[ad_1] Chasing the tale Silvia Leonetti and colleagues in the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, the US and Denmark don’t quite explain why dogs wag their tails, but they do explain that it is hard to explain. In a paper called “Why do dogs wag their tails?” in Biology Letters, these dog-tail contemplators confront one, presumably easier, […]
[ad_1] Pheromones help flies and other insects identify suitable mates Silmiart/Shutterstock Some insects may struggle to find mates of the same species because increasing levels of ozone pollution are breaking down the smells released by potential partners. Ground-level ozone is a greenhouse gas that is formed when vehicle emissions react with other gases in the […]
[ad_1] Micrograph of human colon cancer cells in a three-dimensional extracellular matrix TORSTEN WITTMANN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The next innovation in cancer treatment could be to test all possible drugs on thousands of miniature versions of a person’s tumour, grown in the lab, to see which works the best. The technique, sometimes called drug sensitivity testing, […]
[ad_1] What goes on in the gut microbiome (illustrated) may affect brain health THOM LEACH/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The Immune MindMonty Lyman (Torva) At university, I had two roommates with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a painful condition affecting the digestive system. Both also had anxiety. But there was a key difference between them that stuck with […]
[ad_1] Alien civilisations that have terraformed multiple planets may be detectable from afar dotted zebra/Alamy Nearby planets that look unusually alike could be a sign of spacefaring alien life that has travelled between stars, researchers have suggested. Astronomers searching for extraterrestrial life tend to look for specific signals, either in the form of “biosignatures” – […]
[ad_1] In pure mathematics, very occasionally, breakthroughs arrive like bolts from the blue – the result of such inspired feats of reasoning and creativity that they seem to push the very bounds of intelligence. In 2016, for instance, mathematician Timothy Gowers marvelled at a solution to the cap set problem, which has to do with […]
[ad_1] A scanning electron micrograph of Enterococcus faecalis bacteria, which can infect surgical wounds Science Photo Library/Alamy Surgical infections could primarily be caused by bacteria that already live on your skin, rather than via external contamination, according to a study of just over 200 people who underwent spinal procedures. Hospitals tend to have strict hygiene […]
[ad_1] Why we enjoy songs that make us feel sad is unclear Klaus Vedfelt We can love a song despite it making us feel sad — and scientists don’t agree on why. Researchers have previously found that sad music might cause us to feel moved in an emotionally positive way, perhaps through experiencing empathy or […]
[ad_1] Footballing robots have had an upgrade. Two-legged robots trained using deep reinforcement learning, which is driven by artificial intelligence, can walk, turn to kick a ball and get up after falling faster than robots working from scripted lessons. Guy Lever at Google DeepMind and his colleagues put battery-powered Robotis OP3 robots, which are about […]
[ad_1] Illustration of the citrate synthase enzyme assembling into triangular fractal structures Courtesy of Franziska L. Sendker A bacterium has evolved an enzyme that assembles in a fractal structure, a mathematical pattern that repeats itself at smaller scales. Fractal patterns are found throughout nature on large, macroscopic scales, like in romanesco broccoli or fern plants, […]