Hellos!
I just came across an article stating that mother birds leave “messages” for their chicks within the eggs, so that the chicks develop differently when they hatch. The association seen here is that chicks (canaries, in this experiment) born from “generous” (well-fed?) parents beg more as adolescents, where as eggs birthed by stingier parents beg less. This was tested by switching the eggs between two mothers of said habits/nutrition and noting the begging done by the chicks. This makes two interesting points, imo. First, depending on at what point in nesting the eggs were switched, the development of feeding expectations has less to do with the care of the egg and more to do with the signals within once laid. This might not have been news to them, but it was pretty new to me. Second, as the article points out, the begging behavior which corresponds with the two different conditions seems to be more focused on the energy necessary to be expended by the chick, in constant asking for food, and less to do with the mother’s convenience. I wonder if this will bring about a new form of selection in birds?
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab have recently put forth findings by computer simulations of nanocrystalline materials “healing” damage to nuclear reactors by exposure to high radiation. Basically, radiation hitting the materials of the reactor cause some atoms to be forced out of place, leaving a tiny hole where they used to be. The frequent damage over time causes the material to become affected in a nasty way. However, nanocrystalline materials have been shown, through this program in various simulations, to trap or “load” these lost particles from damage, then, and this is the surprise part, to “unload” these later on into gaps in the material near them, filling in the damage caused by radiation and effectively healing it. Now, we were already pretty sure they took in these particles in the first place, but releasing them into nearby gaps? That’s pretty cool. Now, this is definitely outside my expertise, so if you’d like a better explanation of how they did it and what they found, check out the link at the bottom of this post for the report in Science Daily. :)
Last for today, astronomers have captured beautiful and amazing photographs of a “star nursery” from 10 billion light-years away. Normally, this would be a tough thing to accomplish. However, very large galaxy clusters happen to be in the way, bending the light just enough for us to get a terrific view. Apparently, the effect of those clusters makes the nursery (SMMJ2135-0102) appear 16 times larger. Check out the photo gallery here: Photo Galleries at PopSci
I just came across an article stating that mother birds leave “messages” for their chicks within the eggs, so that the chicks develop differently when they hatch. The association seen here is that chicks (canaries, in this experiment) born from “generous” (well-fed?) parents beg more as adolescents, where as eggs birthed by stingier parents beg less. This was tested by switching the eggs between two mothers of said habits/nutrition and noting the begging done by the chicks. This makes two interesting points, imo. First, depending on at what point in nesting the eggs were switched, the development of feeding expectations has less to do with the care of the egg and more to do with the signals within once laid. This might not have been news to them, but it was pretty new to me. Second, as the article points out, the begging behavior which corresponds with the two different conditions seems to be more focused on the energy necessary to be expended by the chick, in constant asking for food, and less to do with the mother’s convenience. I wonder if this will bring about a new form of selection in birds?
Researchers at the Los Alamos National Lab have recently put forth findings by computer simulations of nanocrystalline materials “healing” damage to nuclear reactors by exposure to high radiation. Basically, radiation hitting the materials of the reactor cause some atoms to be forced out of place, leaving a tiny hole where they used to be. The frequent damage over time causes the material to become affected in a nasty way. However, nanocrystalline materials have been shown, through this program in various simulations, to trap or “load” these lost particles from damage, then, and this is the surprise part, to “unload” these later on into gaps in the material near them, filling in the damage caused by radiation and effectively healing it. Now, we were already pretty sure they took in these particles in the first place, but releasing them into nearby gaps? That’s pretty cool. Now, this is definitely outside my expertise, so if you’d like a better explanation of how they did it and what they found, check out the link at the bottom of this post for the report in Science Daily. :)
Last for today, astronomers have captured beautiful and amazing photographs of a “star nursery” from 10 billion light-years away. Normally, this would be a tough thing to accomplish. However, very large galaxy clusters happen to be in the way, bending the light just enough for us to get a terrific view. Apparently, the effect of those clusters makes the nursery (SMMJ2135-0102) appear 16 times larger. Check out the photo gallery here: Photo Galleries at PopSci
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you Tuesday with more Science!
-Miss Mouse
-Miss Mouse
References and Links:
Egg Messages
Egg Messages
Self-Healing Nuclear Reactors
Bending Light to See a Star Nursery
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