Science Tidbits – Peoria Academy of Science

Periodic tidbits about science

December 19, 2023January 9, 2024 Mark

We frequently encounter articles and news regarding science. We thought that we would begin sharing these articles (with a little commentary). Hence, the name – science tidbits. We will try to arrange these by date (with the most current on top).

We enjoy reading your comments. This is the easiest way for us to know we are supplying information you want. Make certain you click on any of the linked articles (usually with a title of Week of…). Once you have the specific post open, you should see a comment area near the bottom.

Week of March 25, 2024

March 25, 2024March 19, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

Ancient stone tools found in Ukraine date to over 1 million years ago, and may be oldest in Europe.

Astronomy

Astronomers find the corpse of a galaxy early in the universe. A galaxy that stopped forming stars 13 billion years ago gives astronomers their oldest peek at a dead galaxy through the James Webb Space Telescope’s snapshot of it just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

Entomology

Study finds wild bees are developing tolerance to veterinary drugs. Insects ingest ivermectin along with pollen in Colombian pastures.
Experts buy insect from collector — and accidentally find species not seen in 150 years. South American bush cricket last seen in 1862.

Geology

Giant sea lizard Khinjaria had teeth like daggers. They dominated the seas about 66 million years ago.

Things that make us go hmmm…

Researchers Solve Mystery of The Sea Creature That Evolved Eyes All Over Its Shell. Lots of interesting information about chitons.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments section. We plan to periodically update these tidbits moving forward, but not as frequently as we have not been receiving many comments and insights from visitors. We really need to know what you find interesting.

Week of March 18, 2024

March 18, 2024March 11, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

Neanderthals Used Glue to Make Stone Tools 40,000 Years Ago. A mixture of ochre and bitumen.

Astronomy

We Finally Know What Turned The Lights on at The Dawn of Time. Small dwarf galaxies flared to life.
The Great Wall is full of galaxies 15 million lightyears thick, stretching 500 million lightyears across the Universe.

Entomology

Living species of daddy longlegs has two additional sets of underdeveloped eyes as embryos. Fossilized specimen found in 2014 had another set of lateral eyes.
‘Frozen behaviors’ in amber fossils: How to reconstruct mating behavior of long-extinct termites. 38 million years ago, this pair got trapped in resin.

Geology

An abundant sea anemone from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek Lagerstӓtte, USA. This paper won an award for best publication of 2023. Previously thought of as jellyfish.

Week of March 11, 2024

March 11, 2024March 4, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

Ancient Megalithic Structure Older Than The Egyptian Pyramids Discovered In The Peruvian Andes. “Dated to around 2,750 B.C., using radiocarbon dating techniques, the circular stone plaza was built using massive vertical stones placed in upright positions. This construction method is similar to other ancient sites from the ancient world, like Stonehenge, which is approximately the same age as the newly discovered stone plaza. However, the researchers say it is a construction style “previously unseen” in the Andes.”

Astronomy

Life on Mars could have thrived near active volcanoes and an ancient mile-deep lake. “…crustal changes behind these newly discovered volcanic features are analogous to a step that Earth took on its own evolutionary pathway toward plate tectonics more than 2.5 billion years ago.”

Entomology

People and pollution responsible for downfall of nighttime pollination, study says. Pollution reduces the scent signals from flowers.

Geology

What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? Scientists now have an answer. Low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions for 57 million years.
Volcano That Blasted Seawater into the Stratosphere May Have Damaged Ozone Layer.
A Huge Italian Volcano Could Be Ready to Erupt. “Italy’s Campi Flegrei volcano has caused thousands of recent earthquakes and pushed up the ground, worrying 1.3 million residents.”

Herpetology

‘Magnificent creatures’: New photos show largest anaconda ever recorded. 20.8 feet long. Impressive.

Ichthyology

New Species of Rare Fish Discovered in Japan Has Everyone Captivated. It is the Skeleton Panda Sea Squirt.
Meet Methuselah, The World’s Oldest Living Aquarium Fish. She is at least 93 years old.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the

Week of March 4, 2024

March 4, 2024February 20, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

Stunning rock art site reveals that humans settled the Colombian Amazon 13,000 years ago.

Astronomy

Water Detected on The Surface of Asteroids For The First Time Ever. “Data captured by SOFIA – the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy which retired in 2022 – has revealed water on asteroids Iris and Massalia.”
The universe is much older than scientists previously believed, study finds. This calculation arrives at an age of 26.7 billion years.

Entomology

Winged ‘fairy’ creature preserved inside amber belongs to ‘enigmatic’ new species. Japanese amber. Specimen found in 1993.
When the double brood of cicadas will come out – and what to expect. Lots of interesting information (including reference to periodical cicadas in India and Fiji).

Geology

New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in China. This animal lived between 72 and 66 million years ago (late Cretaceous).

Herpetology

New Crocodile Species Discovered — and Its Last Meal Was a Dinosaur. From Cretaceous formation in Australia.

Ichthyology

380 million year old fossil fish breathed through holes on top of head. Fossil discovered in Australia (roughly 200 km west of Alice Springs).

Things that make us go hmmm…

Houston Zoo makes ‘world’s tiniest neck brace’ for rare insect. Peruvian jumping stick. Brace made with a Q-tip.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments. We look forward to your insights as to what else we should be discussing on a weekly basis.

Week of February 26, 2024

February 26, 2024February 15, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

Ancient rock art in Argentinian cave may have transmitted information across 100 generations. Art is said to be 8,200 years old.

Astronomy

After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends. NASA has proven controlled flight is possible on other worlds. 72 flights and flew 14 times farther than planned.

Entomology

Weevils found in Philippine rainforest ‘almost like discovering a dodo bird.’ Two species of weevil – 1 new, 1 thought to be extinct.
Diving bell spider: The only aquatic arachnid that creates a web underwater to live in. Did you know males of this species occasionally gobble up females in reverse sexual cannibalism?
Researchers discover that blocking an essential nutrient inhibits malaria parasite growth. This prevents the malaria parasite from scavenging fatty acids.

Geology

Researchers uncover source rocks of the first real continents. “A major hurdle in understanding how the continents formed during the Archean Eon (4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago) has been identifying the building blocks of Earth’s early crust.”
A newly identified ‘Hell chicken’ species suggests dinosaurs weren’t sliding toward extinction before the fateful asteroid hit. The focus of this research is in the Hell Creek Formation during the final 2 million years of the Cretaceous.

Ichthyology

Young Salmon in British Columbia Are Getting Bigger. Juveniles are about 20% larger as the climate has warmed.

Week of February 19, 2024

February 19, 2024February 12, 2024 Mark

Here are some articles we found interesting as we perused various feeds this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

New DNA testing reveals who made ancient stone tools. Some of the earliest known members of our species were in Germany roughly 45,000 years ago.

Astronomy

Last total solar eclipse in US until 2045 could be even more unique due to solar maximum. higher chance for solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

Entomology

Child Naturalist Discovers a Giant New Stick Insect Then Co-Authors the Paper and Names the Bug. New insect species from the island of Timor.
Stunning new species of moth with whip-like defensive mechanism discovered in Brazil. Resembles European puss moth.

Geology

Mystery solved: Why Earth became a frozen planet 700 million years ago. That “ice age” lasted 57 million years. Spoiler alert – historic low in volcanic CO₂ emissions.

Herpetology

New research discovers adult Komodo teeth are surprisingly similar to those of theropod dinosaurs. The research team discovered “the adult Komodo teeth were surprisingly similar to those of theropod dinosaurs, with the strongly recurved teeth of adults having serrated cutting edges that were strengthened by dentine cores.”

Week of February 12, 2024

February 12, 2024January 31, 2024 Mark

Did you know that today is the birthday of two very influential 19th century personas? Ok, Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809. Who else – Charles Darwin was also born on this day in 1809. Yes, they share the same birth date. Here are the articles we found interesting this week. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

90,000-year-old human footprints found on a Moroccan beach are some of the oldest and best preserved in the world. 85 human footprints found in 2022.

Entomology

Lions making fewer zebra kills due to ‘chain reaction’ involving invasive ants. Big-headed ants to be precise.
Are insects drawn to light? New research shows it’s confusion, not fatal attraction. They rely on light to know which way is up. Night sky is lighter than the surrounding landscape.
Western monarch butterflies overwintering in Calif. dropped by 30% last year. 230,000 instead of 330,000 in 2022. Still well below the millions of these in the 1980s.

Geology

Indian Tectonic Plate Is Peeling Apart, Splitting Tibet in Two as the Himalayan Mountains Continue To Grow. “The study presents evidence indicating that the Indian plate is indeed subducting, but concurrently, it is undergoing warping and tearing, leading to the upper half delaminating or peeling away. This revelation challenges previous assumptions about the behavior of continents and represents a groundbreaking insight in solid earth science.”

Herpetology

Flying reptiles ‘lived in pre-historic’ Somerset hills (UK). Closely related to ancestors of both crocodilians and dinosaurs. They would have fit in the palm of a hand. Fossils are roughly 200 million years old.

Things that make us go hmmm…

Bizarre Fossils Are Neither Plant Nor Animal, But a ‘Weird Fusion’ of Life. Were ancient Euglenid fossils identified as Pseudoschizaea shells? For those who don’t know – “Euglenids are a group of unicellular eukaryotes that gain energy through both photosynthesis, like a plant, and through consuming other beings, like an animal.” This seems like the sort of article one should review in celebrations of Darwin’s birthday today.
Life on Earth may have first sparked in shallow “soda lakes.” “The emergence of life requires high phosphate concentrations, far exceeding those found in natural water bodies like rivers, lakes, or oceans.”
‘Obelisks’: Entirely New Class of Life Has Been Found in The Human Digestive System. They appear to be a new class of “virus-like” objects.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments below. Again, we wish Abe and Charlie a very happy birthday.

Week of February 5, 2024

February 5, 2024January 25, 2024 Mark

We are hoping readers continue enjoying these snippets of information regarding what is happening in many areas of the natural sciences. Please let us know what additional areas you wish to learn about by posting in the comments. We try to keep these articles in categories related to existing sections of our Academy.

Anthropology

What Stone Age humans ate over 10,000 years ago revealed in new study. Based on ancient chewing gum analysis.

Astronomy

The universe is significantly older than scientists previously believed. Data analyzed from the James Webb Space Telescope now puts the age at 26.7 billion years. WOW!

Entomology

The World Hasn’t Seen Cicadas Like This Since 1803. Yes, Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States then. Miss this one and you will have to wait another 221 years. We should get ready to experience roughly 1 trillion cicadas.
Researchers observe tiny pseudoscorpion riding on a scorpion. And, both are myrmecophiles (associated with ant colonies).

Herpetology

Tiny frog that lives its whole life inside one plant. They are an new species to science and live in bromeliad plants on top of a Brazilian mountain.
Watch chameleon erupt in color ‘as if uttering her last words’ in her final moments before death. Rather sad, but death is a part of life.

Ichthyology

Was Megalodon Slimmer Than Previously Thought? New study based on their backbone.
Largest deep-sea coral reef to date is mapped by scientists off the US Atlantic coast. Stretches hundreds of miles off U.S. Atlantic coast.

Things that make us go hmmm…

Biology or technology: Which moves more information per second? “If we recognize information as an essential component of life and also see life as a planetary-scale process, a question arises: How can we combine those two perspectives to understand information on planetary scales?”
These videos show (nearly) exactly how animals see the world. “Thanks to open-source cameras, we can now see the natural world through the eyes of animals with over 90 per cent accuracy.”

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments below.

Week of January 29, 2024

January 29, 2024January 22, 2024 Mark

Astronomy

A Massive Amount of Water Ice Has Been Found on Mars, Lurking Beneath The Equator. It appears there is as much water present as can be found in Earth’s Red Sea.

Entomology

The 48-hour cycle of the large black chafer beetle. This beetle is out of synch with those of us on a 24 hour cycle. Interesting article.
Fossilized eggs at Oregon national monument baffle researchers — until now. Grasshopper eggs. Amazing.
Mystery Snakeworm New to Science Discovered in Alaska in ‘X-Files Case’ – it’s a gnat – the larvae travel in a line to avoid dehydration when crossing dry terrain. Wow.

Geology

This is the oldest fossilized reptile skin ever found — it pre-dates the dinosaurs. Permian based petroleum helped preserve bits of hide.
One Of Earth’s Rarest Minerals Found Thanks To A 75-Year-Old Letter. Humboldtine is known only from 30 locations worldwide.

Herpetology

These Australian frogs get absolutely covered in seeds. This is a rare documented instance of seed dispersal by an amphibian.

Ichthyology

Unexpected diversity found in California’s lamprey fish. 2 potential new species.

Things that make us go hmmm…

Predictable Evolution? Groundbreaking Study Upends Long-Held View. “This study marks a significant leap in our understanding of evolutionary processes, offering a new lens through which scientists can tackle some of the most pressing real-world issues…”

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments below.

Week of January 22, 2024

January 22, 2024January 19, 2024 Mark

Anthropology

Czech and Slovak archaeologists discover ancient Mayan city in Guatemala.

Astronomy

The reason why planets are round explained. Short answer – gravity, of course. But there is more to the story.

Entomology

Cicadas Are Coming in 2024 in a Rare ‘Double Brood.’ Here Are the 15 States Where the Invasion Is Happening. Yes, this is happening in central Illinois as well.

Geology

New Species of Sauropod Dinosaur Discovered in Argentina. Roughly 20 meters in length and weighing over 15 tons. Found in Late Cretaceous rocks (over 90 million years old).
Tectonic plate under Tibet may be splitting in two.
Newfound T. rex relative was an even bigger apex predator.

Things that make us go hmmm…

Wrens Teach Their Babies to Sing Before They’re Hatched. Australian researchers first noticed fairywren females were singing to their unhatched eggs over a decade ago.
Incredible Drone Footage Reveals Humpback Whales Creating A Fibonacci Spiral. Bubble net feeding at its finest.

And… That concludes our review of interesting articles this week. Please let us know your thoughts by posting in the comments below.