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While a recent Iron Age discovery in northern Germany is proving itself an archaeological goldmine, local firefighters might be a bit annoyed by the find. According to the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL), construction on a new fire station in the town of Hüllhorst roughly 45 miles west of Hanover was delayed after the surveyors identified evidence of a settlement dating back over 2,500 years. As only the third such find in the region, the site offers an exceptional opportunity to learn more about ancient life in Germany prior to the Roman Empire’s arrival in 1st century BCE.

Although a welcome excavation project, the Iron Age community’s existence in the area isn’t a huge surprise. Archaeological surveys in the region are often scheduled prior to new building projects, largely due to its proximity to Wöhrsiek, an active freshwater spring that has been used by nearby inhabitants for thousands of years. In the summer of 2025, researchers began removing narrow strips of topsoil, and soon noticed evidence of past settlement. Most of the residual finds came in the form of soil discolorations that point to former refuse pits and storage areas, but certain stains also indicated the presence of postholes. Using these as references, archaeologists were able to recreate entire layouts of various buildings.

Typical vessel shards of the early Iron Age: a rim decorated with finger dots and a fragment with a wide rimmed handle. Credit: LWL-AfW / S. Düvel

“In addition to two smaller buildings, we also discovered the remains of a large residential building,” excavation director Hisham Nabo said in a LWL statement translated from German.

The house was positioned carefully and intentionally. By facing northeast-to-southwest, its narrow sides faced towards the prevailing winds, thereby reducing exposure to the elements. Nabo’s team explained that this shows just how environmentally and architecturally aware this Iron Age community was at the time.

Excavation manager Hisham Nabo (left) and excavation worker Ristam Abdo (right) stand in an excavated settlement pit and examine some of the shards found there. The discolorations are cut to capture their structure and recover the finds within. Credit: LWL-AfW / S. Düvel

Beyond the buildings, archaeologists also recovered fragments from handled cups called terrines and other pottery with recognizable rim decorations. Combined with additional radiocarbon dating, experts believe that the settlement dates to somewhere between 800 and 600 BCE.

“For us, this is a real stroke of luck, because until now we in East Westphalia only knew house plans from this period from Werther and Minden, which were only discovered in recent years,” added scientific adviser Sebastian Düvel. “Together with the new discoveries in Hüllhorst, we hope to gain exciting insights into everyday life during this time.”

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As if flamingos weren’t showy enough, the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) has officially been elevated to a new celebrity status. The Florida House of Representatives and Senate have designated the species as Florida’s official state bird. 

The long-legged American flamingo is one of the largest flamingo species in the world, and gets its iconic cotton-candy pink hue from a pigment in its food. The birds live on South America’s northern coast and in the Caribbean. In the United States, they only exist naturally in Florida. 

The move replaces the mockingbird, or northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) as the official state bird, but we don’t think they will mind. The grayish species still holds the title in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

The bill also designates the Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens) as Florida’s official state songbird. Clearly, those involved in the two decisions were going for color. This songbird endemic to Florida is starkly blue.

If you’re surprised by the fact that Florida has both a state bird and a state songbird, you’re in for a ride. Florida has official symbols for a shocking amount of things—from both a state saltwater (sailfish, Istiophorus platypterus) and freshwater fish (Florida bass, Micropterus salmoides) to beverage (orange juice) and shell (horse conch) all the way to official state soil (Myakka fine sand). 

“I filed the bill designating the American flamingo as Florida’s official state bird and the Florida scrub-jay as the official state songbird. This legislation not only highlights the unique avian diversity of our state but also emphasizes the importance of conservation efforts for these iconic species,” Florida Rep. Jim Mooney explained. While American flamingos are doing well, Florida scrub-jays are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). 

“This bill encourages public engagement in conservation initiatives and fosters a sense of pride in our state heritage,” Mooney continued. “With this bill, we take a significant step toward promoting awareness and action for the conservation of these remarkable birds, ensuring that future generations can appreciate and enjoy Florida’s rich wildlife and natural beauty.”

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The world’s largest acidic geyser is erupting for the first time in six years. Yellowstone National Park’s Echinus Geyser is part of the very active Norris Geyser Basin in Wyoming. In early February, the geyser began spewing out acid and water up to 30 feet into the air. The new eruptions highlight the power of the hottest and most dynamic region of Yellowstone National Park.

Acid geysers like Echinus are considered rare since acidic water is usually powerful enough to break down the rock that makes up a geyser’s plumbing system. However, Echinus’ acidic water composition comes from the mixing between acidic gases and neutral waters. This means that there is not enough acid in the water to eat away at the rock.  

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), this unusual water chemistry creates some interesting formations, compositions, and color. The red color that surrounds the geyser pool and the silica-covered spiny rocks come from iron, aluminum, and arsenic.

The Echinus Geyser pool itself is about 66 feet across. Since the acid itself is not concentrated, it is not particularly dangerous and the USGS says it has a similar acidity to orange juice or vinegar. However, the water temperatures can reach upwards of 200 degrees Fahrenheit, so visitors should be cautious. The Norris Geyser Basin is also home to the tallest active geyser on Earth—Steamboat Geyser.

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Geologists believe that the Echinus Geyser was mostly dormant except for occasional eruptions until 1948. During the 1970s, it erupted in regular 40 to 80 minute intervals, before becoming more extreme in the 1980s and 1990s. These more intense eruptions could sometimes last over 90 minutes. By the early 2000s, the eruptions started to wind down and the activity became much less common as temperatures cooled. 

The geyser really came alive in fall 2017. From October 18 to November 10, 2017, Echinus consistently erupted roughly about every two to three hours. The activity then stopped with only one eruption in January 2018 and 2019 and then two in December 2020. 

This year marks Echinus’ first eruption since 2020. In early February, the geyser’s surface became agitated and started releasing more water down the runoff channel. Beginning on February 16, the eruptions began repeating every two to five hours, lasting about two to three minutes, and water levels reached 20-to 30-feet high. The USGS says that this pattern resembles what happened in 2017.

To follow the Echinus Geyser’s activity from anywhere, users can monitor the temperature graphs on the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s website. Spies that reach about 158 degrees Fahrenheit are eruptions, while those at 104 °F are the surges. The eruptions are not expected to last into the busy summer tourist season at Yellowstone, so watch while you can. 

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For centuries, people traveled to Delphi in southern Greece hoping for a glimpse of their future. There, at the temple of the god Apollo, a priestess was said to enter a trance and issue prophecies in the voice of Apollo himself. Everyday people, kings, even Alexander the Great traveled for miles to hear the priestess’s input on important decisions, from personal finance to matters of state.

Known as the Pythia or the Oracle of Delphi, the priestess wasn’t believed to be a psychic. Ancient writers like Plutarch, who served as a priest at Delphi in the first and second centuries, described her as a vessel for a power that came from the Earth. 

According to Plutarch’s account, the temple of Delphi was constructed around a natural spring, where the water and fissures in the rock produced a sweet-smelling gas called pneuma. On designated days a few times per year, the chosen priestess sat amidst the pneuma on a tripod stool and inhaled enough to enter her trance. This was an exhausting ordeal for the woman. She might cry out, become hysterical, or collapse.

Plutarch claimed that there was less pneuma in his time than there had once been, leading to a decline in the temple’s popularity. After the temple closed down in 393 AD, the pneuma remained an enduring scientific puzzle. Was the trance-inducing vapor real? And if so, what exactly was it, and where had it come from?

Decoding ancient sources for clues

The first modern excavations at Delphi, conducted between 1892 and 1950, failed to find a large fissure in the rock, which they had pictured as the source of the gas. At the time, experts believed that gases could only rise from the Earth in connection with volcanoes, which Delphi doesn’t have. This led scholars to dismiss the ancient accounts as hearsay. However, subsequent investigations came to a very different conclusion, spurred on by the words of the ancient authors. 

“When I’ve got written sources from the ancient world, my first effort is, ‘What can I learn from them?’” archaeologist John Hale tells Popular Science. In the 1990s, Hale and a multidisciplinary team of researchers finally uncovered scientific evidence that corroborated the ancient descriptions of Delphi. 

Shifting tectonic plates can cause gases to rise from the Earth

Hale explains that his colleague, Dutch-American geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, had noticed a fault line passing under the temple of Delphi during a 1980s surveying project. Fault lines are places where two of the Earth’s tectonic plates bump against one another. The plates’ movement can cause earthquakes and other forms of geological activity, including the emission of gases. 

De Boer wondered if the ancient pneuma at Delphi was “a light hydrocarbon gas” that rose from the permeable limestone under the temple, says Hale. 

Hydrocarbons are compounds made entirely of carbon and hydrogen. A fundamental component of living things, they also occur in fossil fuels like petroleum. Such chemicals “are found in a lot of geological formations all over the planet,” says Hale. “They’re part of the mix of the Earth’s crust.” 

When two tectonic plates rub against each other along a fault line, they produce friction, which can generate enough heat to convert those solid hydrocarbons in the Earth’s crust into gas. And if there’s enough holes or channels in the Earth, that gas can rise to the surface, similar to what ancient authors described at Delphi. 

When tectonic plates shift, hydrocarbons, such as methane and ethane, can rise to the Earth’s surface. Video: Insane Natural Gas Discovery in the Wild! / @CrafterDUCK Testing Delphi’s bedrock for prophetic fumes

Early excavations at Delphi discovered a porous limestone bedrock far below the temple. That stone could provide the necessary, near-invisible channels for the flow of gases to reach ground level and, in turn, a waiting priestess’s lungs. 

But there was no evidence of a hydrocarbon deposit at the site. Together, Hale and De Boer decided to see if Delphi’s limestone really did contain these compounds. If found, they might represent the final piece of the puzzle.

In 1996, after gaining permission from the Greek government, Hale and De Boer made their first expedition to Delphi. They took samples of the bedrock and sent them to a lab for analysis. As they suspected, the porous limestone was rich in hydrocarbons, such as ethane, methane, and ethylene.

What exactly was the Oracle of Delphi inhaling?

Ethylene is a hydrocarbon and one of the world’s most widely-produced organic compounds. In industry, it’s a building block for plastics. In agriculture, it’s used to induce ripening in fruit. (Have you ever put a green banana in a paper bag to make it ripen faster? Fruit releases ethylene to encourage its own ripening, which builds up inside the bag). In the past, ethylene gas was even used as a surgical anesthetic, because inhaling it at a concentration of 20 percent causes unconsciousness. 

But what happens if someone inhales a lower, though still highly-concentrated, dose? To find out, Hale and De Boer turned to toxicologist Henry Spiller, due to his research on “huffing,” the inhalation of hydrocarbons and other toxic gases for recreation. 

What does inhaling ethylene do to a person?

Spiller found many parallels between the altered state of mind produced by ethylene inhalation and ancient accounts of the Pythia’s trance. People under the influence of ethylene remain lucid and responsive, but may speak or behave strangely. They may become agitated, scream, or convulse, and may be unable to remember what happened after the gas wears off. Hale calls ethylene “a perfect match” for the ancient pneuma. Ethylene even smells sweet, just as Plutarch described. 

Repeated inhalation of gases like ethylene carries serious health risks. Plutarch noted that inhaling the gas shortened the priestess’s lives and could even kill them on rare occasions. At the temple’s height, multiple women shared the office of oracle because of how physically demanding it was to enter the trance state. Being Pythia was considered a great honor, but it was also a burden. 

The Oracle of Delphi would utter her prophecies from inside the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, Greece (shown here). Image: Federica Grassi / Getty Images Federica Grassi Why ethylene comes to the surface

Today, we know that shifting tectonic plates can produce gases even when a volcano is not present. And, if there are channels up to ground level, those gases only have one direction to go: up.

“Ethylene is one of those lighter-than-air gases that comes straight to the surface if it’s being emitted,” Hale explains, rising through openings like those in the porous limestone at Delphi. And after that, Hale adds, the gas “can be huffed by anybody who’s on top and put them in an altered state.” 

Early excavations at Delphi were looking for one big chasm in the rocks. The most recent evidence suggests that gas actually seeped through many small openings, following the paths made by spring water. Hydrocarbons have also been found in the water at Delphi itself, and some still rises from groundwater as gas today; enough to occasionally kill birds that come too close. 

Archaeologists now know that the Oracle of Delphi didn’t inhale fumes from a single fissure, but instead inhaled fumes from invisible channels within the porous limestone beneath the Temple of Apollo. Image: Public Domain What makes Delphi unique

Hale notes that the physical site of Delphi was recognized as unique in the ancient world. It was not the only temple where an oracle claimed to foretell the future, but “it’s the only one that ever mentioned a sweet-smelling gas as part of the sacred experience,” he says. 

When compared with other Greek temples, Delphi was likely designed to enclose the spring, allowing gas to accumulate in the inner chamber where the Pythia sat. Other Greek temples may not have had vapor-inhaling oracles, but many were also positioned over sites of high geological activity, such as the temple at the ancient city of Hierapolis (modern Pamukkale, Turkey). There, carbon dioxide rather than ethylene rises from the Earth, which was also used in ancient religious rites to kill sacrificial animals.

We know from Hierapolis and similar sites that the water which carries gases to the surface also deposits minerals. This may gradually clog the channels in the stone, so that less gas reaches the surface over time. Earthquakes, which occurred at Delphi even in ancient times, might also lead to changes in the pathways for the gas. An earthquake might close previously open channels for ethylene or release a large buildup of it at once. So while we can’t know for certain, there may be a geological explanation for Plutarch’s assertion that the pneuma declined over time.

Today, Delphi’s unique geology is far from inactive. Gases can still rise from the porous limestone beneath the temple ruins, serving as a very real connection between us and our ancient ancestors. 

In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation. 

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Shifting tectonic plates can cause gases to rise from the Earth

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If you’ve spent any time on the Earth in the last 50 years or so, you might have noticed a lot of trash laying around…with less and less space to, you know, put it. Meanwhile, we’re sending all sorts of satellites and rockets beyond our atmosphere every day.

That’s why you asked us: Why can’t we launch our junk into space, too? Or better yet: STRAIGHT INTO THE SUN!

For the moment, let’s set aside the big problems with creating too much trash in the first place, and focus on the blocker: We simply can’t afford to shoot our junk into that flamin’ hot Cheeto in the sky.

Plus, shouldn’t we worry about finding a solution down here on our planet? Yes.

On our latest video episode of Ask Us Anything, we explain why we can’t launch our garbage into the sun or onto the moon.

If you’d like to see more Popular Science videos, subscribe on YouTube. We’ll be bringing you explainers and explorations of our weird world.

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A biocomputer powered by lab-grown human brain cells has leveled up from Pong to Doom. While nowhere ready to handle the video game shooter’s most challenging levels, researchers at Cortical Labs in Australia believe their neuronal chip is well on its way to powering a new generation of hybrid organic technologies.

“This was a major milestone, because it demonstrated adaptive, real-time goal directed learning,” Brett Kagan, Cortical Labs Chief Scientific and Chief Operations Officer, said in a recent video announcement.

It’s taken years to cross the Doom benchmark. In 2021, Cortical Labs debuted DishBrain—an early biocomputer utilizing around 800,000 human nerve cells. These neurons were connected to a small processing chip capable of interpreting and directing electrical activity similar to a standard silicon-powered device.

To showcase DishBrain’s potential, engineers successfully trained their biocomputer to play Pong. The classic, 2D game is often a test case for computational neuroscientists because it requires their system to navigate a dynamic information landscape in real time.

It took Cortical Labs more than 18 months using its original hardware and software to accomplish their Pong goal. DishBrain was eventually supplanted by CL1, which the company bills as the “world’s first code deployable biological computer.”

But for a biocomputer to be actually useful, it’s going to need to do much more than move a pixelated paddle up and down on a screen. Enter Doom. For decades, major tech companies and DIY hobbyists have demonstrated ways to run the video game on all types of devices including calculators, tractors, and even ATM machines. “Can it play Doom?” is such a ubiquitous request in the tech world that it wasn’t a question of “if” Cortical Labs would try it on neuronal chips, but “when.”

The major challenge for CL1 to understand Doom is that it needed to “see” what a human player sees when playing the game on a computer. Without any optical input, this meant that engineers needed to figure out a way to convert visual information into electrical stimulation patterns that are recognizable to the neurons.

The solution wasn’t only achievable,it was completed in about a week by Sean Cole, an independent developer with little experience in biological computing. The key to this is the CL1’s new interface, which allows anyone to program it using Python.

Don’t expect the biocomputer to win any Doom tournaments, however. It plays the game better than a system that simply fires randomly at enemies, but it still loses a lot of the time. That said, Cortical Labs says it reached its current performance level faster than silicon-based machine learning systems, and will likely get better as its algorithms improve.

Beyond gunning through pixelated enemies, future generations of biocomputers may one day power robotic arms or help run complex digital programs. It’s got a long way to go, but surpassing rites of passage like playing Doom bodes well for the technology.

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Like many other cultures, the ancient Romans loved their board games. Some of history’s most well-documented examples of tabletop pastimes date back to the empire. Ludus Latrunculorum, aka latrones, was a strategy face-off between two players on a grid board similar to chess or checkers. Another favorite, Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, saw players compete on a backgammon-like setup that also involved dice.

A complete catalog of Roman games may never be known, but an international research team is confident they have a new addition to the list. As detailed in a recently published study in the journal Antiquity, their explanation also finally solves a mystery that’s puzzled archaeologists for over 40 years.

The saga began in 1984 while researchers excavated the ancient settlement of Coriovallum. Located in the Netherlands not far from the present-day German border, the town was founded during the reign of Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE) and is one of the region’s only outposts that is specifically named in primary sources. Coriovallum was also strategically placed at the nexus of two principle roadways for the Roman Empire. This guaranteed a sustained level of economic prosperity for centuries, as evidenced in its impressive architecture and ornate burial plots.

During their excavation work, archaeologists discovered an oval stone measuring roughly 8.3 by 5.7 inches in diameter and etched with various intersecting lines. Further examinations revealed the material to be a type of white Jurassic limestone sourced from ancient quarries in Norroy in northeastern France.

“Norroy limestone was a popular choice for large architectural elements in the Roman northern provinces because of its white color, smooth surface, and relative softness, making it an easily sculpted substitute for marble,” explained the study’s authors.

Experts debated the stone’s purpose for years. It was too small to be intended as a building component, and its shape wasn’t suited for roadwork. Although its lines conceivably could represent some form of architectural sketch, the theory was unlikely due to a lack of similar examples from the time period. But while some researchers consistently contended the stone was a board game’s playing surface, it didn’t resemble any known examples from the era.

Recent analysis now appears to support the longstanding board game theory. 3D imaging revealed some of the diagonal and horizontal lines are deeper than others—indicative that people routinely moved tiny pieces along these routes more often than others.

“We can see wear along the lines on the stone, exactly where you would slide a piece,” Leiden University archaeologist and ancient game specialist Walter Crist said in a statement.

But if it was a board game, then what were the rules? The question may seem impossible to answer without access to a playing guide, but Crist’s team doesn’t think this is necessarily the case. After enlisting help from machine learning programmers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, researchers designed an artificial intelligence system trained on rules from around 100 ancient games documented from the same region as the stone’s origin. The resultant AI program (dubbed Ludii as a play on ludi, Latin for “games”) calculated a number of optional playing styles for the mystery pastime researchers named Ludus Coriovalli.

“[Ludii] produced dozens of possible rule sets. It then played the game against itself and identified a few variants that are enjoyable for humans to play,” said Maastricht University AI designer Dennis Soemers.

From there, researchers doublechecked the potential rule sets against the documented wear on the stone to confirm the most likely move patterns in the game. In the end, Crist, Soemers, and their colleagues theorize Ludus Coriovalli was a “deceptively simple but thrilling strategy game” with the objective to pursue and trap your opponent’s pieces in as few moves as possible.

Although the study’s conclusions offer arguably the most plausible explanation behind the limestone artifact, researchers stopped short of declaring themselves the winners. Without additional primary source references, the exact rules of Ludus Coriovalli may never be fully known.

“If you present Ludii with a line pattern like the one on the stone, it will always find game rules. Therefore, we cannot be sure that the Romans played it in precisely that way,” Soemers cautioned.

Like any great board game, it’s always important to consider all the options and avoid getting too cocky.

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To an untrained eye, it might just look like the remains of some ferocious predator’s feast. But this particular antler is thousands of years old, and could be a remnant of interactions between the last of Europe’s hunter-gatherers and the continent’s early farmers. 

Neolithic farmers belonging to what archaeologists refer to as the “Linear Pottery culture” began to expand across Europe around 5500 BCE. During this migration, they pushed Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in central Germany, among other places, further north. 

“There is a long period in which farmers and hunter-gatherers coexist,” Oliver Dietrich, co-author of a recent study published in Praehistorische Zeitschrift and press officer at the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory, tells Popular Science. “Neolithic and Mesolithic thus are not mutually exclusive time periods, but describe two life styles, which are partly contemporary.”

Archaeologists know very little about the contact between these two peoples. Cue Germany’s Eilsleben-Vosswelle settlement, a prehistoric farming community that existed on the frontier, with hunter-gatherers in the north and farmers in the south. It was likely fortified, and may have seen significant interactions with proximal hunter-gatherer groups. 

“The material culture discovered at Eilsleben reflects this frontier situation, as it shows many influences from the world of hunter-gatherers,” Dietrich continues. “[Among] them is the antler industry, i.e. tools and other implements made from antler in a Mesolithic/hunter-gatherer style. The roe deer antler is a prime example,” he adds, referencing a previously discovered 7,000-year old antler from Eilsleben. 

Dietrich and his colleagues investigated the artifact for signs of human modification. They found that the rectangle-shaped skull fragment, cut marks (suggesting skinning), and notches at the base fit the bill. The artifact was probably worn as part of a mask or headdress, and the notches would have secured it in place. The headdress also dates back to 5291–5034 BCE. 

Roe deer antler worked into a headdress from Eilsleben. Image: Juraj Lipták/State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt.

“Similar headgear is not known from early farmer contexts, but there are good analogies from hunter-gatherer contexts. The best comparison for the Eilsleben antler is from the shaman´s grave of Bad Dürrenberg,” says Dietrich.

The Bad Dürrenberg shaman was a 30 to 40-year-old woman who died around 9,000 years ago. She was laid to rest alongside an approximately 6-month-old child in an intricate tomb in present-day central Germany. Researchers identified her as a shaman, or spiritual leader, thanks in part to animal teeth pendants and a deer antler that researchers believe to be a headdress. 

Despite the fact that the shaman´s grave of Bad Dürrenberg is older than the Eilsleben antler, the shaman’s antler “provides a frame of interpretation for the find,” Dietrich explains. The Eilsleben antler could represent contact between hunter-gatherer ritual specialists and farmers, according to the researchers. 

Some transitions associated with the Neolithic lifestyle weren’t healthy, per a statement by the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt – State Museum of Prehistory. Within this context, it’s possible that early farmers would have requested help from a healer connected to the spirit world who was certainly an expert on local flora’s healing properties. 

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A horse’s whinny is an iconic sound, arguably on par with a cow’s moo and a sheep’s baa and a donkey’s hee-haw. Most people can immediately recognize a horse’s signature sound, so it might come as a surprise to learn that researchers have no idea how the animals actually produce some of the whinny sounds. That is, until now. 

“Although humans have been co-existing – and co-evolving – with horses for 4000 years, we still understand their communication imperfectly,” Elodie Floriane Mandel-Briefer, a biologist at Copenhagen University interested in vocal communication and cognition in birds and mammals, tells Popular Science. “The whinny in particular is strange: it has a low-frequency component that fits the large body size of horses, but a very high-frequency component as well that is way too high for such a large animal.” 

About 10 years ago, Mandel-Briefer and colleagues discovered the existence of the two pitches, which overlap to create a vocal phenomenon called biphonation. The low-frequency component is produced when air from the lungs causes vibrations of the vocal folds. This is also how humans, along with the majority of mammals, make sounds. 

However, normal vocal fold vibrations can’t explain the high-frequency part of whinnies, given how big horses are. So how are these animals making such high noises? Mandel-Briefer and co-authors investigated this biomechanical puzzle in an interdisciplinary study recently published in the journal Current Biology. They ultimately discovered that a laryngeal whistle is behind the whinnies’ high-frequency sound. Part of their work involved two of the authors blowing air through horse larynges secured from a horse meat supplier. 

“Initially they only got the low component, but with some playing around they were able to obtain the high frequency component as well. That showed that both components are produced by the larynx itself (not, as in human whistling, with the lips),” Mandel-Briefer explains. “To prove that the high component is a laryngeal whistle, they then blew two different gases through: air and helium. Because it has different physical properties, helium—compared to air—shifts whistle frequencies up, while frequencies emitted by tissue vibration (like the low component) do not change.”

A horse at Le Borre equestrian center in Montecreto, Italy. Horses have a whistle in their larynx behind their whinnies. Image: Margherita Bassi/Popular Science.

The frequency change confirmed that a laryngeal whistle explains the mechanical production of the high-frequency whinny component. More broadly, the team found that horses create biphonation by simultaneous vocal fold vibration and laryngeal whistling. As far as they know, horses are the only animals that use these two mechanics at the same time. The team proposes that their biphonation probably evolved to communicate multiple messages to each other at once. 

In a 2015 study, Mandel-Briefer and colleagues also demonstrated that frequency and emotion are connected. The high-frequency whinny component indicates that a horse’s emotion is pleasant or unpleasant. The low-frequency components represent the feeling’s intensity. Horses could also use two components to convey messages across varying stretches of space. The high component is louder and can travel farther.

While Przewalski’s horses, which are close relatives of domesticated horses, also create whinnies with biphonation, more distant relatives such as zebras and donkeys don’t seem to have the high frequency part. Horses might possess distinctive vocal adaptations enabling them to create a more plentiful and intricate call spectrum than fellow mammals. 

The paper “highlights the remarkable adaptive flexibility of the mammalian laryngeal vocal production system,” Mandel-Briefer concludes. “Understanding the communication system of any species is of fundamental scientific interest to help us understand their cognition, emotions and welfare, and this helps us understand horses better.”

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Two friends out walking their dogs along the eastern coast of Scotland unexpectedly found an archaeological goldmine. After wind gusts as strong as 55 mph blew away sand on the dunes of a beach near Angus, Ivor Campbell and Jenny Snedden (along with their pooches Ziggy and Juno) spotted the unique indentations in a layer of long-dried clay. 

The pair contacted a local archaeologist, and researchers from the University of Aberdeen quickly descended on the picturesque seaside locale to preserve the discoveries. Since time was of the essence, the team improvised using a quickly assembled toolkit including Plaster of Paris purchased from a nearby craft store.

Thanks to the team’s rapid work, researchers have now documented Scotland’s first examples of ancient preserved human and animal footprints. Using radiocarbon dating, experts estimate these geological time capsules date back to around 2,000 years ago.

“We had to work fast in the worst conditions I’ve ever encountered for archaeological fieldwork—the sea was coming in fast, with every high tide ripping away parts of the site, while wind-blown sand was simultaneously damaging it,” University of Aberdeen archaeologist Kate Britton recounted. “We were effectively being sand-blasted and the site was, too, all while we were trying to delicately clean, study and document it. So it became a race against the elements.”

Although the entire find was destroyed within 48 hours of its discovery, Britton’s team managed to both physically and digitally map the location while also taking plaster molds of the scene. An initial assessment of the data indicates that the area was once visited by a mix of animals like deer, as well as humans. The findings date back to the late Iron Age—a pivotal time in the region’s history.

Only a handful of similar sites have been discovered across the UK. Credit: University of Aberdeen

“It’s very exciting to think these prints were made by people around the time of the Roman invasions of Scotland and in the centuries leading up to the emergence of the Picts,” added archaeologist Gordon Noble.

Researchers have documented similar tracks at only a handful of sites across the United Kingdom, many of which no longer exist today.

“It is incredibly rare to see such a delicate record saved, taking only minutes to create and hours to be destroyed, a snapshot of what people were doing thousands of years ago,” said project collaborator William Mills. “While this site was very short lived, it demonstrates the potential for similar finds—any of the clays of the wider Montrose basin area could preserve more of this important archaeological information.”

The post Dog walkers find 2,000-year-old footprints on beach in Scotland appeared first on Popular Science.

Paleontologists still know comparatively little about fin-backed Spinosaurid dinosaurs. But while the newest addition to the family is impressive, Spinosaurus mirabilis isn’t making it easier for researchers. In a study published today in the journal Science, researchers at the University of Chicago describe S. mirabilis, a species that stalked present-day central Africa around 95 million years ago. At first glance, the dinosaur is instantly iconic. Its head crest is shaped like a curved sword called a scimitar, and measures 20 inches long. However, the dinosaur’s overall anatomy and Cretaceous stomping grounds showcase Spinosaurid’s unexpected and fascinating evolutionary culmination.

“This find was so sudden and amazing, it was really emotional for our team,” said study co-author Paul Serano.

S. mirabilis stands apart from its relatives due to where paleontologists discovered their specimen. Serano’s team uncovered the first fossil evidence in 2019 while excavating a remote region of the central Saharan desert in Niger. Previous Spinosaurid specimens have all been found in ancient coastal deposits near prehistoric shorelines, but the first S. mirabilis bones were located far inland—somewhere between 310 to 610 miles from the nearest marine habitats. Given the nearby presence of long-necked dinosaurs in river sediments, paleontologists now believe this Spinosaurus lived in a forested region crisscrossed by waterways. According to Serano, it would have been a fearsome sight no matter where it lived.

“I envision this dinosaur as a kind of ‘hell heron’ that had no problem wading on its sturdy legs into two meters of water, but probably spent most of its time stalking shallower traps for the many large fish of the day,” he said.

The jaws of S. mirabilis were evolved to trap fish similar to many crocodiles today. Credit: Dani Navarro

Based on the crest fossil’s inner vascular canals and exterior texture, the team theorizes that the cranial accessory was likely housed in keratin and brightly colored. They also contend S. mirabilis finally puts to rest the theory that Spinosaurus primarily lived and hunted in marine environments. Aside from the location of its discovery, S. mirabilis is the first dinosaur known to possess an interdigitating piscivorous (or “fish trap”) mouth. This anatomy features a lower jaw with teeth that protrude out between the upper set—a trait previously only seen in flying pterosaurs, marine ichthyosaurs, and semiaquatic crocodilian predators. This also makes S. mirabilis the only Spinosaurid with the distinct dental arrangement.

A 3D reconstruction of the skull of ‘S. mirabilis.’ Credit: Daniel Vidal, courtesy of Fossil Lab

For as much as S. mirabilis contextualizes its wider dinosaur family, it raises many more questions about its life, habitat, and role in the Cretaceous era. 

“I’ll forever cherish the moment in camp when we crowded around a laptop to look at the new species for the first time,” said Serano. “That’s when the significance of the discovery really registered.”

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While Super Bowl LX is over, the big game still echoes in the minds of many viewers. Not the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordination (or the New England Patriots’ lack thereof), mind you, but all those annoyingly catchy commercial jingles. It’s not your fault if a 30-second advertisement spot’s melodic hook continues to keep you up at night, however. Pop culture’s most successful earworms are rarely a fluke—they’re often carefully crafted to maximize memorability. Today, you can even pursue a Bachelor’s degree in commercial songwriting.

The mathematical study of tones dates at least as far back as the 5th century BCE Pythagorean philosophers of ancient Greece, but there is still a lot to learn about the numbers behind the notes. At the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, computational mechanics researchers recently examined musical melodies from an algebraic standpoint and found that there is an unsung component to many popular tunes: symmetry. Their findings were presented at the 6th AMMCS-International Conference on Applied Mathematics, Modeling, and Computational Science.

“Our goal was to build a clear mathematical bridge between abstract algebra and the experience of listening to music,” said study co-author Olga Ibragimova. “When we think of melodies as shapes we can transform, it becomes clear that composers have been using these kinds of symmetries intuitively for centuries.”

Ibragimova and her colleagues primarily relied on group theory, a subset of mathematics focused on transformations and mirrored patterns. They first assigned each of the chromatic scale’s 12 notes a corresponding 1-12 numerical placeholder, then broke down various melodies into discrete note groups. This allowed them to express tunes as algebraic notation. The team then analyzed how some of the most common techniques affect overall song structures. Among these were melodic concepts like inversion (flipping a tune), transposition (shifting it up or down scales), retrograding (reversal), and translation (movement over time).

They focused on two primary symmetry types—tonal and positional. With those concepts in mind, they were able to create formulas that illustrate how a melody can evolve while either retaining a foundational structure or purposefully altering it in predictable patterns. 

“What surprised us is how cleanly the mathematics separates tonal structure from positional structure,” explained systems design engineer and study co-author Chrystopher Nehaniv. “This duality helps us identify patterns that are not obvious by ear or by looking at a musical score. It also means we can systematically construct and count all possible symmetric melodies for a given length.”

Ibragimova and Nehaniv believe their work may help composers with conceptualizing new music possibilities, as well as pave the way for new methods of songwriting and research. But while this may help some artists, others continue to credit the ineffable qualities of music composition. 

“Whenever the goal is just to write something that’s very catchy and is going to get stuck in people’s heads, that’s, like, the least I think about,” songwriter Nick Lutsko tells Popular Science. “It’s kind of the first thing that comes to my head and I just go with it. I don’t overanalyze or overthink it. It’s not intellectual whatsoever.”

Lutsko has multiple full-length albums of his own, as well numerous comedy releases that have garnered an dedicated, international fanbase. In 2022, he won a Webby Award for his musical work on an Old Spice ad. You may even have one of his songs stuck in your head right now. He penned not one, but two of those absurdly memorable jingles that ran during this year’s Super Bowl.

As is the case in many corporate ad campaigns, Lutsko was one of multiple songwriters to receive prewritten lyrics with a prompt to put them to music.

“The first time I read those lyrics, the melody came to me as I was reading them,” he explains. “I know [people] talk about algebraic equations and the math or science behind songwriting, but to me it’s almost supernatural. I think it’s because it comes from a place of familiarity.”

At the same time, Lutsko doesn’t fault anyone who turns to the mathematics of music for their inspiration. Remember the commercial songwriting major route? Lutsko took it himself.

“It doesn’t irk me. I went to school for [it],” he says. “But I’ve always been more interested in creative expression. Like, science was always my worst subject in school. It’s just not how my brain works. I just want to have fun and not think about it too much.”

The post Can’t stop humming that tune? Thank math. appeared first on Popular Science.

Bananas are in trouble. The popular fruit is threatened by a fungal disease called Fusarium wilt of banana (FWB), which blocks the flow of nutrients and makes it wilt. In the 1950s, the pathogen even made one species–Gros Michel bananas–functionally extinct.

Fear not though, scientists are on it. In 2024, a team identified the molecular mechanisms behind the microbe that destroys bananas. Scientists at The University of Queensland in Australia have now made another step towards protecting the global banana supply. The team identified a region in the banana genome that controls resistance to a strain of Fusarium wilt called Sub Tropical Race 4 (STR4), which affects bananas in subtropical regions. The newly discovered genomic region is detailed in a study published in the journal Horticulture Research and could lead to new banana varieties that are more resistant to disease.

“Fusarium wilt—also known as Panama disease—is a destructive soil-borne disease which impacts farmed Cavendish bananas worldwide through its virulent Race 4 strains,” Dr. Andrew Chen, a study co-author and geneticist, said in a statement. “Identifying and deploying natural resistance from wild bananas is a long-term and sustainable solution to this pathogen that wilts and kills the host plant leaving residue in the soil to infect future crops.”

The team crossed a wild banana called Calcutta 4 with susceptible bananas from a different subspecies. When they exposed the cross-bred plants to STR4, they compared their DNA with the bananas who had died from the pathogen with those that didn’t. They found that the Calcutta 4 banana is resistant to STR4 infection on chromosome 5.

Generations of Calcutta 4 crosses were grown to identify STR4 resistance was carried in chromosome 5.  Image: Professor Elizabeth Aitken.

“This is a very significant finding; it is the first genetic dissection of Race 4 resistance from this wild subspecies,” Chen added. 

Scientists spent five years on this complicated project to help save bananas from extinction. Each generation of banana crosses needed to grow for at least 12 months before it was studied and then used for further breeding once it flowered. 

According to the team, the discovery will help develop banana varieties that are more resistant to Fusarium wilt. While the Calcutta 4 banana does have critical genetic resistance, it is not suitable for commercial cultivation because “it doesn’t produce fruit which are good to eat.”

“The next step is to develop molecular markers to track the resistance trait efficiently so plant breeders can screen seedlings early and accurately before any disease symptoms appear,” said Chen. “This will speed up selection, reduce costs and hopefully ultimately lead to a banana that is good to eat, easy to farm and naturally protected from Fusarium wilt through its genetics.”

Banana suppliers around the world are working to protect the industry valued at $140 billion. Bananas are also considered the fourth most important food crop in the world, following wheat, rice, and maize. About 80 percent of bananas are for local consumption, and over 400 million people rely on the fruit for 15 to 27 percent of their daily calories.

“It’s easy to take the banana for granted—simple, familiar, always there. But behind that simplicity lies one of agriculture’s most coordinated and collaborative supply chains,” Fresh Del Monte Produce chairman and CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh said in their July 2025 earnings call. “Protecting it is our shared responsibility—and if we don’t act collectively to support growers and stabilise this supply chain, we risk seeing this fruit—and the livelihoods behind it—disappear before our eyes. That reality weighs heavily on me and drives much of our focus today.”

The post New discovery could help stop banana extinction appeared first on Popular Science.

After over 40 years of recovery efforts, one population of the wood stork (Mycteria americana)is being removed from the federal list of endangered and threatened wildlife. The large birds are as tall as 45 inches with wingspans that can reach 65 inches and are the only native storks in the United States. They are primarily found in the southeastern United States, where they feed on fish. 

Wood storks were listed as endangered in 1984, when its population had dropped by over 75 percent—from roughly 20,000 nesting pairs to about 5,000 nesting pairs—primarily due to wetland loss. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has determined that the birds are no longer in immediate danger of extinction. The FWS estimates that the wood stork breeding population has 10,000 to 14,000 nesting pairs across roughly 100 colony sites. They are now found on the coastal plains of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. 

Dedicated conservation efforts and the birds’ adaptability are some of the likely reasons behind this rebound. They have adapted to new nesting areas, including coastal salt marshes further north, flooded rice fields, floodplain forest wetlands, and even golf courses and retention ponds.

“Even when they’re in odd habitats, it’s still exhilarating to see these wild birds doing what they do in a natural marsh,” Dale Gawlik, endowed chair for conservation and biodiversity at Texas A&M University’s Harte Research Institute, told USA Today. “The birds have the flexibility to explore new habitats and eat new foods and that might be really important in a period when the environment is changing rapidly, like it is now.” Gawlik worked on wood stork recovery in Florida before moving to Texas.

However, not everyone is convinced that the birds should be taken off of the Endangered Species List. Environmental groups including Audubon Florida and the Center for Biological Diversity fear that their populations have not recovered enough. Advocates are concerned about what would happen if wood stork colonies are found on private lands when they are no longer federally protected. Wildlife officials in North Carolina supported removal, while the state of Georgia supported it with caveats, raising similar concerns about private land. 

They also still face the uphill battle of future habitat loss in wetlands.

“This is a short-sighted and premature move. Wood storks need wetlands to survive, and that habitat is facing overwhelming pressure,” Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) Wildlife Leader Ramona McGee wrote in a statement. “It is disappointing that Fish and Wildlife Service largely brushed away serious concerns about how losses to wetlands protections and climate change’s consequences for our coast increase threats to our U.S. population of wood stork.  This delisting comes at a time when species face a storm of proposed federal rollbacks to habitat protections that are likely to imperil wood storks and countless other Southeastern species.”

The FWS says it has a 10-year post-delisting monitoring plan to make sure that the species’ recovery is maintained. The official delisting of the wood stork will finalize on March 9, 2026.

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Language can’t stay still for long. It’s constantly evolving alongside the cultures that use them—and slang frequently showcases this complex relationship at its most creative, playful, and strange. While some terms or phrases may linger for centuries, most of today’s slang terminology is more current. That often makes it difficult to keep up with the times, let alone understand casual communications of the past.

That’s where Jonathon Green came to the rescue. In 1993, Green started compiling 500 years of English slang by sifting through mountains of primary sources. The culmination was Green’s Dictionary of Slang, a three-volume reference set containing 10.3 million words over 53,000 separate entries. It was first published in 2010, but the printed reference tomes are out-of-date and out-of-print only 16 years later. Today, an original copy of Green’s Dictionary can easily set you back over $1,300.

Like slang itself, Green is for the people. Following a few more years of work, the lexicographer—a studier or compiler of dictionaries—transferred his entire project online for anyone to peruse. As Open Culture recently highlighted, Green’s Dictionary of Slang is now available for free as its own, regularly updated website. Not only that, but it includes more than 60,000 additional quotations along with 2,500 new entries and sub-entries. The site also contains search tools as well as a predictably gigantic source bibliography. For an additional subscription fee, users can also gain access to additional citations and advanced search options.

“Language does not reach an end, nor does research,” Green wrote in his original introduction to the website in 2016. “GDoS Online is therefore a project in continual development. As well as the natural expansion of the material on offer, it is our intention to add to the way the information is displayed, both as to quality and quantity.”

With a little persistence, regular perusal of Green’s Dictionary may help revive some long forgotten gems: it’s well worth your next stoppo, if nothing else.

The post Groovy! Dive into the world’s largest online slang dictionary appeared first on Popular Science.

A rare dinosaur fossil on display at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, tells a gory story. The skull from a large plant-eating Edmontosaurus has a tooth lodged into it, indicating that it may have met its final moments as a meal. The tooth in question belongs to one of the most famous dinosaurs on earth—Tyrannosaurus.

Montana was once home to Tyrannosaurus rex, the most famous of several known members of the fearsome Tyrannosauridae family. This apex predator stomped around until the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, roughly 66 million years ago. It lived alongside large plant-eaters like Triceratops and the duck-billed Edmontosaurus. 

In 2005, paleontologists found a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skull in the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in eastern Montana. Now on display at the museum, a reexamination of the skull revealed one striking detail: a Tyrannosaurus tooth stuck inside its face. The findings are  detailed in a study published today in the journal PeerJ.

The full Edmontosaurus skull. The triangle indicates where the tooth is embedded. Image: Montana State University/Museum of the Rockies.

“Although bite marks on bones are relatively common, finding an embedded tooth is extremely rare,” Taia Wyenberg-Henzler, a study co-author and University of Alberta doctoral student, said in a statement. “The great thing about an embedded tooth, particularly in a skull, is it gives you the identity of not only who was bitten but also who did the biting. This allowed us to paint a picture of what happened to this Edmontosaurus, kind of like Cretaceous crime scene investigators.” 

When comparing the embedded tooth to all of the known prehistoric inhabitants in the Hell Creek Formation, they found that it closely matched teeth of Tyrannosaurus. CT scans of the skull helped the team discover more details about the wound.

“A fossil like this is extra exciting because it captures a behavior: a tyrannosaur biting into this duckbill’s face,” added co-author and Museum of the Rockies’ Curator of Paleontology John Scannella. “The skull shows no signs of healing around the tyrannosaur tooth, so it may have already been dead when it was bitten, or it may be dead because it was bitten.”

The Tyrannosaurus tooth. Image: Montana State University/Museum of the Rockies.

Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest carnivores to ever walk the Earth and paleontologists have been studying their feeding habits for decades. The tooth found inside this Edmontosaurus skull gives another look into Tyrannosaurus behavior. According to the team, the way that the tooth is embedded in Edmontosaurus’ nose suggests that the duck-billed dino met its toothy attacker face-to-face. Typically, this happens to an animal that is ultimately killed by a predator. 

“The amount of force necessary for a tooth to have become broken off in bone also points to the use of deadly force,” said Wyenberg-Henzler. “For me, this paints a terrifying picture of the last moments of this Edmontosaurus.” 

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The post A Tyrannosaurus tooth embedded in dinosaur skull tells a violent story appeared first on Popular Science.

Despite their popularity, for their seemingly helpless-looking eyes and flat faces, short-skulled (or brachycephalic) dogs like the French bulldog often have serious difficulty breathing. A study published today in the journal PLOS One found that in 12 breeds, a flat face, collapsing nostrils, and rounded physique puts them at a higher risk for developing common breathing conditions. Pekingese and Japanese chins were noted to be the highest risk.

The study examined the risk of Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS) in 14 short-skulled dog breeds. Image: Anthony Lewis (www.anthony-lewis.com), PLOS, CC-BY 4.0

For breeds like bulldogs and pugs, their shortened skull shape can lead to a condition called Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway Syndrome (BOAS). It causes exercise intolerance, difficulty breathing, and wheezing and can lead to surgery. Pugs, French bulldogs, and bulldogs are the most well-known and studied brachycephalic breeds, but there are several other dog breeds that could face these same issues. 

“BOAS exists on a spectrum. Some dogs are only mildly affected, but for those at the more severe end, it can significantly reduce quality of life and become a serious welfare issue,” Dr. Fran Tomlinson, a study co-author for the University of Cambridge Veterinary School, said in a statement. “While surgery, weight management and other interventions can help affected dogs to some degree, BOAS is hereditary, and there is still much to learn about how we can reduce the risk in future generations.”

To better understand what characteristics predict BOAS, the team collected data from 898 dogs representing 14 different breeds, including boxers, King Charles spaniels, Chihuahuas, and Pekingese. They measured the animals’ skulls and noses, bodies and necks, and checked them for symptoms of BOAS.

They graded the dogs for BOAS on a scale from zero to three—zero indicating few symptoms and three meaning the dog had difficulty exercising and getting enough air. The team then compared the 14 breeds to pugs, French bulldogs, and bulldogs. 

Pekingese had a rate of BOAS similar to bulldogs, with only 11 percent of pekingese dogs breathing freely. The Japanese chin also fared poorly, with only 17.4 percent free of symptoms. The King Charles spaniel, shih tzu and Boston terrier had between 25 and 50 percent of dogs at grade zero. The Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Pomeranian, boxer, and Chihuahua fared best, with between 50 and 75 percent of dogs at grade zero. 

Four Boston terrier study participants with (from left to right) study authors Dr. David Sargan, Dr. Fran Tomlinson, and Dr. Jane Ladlow, all from the Cambridge Veterinary School. Image: Fran Tomlinson.

The two breeds at a high risk for BOAS—the Pekingese and Japanese chin—had high rates of nostril narrowing, with about 6 percent and 18 percent of dogs respectively having open nostrils. 

According to the team, this shows that BOAS varies widely amongst brachycephalic breeds. Understanding the differences and pinpointing key risk factors could help scientists develop more targeted and effective strategies to help dogs at risk. 

“This research would not have been possible without the support of dedicated owners and breeders who volunteered their dogs to take part,” the authors add. “Their enthusiasm and willingness to engage with health testing highlights how much people care about improving breed health.”

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Most mammals grow up in single parent homes. It’s estimated that over 95 percent of the planet’s nearly 6,000 known mammalian species rely almost exclusively on mothers to nurture and raise their offspring. But even when dads stick around, it’s not always smooth sailing. Fatherhood can range from attentive and caring to downright violent behaviors—but why this spectrum exists remains largely a mystery to evolutionary biologists.

Take the African striped mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio), for instance. Males can exhibit diverse responses to their young after becoming fathers. Particularly caring mice dads will groom their pups and even insulate them with their bellies against inclement weather. Meanwhile, other fathers may ignore or hurt a litter’s weaker siblings.

Although a simplified example, the striped mouse can serve as a proxy for other mammals including humans. Knowing this, researchers at Princeton University recently investigated the neurological underpinnings of rodent fatherhood. Their new study published today in the journal Nature indicates that a specific molecular group inside the brain may largely determine how dads react to their progeny.

To learn more, the team recorded the neural activity of male striped mice when placed in various situations both with and without pups. They soon noticed that neural activity in the brain’s medial preoptic area (MPOA) increased whenever the males encountered a young mouse. These MPOA spikes weren’t uniform, however. Higher activity in the region corresponded with helpfulness, while lower recordings aligned with hostility. Although this isn’t the first time that biologists noted MPOA’s relation to parenting, past research largely linked it to rodent females after becoming mothers.

“But in the case of these males, it’s not pregnancy or even parenthood that transforms their brains,” Forrest Rogers, a neuroscientist and study co-author, said in a statement. “Bachelors can be just as capable of caring as experienced dads.”

Rogers and his colleagues noticed MPOA was not the only area that tied to parenting. Surprisingly, the more caring mice dads also displayed lower levels of a gene called Agouti. This gene is typically known for its influence on metabolism and skin pigmentation, not fatherhood.

“Discovering this previously unknown role in the brain for parenting behavior was exciting,” said Rogers.

After finding this new link, researchers wanted to know what conditions influenced Agouti gene expression in the MPOA. Contrary to what one may initially assume, they found that solitary males possessed low levels of Agouti compared to males who lived in groups. Especially high levels also sometimes muted neural activity in the MPOA.

Artificially boosting Agouti through gene therapy reinforced these observations, too. Male mice who were previously nurturing became less interested or even volatile towards pups if they produced more Agouti. As a remedy, the team later relocated some of these males from communal to solitary living conditions. This naturally lowered their Agouti levels, making them more interested in the mice pups again.

“Our findings point to Agouti as a potential evolutionary mechanism that allows animals to integrate environmental information, such as social competition or population density, and adjust the balance between self-preservation and investment in offspring,” added study co-author and neuroscientist Catherine Peña.

Forrest, Peña, and their collaborators are still interested in examining which specific environmental factors may influence Agouti levels in mammals like striped mice and humans. At the same time, they warned against viewing their findings as a one-size-fits-all solution for parenting behaviors. Instead, they hope to help other researchers identify factors that may contribute to higher risks of issues like father figure neglect or abuse.

“Parenting is a complex trait. We’re not suggesting that you can take a pill to become a better parent, or that struggles with parenting reflect some molecular deficiency,” said Peña.

The post Biologists discover gene that may determine ‘good’ and ‘bad’ dads appeared first on Popular Science.

Present-day Japan may see its fair share of bears, but the islands’ big cat populations are long gone. Between 129,000 and 11,700 years ago, temporary land bridges allowed the ancient predators to migrate between mainland Asia and the islands. Paleobiologists have long believed tigers were the primary cats to make this trek, but recently analyzed evidence published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests a different timeline.

“Our findings challenge the prevailing view that tigers once took refuge in Japan and that cave lion distribution was limited to the Russian Far East and northeast China,” explained the study’s authors. “These findings provide evidence that lions, rather than tigers, colonized the Japanese archipelago during the Late Pleistocene.”

The earliest big cats got their start in Africa around 6.4 million years ago, but it would take another 5.4 million years for the first lions to travel into northern Eurasia. While their tiger cousins largely migrated toward Eurasia’s southern regions, the predators still occasionally crossed paths in the “lion–tiger transition belt,” an area spanning portions of the Middle East through Central Asia into eastern Russia where the two intermingled.

Amid these Late Pleistocene migrations, Earth also experienced glacial periods that lowered sea levels and revealed land bridges linking Asia’s lion–tiger transition belt to the Japanese archipelago. Fossil records suggest that many tigers took advantage of these pathways, but they are not without some instances of mistaken identity. According to the study’s authors, researchers previously catalogued these big cat fossil discoveries based on morphological evidence instead of more reliable DNA data.

To double-check these past conclusions, the team reexamined a set of fossil specimens using genetic sequencing and radiocarbon dating. Although many examples are now in poor condition, five yielded enough information to facilitate lineage profiling. In each case, the “tiger” in question instead possessed molecular information aligning with a now extinct species of cave lion (Panthera spelaea). Even more striking, the team didn’t find any tiger evidence in Japan from the Late Pleistocene.

Radiocarbon analysis of one specimen indicates that it lived around 31,060 years ago, but researchers believe the first cave lions possibly arrived as far back as 72,700 years ago. It now appears the big cats also thrived on the islands for at least 20,000 years after their species went extinct in Eurasia. Researchers believe the reason for their prolonged survival is what brought them to the archipelago in the first place—the land bridges.

“This extended survival of cave lions may reflect Japan’s unique paleogeographic history,” they wrote, adding that “This finding extends the known range of cave lions in East Asia and refines our understanding of how far south the lion–tiger transition belt shifted during this period.”

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Ladybugs are famously harbingers of good luck, and the trait proved consistent at a university in Japan when researchers found a new species of the iconic insect directly on the campus. 

Ladybugs, also known as ladybird beetles or lady beetles, consist of the family Coccinellidae within the order of beetles (Coleoptera). The newly identified member is a  black Parastethorus pinicola, and researchers discovered it on a pine tree at Kyushu University’s Hakozaki Satellite. In fact, its species name means “pine dweller.”

The identification of the tiny species—barely more than 0.039 inches (or one millimeter) long—occured within the context of a broader study. In a study recently published in Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, two Kyushu University researchers updated the categorization of a group of ladybirds called Stethorini in Japan . Stethorini ladybugs are small and eat spider mites.

“I knew that this group of ladybirds often inhabits pine trees. Since there are Japanese black pines growing at the Hakozaki Satellite, I decided to look there, and that is where I found the new species,” said Ryōta Seki, the paper’s first author and a graduate student at the Graduate School of Bioresource and Bioenvironment Sciences’ Entomological Laboratory. “Normally, insect collectors do not pay much attention to pine trees, which is perhaps why scientists have overlooked this species for so long.”

We can forgive researchers for not identifying P. pinicola sooner. The pine dweller and other tiny black ladybirds are so hard to identify, so they haven’t received significant research attention, Seki explained. The only way to distinguish them is by cutting them open, not to mention the fact that they’re just a bit bigger than a single grain of sand.. It’s thus unsurprising that previous documentations have a significant number of wrong classifications.

As such, the duo studied around 1,700 ladybugs, and also concluded that two species—Stethorus japonicus and Stethorus siphonulus—are one and the same. Another previously unidentified species also came to light, which they called Stethorus takakoae after Seki’s grandmother, Takako Ōtsuki, and her support of his interest in insects. 

“Standardizing these names is important because it allows us to share data and research with other countries in Asia,” Seki said. “It clarifies that this is a widespread species found from the tropics to temperate Japan.”

“People rarely notice such small insects. But as our study showed, even in a city or on a university campus, there are unknown species living right beside us,” Kyushu University Museum’s Munetoshi Maruyama, the other co-author, pointed out. “These ‘minor’ insects support our ecosystems. I hope this discovery makes people interested in the diverse and fascinating world that exists unnoticed at our feet.”

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