Category: 7. Science

The catalogue, which identifies five times as many canyons as previous studies had, was produced by the researchers David Amblàs, of the Consolidated Research Group on Marine Geosciences at the Faculty of Earth Sciences of the University of Barcelona, and Riccardo Arosio, of the Marine Geosciences Research Group at University College Cork. Their article shows that Antarctic submarine canyons may have a more significant impact than previously thought on ocean circulation, ice-shelf thinning and global climate change, especially in vulnerable areas such as the Amundsen Sea and parts of East Antarctica.

Submarine canyons: the differences between East and West Antarctica

The submarine canyons that form valleys carved into the seafloor play a decisive role in ocean dynamics: they transport sediments and nutrients from the coast to deeper areas, they connect shallow and deep waters and they create habitats rich in biodiversity. Scientists have identified some 10,000 submarine canyons worldwide, but because only 27% of the Earth’s seafloor has been mapped in high resolution the real total is likely to be higher. And despite their ecological, oceanographic, and geological value, submarine canyons remain underexplored, especially in polar regions.

“Like those in the Arctic, Antarctic submarine canyons resemble canyons in other parts of the world,” explains David Amblàs. “But they tend to be larger and deeper because of the prolonged action of polar ice and the immense volumes of sediment transported by glaciers to the continental shelf.” Moreover, the Antarctic canyons are mainly formed by turbidity currents, which carry suspended sediments downslope at high speed, eroding the valleys they flow through. In Antarctica, the steep slopes of the submarine terrain combined with the abundance of glacial sediments amplifies the effects of these currents and contributes to the formation of large canyons.

The new study by Amblàs and Arosio is based on Version 2 of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Southern Ocean (IBCSO v2), the most complete and detailed map of the seafloor in this region. It uses new high-resolution bathymetric data and a semi-automated method for identifying and analysing canyons that was developed by the authors. In total, it describes 15 morphometric parameters that reveal striking differences between canyons in East and West Antarctica.

“Some of the submarine canyons we analyzed reach depths of over 4,000 meters,” explained David Amblàs. “The most spectacular of these are in East Antarctica, which is characterized by complex, branching canyon systems. The systems often begin with multiple canyon heads near the edge of the continental shelf and converge into a single main channel that descends into the deep ocean, crossing the sharp, steep gradients of the continental slope.”

Riccardo Arosio noted that “It was particularly interesting to see the differences between canyons in the two major Antarctic regions, as this hadn’t been described before. East Antarctic canyons are more complex and branched, often forming extensive canyon-channel systems with typical U-shaped cross sections. This suggests prolonged development under sustained glacial activity and a greater influence of both erosional and depositional sedimentary processes. In contrast, West Antarctic canyons are shorter and steeper, characterized by V-shaped cross sections.”

According to David Amblàs, this morphological difference supports the idea that the East Antarctica Ice Sheet originated earlier and has experienced a more prolonged development. “This had been suggested by sedimentary record studies,” Amblàs said, “but it hadn’t yet been described in large-scale seafloor geomorphology.”

About the research, Riccardo Arosio also explained that “Thanks to the high resolution of the new bathymetric database — 500 meters per pixel compared to the 1-2 kilometres per pixel of previous maps — we could apply semi-automated techniques more reliably to identify, profile and analyse submarine canyons. The strength of the study lies in its combination of various techniques that were already used in previous work but that are now integrated into a robust and systematic protocol. We also developed a GIS software script that allows us to calculate a wide range of canyon-specific morphometric parameters in just a few clicks.”

Submarine canyons and climate change

As well as being spectacular geographic accidents, the Antarctic canyons also facilitate water exchange between the deep ocean and the continental shelf, allowing cold, dense water formed near ice shelves to flow into the deep ocean and form what is known as Antarctic Bottom Water, which plays a fundamental role in ocean circulation and global climate.

Additionally, these canyons channel warmer waters such as Circumpolar Deep Water from the open sea toward the coastline. This process is one of the main mechanisms that drives the basal melting and thinning of floating ice shelves, which are themselves critical for maintaining the stability of Antarctica’s interior glaciers. And as Amblàs and Arosio have explained, when the shelves weaken or collapse, continental ice flows more rapidly into the sea and directly contributes to the rise in global sea level.

Amblàs and Arosio’s study also highlights the fact that current ocean circulation models like those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change do not accurately reproduce the physical processes that occur at local scales between water masses and complex topographies like canyons. These processes, which include current channeling, vertical mixing and deep-water ventilation, are essential for the formation and transformation of cold, dense water masses like Antarctic Bottom Water. Omitting these local mechanisms limits the ability that models have to predict changes in ocean and climate dynamics.

As the two researchers conclude, “That’s why we must continue to gather high-resolution bathymetric data in unmapped areas that will surely reveal new canyons, collect observational data both in situ and via remote sensors and keep improving our climate models to better represent these processes and increase the reliability of projections on climate change impacts.”

Natural processes on land and in the ocean already remove carbon dioxide from the air, but they do not work in isolation. A new paper argues that these processes must be seen as one connected system, a weathering continuum that stretches from high terrain to the deepest seabed and controls how much CO2 is locked away over time.

This perspective matters because many climate ideas aim to speed up weathering to pull more CO2 from the atmosphere. If the pieces of the chain are tightly linked, pushing on one part can tug on another in ways that help or hurt the total carbon removed.

Why linking land and ocean matters

Dr. Gerrit Trapp-Müller of the Georgia Institute of Technology led the study, which was completed during his time at Utrecht University.

The team brings reactions in soils, rivers, coasts, and marine sediments into one model so we can view the whole system, not just scattered parts.

In this framework, the direction and size of a local flux depend on the material’s origin, how it has been transported and altered, and the surrounding conditions. That is a practical shift, because it changes how we should place, size, and verify interventions meant to boost carbon removal.

How silicate weathering stores CO2

At the center is silicate weathering – the set of reactions where acidic water breaks down silicate minerals, releasing cations and bicarbonate that ultimately store carbon as carbonate minerals.

Over geologic time, silicate weathering acts as a negative feedback that steadies climate by consuming more CO2 as temperatures rise.

This thermostat effect is real but slow on human timescales. It scales with factors such as temperature, runoff, rock type, and how quickly fresh mineral surfaces are exposed.

Oceans can release CO2

There is a twist called reverse weathering. In marine sediments, the formation of authigenic clays can consume alkalinity, release acidity, and shift carbon back toward the atmosphere.

When reactions that consume alkalinity dominate parts of the chain, the net sink can shrink or even flip. That means the ocean side of the system can throttle what the land side achieves.

Not all settings pull equal weight. Recent work highlights deltas and beaches as marine weathering hotspots that can shape the balance between forward and reverse reactions along the transport path from rivers to the shelf and beyond.

Studies in delta muds, using both field data and models, show that where the sediment comes from and how it was deposited determine whether chemical reactions add or remove alkalinity – and by how much – at different depths and over time. These factors decide whether the area is a strong sink or only a weak one.

How much CO2 weathering removes

So how much carbon does chemical weathering handle today. A global analysis finds total CO2 consumption by chemical weathering near 237 million metric tons of carbon per year, with silicates accounting for roughly 63 percent of that budget, on the order of 149 million tons of carbon annually.

Within the silicate share, basaltic terrains have an outsized impact, contributing on the order of 25 to 35 percent of the silicate weathering CO2 sink because they weather quickly where runoff is high.

That concentration of flux in a small fraction of the landscape explains why placement of interventions matters so much.

How we could boost weathering

Analyses suggest that spreading finely crushed silicate rock on croplands could remove on the order of 0.5 to 2.0 billion tons of CO2 per year, comparable to other land-based options if done at scale and with the right logistics.

This is a large range, and it depends on climate, soils, farm practices, and supply chains.

Recent evaluations also warn that removal efficiency varies widely and can be overestimated if you ignore side fluxes, carbonate dynamics, or downstream processes in the ocean that offset gains on land. Measuring the whole chain is not optional, it is the only way to know the real net.

The future of weathering research

“The main conclusion from our work is that the various CO2 fluxes on land and in the ocean are very closely linked. This governs the efficiency of the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere,” said Trapp-Müller.

Treating weathering as one system forces three practical habits. Site selection should consider downstream coupling, monitoring must track products beyond the field edge, and models need to include both forward and reverse reactions across environments.

Future studies may map which river basins, coastlines, and sedimentary settings deliver the biggest net gains once ocean processes are included. That includes quantifying how fast material moves along the conveyor from hills to seabed and how reaction balances change en route.

The new perspective also invites better stress tests for proposed projects, from agricultural basalt applications to coastal alkalinity additions, against the actual carbon accounting of the full chain. 

The study is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

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For decades, scientists assumed that as women age, their egg cells collect genetic damage, just like the rest of the body. But new research suggests that human eggs might be playing by their own rules.

In a study spanning women aged 20 to 42, researchers discovered that the tiny power plants inside our cells – mitochondria – keep their genetic material remarkably pristine in eggs, even as the years pass.

These same energy makers in blood and saliva do pick up more damage with age. But in eggs? The mutation rate barely budges.

“When we think about age-related mutations, we think about older people having more mutations than younger people,” said Kateryna Makova at Penn State University. “But expectation is not necessarily the truth.”

Women’s eggs store clean DNA

Mitochondria pass exclusively from mother to child. Their DNA is short, circular, and essential for making energy. Damage to it can sometimes trigger devastating disorders, especially in tissues with high energy demands like muscles and the brain.

“The oocyte [egg] provides this stockpile,” said Ruth Lehmann, professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, referring to the generous stash of mitochondria inside each egg cell.

To see how these precious packages fare over time, the team used a cutting-edge method called duplex sequencing. It can spot even the rarest mutations – changes present in less than one percent of a cell’s mitochondrial copies.

This was no small undertaking: they sequenced 80 single eggs, plus blood and saliva samples, from 22 women.

Eggs resist aging mutations in women

The study revealed a clear difference between eggs and other tissues. Blood and saliva from older women contained more mitochondrial mutations than those from younger women, showing the expected age-related increase.

Egg cells, however, showed no such rise. In fact, they consistently had 17 to 24 times fewer mutations than blood or saliva, regardless of the woman’s age.

Within the mitochondrial genome, vulnerability was uneven. In eggs, most mutations appeared in the D-loop, a noncoding control region, while the crucial protein-coding sections remained mostly untouched.

This pattern points to a protective mechanism that directs genetic changes away from regions essential for energy production.

By protecting these critical genes, eggs help preserve the functional integrity of mitochondria, ensuring they can perform their energy-supplying role for decades. This built-in protection could be a key reason eggs maintain reproductive potential well into later stages of a woman’s life.

Natural filter removes harmful DNA

A woman may inherit some mitochondrial DNA variants from her mother, which then appear in both her eggs and other tissues. These shared variants, called inherited heteroplasmies, often exist at lower levels in eggs than in blood or saliva.

This difference points to a natural quality-control system within the reproductive process that reduces potentially harmful mitochondrial changes before they are passed to future generations.

Researchers also measured the “germline bottleneck” – the sharp reduction in the number of mitochondrial DNA copies that are actually transmitted during egg development. This bottleneck acts as a filter, determining which variants survive to the next generation.

For high-frequency variants, the team estimated the bottleneck size to be around 30 mitochondrial DNA units, which is consistent with earlier findings from family-based genetic studies.

This small number helps explain how reproduction can effectively minimize harmful mutations, protecting offspring from potential mitochondrial disorders.

Unlocking fertility’s genetic secret

The study challenges the long-held assumption that egg cells deteriorate genetically in step with the rest of the body. Instead, they appear to have protective systems that guard their mitochondrial DNA well into a woman’s reproductive years.

“I think that we evolved a mechanism to somehow lower our mutation burden, because we can reproduce later in life,” said Makova.

It’s a finding with big implications. If we can understand – and maybe even mimic – this natural preservation system, we might unlock new ways to improve fertility treatments and reduce the risk of passing on mitochondrial disorders.

For now, the message is surprisingly optimistic: while the rest of the body’s cells may bear the marks of time, women’s eggs seem to have found a way to keep part of their genetic story young.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

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In May, we reported on a first-of-its-kind video that captured surface rupture during Myanmar’s devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake. While the YouTube video now has 1.6 million views, two geophysicists spotted something many people probably didn’t notice.

The video seems like a gift that just keeps on giving. As the Kyoto University scientists explain in a study published last month in The Seismic Record, it also includes the first direct visual evidence of pulse-like rupturing and a curved fault slip. This means the two sides of the strike-slip fault didn’t just slip horizontally past each other—the slip path also dipped downward. While scientists have previously inferred both features from seismic data and post-earthquake observations and seismic data, the video provides direct visual evidence.

“Our results provide the first direct visual evidence of curved coseismic fault slip, bridging a critical gap among seismological observations, geological data, and theoretical models,” the researchers wrote in the study.

You might be wondering how the researchers inferred all that from a very brief video excerpt. The answer is that they analyzed Myanmar’s Sagaing Fault’s movement in the footage frame-by-frame. With this approach, they discovered that the fault slipped sideways 8.2 feet (2.5 meters) in 1.3 seconds, with a peak speed of 10.5 feet (3.2 meters) per second.

While the earthquake’s entire sideways movement was normal for strike-slip events, “the brief duration of motion confirms a pulse-like rupture, characterized by a concentrated burst of slip propagating along the fault, much like a ripple traveling down a rug when flicked from one end,” Jesse Kearse, a co-author of the study from Kyoto University, said in a university statement.

Kearse and co-author Yoshihiro Kaneko’s analysis also revealed that the fault’s slip path was slightly curved. This finding aligns with curved slickenlines—scratches caused by rocks scraping against each other along a fault—that earthquake geologists often find after earthquakes. The video provides the first visual proof of the curved slip behind the striations.

“Instead of things moving straight across the video screen, they moved along a curved path that has a convexity downwards, which instantly started bells ringing in my head,” Kearse explained in a statement by the Seismological Society of America. “The dynamic stresses of the earthquake as it’s approaching and begins to rupture the fault near the ground surface are able to induce an obliquity to the fault movement,” he adds. “These transient stresses push the fault off its intended course initially, and then it catches itself and does what it’s supposed to do, after that.”

More broadly, the Myanmar earthquake’s north-to-south rupture confirms the researchers’ previous conclusion that slip curvature types depend on the direction of said rupture. Accordingly, earthquake scientists can study slickenlines to understand bygone earthquakes, potentially informing future risks.

“Together these findings impose critical observational constraints on future rupture simulations,” the researchers conclude in the study, “and deepen our understanding of the physical mechanisms that control rapid fault slip during large earthquakes.”

The intriguing rules of quantum physics almost always fail when you move from atoms and molecules to much larger objects at high temperatures.

This is because the bigger an object gets and higher the temperature is, the harder it becomes to stop it from interacting with surroundings, a phenomenon that usually erases the delicate quantum behavior.

However, a new study has managed something that seriously pushes these limits. The research has shown that a tiny glass sphere—still over a thousand times smaller than a grain of sand but huge by quantum standards—can have its rotational motion cooled down to almost the quietest state allowed by quantum physics at about 92% purity, even while the particle itself is burning hot at several hundred degrees.

This is the first time scientists have reached such a pure quantum state without having to chill the entire object to near absolute zero, opening doors to experiments once thought impossible outside of deep-freeze labs.

“The purity reached by our room-temperature experiment exceeds the performance offered by mechanically clamped oscillators in a cryogenic environment, establishing a platform for high-purity quantum optomechanics at room temperature,” the study authors note.

A clever shortcut targeting object’s specific motion

Normally, to see quantum behavior in an object larger than a molecule, researchers have to go to extremes: levitating the particle in a vacuum to shield it from outside interference, and cooling its surroundings to near -273.15°C so its motion becomes as orderly as quantum rules allow.

Even then, it’s tricky. This is because motion in the quantum world is quantized—it can only happen in specific chunks called vibration quanta. There is a lowest-energy mode called the ground state, a first excited state with a little more energy, and so on.

Though the particle can exist in a mix of these states. Reaching the ground state for a large particle has been a milestone goal. Until now, it required cooling everything to frigid extremes.

The study authors took a clever shortcut. Instead of trying to chill the particle’s entire internal energy (which is massive compared to the energy of its motion), they targeted just one specific motion: its rotation.

Controlling laser light, mirror systems to drain rotational energy

The researchers used a nanoparticle shaped not as a perfect sphere, but as a slightly stretched ellipse. When trapped in an electromagnetic field, such a particle naturally rotates around a fixed alignment, like a compass needle wobbling around north.

By precisely controlling laser light and mirror systems, forming a high-finesse optical cavity, the team could influence this wobble. The trick here is that the laser can either feed energy into the rotation or take energy away from it.

By carefully adjusting the mirrors so that energy removal was far more likely than energy addition, scientists drained almost all the rotational energy away. While doing so, they also had to account for and control quantum noise from the lasers, random fluctuations that could otherwise ruin the delicate process.

This resulted in a rotational motion freezing into a state extremely close to the quantum ground state, with just 0.04 quanta of residual energy and about 92% quantum purity, even though the particle’s internal temperature was still hundreds of degrees Celsius.

The key to making quantum systems more practical

This result breaks a long-standing barrier in quantum research. It shows that one does not have to cool an entire object to ultra-low temperatures to study its quantum properties.

Instead, by treating different types of motion, like rotation, separately, one can selectively bring parts of a system into the quantum regime while the rest remains hot and messy.

This approach could make it much easier to explore quantum effects in bigger, more complex systems—from biological structures to engineered devices—without requiring massive cryogenic setups.

However, the work focused on one specific motion in a carefully chosen nanoparticle. Hence, it is not yet an universal recipe for every large object. Future research will likely explore whether the same principles can control other motions or work with different shapes and materials.

The study has been published in the journal Nature Physics.

IN A NUTSHELL

🔍 Scientists propose two new theories that may explain the origins of dark matter. 🌌 Theories include a potential “mirror world” and a cosmic horizon acting like a particle factory. 🧪 These theories offer testable predictions to challenge established dark matter models. 🔬 Researchers are shifting focus from particle detection to understanding creation processes.

Recent developments in theoretical physics are providing new avenues for understanding the mysterious substance known as dark matter, which makes up approximately 85% of the universe’s mass. Two novel approaches are gaining attention: one proposes a “mirror world” composed of twin particles, and the other suggests that the young universe’s expanding edge could have generated particles similar to a black hole horizon. Both theories offer testable predictions and challenge established models, enriching the ongoing quest to uncover the origins of dark matter.

The Puzzle of Dark Matter

For decades, scientists have been puzzled by evidence of dark matter. Galaxies rotate faster than their visible mass should allow, and galaxy clusters bend light more than expected. These anomalies suggest a hidden mass that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it invisible and detectable only through gravitational effects. Current estimates indicate that around 85% of the universe’s matter is dark, cold, and slow-moving on cosmic scales.

Despite numerous experiments, the most popular dark matter candidates have remained elusive. This lack of detection has pushed theorists to explore new ideas. Physicist Stefano Profumo from the University of California, Santa Cruz, observes that the speculative nature of these new theories offers fresh perspectives that do not rely on conventional particle dark matter models, which face increasing pressure from null experimental results.

Chinese Scientist Claims “We Mapped 27 Million Cosmic Objects in One Shot” as AI Space Tool Sparks Tensions Over Tech Dominance and Data Secrecy

Two New Theories Emerge

The first theory, recently published in the journal arXiv, envisions a mirror sector—a duplicate realm of known particles and forces that interacts weakly with our own. In this hidden world, a version of the strong force could bind “dark quarks” into heavy “dark baryons.” During the early universe, these baryons might have collapsed into tiny, stable relics akin to miniature black holes. If formed in the right quantities, they could explain the universe’s missing mass while remaining undetectable by current instruments.

The second theory, detailed in the journal Physical Review D, suggests that the expanding horizon of the early universe served as a particle factory. After inflation, the cosmos may have experienced a brief period of accelerated expansion. During this phase, the cosmic horizon would have had a temperature and emitted particles, much like a black hole. If stable particles were created this way, they could constitute dark matter across a wide range of masses.

Astrophysicist Says “We’re Trapped in a Black Hole” as James Webb Unleashes Panic Over Mind-Bending Discovery That Shakes All Known Physics

Testing the Mirror World Hypothesis

The mirror world theory has been around for years, but recent studies have sharpened its potential explanations for dark matter’s abundance. The theory posits two main possibilities: mirror electrons or mirror baryons as dark matter candidates. Both scenarios predict the existence of a “mirror photon” with a mass in the million-electron-volt range, which could explain the smoothness of small galaxies without conflicting with large-scale structures.

Future cosmic background surveys could potentially detect this model’s predicted small but measurable extra amount of early-universe radiation. Additionally, better mapping of stars in small galaxies could reveal self-interacting dark matter changes, supporting or refuting the mirror world hypothesis. Observations of the cosmic microwave background could also identify any extra radiation from the mirror world.

Galactic Horror Unleashed: The Star-Devouring Phenomenon That’s Splitting the Scientific Community and Defying Every Known Law

The Horizon of Creation Theory

Profumo’s second proposal offers a simpler setup. It imagines the universe just after inflation in a nearly steady expansion phase. In this state, the cosmic horizon acts like a hot surface, generating particles through quantum effects. If these particles are stable and interact only through gravity, they could persist as dark matter today. The final amount depends on conditions during this phase and the temperature when normal expansion resumed.

By measuring certain features of the early universe, scientists could narrow down the possible mass of this type of dark matter. Gravitational waves or small deviations in early expansion could indicate a brief accelerated phase, providing further evidence for this theory. Understanding the temperature at the end of this phase would help constrain the mass range for the dark matter particles.

As scientists continue to explore these bold theories, they open new pathways for discovering dark matter. Instead of solely focusing on particle detection in laboratories, researchers are now looking to galaxy surveys, cosmic background maps, and gravitational wave detectors for clues. These approaches reflect a broader shift in thinking, moving from identifying specific particles to understanding the processes that may have created them. Will these innovative theories lead to a breakthrough in our understanding of the universe’s hidden mass?

This article is based on verified sources and supported by editorial technologies.

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During the early days of our Solar System, giant impacts were common occurrences. Earth likely experienced such an impact that created our Moon, and Mars may have been struck by objects that created its asymmetrical surface features. But what about Venus?

Venus captured by the Magellan spacecraft (Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Researchers led by M. Bussmann from the University of Zurich, used advanced computer simulations called smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) to model what would happen if Venus were struck by massive objects early in its formation. These simulations can track how materials behave during extreme collisions, making them perfect for studying planetary impacts.

The team modelled Venus as it likely existed after its initial formation: a differentiated planet with an iron core making up 30% of its mass and a forsterite mantle comprising the remaining 70%. They then simulated impacts with objects ranging from 0.01 to 0.1 Earth masses, gigantic asteroids by today’s standards.
The simulations explored various impact scenarios with specific parameters; collision speeds between 10 and 15 km/s, different impact geometries (from head-on to oblique collisions), various primordial thermal profiles, and different pre-impact rotation rates of Venus. By running these digital experiments, researchers could analyse how such collisions might affect Venus’s post impact rotation periods and debris disc formation.

Ceres, the most massive asteroid today is a mere 0.00016 Earth masses. (Credit : Justin Cowart)

The study’s findings reveal that a wide range of impact scenarios are consistent with Venus’s current rotation rate. These include head-on collisions on a non-rotating Venus and oblique, hit and run impacts by Mars sized bodies on a rotating Venus. Most importantly however, they found that collisions matching Venus’s present day rotation rate typically produce minimal debris discs that reside within Venus’s synchronous orbit. This means the material would likely reaccrete back onto the planet, preventing the formation of long lasting satellites, perfectly explaining Venus’s lack of a moon.

The researchers conclude definitively that a giant impact can be consistent with both Venus’s unusual rotation and lack of a moon, potentially setting the stage for its subsequent thermal evolution.

The study serves as a foundation for future research into Venus’s long term thermal evolution. Understanding the initial thermal state created by these potential impacts is essential for modelling how Venus developed its thick atmosphere, extreme greenhouse effect, and geological features over billions of years.
As space agencies plan new missions to Venus in the coming decades, this research provides valuable help for interpreting the geological and atmospheric data these missions will collect. The story of Venus’s violent early history may finally be coming into focus, revealing how our sister planet became the hellish world we observe today.

Source : The possibility of a giant impact on Venus

Scientists apparently underestimated the aggression of itty-bitty male fiddler crabs when they deployed a friendly robot version during mating season.

In a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, animal behavior researchers from the UK’s University of Exeter detailed the embarrassing end to their experiment with “Wavy Dave,” a 3D-printed, Bluetooth-controlled crab-bot trained to wave at its fellow crustaceans.

Known for having one claw that’s much larger than the other, fiddler crabs not only wave their large pincers to attract mates, but actually hold diminutive competitions during their mating seasons in which females choose those whose claws are biggest — yes, seriously — and wave the fastest.

Though scientists already knew that male fiddler crabs will, as lead study author Joe Wilde said in a statement, “adjust their sexual displays if rivals are nearby,” less was known about what exactly those males do in response to the rivals themselves.

To test it out, Wilde — who is now at the Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland lab — and his Exeter colleagues took Wavy Dave out for a spin during fiddler crab mating season in the mudflats of Portugal’s Ria Formosa Natural Park.

Initially, the males left Dave alone, possibly because his larger claw was bigger — and therefore more likely to win the attention of females or pose a threat — than their own. At some point, however, “the females realized [the robot] was a bit odd,” Wilde said, which led some of the male fiddlers to confront him.

Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out so well for the little crab robot.

“One male broke Wavy Dave by pulling off his claw,” the lead author wrote. “We had to abandon that trial and reboot the robot.”

Despite their creation getting torn to pieces, however, Wilde and his team learned a lot from their short-lived experiment.

“If you own a shop and your rivals start selling things really cheaply, you might have to change how you run your business,” the researcher explained. “The same might be true for males signaling to attract females — and our study suggests males do indeed respond to competition.”

As with humans and other animals, the male fiddler crabs who took Dave down have “subtle ways” of adjusting how they act “to compete in a dynamic environment, investing more in [sexual] signaling when it is likely to be most profitable.”

Like so many drunk bros in bar fights, the male fiddlers only attacked Wavy Dave after assessing the situation and getting feedback from the females — and ultimately, nobody lost except for the robot.

More on responses to robots: As Waymo Debuts in Philadelphia, It May Want to Look Into the Time Furious Locals Tore Apart an Adorable Robot

Welcome back to the Abstract! Here are the studies this week that gave me hope, sent me back in time, and dragged me onto the dance-floor. 

First, what’s your favorite cockatoo dance move? To be fully informed in your response, you will need to review the latest literature on innovations in avian choreography. Then: salvation for sea stars, a tooth extraction you’ll actually like, ancient vortex planets, and what to expect when you’re an expecting cockroach. 

Everybody do the cockatoo

Lubke, Natasha et al. “Dance behaviour in cockatoos: Implications for cognitive processes and welfare.” PLOS One.

If you play your cards right as a scientist, you can spend all day watching cockatoos dance online and IRL. That’s what one team of researchers figured out, according to a new study that identified 17 cockatoo dance moves previously unknown to science.  

“Anecdotally, parrots (Psittaciformes) have been reported to show ‘dancing’ behaviour to music in captivity which has been supported by studies on a few individuals,” said researchers led by Natasha Lubke of Charles Sturt University. “However, to date it remains unclear why parrots show dance behavior in response to music in captivity when birds are not courting or in the absence of any potential sexual partner.” Cockatoos, by the way, are a type of parrot. 

It’s worth pursuing this mystery in part because parrots are popular pets and zoo attractions that require environmental enrichment for their welfare while in captivity. Listening to music and dancing could provide much-needed stimulation for these smart, social animals.

To that end, the authors watched dozens of videos of cockatoos on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, with search terms like “birds dancing Elvis,” “bird dancing to rap music” and “bird dancing to rock music.” They also played music and podcasts to a group of captive birds—two sulphur crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita), two Major Mitchell cockatoos (Lophochroa leadbeateri) and two galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla)—housed at Wagga Wagga Zoo in Australia.

The results expanded the existing database of cockatoo dance moves from classics like headbang, foot-lift, and body roll to include new-wave choreography like jump turn, downward walk, and fluff (wherein “feathers are fluffed” in a “fluffing event” according to the study). 

All the birds that the team studied onsite at the zoo also danced at least once to audio playback of the song “The Nights” by Avicii. They even danced when music was not playing, bopping around to silence or to  tips from the financial podcast “She’s on the Money.”

“Dance behaviour is perhaps a more common behaviour in cockatoos than previously thought,” the team concluded. “Further research is required to determine the motivational basis for this behaviour in captivity.”

It will be interesting to see what forthcoming studies reveal, but my own prediction is that the motivational basis falls under Lady Gaga’s edict to “Just Dance.”

In other news…

Solving the mystery of what’s killing billions of sea stars

Prentice, Melanie et al. “Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3 is a causative agent of sea star wasting disease.” Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Over the past decade, a devastating illness has killed off billions of sea stars in what is the largest marine epidemic on record. Scientists have finally identified the culprit that causes sea star wasting disease (SSWD) as the bacteria Vibrio pectenicida, which is from the same family that causes cholera in humans (Vibrio cholerae).

Sea stars infected with SSWD form lesions and rapidly disintegrate into goo in mass mortality events that have upended ecosystems on the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico. The isolation of the agent involved in these grotesque die-offs will hopefully help restore these vital keystone species.

“This discovery will enable recovery efforts for sea stars and the ecosystems affected by their decline,” said researchers led by Melanie Prentice of the Hakai Institute and the University of British Columbia.

Psst…you have some ancient atmosphere stuck in your teeth

Feng, Dingsu et al. “Mesozoic atmospheric CO2 concentrations reconstructed from dinosaur tooth enamel.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For the first time, scientists have reconstructed atmospheres that existed more than 100 million years ago by studying the teeth of dinosaurs that breathed in this bygone air.

A team analyzed oxygen remnants preserved in the dental enamel of roughly two dozen dinosaur teeth including sauropods (such as Camarasaurus), theropods (including Tyrannosaurus), and the ornithischian Edmontosaurus (go Oilers). This data enabled them to infer carbon dioxide concentrations of around 1,200 parts per million (ppm) and 750 ppm in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, respectively. 

This is in line with other findings that have found wild swings in CO2 levels during the dinosaur age, likely due to volcanic activity. Earth’s current atmosphere is about 430 ppm, and is rapidly rising due to human-driven greenhouse gas emissions.  

“Fossil tooth enamel can thus serve as a robust time capsule for ancient air [oxygen] isotope compositions,” said researchers led by Dingsu Feng of the University of Göttingen. “This novel form of analysis can “provide insights into past atmospheric greenhouse gas content and global primary productivity.”

Vortex planets from the dawn of light

Eriksson, Linn E J et al. “Planets and planetesimals at cosmic dawn: Vortices as planetary nurseries.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The first planets ever born in the universe may have formed in vortices around ancient stars more than 13.6 billion years ago. These stars were made of light elements, such as hydrogen and helium, but each new generation forged an itty-bit of heavier elements in their bellies that could potentially provide basic planetary building blocks.

By running simulations of this early epoch, known as cosmic dawn, researchers led by Linn E.J. Eriksson of the American Museum of Natural History found that small rocky worlds, on the scale of Mercury or Mars, could coalesce from dust and pebbles trapped in so-called “vortices,” which are like cosmic eddies that form in disks around newborn stars. 

As a consequence, this “suggests that vortices could trigger the formation of the first generation of planets and planetesimals in the universe,” the team said.

Congratulations to everyone who had “ancient vortex planets from cosmic dawn” on their bingo card this week.

Wash it all down with a glass of cockroach milk

Frigard, Ronja et al. “Daily activity rhythms, sleep and pregnancy are fundamentally related in the Pacific beetle mimic cockroach, Diploptera punctata.” Journal of Experimental Biology.

We began with cockatoos and we’ll close with cockroaches. Scientists have been bothering sleepy pregnant cockroaches, according to a new study on the Pacific beetle mimic cockroach, which is one of the few insects that produces milk and gives birth to live young.   

“To our knowledge, no study has investigated the direct relationship between sleep and pregnancy in invertebrates, which leaves open the questions: do pregnant individuals follow similar sleep and activity patterns to their non-pregnant counterparts, and how important is sleep for successful pregnancy?” said researchers led by Ronja Frigard of the University of Cincinnati.

As it turns out, it’s very important! The team disrupted pregnant cockroaches by shaking their containers four times during their sleeping period for weeks on end. While the well-rested control group averaged 70 days for its gestation period, the sleep-deprived group took over 90 days to deliver their young. In addition, “when chronic sleep disturbance occurs, milk protein levels decline, decreasing nutrients available to the embryos during development,” the team concluded.

For those of us who have been woken up at night by the scuttling of cockroaches, this study is our revenge. Enjoy it while you can, because the smart money is on cockroaches outliving us all.

Thanks for reading! See you next week.