Anthropology: Early Humans Anthropology: General Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Zoology Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Half a billion-year-old spiny slug reveals the origins of mollusks      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, cone-shaped spines. The fossils preserve exceptionally rare detailed features which reveal that these spines were produced using a sophisticated secretion system that is shared with annelids (earthworms and relatives).

Anthropology: General Mathematics: Statistics Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published

Modern behavior explains prehistoric economies      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

What if the 'Market Economy' always existed? Archaeologists tried to answer this question by researching how much Bronze Age people used to spend to sustain their daily lives. Their results show that, starting at least 3,500 years ago, the spending habits of prehistoric Europeans were not substantially different from what they are today.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature
Published

Researchers explore cancer susceptibility in birds      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In one of the largest studies of cancer susceptibility across bird species, researchers describe an intriguing relationship between reproductive rates and cancer susceptibility.

Computer Science: General Computer Science: Quantum Computers Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Bright prospects for engineering quantum light      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Computers benefit greatly from being connected to the internet, so we might ask: What good is a quantum computer without a quantum internet?

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Botany Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Microbiology Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems
Published

Scientists discover entirely new wood type that could be highly efficient at carbon storage      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers undertaking an evolutionary survey of the microscopic structure of wood from some of the world's most iconic trees and shrubs have discovered an entirely new type of wood.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Cell Biology Biology: General Chemistry: Biochemistry Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals Physics: Optics
Published

Super-black wood can improve telescopes, optical devices and consumer goods      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Thanks to an accidental discovery, researchers have created a new super-black material that absorbs almost all light, opening potential applications in fine jewelry, solar cells and precision optical devices.

Mathematics: Modeling Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Breaking MAD: Generative AI could break the internet, researchers find      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have found that training successive generations of generative artificial intelligence models on synthetic data gives rise to self-consuming feedback loops.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Platypus and chicken reveal how chromosomes balance between the sexes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Geneticists uncover new insights into how sex chromosome systems work in the platypus and the chicken -- which will lead to better understandings of our own sex chromosome evolution and gene regulation.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Microbiology Biology: Molecular Environmental: General Environmental: Water Geoscience: Environmental Issues Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: General Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

How researchers turn bacteria into cellulose-producing mini-factories      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have modified certain bacteria with UV light so that they produce more cellulose. The basis for this is a new approach with which the researchers generate thousands of bacterial variants and select those that have developed into the most productive.

Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineering: Robotics Research Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General
Published

Shape-shifting 'transformer bots' inspired by origami      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, engineers have discovered a way to make a single plastic cubed structure transform into more than 1,000 configurations using only three active motors.

Biology: Botany Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Zoology Ecology: Nature Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Scientists untangle interactions between the Earth's early life forms and the environment over 500 million years      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history.

Anthropology: General Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Evolutionary Biology: Zoology Ecology: Extinction Ecology: Nature Ecology: Trees Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: General
Published

The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Biotechnology Biology: Cell Biology Biology: Developmental Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Genetics Biology: Molecular Offbeat: General Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published

Lampreys possess a 'jaw-dropping' evolutionary origin      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Lampreys are one of only two living jawless vertebrates Jaws are formed by a key stem cell population called the neural crest New research reveals the gene regulatory changes that may explain morphological differences between jawed and jawless vertebrates.

Biology: Biochemistry Biology: Evolutionary Biology: General Biology: Zoology
Published

Size doesn't matter for mammals with more complex brains      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Mammals that have evolved more developed brains tend to have a smaller size difference between males and females of that species, according to new research.

Computer Science: General Computer Science: Quantum Computers Offbeat: Computers and Math Offbeat: General Physics: General Physics: Quantum Computing Physics: Quantum Physics
Published

Spin qubits go trampolining      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers have developed somersaulting spin qubits for universal quantum logic. This achievement may enable efficient control of large semiconductor qubit arrays. The research group recently published their demonstration of hopping spins and somersaulting spins.