livescience--2020-10-24--Amazing images: The best science photos of the week

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can .
Along the way , we uncover some amazing and cool images .
Here you 'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week , and the remarkable stories behind them .
A ghostly white saucer hovers over the peaks of El Chaltén in southern Argentina .
It 's not aliens .
( Sorry … ) .
It 's just a friendly neighborhood `` UFO cloud '' — better known in meteorological circles as a .
This is relatively common in mountainous regions like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. , where high-speed winds ricochet over a tall peak , creating a distinct lens- or saucer-shaped cloud formation high in the sky .
The mountain deflects the wind , forcing it into a wave that crests over the mountaintop , dips down on the other side , then rises up again .
In the upward-moving parts of the wave , the air cools until it condenses into clouds .
When the air descends again on the downward-moving side of the wave , the cloud evaporates — resulting in a sculpted saucer shape @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Royal Meteorological Society 's ( RMS ) 2020 Weather Photographer of the Year contest .
For the other finalists and winners , .
Nothing cuddly about it A pair of aggressive male roar ferociously on the ground beneath a female perched in a tree , in the first-ever footage of panda courtship and mating in the wild .
In the tense standoff between the dominant , older male panda and an eager rival , the younger male eventually retreated , but when the female came down from her perch , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For weeks , the two males trailed her , their growling challenges becoming more frequent and culminating in another tense confrontation .
But a week later , when the female was finally ready to mate , just one suitor remained — the younger male .
Male pandas ' bellowing , scent marking and female `` hostage '' -holding are mating behaviors that may trigger ovulation in female pandas .
That could explain why pandas are so difficult to breed in captivity , in the absence of this male competition .
The footage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is part of the new PBS Nature documentary `` , '' premiering Wednesday ( Oct. 21 ) .
[ Read more : 1st-ever footage of giant pandas mating in the wild is not 'cute and cuddly ' ] A NASA spacecraft has really made a mess of things on the , and scientists are thrilled .
The spacecraft , NASA 's OSIRIS-REx probe , Tuesday afternoon ( Oct. 21 ) in the space agency 's first-ever attempt to collect samples of an asteroid .
It will take time to confirm if did , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but so far everything appears to have gone as planned .
At the moment of contact , which lasted just 6 seconds , the spacecraft fired off a puff of nitrogen gas to essentially blow tiny pieces of the 1,640-foot-wide ( 500 meters ) Bennu into its collection device .
When the first images reached Earth in the wee hours of this morning , scientists were jubilant .
`` The spacecraft 's performance was phenomenal , '' said Sandy Freund , OSIRIS-REx mission operations manager for Lockheed Martin , which built the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's first attempt to sample an asteroid in space made a mess .
It 's the best mess ever , scientists say . ]
Archaeologists in Peru have found the naturally mummified remains of five llamas that were sacrificed to the Incan gods about 500 years ago .
The mummified llamas are still adorned with the colorful strings , red paint and feathers that the Inca decorated them with before sending them to their deaths , likely by burying these animals alive .
The finding is so rare , that even though archaeologists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( also spelled Inka ) along the Pacific Coast of South America for more than a century , `` none of them have found anything like this , '' study lead researcher Lidio Valdez told Live Science .
Valdez and his colleagues found the mummified llamas ( Lama glama ) at Tambo Viejo , an archaeological site on the Pacific coast of Peru , in 2018 .
These sacrifices not only honored the gods , which the Inca associated with successful harvests , healthy herds and war victories , but also may have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local culture , because the sacrifices came along with a huge feast .
A grumpy-faced grouper named Mikko in a Finland aquarium was more down-in-the-mouth than usual , after the facility temporarily closed to the public due to the pandemic .
So the aquarium 's staff threw him a birthday party .
Mikko missed seeing human visitors at the Sea Life Helsinki 's Sea Lab ocean laboratory , because he had no fish companions in his tank ... due to the fact that he would n't stop eating them , an aquarium representative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Since the shutdown in the spring , Mikko 's caretakers noted that the already-solitary fish seemed listless and apathetic , though he was still physically healthy .
To cheer him up , they recently brought him a special treat to celebrate his 16th birthday : a salmon `` cake . ''
In a video on Oct. 12 , the birthday fish enthusiastically devoured the delicacy — and he did n't have to share it with anyone .
[ Read more : Famous fish that ate all his friends gets cheered up by 16th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your throat Scientists have discovered a new organ : a set of salivary glands set deep in the upper part of the throat .
This nasopharynx region — behind the — was not thought to host anything but microscopic , diffuse , salivary glands ; but the newly discovered set are about 1.5 inches ( 3.9 centimeters ) in length on average .
Because of their location over a piece of cartilage called the torus tubarius , the discoverers of these new glands have dubbed them the tubarial salivary glands .
The glands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ behind the nose and mouth , the researchers wrote online Sept. 23 in the journal .
The discovery was accidental .
Researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute were using a combination of and positron emission tomography ( PET ) scans to study .
Upon finding the glands , the researchers imaged 100 patients ( 99 of them men due to the focus on prostate cancer ) and found that all of them had the newly discovered glands .
[ Read more : Scientists discover new organ in the throat ] About 24 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the giant beast called needed a place to grow big before heading into the open ocean , so they swam around a coastal spot replete with easy-to-catch prey — a nursery in what is now South Carolina , according to new research .
Until now , scientists knew of just two fossil shark nurseries : a 10 million-year-old in Panama and a 5 million-year in Chile .
In addition to being the third such nursery , the new discovery is also the first nursery on record for Carcharocles angustidens , a megatoothed shark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 23 million years ago ) .
When the researchers examined one of the shark teeth from the nursery site , they found another surprise ; it came from the largest C. angustidens on record , according to an equation that calculates a shark 's body length based on its tooth size .
The new estimate changes the understanding of how big these ancient carnivores could get .
The mighty shark measured 29 feet ( 8.85 meters ) long .
Archaeologists have discovered a gigantic cat geoglyph adorning a hillside in southern Peru @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — a group of mysterious and enormous human-made outlines of animals , plants and fantastic figures in the desert dating to Pre-Columbian times — to be uncovered in recent years , according to Peru 's Ministry Of Culture .
The kitty , which looks like the most gigantic children 's doodle ever , was found while archaeologists with the Nazca-Palpa Management Plan , which is supported by the Ministry of Culture , were remodeling a natural viewpoint in the Pampa de Nazca , according to an Oct. 15 statement from the ministry .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ see the cat , because natural erosion on the hillside had almost erased the ancient feline outline .
However , after about a week 's worth of conservation , archaeologists restored the geoglyph , which dates to between about 200 B.C .
and 100 B.C.
, according to the ministry .
Biologists recently made a `` once-in-a-lifetime '' discovery of a bird that 's male on the right side and female on the left .
Researchers captured the bird , a rose-breasted grosbeak ( Pheucticus ludovicianus ) , at the Carnegie Museum of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an environmental research center in Rector , Pennsylvania .
Plumage colors usually signal if a grosbeak is male or female , but this bird has both sexes ' signature shades .
Scientists who captured the bird saw male coloration — pink wing `` pits , '' a red breast splash and black wing feathers — on the right side of its body .
But the bird 's left wing was browner and had yellow `` pits , '' a color combination found in females , museum representatives .
This condition , in which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ divided down the middle of its body , is called bilateral gynandromorphism .
In birds , is thought to stem from an error during egg formation .
Archaeologists have unearthed the rich burial of a sixth-century man thought to be an Anglo-Saxon warlord in southern England , after it was first discovered by metal detectorists .
The skeleton of the man , dubbed the `` Marlow Warlord '' after the Berkshire town near where the remains were found , was buried with several weapons , including a sword in a decorated scabbard .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ feet ( 1.8 meters ) tall at a time when the average male height in Britain was about 5 feet 7 inches ( 1.7 m ) .
The warlord 's sword is made of iron and is held in a decorated scabbard made of bronze , leather and wood .
The prominent burial site and the rich grave goods of the Marlow Warlord are evidence of his prestige , the researchers said .
• Earth from Above : 101 Stunning Images from Orbit • From Big Bang to Present : Snapshots of Our @ @ @

Each week at Live Science we find the most interesting and informative articles we can. Along the way, we uncover some amazing and cool images. Here you'll discover the most incredible photos we found this week, and the remarkable stories behind them.
Gargantuan "growlers"
(Image credit: RAF)
In July 2017, a gargantuan iceberg spanning five times the area of New York's five boroughs snapped off the coast of Antarctica and began to drift northward.
Though its edges have crumbled considerably since then, the iceberg — named A-68a — is still the largest on Earth , and it's currently barreling toward an island wildlife refuge in the South Atlantic Ocean. New aerial footage taken by the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force (RAF) reveals just what that island might be up against.
For starters, the RAF footage really drives home how massive this ice giant is. (As of early April, A-68a measured about 2,000 square miles, or 5,100 square kilometers, in area, Live Science previously reported ). The berg's steep walls tower 100 feet (30 meters) above the sea, according to RAF News , and are gouged with tunnels, fissures and caves. Huge chunks of ice, or "growlers," are rapidly cracking off on all sides, leaving behind a trail of debris that could impede boat traffic in the future.
[Read more: World's largest iceberg still barreling toward penguin habitat, new footage confirms ]
Clear head, nine arms, can't lose
(Image credit: Kyodo News via Getty Images)
A nine-armed octopus caught off Japan's coast nearly ended up being dinner, until the family preparing it noticed its extra limb and sent it to a museum instead, according to news sources. While unusual, this extra appendage — which wasn't fully formed, but a small offshoot on a regular arm — isn't unheard of in octopuses, said Michael Vecchione, an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., who was not involved with this octopus's discovery.
Octopuses are capable of regenerating their arms, but "sometimes regeneration doesn't work quite right," Vecchione told Live Science. "If an arm gets damaged, it might regenerate wrong; it could wind up with extra tissue growing out, and that extra tissue could turn into an arm."
The nine-armed oddity was caught in a trap with three other octopuses on Nov. 13 in Shizugawa Bay, in the northeastern town of Minamisanriku, Japan, according to The Mainichi , a Japanese newspaper.
[Read more: Rare 9-armed octopus found off Japan coast ]
The sound of a supernova
(Image credit: NASA)
In space, nobody can hear you scream — or explode, or collapse, or slowly collide with a neighboring galaxy. But now, thanks to a new " data sonification " program at NASA, you can at least get a sense of what some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe might sound like when converted to sound played by Earthly instruments.
To hear what that sounds like, we turn to NASA's Chandra X-ray center — which has been imaging distant galaxies with its Chandra X-ray observatory for 20 years now. In their new initiative, Chandra researchers have taken three iconic images from their archives and translated different frequencies of light into different pitches of sound.
The first video shows the crab nebula (a supernova remnant powered by a windy neutron star , shown above). In NASA's data sonification of the nebula, X-ray light (blue and white) is represented by brass instruments; optical light (purple) is played by string instruments; and infrared light (pink) is represented by woodwinds. The sounds converge near the center of the nebula, where a rapidly swirling pulsar is blasting gas and radiation in all directions. Listen to this cosmic symphony (and two others) at the link below.
[Read more: This is what a supernova sounds like, according to NASA ]
Pterosaur's missing cousin
(Image credit: Rodolfo Nogueira)
Nearly nothing is known about the family tree of pterosaurs — iconic reptiles that flew alongside the dinosaurs . These now-extinct beasts appear in the fossil record with already developed wings and senses adapted for flying, with researchers having nary a clue about their immediate evolutionary history.
But now, the pterosaur's family tree has a new branch; an enigmatic group of small reptiles, known as lagerpetids, might be the closest-known pterosaur relatives on record, the researchers of a new study say.
Unlike pterosaurs, however, lagerpetids did not fly. "Now, we have an idea of what a flightless pterosaur relative would look like," study co-researcher Sterling Nesbitt, an associate professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech, told Live Science.
[Read more: Missing link in pterosaur origins discovered ]
The changing face of ice
(Image credit: NOAA/Photo courtesy of Caitlin Bailey, GFOE, The Hidden Ocean 2016: Chukchi Borderlands)
From vanishing sea ice to blistering air temperatures to zombie fires , climate change is reshaping the Arctic. And that transformation may be permanent, researchers said on Tuesday (Dec. 8) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The Arctic has warmed and melted at an alarmingly accelerating pace over the last 15 years, and the impacts are accumulating so rapidly that "there's no reason to think that in 30 years anything will be as it is today," Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate specialist with the International Arctic Research Center (IARC) at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), said at the conference, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Tuesday.
This year's news was not good: June snow cover across the Eurasian Arctic was at its lowest in 54 years; coastal permafrost erosion is increasing; and glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland continued a trend "of significant ice loss," according to the report.
[Read more: Dramatic transformation of the Arctic landscape may be permanent ]
Starship down
(Image credit: SpaceX)
SpaceX's Starship spaceflight system just took a big step on its path to Mars. The latest Starship prototype, a shiny silver vehicle known as SN8, launched on an epic high-altitude test flight on Dec. 9, taking off at 5:45 p.m. EST from SpaceX's facility near the South Texas village of Boca Chica.
The goal was to soar about 7.8 miles (12.5 kilometers) into the sky, perform some complex aerial maneuvers — including a "belly flop" like the one the final Starship will perform when coming back to Earth on operational flights — and then land safely near the launch stand. The 165-foot-tall (50 meters) SN8 appeared to notch all of these big milestones, except for the final one: The vehicle hit its landing mark but came in too fast, exploding in a dramatic fireball 6 minutes and 42 seconds after liftoff.
SN8's rapid unplanned disassembly did nothing to dampen the spirits of SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, who was thrilled by the results of today's flight.
[Read more: SpaceX's Starship SN8 prototype soars on epic test launch, with explosive landing ]
Amazonian universe
Billions of lasers shot from a helicopter flying over the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest have detected a vast network of long-abandoned circular and rectangular-shaped villages dating from 1300 to 1700, a new study finds.
The round villages all had remarkably similar layouts, with elongated mounds circling a central plaza, like marks on a clock. "These latter elongated mounds, when seen from above, look like the rays of the sun, which gives them the common name of 'Sóis,'" the Portuguese word for "suns," the researchers wrote in the study.
The discovery is part of a new archaeological focus on the pre-Columbian Amazon. Within the past 20 years, researchers have learned that the rainforest's southern rim was home to a great diversity of soil-sculpting cultures that engineered the landscape before the Europeans arrived. Within the past decade, scientists have uncovered the remnants of so-called "mound villages," which are shaped as circles or rectangles, and connected by road networks.
[Read more: Archaeologists find vast network of Amazon villages laid out like the cosmos ]
The sky is falling
(Image credit: ESA)
Have you ever seen 40,000 shooting stars blaze across the sky at the same time?
If you'd like to, the European Space Agency (ESA) is offering you two options: Either stare at the night sky for about half a million years as our solar system drifts steadily through the Milky Way (some patience required) — or, watch a new 60-second time-lapse simulation of the same thing, courtesy of the ESA's Gaia space observatory.
In the new simulation, 40,000 stars — all located within 325 light-years of Earth's sun — whiz through space, leaving long trails of light behind them. Each point of light represents one real object in the Milky Way, and each shining trail shows that object's projected movement through the galaxy over the next 400,000 years. Brighter, faster streaks are located closer to our solar system, while dimmer, slower ones live much farther away.
[Read more: Epic time-lapse shows what the Milky Way will look like 400,000 years from now ]
Gold in the garden
(Image credit: © The Trustees of the British Museum)
A family in England was weeding their garden when they unearthed a valuable treasure — a buried hoard of gold coins dating back to the 1400s, depicting English monarchs from Edward IV to Henry VIII.
The hoard — a stash of 63 gold coins and one silver coin — contains money minted over a period of nearly 100 years, from the late 15th to the 16th centuries. Four of the coins feature Henry VIII and, curiously, one of the initials of three of his wives: Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
Upon finding the cache, the family, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, a county in southeastern England, notified the British Museum, which runs the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). This program partners with local people who find historical artifacts in the United Kingdom, so the findings can be documented and studied, the British Museum said in a statement Thursday (Dec. 10).
[Read more: Gold coin stash from time of Henry VIII found in English garden ]
Enigma of the deep
(Image credit: Florian Huber/WWF)
Divers trying to remove old fishing nets from the Baltic sea have accidentally stumbled on a Nazi code-making machine. The Enigma machine, as it's called, looks a bit like a typewriter. In fact, the diver who found the device on the ocean floor initially thought that's what the artifact was, according to AFP . But the diving team, on assignment for the conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), quickly realized that they had something much stranger.
During World War II, Enigma machines were used to encode German military messages, in hopes of preventing Allied powers from learning about troop movements and other plans. The devices consisted of a keyboard and a series of rotors that did the encoding. The rotors substituted different letters for the ones typed in; different Enigma machines used between three and eight rotors, which moved independently after each keystroke so that the same initial letter typed into the machine would appear as multiple different letters in the final code.
The Enigma machine found by the WWF diving crew was at the bottom of the Bay of Gelting in northeast Germany. It had three rotors, making it the type used on warships, not U-boats. That suggests that the machine may have been tossed overboard in the final days of World War II, in an attempt to keep the technology out of enemy hands, historian Jann Witt of the German Naval Association told the DPA news agency.
[Read more: Nazi 'Enigma' machine found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea ]
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-25--Do camels really have water in their humps?

To survive in the desert , camels store water in their humps , right ?
Not quite .
Although do have tricks to make the most of water they find , their humps are n't one of them .
So why do camels have humps on their backs ?
`` They deal with dry seasons when food and water is scarce , '' said Rick Schwartz , an animal care supervisor and national spokesperson at the San Diego Zoo .
When food is available , camels eat enough calories to build up their humps so they can survive long periods @ @ @ @ @ @ @ With a `` full '' hump , a camel can go up to four or even five months without food , Schwartz said .
When camels use up their fat , their empty humps flop over like a deflated balloon until they eat enough to `` inflate '' them again , Schwartz said .
Related : Why is water so essential for life ?
Camel calves are n't born with these fat deposits and do n't grow them while they are nursing .
`` All the energy they 're getting from mom is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' Schwartz told Live Science .
Young camels begin to wean when they are 4 to 6 months old , although their humps do n't start to form until they are 10 months to a year old .
`` But as the wild camels are dealing with the cycles of the seasons , they need to have some sort of hump within that first year , '' Schwartz said .
`` They have to make it through that first dry season . ''
There are two species of camels .
Bactrian camels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of western China and Central Asia , and they have two humps .
Arabian camels ( Camelus dromedarius ) are more common and have only one .
But as far as Schwartz is aware , the extra hump does not allow Bactrian camels to go longer without food .
Although many animals store fat around their stomachs and sides , camels pack on the pounds vertically .
One theory is that camels have a callus which they lay directly in the sand , and belly fat could make it harder to lay this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is that being tall and narrow , with fat stored in humps instead of around the sides , means camels are exposed to less sunlight and less heat .
Because camel humps store food , the dromedaries need other ways to cope with water scarcity .
For example , camels can can drink up to 30 gallons ( 114 liters ) of water in one sitting , they excrete dry feces to retain water , and their kidneys efficiently remove toxins from water in the body so they can retain as much as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ several other ways to make each drink of water go far , such as by catching moisture from every breath they exhale through their nose .
This incredible ability to make do with less water is `` probably why the myth came about that if they go so long without water , they must be storing water in the humps , '' Schwartz said .

To survive in the desert, camels store water in their humps, right? Not quite. Although camels do have tricks to make the most of water they find, their humps aren't one of them. So why do camels have humps on their backs?
The answer: fat storage.
"They deal with dry seasons when food and water is scarce," said Rick Schwartz, an animal care supervisor and national spokesperson at the San Diego Zoo. When food is available, camels eat enough calories to build up their humps so they can survive long periods of time when food is scarce. With a "full" hump, a camel can go up to four or even five months without food, Schwartz said. When camels use up their fat, their empty humps flop over like a deflated balloon until they eat enough to "inflate" them again, Schwartz said.
Related: Why is water so essential for life?
Camel calves aren't born with these fat deposits and don't grow them while they are nursing. "All the energy they're getting from mom is going to the growth of the body," Schwartz told Live Science. Young camels begin to wean when they are 4 to 6 months old, although their humps don't start to form until they are 10 months to a year old. "But as the wild camels are dealing with the cycles of the seasons, they need to have some sort of hump within that first year," Schwartz said. "They have to make it through that first dry season."
There are two species of camels. Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus) live in parts of western China and Central Asia, and they have two humps. Arabian camels (Camelus dromedarius) are more common and have only one. But as far as Schwartz is aware, the extra hump does not allow Bactrian camels to go longer without food.
Although many animals store fat around their stomachs and sides, camels pack on the pounds vertically. One theory is that camels have a stomach callus which they lay directly in the sand, and belly fat could make it harder to lay this way, Schwartz said. Another theory is that being tall and narrow, with fat stored in humps instead of around the sides, means camels are exposed to less sunlight and less heat.
Because camel humps store food, the dromedaries need other ways to cope with water scarcity. For example, camels can can drink up to 30 gallons (114 liters) of water in one sitting, they excrete dry feces to retain water, and their kidneys efficiently remove toxins from water in the body so they can retain as much as possible, Schwartz explained. Camels have several other ways to make each drink of water go far, such as by catching moisture from every breath they exhale through their nose.
This incredible ability to make do with less water is "probably why the myth came about that if they go so long without water, they must be storing water in the humps," Schwartz said.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-25--How the same tech in your Nintendo Wii is tracking wild and wily wolverines

For ecologists studying — mid-sized carnivores found across the boreal forest and Arctic tundra of North America , across Europe 's Nordic mainland , and throughout the Russian north — technology that you 'd find in a smartphone is offering an unparalleled glimpse of how these animals behave .
Twenty-five years ago , the only technology available to study wild wolverine behavior were collars that sent out a radio signal revealing an animal 's location .
Biologists would be lucky to locate a collared animal 50 times in a year , and they 'd actually see the animal only a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can attach a collar of similar weight to the animal and know what that creature is doing for every second of every day for months on end .
For that , we can thank the tri-axial accelerometer .
Related : 50 of the most endangered species on the planet While the name is a mouthful and sounds like something that you 'd see on a futuristic spaceship , the tri-axial accelerometer can be found in plenty of consumer devices .
Smart phones , exercise watches , and health monitors all use accelerometers to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three directions and storing the data over time .
Simple accelerometers differentiate when we are resting from when we are exercising ( and perhaps prod us to move a bit more ) .
More complex accelerometers can distinguish between specific activities .
Ever wonder how the Nintendo Wii knows that you 're hitting the virtual tennis ball ?
That 's an accelerometer .
Or how your smartphone knows how many steps you take , or when you 're driving a car ?
Accelerometer , again .
This technology also provides an exciting new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we get only brief glimpses into the lives of wild animals , particularly elusive ones like wolverines .
Now , we can attach an instrument to them — a kind of miniaturized smartphone , if you will — capable of tracking their behavior constantly for months on end .
Adapting accelerometer usage from people to wildlife was n't easy .
How do you get a device to understand when a wolverine is tearing apart a caribou , versus simply strolling across the Arctic tundra ?
In applications for humans , the tri-axial accelerometer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like walking , dancing , or exercising , which can then be applied to a smartphone app or Wii remote .
We found that parallel algorithms can be established for wildlife with the help of zoological parks , as we describe in our study detailed in the November issue of the journal .
The same technology that enabled mobile device engineers to train smartphones using data from people enabled us to train accelerometers to recognize behaviors of wild wolverines based on observations of captive animals .
For two weeks , we monitored three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ark , a wildlife park in Bohuslän , Sweden , devoted to conserving threatened and endangered species .
Every day , we recorded the times and durations of wolverines ' different behaviors .
We then extracted the accelerometer data in the lab and created an algorithm linking the data to actions such as running , resting , grooming , and eating , to name a few .
The exciting part was applying all of this to wolverines in the wild .
To do that , we equipped seven wolverines in Arctic Alaska with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months .
To ensure that the collars would eventually drop off , we attached them with `` rot-away '' strips that deteriorate steadily over that time .
When we recovered the instruments , we applied the algorithm we 'd developed to these wild wolverines , giving us an unprecedented window into their lives .
We 're still working through all the data , but we 've already learned that wolverines generally like to rest in the late afternoon and evening , beginning their patrols around midnight .
We 've also begun looking into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time they spend scanning their surroundings ) under different conditions , an important survival technique for an animal that is sometimes hunted and killed by .
The data could also reveal the impacts of and human infrastructure on wolverine behavior .
Moving forward , our ability to learn from tri-axial accelerometers will likely only grow , fueled by new developments for use in smart devices and home entertainment .
So , the next time you download the latest offering from the App store , remember that you just might be previewing the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Glass contributed this article to Live Science 's Expert Voices : Op-Ed & Insights .
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher .
This version of the article was originally published on Live Science .

For ecologists studying wolverines — mid-sized carnivores found across the boreal forest and Arctic tundra of North America, across Europe's Nordic mainland, and throughout the Russian north — technology that you'd find in a smartphone is offering an unparalleled glimpse of how these animals behave.
Twenty-five years ago, the only technology available to study wild wolverine behavior were collars that sent out a radio signal revealing an animal's location. Biologists would be lucky to locate a collared animal 50 times in a year, and they'd actually see the animal only a handful of times.
Today, we can attach a collar of similar weight to the animal and know what that creature is doing for every second of every day for months on end. For that, we can thank the tri-axial accelerometer.
Related: 50 of the most endangered species on the planet
While the name is a mouthful and sounds like something that you'd see on a futuristic spaceship, the tri-axial accelerometer can be found in plenty of consumer devices. Smart phones, exercise watches, and health monitors all use accelerometers to quantify daily activities by assessing movement in three directions and storing the data over time.
Simple accelerometers differentiate when we are resting from when we are exercising (and perhaps prod us to move a bit more). More complex accelerometers can distinguish between specific activities. Ever wonder how the Nintendo Wii knows that you're hitting the virtual tennis ball? That's an accelerometer. Or how your smartphone knows how many steps you take, or when you're driving a car? Accelerometer, again.
This technology also provides an exciting new tool for wildlife professionals. Normally, we get only brief glimpses into the lives of wild animals, particularly elusive ones like wolverines. Now, we can attach an instrument to them — a kind of miniaturized smartphone, if you will — capable of tracking their behavior constantly for months on end.
Adapting accelerometer usage from people to wildlife wasn't easy. How do you get a device to understand when a wolverine is tearing apart a caribou, versus simply strolling across the Arctic tundra? In applications for humans, the tri-axial accelerometer "learns" how to recognize actions like walking, dancing, or exercising, which can then be applied to a smartphone app or Wii remote.
We found that parallel algorithms can be established for wildlife with the help of zoological parks, as we describe in our study detailed in the November issue of the journal Ecological Informatics . The same technology that enabled mobile device engineers to train smartphones using data from people enabled us to train accelerometers to recognize behaviors of wild wolverines based on observations of captive animals.
For two weeks, we monitored three wolverines equipped with tri-axial accelerometers at Nordens Ark, a wildlife park in Bohuslän, Sweden, devoted to conserving threatened and endangered species. Every day, we recorded the times and durations of wolverines' different behaviors. We then extracted the accelerometer data in the lab and created an algorithm linking the data to actions such as running, resting, grooming, and eating, to name a few.
The exciting part was applying all of this to wolverines in the wild. To do that, we equipped seven wolverines in Arctic Alaska with GPS collars and accelerometers for approximately three months. To ensure that the collars would eventually drop off, we attached them with "rot-away" strips that deteriorate steadily over that time. When we recovered the instruments, we applied the algorithm we'd developed to these wild wolverines, giving us an unprecedented window into their lives.
We're still working through all the data, but we've already learned that wolverines generally like to rest in the late afternoon and evening, beginning their patrols around midnight. We've also begun looking into how vigilant they are (how much time they spend scanning their surroundings) under different conditions, an important survival technique for an animal that is sometimes hunted and killed by wolves . The data could also reveal the impacts of climate change and human infrastructure on wolverine behavior.
Moving forward, our ability to learn from tri-axial accelerometers will likely only grow, fueled by new developments for use in smart devices and home entertainment. So, the next time you download the latest offering from the App store, remember that you just might be previewing the next great technology for conservation.
Robards and Glass contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-26--The Milky Way's quiet, introverted monster won't spin

There 's a beast hiding at the center of the Milky Way , and it 's barely moving .
This supermassive black hole , Sagittarius A* ( SgrA* ) , has a mass 4.15 million times that of our sun .
It first revealed itself to scientists as a mysterious source of from the galaxy 's center back in 1931 ; but it was n't until 2002 that researchers confirmed the radio waves were coming from something massive and compact like a black hole —— a feat that earned them the 2020 .
Just days before the team learned about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group learned something new about the black hole : It 's spinning more slowly than a supermassive black hole should , moving less than ( possibly far less than ) 10 % of the speed of light .
Black holes , despite their awesome power , are extraordinarily simple objects .
All the distinguishing features of the matter that forms and feeds them gets lost in their infinitesimal singularities .
So every black hole in the galaxy can be described with just three numbers : mass , spin and charge .
Related : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theory of relativity in real life Once researchers locate a black hole in space , measuring the mass is pretty straightforward —— just check how strongly its mass is tugging on nearby objects .
To get the mass of SgrA* , scientists just observed its influence on the `` S-stars , '' a collection of the Milky Way 's innermost stars that get accelerated to incredible speeds as they whip around the black hole in tight orbits .
And researchers assume that , like most large objects in space , black holes do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaves spin as the remaining measurable feature of SgrA* , and now researchers think they have evidence that the supermassive is an unusually slow spinner .
First , as , a black hole 's event horizon —— the shadowy region within which not even light can escape the monster 's —— grows as it gains more mass , reaching further and further from the singularity of the black hole .
But as the black hole spins faster and faster , the event horizon shrinks .
Very fast-spinning black holes should have smaller event @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same mass .
Second , spin is thought to play a role in the two white-hot jets of matter that sometimes launch into space at incredible speeds from a black hole 's axis of rotation .
Most Milky Way-sized galaxies have supermassive black holes at their center , and often these galaxies have enormous jets visible bursting from their cores .
But the Milky Way has no visible jets .
That on its own implies that SgrA* probably is n't spinning very fast .
Researchers think that a fast-spinning black hole stirs up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outside its event horizon , accelerating some of that matter to burst out as a jet .
What scientists know about the quiet SgrA* already suggests it either has a small accretion disk , is barely spinning , or both .
In a new paper , a team of researchers attempted to measure SgrA* 's spin .
Once again , they relied on the visible S-stars to learn what their big dark companion is doing .
Right now , the researchers found , the S-stars circle SgrA* on two orbital planes .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the black hole and view the system from the side , they 'd form an X. SgrA* must be spinning at a rate less than 10 % of the speed of light , they found , because any faster movement would have knocked the S-stars out of their X-shaped orbital planes by now .
That 's because those orbits , the researchers wrote , are likely as old as the S-stars themselves .
The stars still follow the orbits they were born with .
If SgrA* were spinning very fast , that would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What would happen if you fell into a black hole ?
When heavy objects spin very fast in space , that spin influences anything in orbit around them .
Over time , that massive object tugs on the orbits of those smaller objects , making them line up more and more with the rotating object 's own direction of spin .
The slower the spin is , the weaker the effect , and the longer it takes for those objects to line up in orbit around their hefty chief .
The stars are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noticeably tugged on them if it were very strong .
With their orbits as pristine as the day they were born , the S-stars strongly suggest an upper speed limit for SgrA* at just one-tenth the speed of light .
And it may be spinning much slower .
This result also would explain why SgrA* does n't seem to have any visible jets , they wrote .
A first close-up image of SgrA* 's shadow , expected to come in the near future from another research team , should help confirm this , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Oct. 1 in .

An image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows molecular gas clouds around the region where the Milky Way's central, supermassive black hole is known to exist. That region, highlighted in red, looks dark and silent.
There's a beast hiding at the center of the Milky Way, and it's barely moving.
This supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A* (SgrA*), has a mass 4.15 million times that of our sun. It first revealed itself to scientists as a mysterious source of radio waves from the galaxy's center back in 1931; but it wasn't until 2002 that researchers confirmed the radio waves were coming from something massive and compact like a black hole — a feat that earned them the 2020 Nobel Prize in physics . Just days before the team learned about their Nobel on Oct. 6, another group learned something new about the black hole: It's spinning more slowly than a supermassive black hole should, moving less than (possibly far less than) 10% of the speed of light.
Black holes, despite their awesome power, are extraordinarily simple objects. All the distinguishing features of the matter that forms and feeds them gets lost in their infinitesimal singularities. So every black hole in the galaxy can be described with just three numbers: mass, spin and charge.
Related: 8 ways you can see Einstein's theory of relativity in real life
Once researchers locate a black hole in space, measuring the mass is pretty straightforward — just check how strongly its mass is tugging on nearby objects. To get the mass of SgrA*, scientists just observed its influence on the "S-stars," a collection of the Milky Way's innermost stars that get accelerated to incredible speeds as they whip around the black hole in tight orbits. And researchers assume that, like most large objects in space, black holes don't have strong electromagnetic charges.
(Planet Earth, for example, has some positively charged particles and some negatively charged particles, but they cancel each other out across the whole planet. The other planets and known stars work the same way. Researchers assume black holes are similarly neutral in charge.)
That leaves spin as the remaining measurable feature of SgrA*, and now researchers think they have evidence that the supermassive is an unusually slow spinner.
Spin matters for two main reasons.
First, as Live Science previously reported , a black hole's event horizon — the shadowy region within which not even light can escape the monster's gravity — grows as it gains more mass, reaching further and further from the singularity of the black hole. But as the black hole spins faster and faster, the event horizon shrinks. Very fast-spinning black holes should have smaller event horizons than slower-moving black holes of the same mass.
Second, spin is thought to play a role in the two white-hot jets of matter that sometimes launch into space at incredible speeds from a black hole's axis of rotation. Most Milky Way-sized galaxies have supermassive black holes at their center, and often these galaxies have enormous jets visible bursting from their cores.
The Hubble Space Telescope captured an enormous relativistic jet, in blue, emerging from the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87. (The giant spiral galaxy itself appears as a bright point in the image, with the black hole too small to see.) The black hole's second jet extends in the other direction, and is hidden from view. (Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope/NASA)
But the Milky Way has no visible jets. That on its own implies that SgrA* probably isn't spinning very fast. Researchers think that a fast-spinning black hole stirs up the disk of accreting matter whirling just outside its event horizon, accelerating some of that matter to burst out as a jet. What scientists know about the quiet SgrA* already suggests it either has a small accretion disk, is barely spinning, or both.
In a new paper, a team of researchers attempted to measure SgrA*'s spin. Once again, they relied on the visible S-stars to learn what their big dark companion is doing.
Right now, the researchers found, the S-stars circle SgrA* on two orbital planes. If you were to draw their orbits around the black hole and view the system from the side, they'd form an X. SgrA* must be spinning at a rate less than 10% of the speed of light, they found, because any faster movement would have knocked the S-stars out of their X-shaped orbital planes by now.
That's because those orbits, the researchers wrote, are likely as old as the S-stars themselves. The stars still follow the orbits they were born with. If SgrA* were spinning very fast, that wouldn't be the case.
Related: What would happen if you fell into a black hole?
When heavy objects spin very fast in space, that spin influences anything in orbit around them. Over time, that massive object tugs on the orbits of those smaller objects, making them line up more and more with the rotating object's own direction of spin. The slower the spin is, the weaker the effect, and the longer it takes for those objects to line up in orbit around their hefty chief.
The stars are old enough that the spin should have noticeably tugged on them if it were very strong. With their orbits as pristine as the day they were born, the S-stars strongly suggest an upper speed limit for SgrA* at just one-tenth the speed of light. And it may be spinning much slower.
This result also would explain why SgrA* doesn't seem to have any visible jets, they wrote. A first close-up image of SgrA*'s shadow, expected to come in the near future from another research team, should help confirm this, they wrote.
The paper was published Oct. 1 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters .
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-26--Naked mole rats kidnap each other's babies, and turn them into slaves

Naked mole rats are beloved for having some of the strangest mammalian superpowers .
They can resist cancers , defy the usual mammalian aging process , survive almost 20 minutes without oxygen , and tolerate surprisingly high levels of pain .
But it turns out these highly social freaks of nature have a nasty little secret that makes them more supervillain than superhero .
Naked mole rats ( Heterocephalus glaber ) kidnap each other 's babies and turn them into slaves .
While naked mole rats themselves are small , up to 10 cm ( 4 inches ) in length @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of highly co-operative individuals .
These can have up to a staggering 300 workers – the largest known colonies among mammals – within which most individuals are sterile , just like in ants or bee colonies .
In fact , these bucktoothed shriveled skin sacks seem to be doing their darndest to live like insects .
Only one queen gets to reproduce , and she claims her throne through a murderous battle for dominance .
She can give birth to up to 30 pups per litter and convinces subordinate female subjects to babysit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For a while , inbreeding was thought to play a role in the staggering size of naked mole rat colonies , based on results from early collections of the species .
But this has since been shown unlikely .
In the early 1990s researchers caught and released naked mole rats to track them for a long-term field study in Kenya .
They found 26 colonies expanded their burrows into neighboring colonies .
Individuals from 13 of the invaded colonies were never seen again .
A year after checking one of these colonies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ invading colony looked to have been from an invaded colony , but the team could n't be sure it was n't just a mistake .
`` We just did n't have the tools to make sure that I had n't totally screwed up , '' evolutionary biologist Stan Braude from Washington University told New Scientist .
But genetic analysis of the tissues they collected has now confirmed what they witnessed .
`` The pups kidnapped by colony QQ became non-reproductive workers , '' the team wrote in their paper , `` hence their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in the same sense as slave-making ants . ''
Naked mole rat kidnapping behavior had previously been witnessed in the unnatural conditions of a laboratory , but this is the first time it 's been confirmed in the wild .
While kidnapping also occurs in some primate species , the team notes this behavior is more like that seen in slave-making ants , such as Formica sanguinea .
These insects hijack larvae and pupae of other species and raise them as part of their workforce .
This evolutionary phenomenon – where evolutionary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ features in entirely non-related species – is known as convergent evolution .
Pup snatching would certainly add to the mole-power required to find scarce resources in their harsh arid environment and help them construct their elaborate underground homes that can stretch for kilometers in cumulative tunnel length .
So much of their bizarre physiology helps with excavation , like jaw muscles that make a quarter of their mass and teeth that jut out over closed lips to keep them from swallowing dirt .
`` The low probability of documenting this phenomenon with our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this behavior is far more common and may be a significant driver of sociality , and extreme large colony size , in naked mole-rats , '' Braude and colleagues explain .
If this is the case , the team believes fierce aggression between naked mole rat colonies may be driving the evolution of large group sizes , and slavery allows expanding colonies to increase their competitive advantage over neighbors .
However , that is still very much speculation at this point ; they only found two stolen pups , after all .
Braude @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like implantable transponders , will help sort out just how supervillainous these poop-eating freaklings are .
This research was published in the Journal of Zoology .
This article was originally published by ScienceAlert .
Read the original article here .

Naked mole rats are beloved for having some of the strangest mammalian superpowers. They can resist cancers, defy the usual mammalian aging process, survive almost 20 minutes without oxygen, and tolerate surprisingly high levels of pain.
But it turns out these highly social freaks of nature have a nasty little secret that makes them more supervillain than superhero. Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) kidnap each other's babies and turn them into slaves.
While naked mole rats themselves are small, up to 10 cm (4 inches) in length, they have massive colonies made up of highly co-operative individuals. These can have up to a staggering 300 workers – the largest known colonies among mammals – within which most individuals are sterile, just like in ants or bee colonies.
In fact, these bucktoothed shriveled skin sacks seem to be doing their darndest to live like insects.
Only one queen gets to reproduce, and she claims her throne through a murderous battle for dominance. She can give birth to up to 30 pups per litter and convinces subordinate female subjects to babysit by feeding them her hormone laced poop.
For a while, inbreeding was thought to play a role in the staggering size of naked mole rat colonies, based on results from early collections of the species. But this has since been shown unlikely.
In the early 1990s researchers caught and released naked mole rats to track them for a long-term field study in Kenya. They found 26 colonies expanded their burrows into neighboring colonies. Individuals from 13 of the invaded colonies were never seen again.
A year after checking one of these colonies, they found two pups in an invading colony looked to have been from an invaded colony, but the team couldn't be sure it wasn't just a mistake.
"We just didn't have the tools to make sure that I hadn't totally screwed up," evolutionary biologist Stan Braude from Washington University told New Scientist. But genetic analysis of the tissues they collected has now confirmed what they witnessed.
"The pups kidnapped by colony QQ became non-reproductive workers," the team wrote in their paper, "hence their life effort would be categorized as slavery, in the same sense as slave-making ants."
Naked mole rat kidnapping behavior had previously been witnessed in the unnatural conditions of a laboratory, but this is the first time it's been confirmed in the wild.
While kidnapping also occurs in some primate species, the team notes this behavior is more like that seen in slave-making ants, such as Formica sanguinea. These insects hijack larvae and pupae of other species and raise them as part of their workforce.
This evolutionary phenomenon – where evolutionary pressure creates the same physical or behavioral features in entirely non-related species – is known as convergent evolution.
Pup snatching would certainly add to the mole-power required to find scarce resources in their harsh arid environment and help them construct their elaborate underground homes that can stretch for kilometers in cumulative tunnel length.
So much of their bizarre physiology helps with excavation, like jaw muscles that make a quarter of their mass and teeth that jut out over closed lips to keep them from swallowing dirt.
"The low probability of documenting this phenomenon with our mark-recapture methods, raises the possibility that this behavior is far more common and may be a significant driver of sociality, and extreme large colony size, in naked mole-rats," Braude and colleagues explain.
If this is the case, the team believes fierce aggression between naked mole rat colonies may be driving the evolution of large group sizes, and slavery allows expanding colonies to increase their competitive advantage over neighbors.
However, that is still very much speculation at this point; they only found two stolen pups, after all. Braude and colleagues hope that new tracking technologies, like implantable transponders, will help sort out just how supervillainous these poop-eating freaklings are.
This research was published in the Journal of Zoology.
This article was originally published by ScienceAlert. Read the original article here.


livescience--2020-10-26--Rare, 2-headed snake discovered by Florida house cat

What has two brains , no legs and the best profile pic on Facebook ?
That would be this rare , two-headed racer recently discovered by a house cat in Palm Harbor , Florida .
The cat 's family was rudely introduced to the supernatural serpent about a month ago when their cat , Olive , dropped the critter on their living room floor , .
The family was bewildered to see that a small , speckled snake with two heads attached to the same body , each one able to move its eyes , neck and tongue independently .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' — Spanish for `` two . ''
`` His biggest problem is eating , '' Kay Rogers , the cat 's owner , said of the two-headed snake on Facebook .
`` We are trying lots of things , but he has trouble coordinating his two heads . ''
This condition — known as bicephaly — is an uncommon abnormality that occurs during embryonic development , when identical twins fail to fully separate , .
The condition appears in all sorts of animals , and ; humans seem to encounter living bicephalic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2019 , a bicephalic baby rattlesnake named `` `` turned up in New Jersey , while a slithered onto a family 's property in Virginia in 2018 .
Dos just helped 2020 meet its quota .
Bicephalic animals tend to have a rough go of it in the wild , where their competing brains make it harder to do things like catch prey or flee predators .
As such , they often end up in the custody of wildlife experts .
For now , Dos is being cared for by the Florida Fish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which recently took some ( heads shots ? )
of the snake for Facebook .
FWC experts identified Dos as a juvenile southern black racer ( Coluber constrictor Priapus ) , a small , nonvenomous snake common in the southeastern United States .
Dos certainly has a better shot of survival under the care of FWC herpetologists than in the wild ( for starters , no need to worry about curious cats anymore ) , but life will be far from easy .
In nature , two heads are n't always better @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that on its butt .

What has two brains, no legs and the best profile pic on Facebook? That would be this rare, two-headed racer snake recently discovered by a house cat in Palm Harbor, Florida.
The cat's family was rudely introduced to the supernatural serpent about a month ago when their cat, Olive, dropped the critter on their living room floor, according to a Facebook post . The family was bewildered to see that a small, speckled snake with two heads attached to the same body, each one able to move its eyes, neck and tongue independently. The family named the snake "Dos" — Spanish for "two."
"His biggest problem is eating," Kay Rogers, the cat's owner, said of the two-headed snake on Facebook. "We are trying lots of things, but he has trouble coordinating his two heads."
Dos the two-headed snake (Image credit: Jonathan Mays/FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute)
This condition — known as bicephaly — is an uncommon abnormality that occurs during embryonic development, when identical twins fail to fully separate, Live Science previously reported . The condition appears in all sorts of animals, including deer and porpoises ; humans seem to encounter living bicephalic snakes about once a year. In 2019, a bicephalic baby rattlesnake named " Double-Dave " turned up in New Jersey, while a two-headed viper slithered onto a family's property in Virginia in 2018. Dos just helped 2020 meet its quota.
Bicephalic animals tend to have a rough go of it in the wild, where their competing brains make it harder to do things like catch prey or flee predators. As such, they often end up in the custody of wildlife experts. For now, Dos is being cared for by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which recently took some spiffy head shots (heads shots?) of the snake for Facebook. FWC experts identified Dos as a juvenile southern black racer (Coluber constrictor Priapus), a small, nonvenomous snake common in the southeastern United States.
Dos certainly has a better shot of survival under the care of FWC herpetologists than in the wild (for starters, no need to worry about curious cats anymore), but life will be far from easy. In nature, two heads aren't always better than one. Just ask this worm that grew a second face on its butt.
(Image credit: Jonathan Mays/FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute)
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-26--Distant alien planets could be turned into dark matter detectors

could be detected on alien worlds orbiting distant suns , a new study suggests .
This elusive form of matter is one of the most frustrating and mysterious aspects of modern astronomy .
Thought to account for 80 % of all matter in the universe , it is completely invisible , detectable only through its slight gravitational pull on its surroundings .
But in some situations , it can settle into the core of a massive object , releasing energy in the form of heat .
Now , a pair of astronomers is advocating a daring new research program : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beyond into a hunt for dark matter .
We know very little about dark matter , other than that it exists .
In the 1970 's , astronomer Vera Rubin noticed something funny about the way that galaxies were rotating .
Rubin found that stars were orbiting around their galaxies far too quickly , given how much visible matter there was if you add up the gravitational attraction of everything we can see in a galaxy , then at the observed rotational speeds the galaxies she trained her telescope on should have torn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In the decades since Rubin 's revelation , more mysteries have piled up .
The gas inside galaxy clusters is too hot .
Galaxies move around too quickly .
The universe has too many large-scale structures , given the age of the universe .
The remnant radiation from the early universe is too bumpy to be explained by normal matter alone .
Light from distant background galaxies curves too strongly when passing near massive galaxy clusters .
The list goes on , but one answer has risen to the top : In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the universe must have some hidden ingredient .
It 's a form of matter ( because it can obviously clump together and has ) , but it does n't interact with light or normal matter in any significant way .
It 's dark matter .
Related : The 15 weirdest galaxies in our universe Based on computer simulations of giant clusters of galaxies , whatever the dark matter is , we expect it to be more heavily clumped toward the centers of galaxies and generally thin out the farther you get from those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in dark matter density throughout a galaxy that may help astronomers identify this mysterious substance .
If only we had large dark matter detectors scattered through the galaxy .
According to a pair of researchers in a paper published in October to the preprint , dark matter detectors are indeed scattered through the Milky Way galaxy .
And we 're already finding thousands of them orbiting distant suns every year .
They 're exoplanets , or the alien worlds beyond our , that we 're spotting with the Kepler Space Telescope and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Indeed , the thousands of confirmed exoplanets known so far represent only a tiny percentage of all possible worlds .
For the Milky Way alone , estimates of the true number of exoplanets range from the extreme ( 300 billion ) to the ludicrous ( 1 trillion ) .
Here 's what that has to do with dark matter .
Dark matter — as far as we can tell — hardly ever interacts with normal matter , or even with itself .
When it does interact , it does so through an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wimpy .
Almost every time there 's an encounter , a dark matter particle and a normal matter particle simply slide on by each other without comment … or even a quick glance .
But rarely , occasionally , dark matter and ordinary matter interact , allowing the dark matter particle to pass on some of its energy to the normal matter particle , slowing down the dark matter particle in the process .
These interactions are especially common when two things happen : there 's a large , dense concentration of normal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for dark matter , and there 's lots of dark matter just floating around .
These two criteria could be met for exoplanets near the center of the Milky Way .
The dark matter density in those neighborhoods is much higher than it is around the solar system , and large planets ( say , Jupiter-size and up ) could collect dark matter particles in their cores .
They would do this through their gravity : In high-density environments , the normal matter can attract the dark matter to them , pulling it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ n't just slow down dark matter , they would also heat up the planet .
And sometimes dark matter particles might occasionally interact with themselves , annihilating each other in a brief flash of energy .
This energy would be too feeble to see directly , but over the course of billions of years the sustained flashes from countless interactions could contribute an extra source of heat to the planet .
The end result , according to the research : Planets closer to the center of the galaxy might experience a significant amount @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their temperatures to rise by thousands of degrees .
In order to test this , we need to take the temperatures of a lot of exoplanets .
Thankfully , this is exactly what missions like the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) , which is set to reach space in October 2021 , are explicitly designed to do .
The researchers noted that the JWST has just enough sensitivity ( in both recording the temperatures of exoplanets and in searching close enough to their galactic center ) that if this effect of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be able to see a distinct and noticeable warming of planets the closer they are to the galactic center .
If the surveys pan out , it would be the first non-gravitational detection of dark matter ever seen .
And in the process of searching through all those exoplanets , we might just discover life on another world , which would be a nice bonus .

Dark matter could be detected on alien worlds orbiting distant suns, a new study suggests.
This elusive form of matter is one of the most frustrating and mysterious aspects of modern astronomy. Thought to account for 80% of all matter in the universe, it is completely invisible, detectable only through its slight gravitational pull on its surroundings.
But in some situations, it can settle into the core of a massive object, releasing energy in the form of heat. Now, a pair of astronomers is advocating a daring new research program: to turn our widening search for life beyond Earth into a hunt for dark matter.
Related: The 11 biggest unanswered questions about dark matter
The frustrating darkness
We know very little about dark matter, other than that it exists. In the 1970's, astronomer Vera Rubin noticed something funny about the way that galaxies were rotating. Rubin found that stars were orbiting around their galaxies far too quickly, given how much visible matter there was if you add up the gravitational attraction of everything we can see in a galaxy, then at the observed rotational speeds the galaxies she trained her telescope on should have torn themselves apart billions prior to her observation.
In the decades since Rubin's revelation, more mysteries have piled up. The gas inside galaxy clusters is too hot. Galaxies move around too quickly. The universe has too many large-scale structures, given the age of the universe. The remnant radiation from the early universe is too bumpy to be explained by normal matter alone. Light from distant background galaxies curves too strongly when passing near massive galaxy clusters.
The list goes on, but one answer has risen to the top: In order to explain all these observations, the universe must have some hidden ingredient. It's a form of matter (because it can obviously clump together and has gravity ), but it doesn't interact with light or normal matter in any significant way. It's dark matter.
Related: The 15 weirdest galaxies in our universe
Based on computer simulations of giant clusters of galaxies, whatever the dark matter is, we expect it to be more heavily clumped toward the centers of galaxies and generally thin out the farther you get from those centers. And it's those differences in dark matter density throughout a galaxy that may help astronomers identify this mysterious substance.
If only we had large dark matter detectors scattered through the galaxy.
Planet-sized detectors
According to a pair of researchers in a paper published in October to the preprint journal arXiv , dark matter detectors are indeed scattered through the Milky Way galaxy. And we're already finding thousands of them orbiting distant suns every year. They're exoplanets, or the alien worlds beyond our solar system , that we're spotting with the Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
Indeed, the thousands of confirmed exoplanets known so far represent only a tiny percentage of all possible worlds. For the Milky Way alone, estimates of the true number of exoplanets range from the extreme (300 billion) to the ludicrous (1 trillion).
Signs of light
Here's what that has to do with dark matter. Dark matter — as far as we can tell — hardly ever interacts with normal matter, or even with itself. When it does interact, it does so through an interaction involving the weak nuclear force , which is incredibly wimpy. Almost every time there's an encounter, a dark matter particle and a normal matter particle simply slide on by each other without comment … or even a quick glance.
But rarely, occasionally, dark matter and ordinary matter interact, allowing the dark matter particle to pass on some of its energy to the normal matter particle, slowing down the dark matter particle in the process. These interactions are especially common when two things happen: there's a large, dense concentration of normal matter that acts as a gravitational trap for dark matter, and there's lots of dark matter just floating around.
These two criteria could be met for exoplanets near the center of the Milky Way. The dark matter density in those neighborhoods is much higher than it is around the solar system, and large planets (say, Jupiter-size and up) could collect dark matter particles in their cores. They would do this through their gravity: In high-density environments, the normal matter can attract the dark matter to them, pulling it to their centers.
These interactions wouldn't just slow down dark matter, they would also heat up the planet. And sometimes dark matter particles might occasionally interact with themselves, annihilating each other in a brief flash of energy. This energy would be too feeble to see directly, but over the course of billions of years the sustained flashes from countless interactions could contribute an extra source of heat to the planet.
The end result, according to the research: Planets closer to the center of the galaxy might experience a significant amount of heating from dark matter, causing their temperatures to rise by thousands of degrees.
In order to test this, we need to take the temperatures of a lot of exoplanets. Thankfully, this is exactly what missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which is set to reach space in October 2021, are explicitly designed to do.
The researchers noted that the JWST has just enough sensitivity (in both recording the temperatures of exoplanets and in searching close enough to their galactic center) that if this effect of dark matter is real, we should be able to see a distinct and noticeable warming of planets the closer they are to the galactic center. If the surveys pan out, it would be the first non-gravitational detection of dark matter ever seen.
And in the process of searching through all those exoplanets, we might just discover life on another world, which would be a nice bonus.
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-27--Is there a puppy heaven? Owners think so, headstones in pet cemeteries show

Pet owners in the 19th century dearly loved their furry friends , but contemporary pet owners are more likely to believe in an afterlife where they 'll see their deceased pets once more .
Meaningful relationships between people and animals — unto death and beyond — have existed for thousands of years .
Human graves dating to the and the hold dogs that may have been pets , and in 1881 the first public cemetery devoted entirely to pets was established in Hyde Park , London .
Now found worldwide , pet cemeteries commemorate the emotional connection that people feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ archaeologist wondered if headstone inscriptions could reveal how humans ' relationships with their pets have changed in more than a century .
He discovered that gravestone inscriptions from the 20th century increasingly referred to animals as family members , rather than simply as pets .
Over time , headstone memorials also more commonly incorporated Christian symbols and expressed convictions that pets possessed immortal souls , and would surely be reunited with their owners after death , according to a new study .
Human burial grounds and cemeteries reveal much to archaeologists and historians @ @ @ @ @ @ @ past , said study author Eric Tourigny , a lecturer in historical archaeology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom .
`` For example , we can reconstruct local demographics , kinship groups , the organization of the town , the socio-economic distribution of people within a community , societal structures , as well as attitudes towards religion , death and the afterlife , '' Tourigny told Live Science in an email .
If these cemeteries are such a valuable resource for unraveling ancient human relationships , `` why ca n't we look @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relationships ? ''
Tourigny wondered .
For the study , Tourigny investigated 1,169 headstones in four British pet cemeteries , on graves dating from 1881 to 1993 .
Most of the burials were for dogs , `` although an increasing proportion of cats are represented as we progress through the twentieth century , '' he wrote in the study .
He found that after World War II , more grieving pet owners referred to themselves as `` mummy '' or `` daddy '' on headstones .
Owners more frequently added a surname after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that pets were seen as members of the family , Tourigny said .
As the Victorian era waned and British society became more secular , there was also `` less reluctance to express publicly a belief in animal souls , reunification in the afterlife and the membership of animals within the family , '' Tourigny reported .
That social shift changed gravestone messages in pet cemeteries .
For example , a memorial to `` Grit '' in 1900 was uncertain about the prospect of a reunion in the afterlife , musing mournfully `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again , it would lighten half my pain . ''
By comparison , a 1952 headstone for `` Denny '' — described as `` a brave little cat '' — confidently declared `` God bless until we meet again . ''
Related : After death : 8 burial alternatives that are going mainstream Overall , references to reunification on gravestones more than quadrupled between the 1940s and 1950s , and rose even higher during the 1960s , according to the study .
And while the size and ornateness of headstones in human cemeteries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pet monuments occasionally become larger and more elaborate by the mid twentieth century , '' Tourigny wrote in the study .
Expressing strong emotions over a pet 's death is now considered more socially acceptable than it was during the 19th century .
However , people may still feel uncomfortable or ashamed about publicly sharing their devastation , and pet cemeteries offer bereaved owners a space for grieving their pets without judgement , Tourigny said .
In fact , the outpouring of affection preserved in the grave markers may be a source of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a dog , cat or other household animal , he added .
`` I often found people casually walking among the gravestones to pause and give their time to animals they never met , '' he told Live Science .
`` It struck me that pet cemeteries are emotional spaces — not only for those who buried their animals there long ago , but also for those currently cherishing their time with pets . ''
The findings were published online today ( Oct. 27 ) in the journal .

Pet owners in the 19th century dearly loved their furry friends, but contemporary pet owners are more likely to believe in an afterlife where they'll see their deceased pets once more.
Meaningful relationships between people and animals — unto death and beyond — have existed for thousands of years. Human graves dating to the Stone Age and the Paleolithic era hold dogs that may have been pets, and in 1881 the first public cemetery devoted entirely to pets was established in Hyde Park, London. Now found worldwide, pet cemeteries commemorate the emotional connection that people feel for cherished companion animals, and an archaeologist wondered if headstone inscriptions could reveal how humans' relationships with their pets have changed in more than a century.
He discovered that gravestone inscriptions from the 20th century increasingly referred to animals as family members, rather than simply as pets. Over time, headstone memorials also more commonly incorporated Christian symbols and expressed convictions that pets possessed immortal souls, and would surely be reunited with their owners after death, according to a new study.
Related: Gallery: Freeze-dried pets
Human burial grounds and cemeteries reveal much to archaeologists and historians about social structure and practices from the past, said study author Eric Tourigny, a lecturer in historical archaeology at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.
"For example, we can reconstruct local demographics, kinship groups, the organization of the town, the socio-economic distribution of people within a community, societal structures, as well as attitudes towards religion, death and the afterlife," Tourigny told Live Science in an email.
If these cemeteries are such a valuable resource for unraveling ancient human relationships, "why can't we look at pet cemeteries to reconstruct past human-animal relationships?" Tourigny wondered.
Examples of variation in gravestone design from the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals pet cemetery in Ilford, a town in East London. (Image credit: Antiquity Publications Ltd/ Photo by E. Tourigny)
For the study, Tourigny investigated 1,169 headstones in four British pet cemeteries, on graves dating from 1881 to 1993. Most of the burials were for dogs, "although an increasing proportion of cats are represented as we progress through the twentieth century," he wrote in the study.
He found that after World War II, more grieving pet owners referred to themselves as "mummy" or "daddy" on headstones. Owners more frequently added a surname after the name of the pet, suggesting that pets were seen as members of the family, Tourigny said. As the Victorian era waned and British society became more secular, there was also "less reluctance to express publicly a belief in animal souls, reunification in the afterlife and the membership of animals within the family," Tourigny reported.
That social shift changed gravestone messages in pet cemeteries. For example, a memorial to "Grit" in 1900 was uncertain about the prospect of a reunion in the afterlife, musing mournfully "Could I think we’d meet again, it would lighten half my pain." By comparison, a 1952 headstone for "Denny" — described as "a brave little cat" — confidently declared "God bless until we meet again."
Related: After death: 8 burial alternatives that are going mainstream
Stones arranged around graves in the Hyde Park Pet Cemetery mimic the appearance of a bed; gravestone text often referred to deceased pets as "sleeping." (Image credit: Antiquity Publications Ltd/Photo by E. Tourigny, taken with permission from The Royal Parks)
Overall, references to reunification on gravestones more than quadrupled between the 1940s and 1950s, and rose even higher during the 1960s, according to the study. And while the size and ornateness of headstones in human cemeteries diminished after World War I, "pet monuments occasionally become larger and more elaborate by the mid twentieth century," Tourigny wrote in the study.
Expressing strong emotions over a pet's death is now considered more socially acceptable than it was during the 19th century. However, people may still feel uncomfortable or ashamed about publicly sharing their devastation, and pet cemeteries offer bereaved owners a space for grieving their pets without judgement, Tourigny said. In fact, the outpouring of affection preserved in the grave markers may be a source of comfort for anyone who owns and loves a dog, cat or other household animal, he added.
"I often found people casually walking among the gravestones to pause and give their time to animals they never met," he told Live Science. "It struck me that pet cemeteries are emotional spaces — not only for those who buried their animals there long ago, but also for those currently cherishing their time with pets."
The findings were published online today (Oct. 27) in the journal Antiquity .
Originally published on Live Science.


livescience--2020-10-26--NASA finds water on the moon's sunlit surface for the first time

Editor 's note : You can follow NASA 's announcement of water on the moon live here .
For the first time ever , scientists have identified water on sunlit surface .
They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought , with pockets of ice hiding in shadowy regions of `` eternal darkness , '' some as small as a penny , new studies reveal .
Scientists have been finding signs of since 2009 and , in 2018 , confirmed the presence of water ice on the lunar surface .
Now , researchers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the largest crater formations on a sunlit surface on the moon and also found that the lunar surface could be harboring plentiful patches of secret ice in `` cold traps , '' regions of permanently shadowed spots on the moon .
`` If you can imagine standing on the surface of the moon near one of its poles , you would see shadows all over the place , '' study author Paul Hayne , assistant professor in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado , Boulder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shadows could be full of ice . ''
In one study , researchers led by Casey Honniball , a NASA postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland , studied water on the moon using data from NASA 's ( the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy ) airborne telescope .
With these observations , the scientists , for the first time in history , detected water on sunlit lunar surface .
Previous work identifying water on the moon was based on a spectral signature , the distinct `` barcode '' that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is reflected as a function of wavelength .
But that data does n't distinguish between water and hydroxyl ( the OH molecule ) bound to minerals on the lunar surface .
Previous observations spotted a chemical signature that could denote water or hydroxyl but , with these new observations , researchers were able to spot the unique chemical signature of water .
The scientists found water near Clavius Crater , one of the largest crater formations on the moon , and also at a low-latitude portion of Mare Serenitatis .
The researchers found @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to 400 parts per million .
The scientists suggest that this water is likely `` sandwiched '' between grains on the lunar surface , which protects it from the environment .
In the other study , led by Hayne , researchers used data from NASA 's spacecraft in orbit around the moon to study the distribution of cold traps , where water could exist not just transiently , but permanently .
The scientists found a wide variety of cold traps , including `` micro cold traps '' as small as 0.4 inches ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence that there could be hundreds or even thousands of times more of these tinier `` micro '' cold traps than larger ones .
They also found these permanent shadows at both poles .
In fact , Hayne 's team found that a whopping 15,000 square miles ( 40,000 square kilometers ) of the lunar surface could potentially hold water .
That 's more than twice the area scientists previously earmarked for water ice on the moon .
The interesting nature of these `` cold traps , '' is that they 're not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is more likely to congregate .
They are so cold that water or ice would be literally trapped there for incredible amounts of time .
`` The temperatures are so low in cold traps that ice would behave like a rock , '' Hayne said in the same statement .
`` If water gets in there , it 's not going anywhere for a billion years . ''
While Hayne and his team stated that they need to actually find this ice with rovers or crewed missions to fully verify its existence , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ humanity 's plans to not only return astronauts to the moon ( NASA hopes to do that by 2024 with its Artemis program ) , but also to create long-term human encampments on the lunar surface as a proving ground and jumping-off point to Mars .
`` If we 're right , water is going to be more accessible for drinking water , for rocket fuel , everything that NASA needs water for , '' Hayne said in the same statement .
`` Astronauts may not need to go into these deep , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and find one [ cold trap ] that 's a meter wide and that might be just as likely to harbor ice . ''
Honniball 's work ( Oct. 26 ) in the journal Nature Astronomy .
Hayne 's work in the same journal .
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd @ space.com or follow her on Twitter @ chelsea_gohd .
Follow us on Twitter @ Spacedotcom and on Facebook .

Editor's note: You can follow NASA's announcement of water on the moon live here.
For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon's sunlit surface. They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought, with pockets of ice hiding in shadowy regions of "eternal darkness," some as small as a penny, new studies reveal.
Scientists have been finding signs of water on the moon since 2009 and, in 2018, confirmed the presence of water ice on the lunar surface . Now, researchers in two new studies have detected water at one of the largest crater formations on a sunlit surface on the moon and also found that the lunar surface could be harboring plentiful patches of secret ice in "cold traps," regions of permanently shadowed spots on the moon.
"If you can imagine standing on the surface of the moon near one of its poles, you would see shadows all over the place," study author Paul Hayne, assistant professor in the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement . "Many of those tiny shadows could be full of ice."
Related: How the Moon Formed: 5 Wild Lunar Theories | Space (Infographic)
The Clavius crater on the moon as seen by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location. (Image credit: NASA/Moon Trek/USGS/LRO)
Finding water on the moon
In one study, researchers led by Casey Honniball, a NASA postdoctoral researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, studied water on the moon using data from NASA's SOFIA (the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) airborne telescope. With these observations, the scientists, for the first time in history, detected water on sunlit lunar surface.
Previous work identifying water on the moon was based on a spectral signature, the distinct "barcode" that scientists use to identify materials, which is reflected as a function of wavelength. But that data doesn't distinguish between water and hydroxyl (the OH molecule) bound to minerals on the lunar surface.
Previous observations spotted a chemical signature that could denote water or hydroxyl but, with these new observations, researchers were able to spot the unique chemical signature of water. The scientists found water near Clavius Crater, one of the largest crater formations on the moon, and also at a low-latitude portion of Mare Serenitatis.
The researchers found that this water exists at around 100 to 400 parts per million. The scientists suggest that this water is likely "sandwiched" between grains on the lunar surface, which protects it from the environment.
Trapping lunar water
This NASA diagram shows the location of Clavius crater on the moon, where the SOFIA flying observatory has detected water ice in shadowy cold traps on the sunlit lunar surface. (Image credit: NASA)
In the other study, led by Hayne, researchers used data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft in orbit around the moon to study the distribution of cold traps, where water could exist not just transiently, but permanently.
The scientists found a wide variety of cold traps, including "micro cold traps" as small as 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in diameter, and evidence that there could be hundreds or even thousands of times more of these tinier "micro" cold traps than larger ones. They also found these permanent shadows at both poles.
In fact, Hayne's team found that a whopping 15,000 square miles (40,000 square kilometers) of the lunar surface could potentially hold water. That's more than twice the area scientists previously earmarked for water ice on the moon.
The interesting nature of these "cold traps," is that they're not just cold, shadowy areas where water is more likely to congregate. They are so cold that water or ice would be literally trapped there for incredible amounts of time.
"The temperatures are so low in cold traps that ice would behave like a rock," Hayne said in the same statement. "If water gets in there, it's not going anywhere for a billion years."
While Hayne and his team stated that they need to actually find this ice with rovers or crewed missions to fully verify its existence, this new finding could prove monumental in humanity's plans to not only return astronauts to the moon (NASA hopes to do that by 2024 with its Artemis program), but also to create long-term human encampments on the lunar surface as a proving ground and jumping-off point to Mars.
"If we're right, water is going to be more accessible for drinking water, for rocket fuel, everything that NASA needs water for," Hayne said in the same statement. "Astronauts may not need to go into these deep, dark shadows … They could walk around and find one [cold trap] that's a meter wide and that might be just as likely to harbor ice."
Honniball's work was published today (Oct. 26) in the journal Nature Astronomy. Hayne's work was also published today in the same journal.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.