72162051
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sciencehabit writes:
For the first time, astronomers have detected visible starlight reflecting off a planet orbiting a distant star. The telescope used in the discovery was too small to tell scientists much new about the previously discovered planet. But astronomers say the new technique used promises to reveal much more when combined with better spectrographs and bigger telescopes now in the works. “The ultimate goal is to characterize a planet like Earth,” says team leader Jorge Martins of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Porto, Portugal.
72162037
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sciencehabit writes:
Physicists have long known that charged particles like electrons will spiral in a magnetic field and give off radiation. But nobody had ever detected the radio waves emanating from a single whirling electron—until now. The striking new technique researchers used to do it might someday help particle physicists answer a question that has vexed them for decades: How much does a ghostly particle called the neutrino weigh?
72134783
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sciencehabit writes:
If you see vultures circling overhead, it doesn’t mean you’re about to die—in fact, you could just be near a power plant. The large, bald-headed birds float on rising currents of warm air known as thermals, which they use to soar high into the sky without beating their wings, thereby saving energy. Now, scientists have shown that vultures also use air currents from power plants to get a lift. Thermal power plants, which produce power through steam, generate stronger and hotter thermals than those that occur naturally, making for an extra speedy vulture elevator. The authors suggest that new thermal power plants should be built more than 20 kilometers from airports, and air traffic controllers should alter flight paths to avoid existing ones.
72134589
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sciencehabit writes:
Science has just learned that a New York court has backtracked on a judicial order that received worldwide attention today. The order--a writ of habeas corpus for two research chimps--would have recognized the animals as legal persons for the first time in U.S. history. Late this afternoon, however, the court released an amended order with the words "habeas corpus" struck out. It looks like chimp personhood is off the table for now.
72106023
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sciencehabit writes:
In a decision that effectively recognizes chimpanzees as legal persons for the first time, a New York judge today granted a pair of Stony Brook University lab animals the right to have their day in court. The ruling marks the first time in U.S. history that an animal has been covered by a writ of habeus corpus, which typically allows human prisoners to challenge their detention. The judicial action could force the university, which is believed to be holding the chimps, to release the primates, and could sway additional judges to do the same with other research animals.
72097415
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sciencehabit writes:
In the 2014 sci-fi movie Interstellar (pictured above), a cataclysmic blight has wiped out the world’s wheat, forcing astronauts to hunt for another habitable planet. A new study on barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), a wheat and cereal crop disease, shows that this fictional dystopia carries more than a few grains of truth. In lab tests, higher carbon dioxide boosted the reproduction of BYDV in wheat crops by 37%—the first time the gas has been shown to spur a plant virus. Heftier viral infections mean a wider range of spread, the team reports, suggesting a future where wheat faces more severe attacks from BYDV.
72096203
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sciencehabit writes:
What are the oldest fossils on Earth? For a long time, a 3.46-billion-year-old rock from Western Australia seemed to hold the record. A 1993 Science paper suggested that the Apex chert contained tiny, wormy structures that could have been fossilized cell walls of some of the world’s first cyanobacteria. But now there is more evidence that these structures have nothing to do with life. The elongated filaments were instead created by minerals forming in hydrothermal systems, researchers report. After the minerals were formed, carbon glommed on to the edges, leaving behind an organic signature that looked suspiciously like cell walls.
72095399
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sciencehabit writes:
In 2010, divers recovered a trove of untouched 170-year-old champagne in a Baltic Sea shipwreck. Now, scientists have studied the sparkling wine's chemical composition and performed aroma and taste analyses to reveal details about the champagne-making process in times past. Tasters described the aroma of the champagne—likely the oldest ever imbibed—as spicy, smoky, and leathery. At 9% alcohol by volume, it was significantly less alcoholic than the modern version, which contains about 12% alcohol, likely due to a less efficient fermentation process. The researchers also found traces of chemicals from wood, suggesting that the champagne was fermented in barrels. Nuclear magnetic resonance measurements indicated that the bubbly, which was more sugary than the modern version, had likely been sweetened with grape syrup. The champagne had low levels of acetic acid, a marker of spoiled wine, indicating that it was well preserved. But the aged drink had lost much of its fizz, containing much less carbon dioxide than modern champagne, likely because it had diffused out through the cork during its centuries under the sea.
71983009
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sciencehabit writes:
The beautiful color of a sunset might be more than just a pretty picture. It could be a signal to our bodies that it’s time to reset our internal clock, the biological ticktock that governs everything from sleep patterns to digestion. That’s the implication of a new study in mice that shows these small rodents use light’s changing color to set their own clocks, a finding that researchers expect will hold for humans, too.
