Category: 7. Science

  • AI enhances global radiation monitoring from space

    AI enhances global radiation monitoring from space

    The schematic diagram of the DSCOVR satellite in the Sun–Earth space (A), and the EPIC and CERES for Earth observation (B), in which the background image was captured by DSCOVR/EPIC at 00:17 on 2024 May 1. The distances are not to scale.

    GA, UNITED STATES, August 1, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ — This study presents a machine learning approach to estimate the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) shortwave radiation flux from Deep Space Climate Observatory / Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (DSCOVR/EPIC) satellite observations. By leveraging neural network models, the research overcomes traditional challenges, offering a more efficient and precise method for monitoring global radiation flux, vital for understanding Earth’s energy balance and climate dynamics.

    The Earth’s radiation budget (ERB) is essential for understanding climate dynamics, driven by the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation. Accurate measurement of shortwave radiation at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is a critical aspect of ERB monitoring. Conventional methods require complex angular distribution models (ADMs), which can be difficult to apply to new satellite data sources, such as those from the Deep Space Climate Observatory / Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (DSCOVR/EPIC) satellite. Based on these challenges, or due to these issues, further research is necessary to develop simplified, more efficient methods for deriving TOA shortwave flux.

    A research team from Shenzhen University and the China Meteorological Administration has introduced a novel deep learning approach to estimate TOA shortwave radiation using images from the DSCOVR/EPIC satellite. Published on July 2, 2025, in Journal of Remote Sensing, the study addresses the absence of dedicated ADMs for EPIC data and leverages artificial intelligence to directly infer radiation flux. This method helps overcome current limitations in satellite-based climate monitoring, potentially enabling more accurate and frequent assessments of Earth’s energy balance from deep space.

    The study successfully developed 36 neural network models to estimate TOA shortwave flux from DSCOVR/EPIC observations, validated against the established CERES data products. These models demonstrated high accuracy, with a 97% correlation to the global radiation flux. The machine learning models outperformed traditional angular distribution methods by simplifying the process and improving the consistency and efficiency of the flux estimations, especially for regions with varying atmospheric and surface conditions.

    The researchers used a large dataset of EPIC and CERES measurements, spanning from 2015 to 2021, to train the neural network models. The data were divided by surface types and sky conditions, ensuring that the models could handle diverse environmental scenarios. Through a series of tests, the neural network models were able to estimate radiation fluxes with a higher correlation to CERES products than previous albedo-based models. Notably, the model’s ability to account for varying cloud cover and surface types was crucial for improving accuracy in flux estimates, especially in areas with complex atmospheric interactions like water bodies and urban areas.

    “Machine learning offers a transformative way to address the limitations of traditional methods for estimating Earth’s radiation flux,” said Huizeng Liu, lead researcher. “Our models not only simplify the process but also offer a much more precise way to monitor radiation flux on a global scale, which is vital for understanding climate change and informing global policy decisions.”

    The study utilized data from the DSCOVR/EPIC and CERES satellites, focusing on multispectral imaging and atmospheric measurements to estimate shortwave radiation. The neural networks were trained on EPIC’s L2 composite product, with a variety of surface types and cloud conditions considered. The Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm was employed to optimize model parameters, while the models’ performance was tested using an independent dataset to validate their accuracy and consistency across different conditions.

    This breakthrough has significant implications for future Earth observation systems, particularly with the development of Moon-based observation platforms and geostationary satellites. The methods applied in this study can be adapted to these new technologies, offering more consistent and accurate monitoring of Earth’s radiation. As satellite data becomes more abundant, these machine learning models will play a pivotal role in advancing climate monitoring and addressing global environmental challenges.

    References
    DOI
    10.34133/remotesensing.0373

    Original Source URL
    https://doi.org/10.34133/remotesensing.0373

    Funding Information
    This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42371337), the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (grant no. 2023A1515011946 and 2024A1515011388), the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (grant no. JCYJ20230808105709020 and JCYJ20240813142621029), and the Shenzhen Municipal Government Investment Project (no. 2106-440300-04-03-901272).

    Lucy Wang
    BioDesign Research
    email us here

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  • Antarctic leopard seals sing “songs” that mirror nursery rhymes: study-Xinhua

    SYDNEY, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) — Australian researchers have discovered that Antarctic leopard seals’ underwater “songs” share structural patterns with human nursery rhymes.

    Analyzing recordings collected since the 1990s, scientists from Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW) found that leopard seal “songs” are repetitive and predictable, much like children’s nursery rhymes, according to a UNSW statement released on Friday.

    Called the “songbirds” of the Southern Ocean, male leopard seals spend up to 13 hours a day singing underwater solos each spring, surfacing and diving in two-minute cycles, researchers said.

    “During the breeding season, if you drop a hydrophone into the water anywhere in the region, you’ll hear them singing,” said the study’s co-author, UNSW Professor Tracey Rogers.

    Male seals build their “songs” from five shared “notes,” with each individual identified by the unique order of these sounds, according to the findings detailed in Scientific Reports published by Nature.

    Researchers revealed that leopard seal “songs” match the predictability of nursery rhymes, based on an analysis of information entropy, an indicator of how structured or random a sequence is.

    This simplicity allows their calls to carry efficiently across vast Antarctic distances, helping the seals claim territory and attract mates, in contrast to the more intricate vocalizations of humans or other marine mammals like humpback whales and dolphins, the study showed.

    “It’s a bit of a dual message. It could be a ‘this is my patch’ to other males and also a ‘look how strong and lovely I am’ to the females,” Rogers said.

    With decades of technological advancement, researchers are set to investigate if these unique call patterns help seals recognize each other and whether their “alphabet” of five sounds changes over generations. ■

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  • Chinese scientists discover third celestial body in black holes’ merger

    Chinese scientists discover third celestial body in black holes’ merger

    2025-08-01 Ecns.cn Editor：Mo Honge

    (ECNS) — Chinese scientists have discovered that binary black holes may not always be isolated systems. Instead, some may merge near a third, hidden celestial body — possibly a supermassive black hole, offering new insights into how such systems form.

    The findings by researchers at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Friday.

    Binary black holes merge near a supermassive black hole. (Photo from Shanghai Astronomical Observatory)

    Since the first detection of gravitational waves in 2015, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration has observed more than 100 such events, with the majority stemming from binary black hole mergers.

    While these discoveries have advanced people’s understanding of the physical processes involved, the formation and evolution mechanisms of binary black holes remain a topic of ongoing scientific debate.

    According to Yang Shucheng, the first author of the study, gravitational wave event GW190814 involved two black holes with a nearly 10:1 mass ratio — an unusual pairing that may suggest a dynamic three-body interaction with a supermassive black hole.

    This is the first time that scientists have found clear evidence of a third compact celestial body influencing black holes’ merger, opening a new window into the dynamics of black hole formation and the environments in which these events took place.

    (By Gong Weiwei)

     

     

    Copyright©1999-2025 Chinanews.com All rights reserved.

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  • Twinkling star reveals the secrets of plasma structures in our cosmic neighbourhood

    Twinkling star reveals the secrets of plasma structures in our cosmic neighbourhood

    Artist’s impression of a pulsar bow shock scattering a radio beam. Credit: Carl Knox/Swinburne/OzGrav

    With the most powerful radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, we have observed a twinkling star and discovered an abundance of mysterious plasma structures in our cosmic neighbourhood.

    The plasma structures we see are variations in density or turbulence, akin to interstellar cyclones stirred up by energetic events in the galaxy.

    The study, earlier this year in Nature Astronomy, also describes the first measurements of plasma layers within an interstellar shock wave that surrounds a pulsar.

    We now realise our local interstellar medium is filled with these structures and our findings also include a rare phenomenon that will challenge theories of pulsar shock waves.

    What’s a pulsar and why does it have a shock wave?

    Our observations honed in on the nearby fast-spinning pulsar, J0437-4715, which is 512 light-years away from Earth. A pulsar is a neutron star, a super-dense stellar remnant that produces beams of radio waves and an energetic “wind” of particles.

    The pulsar and its wind move with supersonic speed through the interstellar medium – the stuff (gas, dust and plasma) between the stars. This creates a bow shock: a shock wave of heated gas that glows red.

    The interstellar plasma is turbulent and scatters pulsar radio waves slightly away from a direct, straight line path. The scattered waves create a pattern of bright and dim patches that drifts over our radio telescopes as Earth, the pulsar and plasma all move through space.

    From our vantage point, this causes the pulsar to twinkle, or “scintillate”. The effect is similar to how turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere makes stars twinkle in the night sky.

    Pulsar scintillation gives us unique information about plasma structures that are too small and faint to be detected in any other way.

    Twinkling little radio star

    To the naked eye, the twinkling of a star might appear random. But for pulsars at least, there are hidden patterns.

    With the right techniques, we can uncover ordered shapes from the interference pattern, called scintillation arcs. They detail the locations and velocities of compact structures in the interstellar plasma. Studying scintillation arcs is like performing a CT scan of the interstellar medium – each arc reveals a thin layer of plasma.

    Usually, scintillation arc studies uncover just one, or at most a handful of these arcs, giving a view of only the most extreme (densest or most turbulent) plasma structures in our galaxy.

    Our scintillation arc study broke new ground by unveiling an unprecedented 25 scintillation arcs, the most plasma structures observed for any pulsar to date.

    The sensitivity of our study was only possible because of the close proximity of the pulsar (it’s our nearest millisecond pulsar neighbour) and the large collecting area of the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

    Animation of 25 scintillation arcs changing in curvature with time according to the changing velocity of the pulsar. Each frame of the animation shows the scintillation arcs measured on one day, for six consecutive days. The inset scintillation arcs originate from the pulsar bow shock. Credit: Reardon et al., Nature Astronomy

    A Local Bubble surprise

    Of the 25 scintillation arcs we found, 21 revealed structures in the interstellar medium. This was surprising because the pulsar – like our own Solar System – is located in a relatively quiet region of our galaxy called the Local Bubble.

    About 14 million years ago, this part of our galaxy was lit up by stellar explosions that swept up material in the interstellar medium and inflated a hot void. Today, this bubble is still expanding and now extends up to 1,000 light-years from us.

    Our new scintillation arc discoveries reveal that the Local Bubble is not as empty as previously thought. It is filled with compact plasma structures that could only be sustained if the bubble has cooled, at least in some areas, from millions of degrees down to a mild 10,000 degrees Celsius.

    Shock discoveries

    As the animation below shows, the pulsar is surrounded by its bow shock, which glows red with light from energised hydrogen atoms.

    While most pulsars are thought to produce bow shocks, only a handful have ever been observed because they are faint objects. Until now, none had been studied using scintillation.

    We traced the remaining four scintillation arcs to plasma structures inside the pulsar bow shock, marking the first time astronomers have peered inside one of these shock waves.

    This gave us a CT-like view of the different layers of plasma. Using these arcs together with an optical image we constructed a new three-dimensional model of the shock, which appears to be tilted slightly away from us because of the motion of the pulsar through space.

    The scintillation arcs also gave us the velocities of the plasma layers. Far from being as expected, we discovered that one inner plasma structure is moving towards the shock front against the flow of the shocked material in the opposite direction.

    While such back flows can appear in simulations, they are rare. This finding will drive new models for this bow shock.

    The pulsar bow shock as seen in red light from energised Hydrogen, with the new three-dimensional model over-plotted in white lines. The arrow shows the direction of motion of the pulsar. The dot at the start of the arrow is the white-dwarf companion star to the pulsar. Reardon et al., Nature Astronomy

    Scintillating science

    With new and more sensitive radio telescopes being built around the world, we can expect to see scintillation from more pulsar bow shocks and other events in the interstellar medium.

    This will uncover more about the energetic processes in our galaxy that create these otherwise invisible plasma structures.

    The scintillation of this pulsar neighbour revealed unexpected plasma structures inside our Local Bubble and allowed us to map and measure the speed of plasma within a bow shock. It’s amazing what a twinkling little star can do.The Conversation

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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  • First-Ever Images Capture Atoms “Wiggling” in Quantum Materials – SciTechDaily

    1. First-Ever Images Capture Atoms “Wiggling” in Quantum Materials  SciTechDaily
    2. Good vibrations: Scientists use imaging technology to visualize heat  Tech Xplore
    3. One atom, one heartbeat: Scientists map heat inside 2D electronics  Earth.com
    4. You’ve never seen atoms like this before: A hidden motion revealed  ScienceDaily
    5. First direct images reveal atomic thermal vibrations in quantum materials  Phys.org

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  • Study identifies global upswing in photosynthesis driven by land, offset by oceans

    Study identifies global upswing in photosynthesis driven by land, offset by oceans

    image: 

    The image above illustrates the annual trend in global net primary production (NPP) — or net carbon gain by photosynthetic organisms on Earth — from 2003 to 2021. Image courtesy of Yulong Zhang, et al, 2025


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    Credit: Image courtesy of Yulong Zhang, et al, 2025

    Terrestrial plants drove an increase in global photosynthesis between 2003 and 2021, a trend partially offset by a weak decline in photosynthesis — the process of using sunlight to make food — among marine algae, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change on Aug. 1. The findings could inform planetary health assessments, enhance ecosystem management, and guide climate change projections and mitigation strategies.

    Photosynthetic organisms — also known as primary producers — form the base of the food chain, making most life on Earth possible. Using energy from the sun, primary producers fix, or convert, carbon from the air into organic, or carbon-based, matter. But primary producers also release carbon through a process called autotrophic respiration, which is somewhat akin to breathing. The rate of carbon gain after accounting for loss through respiration is called net primary production.

    “Net primary production measures the amount of energy photosynthetic organisms capture and make available to support nearly all other life in an ecosystem,” said first author Yulong Zhang, a research scientist in the lab of Wenhong Li at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “As the foundation of food webs, net primary production determines ecosystem health, provides food and fibers for humans, mitigates anthropogenic carbon emissions and helps to stabilize Earth’s climate.”

    Previous research on net primary production has typically focused on either land or ocean ecosystems, leaving gaps in our understanding of net primary production across Earth and the potential implications for climate mitigation.

    For this study, the team explored annual trends and variability in global net primary production, with a focus on the interplay between land and ocean ecosystems.

    “If you’re looking at planetary health, you want to look at both terrestrial and marine domains for an integrated view of net primary production. The pioneering studies that first combined terrestrial and marine primary production have not been substantially updated in over two decades,” said co-author Nicolas Cassar, Lee Hill Snowdon Bass Chair at the Nicholas School who jointly oversaw the research with Zhang.

    Satellite Insights

    Observations from satellites offer continuous perspective on photosynthesis by plants and marine algae called phytoplankton. Specifically, specialized satellite instruments measure surface greenness, which represents the abundance of a green pigment called chlorophyll produced by photosynthetic life. Computer models then estimate net primary production by combining greenness data with other environmental data, such as temperature, light and nutrient variability.

    The authors of the new study used six different satellite-based datasets on net primary production — three for land and three for oceans — for the years from 2003 to 2021. Using statistical methods, they analyzed annual changes in net primary production for land and, separately, for the ocean.

    They found a significant increase in terrestrial net primary production, at a rate of 0.2 billion metric tons of carbon per year between 2003 and 2021. The trend was widespread from temperate to boreal, or high-latitude, areas, with a notable exception in the tropics of South America.

    By contrast, the team identified an overall decline in marine net primary production, of about 0.1 billion metric tons of carbon per year for the same time period. Strong declines mainly occurred in tropical and subtropical oceans, particularly in the Pacific Ocean.

    All told, trends on land dominated those of oceans: Global net primary production increased significantly between 2003 and 2021, at a rate of 0.1 billion metric tons of carbon per year.

    Environmental Drivers

    To understand the potential environmental factors at play, the team analyzed variables such as light availability, air and sea-surface temperature, precipitation and mixed layer depth — a measure that reflects the extent of mixing in the ocean’s top layer by wind, waves and surface currents.

    “The shift toward greater primary production on land mainly stemmed from plants in higher latitudes, where warming has extended growing seasons and created more favorable temperatures, and in temperate regions that experienced local wetting in some areas, forest expansion and cropland intensification,” said Wenhong Li, a professor of earth and climate sciences at the Nicholas School and a co-author on the study.

    Warming temperatures appeared to have an opposite effect in some ocean areas.

    “Rising sea surface temperatures likely reduced primary production by phytoplankton in tropical and subtropical regions,” Cassar added. “Warmer waters can layer atop cooler waters and interfere with the mixing of nutrients essential to algal survival.”

    Although land drove the overall increase in global primary production, the ocean primarily influenced year-to-year variability, especially during strong climate events such as El Niño and La Niña, the authors found.

    “We observed that ocean primary production responds much more strongly to El Niño and La Niña than land primary production,” said co-author Shineng Hu, an assistant professor of climate dynamics at the Nicholas School. “A series of La Niña events was partly responsible for a trend reversal in ocean primary production that we identified after 2015. This finding highlights the ocean’s greater sensitivity to future climate variability.”

    Broad Implications

    The study points to the important role of terrestrial ecosystems in offsetting declines in net primary production among marine phytoplankton, according to the authors.

    But they added that declines in net primary production in tropical and subtropical oceans, coupled with stagnation on land in the tropics, can weaken the foundation of tropical food webs, with cascading effects on biodiversity, fisheries and local economies. Over time, these disruptions could also compromise the ability of tropical regions to function as effective carbon sinks, potentially intensifying the impacts of climate warming.

    “Whether the decline in ocean primary production will continue — and how long and to what extent increases on land can make up for those losses — remains a key unanswered question with major implications for gauging the health of all living things, and for guiding climate change mitigation,” Zhang said. “Long-term, coordinated monitoring of both land and ocean ecosystems as integrated components of Earth is essential.”

    # # #

    Funding: Y.Z., W.L., and G.S. were partially supported by the Duke University-USDA Forest Service collaboration (23-JV-11330180-119). N.C. was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE-2123198). J.M. was supported by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. J.X. is supported by the National Science Foundation (Macrosystem Biology) and NEON-Enabled Science Program (DEB-2017870).

    Citation: “Contrasting biological production trends over land and ocean,” Zhang Y., Li W., Sun G., Mao J., Dannenberg M., Xiao J., Li Z., Zhao H., Zhang Q., Hu S., Song C. and Cassar N. Nature Climate Change, Aug. 1, 2025, DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02375-1.

    Journal

    Nature Climate Change

    Method of Research

    Computational simulation/modeling

    Article Title

    Contrasting biological production trends over land and ocean

    Article Publication Date

    1-Aug-2025

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  • New telescope captures interstellar comet speeding through space in video

    New telescope captures interstellar comet speeding through space in video

    A new telescope built to to track fast-moving space objects caught a comet from beyond the solar system moving across the sky — before anyone even knew it was there. 

    The NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile recently captured rare footage of the visitor known as 3I/ATLAS — only the third interstellar object discovered. What’s more impressive: The observatory recorded the video a full 10 days before the comet was officially identified by NASA‘s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System.

    Unlike the thousands of comets that loop around the sun, this one isn’t from around here. Scientists say 3I/ATLAS was born in a completely different star system and likely got flung into the void by the gravity of a nearby planet or passing star. After drifting for perhaps hundreds of millions of years, the giant comet, which you can watch in Rubin’s video below, wandered into our realm — and it’s just passing through.

    SEE ALSO:

    The Webb telescope saw a sun-like star on its deathbed. It wasn’t alone.

    Comets are icy, rocky objects that travel through space, often trailing long, bright tails of gas and dust as they warm up near the sun. Scientists have detected over 4,000 of them so far, but many more awaiting discovery could be lurking beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt or even in the remote Oort Cloud, the outer edge of the solar system about 50 times farther away.

    Unlike Halley’s Comet and others that regularly circle the sun, 3I/ATLAS isn’t one of the locals. When it was first spotted on July 1 by the ATLAS survey telescope, it was over 400 million miles from Earth and well within the orbit of Jupiter. At the time, it was traveling at a blistering speed of about 137,000 mph. That’s far too fast to be held by the sun’s gravity, confirming that it’s on a one-way route through the solar system.

    Mashable Light Speed

    Experts say it’s only the third-known interstellar comet. The first, a rocky cigar-shaped thing named ‘Oumuamua, zoomed by in 2017. Then came 2I/Borisov in 2019, which looked and behaved a little more like a typical comet. Now, 3I/ATLAS joins this rare club, but scientists think it may be the most ancient of all.

    Based on early computer models, researchers believe 3I/ATLAS may have come from a little-known region of the Milky Way filled with old, long-lived stars. If so, it could be over 7 billion years old — nearly twice as old as our own solar system. That makes it a sort of time capsule, preserving materials from an earlier time in the galaxy.

    Because it’s already releasing gas and dust as it heats up, astronomers know it’s made of ice — the hallmark of a comet — despite recent sensational headlines suggesting the object might be an alien spacecraft. Its dusty tail may become visible from Earth with a backyard telescope later this year or early in 2026.

    “While there’s *nothing wrong* with thinking about whether some interstellar objects could be alien technology,” said Jason Wright, a Penn State astronomy and astrophysics professor, on X, “3I/ATLAS has had its coma clearly detected since July 3. It’s very clearly, *unambiguously*, a comet.”

    Scientists are especially excited about this discovery not just because of what it is, but because of how it was found. The Rubin Observatory, while still being tested, managed to catch the comet before anyone even knew to look. That bodes well for the future. Researchers estimate Rubin could find dozens more of these interlopers in the coming decade — possibly up to 50.

    Interstellar objects like 3I/ATLAS offer a direct glimpse into the chemical makeup of other planetary systems. Since they formed around different stars, studying them could reveal how worlds form in other parts of the galaxy — and whether the building blocks for life travel between stars.

    Right now, 3I/ATLAS is about 262 million miles from Earth. It’s expected to make its closest approach to the sun in late October, then swing back out, never to return. But no need to worry: This comet will stay far from Earth, never coming closer than about 150 million miles, but leaving behind a wealth of data for astronomers to study for years to come.


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  • The meteor showers are back: when and how to see the Perseids and Delta Aquarids at their best

    The meteor showers are back: when and how to see the Perseids and Delta Aquarids at their best

    Friday, 1 August 2025, 10:40

    Lovers of astronomy and the night sky are in luck. The peak moments of the most striking astronomical phenomena of the summer will take place in the coming days. We are talking about the Delta Aquarids and the Perseids, two major meteor showers that are visible from Spain. So, when and where can you observe each of these meteor displays? Take note…

    According to data from the National Geographic Institute (IGN), the Delta Aquarids meteor shower will be seen between 12 July and 23 August, “reaching its peak around now”. The Moon, very close to its crescent [first quarter], will make observations more favourable after midnight, when the shower’s radiant will also be rising in the sky.

    Where best to observe them? In the southern hemisphere “because their radiant is higher in the sky, but they are also visible in the northern hemisphere with a somewhat lower activity rate”, said the IGN.

    To observe them, it is recommended to seek out an area not affected by light pollution: “It is preferable to observe from a location with few obstructions to obscure your view (such as buildings, trees or mountains), and not to use optical instruments that limit your field of vision. Although the Delta Aquarids appear to originate from the constellation of Aquarius (hence their name), they can be seen anywhere in the sky. It is best to direct your gaze towards the darker areas, in the opposite direction to the position of the Moon if observing when the Moon is present. The most comfortable option is to lie down and wait for your eyes to adjust to the darkness.”

    The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year around 12 August. The Perseids, also popularly known as the Tears of St. Lawrence due to their peak coinciding with the saint’s feast day of 10 August, are visible from all over the northern hemisphere in midsummer.

    The speed of these meteors can exceed 50 kilometres per second and their activity rate can reach 200 per hour. The IGN points out that, although their peak activity occurs on the nights of 11 to 13 August, the Perseids typically begin to be seen around 17 July and end around 24 August.

    This year, the Perseids will peak on 12 August at around 11pn in Spain. Unfortunately, the Moon will have just passed its full phase, so it will be very bright. “The best times to observe the shower on those days will be just after sunset, before moonrise, or while it is still very low in the sky.”

    “Their high activity, together with favourable atmospheric conditions for observation during the northern summer, makes the Perseids the most popular and easily observable meteor shower of the year.”

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  • Songs of long dead cricket species recreated in lab

    Songs of long dead cricket species recreated in lab

    Animal communication has always fascinated scientists. From bird calls to whale songs, acoustic signals help species find mates, warn of danger, and mark territory.

    But while many animals use vocal cords, some rely on completely different mechanics. Crickets, for example, create their characteristic chirps using intricate wing vibrations.


    Reconstructing these songs, especially for extinct species, has long been a challenge. Vocal cords and soft tissues rarely fossilize, and scientists often have to piece together incomplete clues. Now, researchers at Western University have developed a breakthrough method that can accurately recreate cricket songs using preserved specimens and advanced computer models.

    How crickets’ songs were recreated

    This approach combines detailed measurements of preserved cricket wings with finite element modelling (FEM). It focuses on the physical structure of the wings, predicting their vibration patterns and song frequencies with unprecedented accuracy.

    The findings, published in Royal Society Open Science, came from the lab of Natasha Mhatre, a biology professor and Canada Research Chair in invertebrate neurobiology. She and her team aim to better understand insect and spider communication.

    The modelling system can even predict the vibration patterns of wings it was not designed for. This leap forward changes how scientists study preserved specimens and opens the possibility of reviving sounds from species long extinct.

    How crickets make sound

    Crickets do not use vocal cords to produce sound. Instead, they create songs through vibrations in their forewings. These wings are tough, leathery structures that protect the cricket’s body and hold the specialized microstructures required for chirping.

    The arrangement of veins in the forewings plays a critical role in song frequency.

    “Each cricket wing has a pattern of veins running through it, which are structurally critical to making songs,” said Mhatre.

    “Some of these veins are used to generate the forces that make the wing vibrate and make sounds. Others stiffen local areas within the wing and develop the resonant structures that vibrate at specific frequencies.”

    New model gives better results

    For years, scientists used FEM and measurements from preserved specimens to study cricket calls.

    However, both approaches relied on simplifying assumptions. Previous FEM models treated dense vein regions as fixed, which did not reflect reality.

    The new study improved accuracy by clamping wings only at the base, as they naturally hinge.

    The researchers also modeled the stiffening effects of veins directly. This approach worked even for wing variations across cricket species and improved predictions about vibration patterns.

    Using preserved specimens

    The team also tested preserved cricket wings. Desiccated specimens vibrated similarly to live ones but at higher frequencies due to stiffened cuticles.

    Rehydrating the wings restored their resonance frequencies, making them more comparable to live crickets.

    This discovery means preserved specimens can help predict the songs of extinct or rare species.

    Adjusting for stiffness, either physically through rehydration or computationally, makes these specimens a powerful tool for studying acoustic evolution.

    Wing veins change cricket songs

    Venation patterns in cricket wings are genetically driven and influence song frequency. Changes in these patterns can drive evolutionary shifts in communication signals.

    By modelling venation and resonances without assumptions about immobile areas, scientists can trace how wing structures shaped cricket song evolution.

    This method can also analyze fossil specimens, even when only two-dimensional impressions are available.

    Bringing back lost cricket songs

    The refined methodology opens the possibility of reconstructing the songs of species that vanished long ago. Museum specimens and fossils can now be analyzed for their acoustic traits, offering a new window into insect communication through time.

    “We’ve developed a more reliable way of dealing with reconstructing cricket acoustic function from morphology, using computational modelling and preserved specimens,” said Mhatre.

    Collaboration and future directions

    The study began during the COVID-19 pandemic and included Nathan Bailey from the University of St. Andrews.

    Three of Mhatre’s former undergraduate students, Sarah Duke, Ryan Weiner, and Gabriella Simonelli, also contributed as co-authors.

    This breakthrough could inspire large-scale studies on cricket song diversity. Comparing wing mechanics across species may reveal how morphology drives communication and speciation in the insect world.

    The study is published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

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  • Computer Model Recreates Crickets’ Song

    Computer Model Recreates Crickets’ Song

    Western biologists have developed an innovative way to reconstruct how crickets sing, based on the physical formation of the chirping insects’ wings, using measurements from preserved samples and computational modelling.

    The new best practices, published July 30 in Royal Society Open Science, were devised by Western biology professor Natasha Mhatre, Canada Research Chair in invertebrate neurobiology, and three former undergraduate students in her lab, which investigates the biophysics of insect and spider communication.

    In the new study, Mhatre and her collaborators detail a new computer modelling method that adheres more closely to a cricket’s actual physical characteristics than previous attempts. The new model can predict the precise vibration patterns of cricket wings, even those of new wings that the model was not based on.

    Scientists like Mhatre often use preserved specimens for a deeper understanding of evolutionary history and genetics. But recreating how extinct or dead birds and mammals, including humans, once sounded is complex. Both communicate using a vocal tract, intricately controlled by the brain. But both structures are made of soft tissue, which rarely fossilizes or leaves a trace. Crickets, however, sing a different tune – literally and figuratively.

    Cricket songs are not a vocalization at all but are created by vibrational mechanics within their forewings. These tough, leathery wings, located in front of the hindwings, act as protective shields for crickets. They also house specialized, hardened microstructures needed for chirping. (Their hardness means forewings preserve well as fossils or museum specimens.) Most importantly, the venation pattern, or arrangement of veins, within the cricket forewing determines its song frequency or pitch.

    “Each cricket wing has a pattern of veins running through it, which are structurally critical to making songs,” said Mhatre, a biology professor in Western’s Faculty of Science. “Some of these veins are used to generate the forces that make the wing vibrate and make sounds. Others stiffen local areas within the wing and develop the resonant structures that vibrate at specific frequencies.”

    What’s the frequency, cricket?

    For years, Mhatre and others in the global neurobiology research community have attempted to use bioacoustics (sound produced by living organisms) and finite element modeling (a method for numerically solving differential equations) to understand cricket song with a primary goal of predicting wing vibration and sound production. Thousands of cricket wings are preserved in museums and their evolutionary relationships are clearly mapped out, making this tactic for predicting their sounds a perfect pathway to unlock the mysteries of signal evolution and how some of the first sounds on earth sounded.

    In fact, Mhatre and her collaborators thought they had cracked the code in 2012 in a game-changing study published in PNAS, in which they used some simple assumptions to develop computational models for cricket wings.

    “There is a high density of veins in cricket forewings, so we considered these parts of the wing effectively immobile in our model. And this approach has stuck around for more than a decade,” said Mhatre. “But something about this approach has always bugged me.”

    The issue with earlier studies, including the 2012 PNAS paper, is that the modelled cricket wings were ‘clamped’ at points with a high density of veins and not just at the base, as wings are hinged in nature. This simplified the study but technically, these parts of the wing are free to move, so the computer model wasn’t a direct representation.

    “We also don’t really have an objective means of deciding what a ‘high density’ really means, in terms of veins in a cricket wing, which is a problem if you start with a new cricket with different wing venation whose wings you have never measured before,” said Mhatre.

    In the new study, Mhatre and her collaborators developed a computer modelling method that adhered more closely to the cricket’s actual physical characteristics and clamped the wings as they should be.

    The new model, based on Teleogryllus oceanicus (commonly known as the Australian, Pacific or oceanic field cricket). is now able to predict the precise vibration patterns of cricket forewings without simplifying assumptions. It can even predict the behaviour of new wings that it was not specially designed or tuned for.

    The authors then tackled another method used for reconstructing cricket song, which was the use of preserved specimens. They showed that a dry-preserved cricket forewing, such as a museum specimen, would have very similar vibrational pattern as a live cricket but it would resonate at the wrong frequency. This is because the wing material hardens as it dries. They found that the correct frequency could be recovered, however, simply by wetting the wing with water or reducing this stiffness artificially in a computer model.

    “We’ve developed a more reliable way of dealing with reconstructing cricket acoustic function from morphology, using computational modelling and preserved specimens,” said Mhatre.

    Mhatre collaborated with co-author Nathan Bailey from the University of St. Andrews on this new model, research that dates back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The long-time collaborators were joined by three of Mhatre’s then-undergraduate thesis students, Sarah Duke, Ryan Weiner and Gabriella Simonelli, who are all co-authors on the study.

     

    Reference: Weiner R, Duke S, Simonelli G, et al. Reliable reconstruction of cricket song from biophysical models and preserved specimens. R Soc Open Sci. 2025. doi: 10.1098/rsos.251005


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