Category: Science Tidbits

We wish all reading this a Happy New Year and hope your year is off to a great start. We organized articles we found interesting by category (many correspond to existing sections of our academy (and are in bold).

Anthropology

• Viking dentistry was surprisingly advanced.

Astronomy

• NASA is using both Mars and Earth to test future Mars helicopter designs. “On Mars, you have the real off-world conditions you could never truly re-create here on Earth.”

Entomology

• Earliest-Known Fossil Mosquito Found in Lebanese Amber. The males of this species also appear to have fed on blood.
• As insect populations decline, some plants are becoming self-pollinating. This study was based on field pansies near Paris, France.

Geology

• 407-Million-Years-Old Microfossils Reveal Earliest-Known Disease-Causing Fungus. During the early Devonian Epoch.
• Most rare earths on Earth? Wyoming mine could soon be ranked number one for critical minerals. “Beyond raw volume, the Halleck Creek deposits are additionally valuable because of their unique composition and relative purity,…”

Herpetology

• Ongoing harlequin toad declines suggest the amphibian extinction crisis is still an emergency. Most species are threatened with extinction.
• Tiny fanged frog discovered in Southeast Asia (Sulawesi)
• Women in herpetology project highlights 50 stories from around the world.

Ichthyology

• Validation of the Use of Otoliths to Estimate Age and Growth of Larval Lake Whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis.

Things that make us go hmmm…

• Humans see brown eyed dogs as less threatening. We may have influenced the evolution of dog eye color.

Here are some of the articles we encountered recently. We organized them by category (many correspond to existing sections of our academy (and are in bold).

Anthropology

• Mesopotamian Bricks Reveal Anomaly In Earth’s Magnetic Field 3,000 Years Ago. Researchers examined 32 clay bricks inscribed with the names of 12 kings. Iron oxide grains in the tablets retain the direction and strength of the magnetic field when the bricks were fired. We encourage you to read the article to learn more.
• America’s native population arises from a single wave of Asian migration, suggest dental anthropologists. “For more than 50 years, dental anthropologists have studied variation in the shape of human teeth to study the patterns of migration that people took as they populated the world.” Results from these studies indicate that Native Americans came from one population which split from East Asian populations at one time.

Astronomy

• Sky This Month: December 2023. Jupiter is near its best for the year. Much more information is found in this article.

Entomology

• Beetle elytra: evolution, modifications and biological functions. This article is a synopsis of information concerning the hardened fore wings of beetles. Yes, very in depth, but a good overview of our present state of knowledge.
• Tap-dancing spider rediscovered after disappearing for 92 years. In Portugal of all places.

Geology

• Drones capture new clues about how water shapes mountain ranges over time. Penn State scientists used drones to map rock properties in central Taiwan.
• New unified theory shows how past landscapes drove the evolution of Earth’s rich diversity of life. This article discusses sediment “pulses” which affect the amount of biodiversity. Interesting read (if you are interested).

Herpetology

• The radiation continuum and the evolution of frog diversity. Over 1,200 frog species across 43 families are examined in this research paper.

Ichthyology

• A global biodiversity tipping point as first marine fish extinction declared. “The Java Stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) was known only from a single specimen collected in 1862 from a fish market in Jakarta, Indonesia.”

Things that make us go hmmm…

• Scientists claim they’ve had a 20 minute conversation with a WHALE – and say it could pave the way for conversations with aliens someday. Scientists (from SETI and UC Davis) had a 20 minute conversation with a humpback whale in SE Alaska recently. “In the absence of any aliens, the researchers hope to use whales to develop strategies for non-human communication.” What do you think?