PiPS vs HALLOWEEN!

PiPs vs Halloween and two larvae-ghosts (by @sciencemug)
Pumpkin free pic by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR, blue door free pic by Aziz Acharki, dark corridor free pic by charlesdeluvio (source of the three images: Unsplash).
Orange larva pic by Bruno Vellutini is under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) license (source: flickr).
Larva pic by Alvaro E. Migotto is under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) (source: Cifonauta).
All images adapted by @sciencemug.
PiPs cartoons by @sciencemug.

The two spooky-cute creatures (they're larvae) deserved a Halloween cartoon, don't you think?

And if you now want more halloweenish creatures, well, go find seven of 'em here (courtesy of the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC))!

Enjoy!

 

PS

I agree, dear reader, very few words are indeed scarier than "Booo!" (well, probably any German word pronounced out loud is - for those who don't speak the language at least), but, for the joke sake, I had to pick one, and "unprovoked illegal genocidal colonialist war started and waged by a nazi-fascist terrorist nuclear imperialistic state among other atrocities purposefully and cynically putting millions of people in the poorest parts of the world at risk of starving", well, was too long to fit in the cartoon. And it was more than one word. And it's actually more enraging than scary.
So I chose "Inflation".

OF GOLDFISHES THAT DRIVE WHEELED WATER TANKS, AND UNIVERSAL NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS!

Goldfish drives fast a super car (by @sciencemug)
Goldfish pic by zhengtao tang, and car pic by Damian Ochrymowicz, are free images (source: Unsplash); all pics adapted by @sciencemug

So folks, four researchers from Israel (aka the Fab4), put six goldfishes (Carassius auratus) at work (Givonet al, 2022 (P)) to see whether space representation and navigation skills (which allow animals to do plenty of things, like finding food, shelter, sex buddies and so on) are shared properties across the animal kingdom, or, instead, they specifically depend on the different species, brain structure, and ecological system.

The researchers, in their study, use the "domain transfer methodology, where one species is embedded in another species’ environment and must cope with an otherwise familiar (in [their] case, navigation) task" (P): in layman's terms, the Fab4 want to see if a fish can navigate through a terrestrial environment.
To check that, the brains train each fish to "drive" something called <Fish Operated Vehicle> (aka FOV). The FOV is a water tank (35×35×28 cm) put on a four wheeled self-propelled platform (40×40×19 cm), equipped with a pole, on top of which there are a computer, a camera and a lidar. By this control apparatus, whenever (and only when) "the fish [gets] near one of the water tank walls and facing outwards, the FOV is automatically propelled in [such] direction" (P).

The machine, with its aquatic driver, is then placed in the center of a three by four meters room, illuminated with artificial light, and with white walls and one or more colored boards stuck on them. The colored spots are the targets the fishes are trained to reach in exchange for a food reward (consisting of a 0.002 g food pellet of the same kind the fishes are usually fed with).

Well, dear reader, in the end, the goldfishes training's success, they can reach the targets, adapt to changes in such targets positioning and overall overcome the "distortion in vision due to refraction through the air-to-water interface [and the] differences in the natural structure of the terrestrial and aquatic environments" (P).

The Fab4's work (that they define "an observational report, rather than a scientific study" (P), and that needs follow-ups ) shows, thus, that "a fish [is indeed] able to transfer its space representation and navigation skills to a wholly different terrestrial environment, thus supporting the hypothesis that the former possess a universal quality that is species-independent" (P).

But this dumb blog, in the following cartoon, shows you, dear reader, what's the next step of this experimental journey humanity has embarked on.

A green fish drives a car full of water to a sushi bar (by @sciencemug))
The car pic by Dan Gold , the green fish pic by Gábor Szűts, the bubbles pic by Alberto Bianchini and the spilling water pic by Pixa Karma, are free images (source: Unsplash); the fish drawing by Mrmw, is under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication (source: Wikimedia Commons); all images adapted by @sciencemug

THE TRUE REASON WHY DOGS CAN READ HUMANS!

Human mind's sick dog reader (by @sciencemug)

[The dog pic by Matthew Henry is a free one (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug]

Soo, dear reader, five researchers from different German universities (aka the Wonderful Fives aka the W5s), find out that dogs can "distinguish intentional [human] actions from unintentional behaviour" (Schünemann et al., 2021)(P).

The W5s study 51 dogs of different breeds, sex (27 females and 24 males), and age (1 - 15 years) that are not trained (e.g. they're not police or rescue dogs). The researchers and the animals are on opposite sides of two 1.45 m wide × 1.15 m high barriers (each consisting of "a wooden frame holding a sheet of transparent plastic" (P)), placed one aside the other, and separated (or not) by a 15 centimeters wide gap.

The Wonderful Fives test the dogs' reaction to three different situations: the unwilling-condition (UWC), the unable-clumsy condition (UCC), and the unable-blocked condition (UBC) (P). 

The UWC means the 15 cm gap is open, one scientist moves a treat towards the gap, but then quickly and intentionally pulls it away while saying, to the dog's face, “ha-ha!” (P).

The UCC is like the previous one, but this time the researcher pretend to accidentally drop the treat, and says "oops!" (P).

The UBC, finally, means one of the W5s closes the gap between the plastic barriers, then a second member of the W5s tries to give the treat to the dog, but, unable to do it, drop it in front of herself (the W5s are all women), and says "oh!" (P).

So, once performed the experiment, the W5s conclude that "[dogs] behaved differently depending on whether the actions of a human experimenter were intentional or unintentional" (P). Indeed, the animals wait significantly longer before going for the treat when such treat is intentionally withheld by the researcher (unwilling-condition (UWC)) than when the reward fails to get to their mouths because the human researcher is clumsy (unable-clumsy condition (UCC)) or because there's a physical obstacle (unable-blocked condition (UBC)). Moreover, the W5s observe that, in a similar manner, "the dogs that ceased to move their tail mainly did so in the unwilling-condition [(UWC)]" (P).

The W5s say that the dogs' reactions may have different explanations, but that they clearly indicate our four legged friends have the ability to "recognize the intentionality of human action in their spontaneous behaviour" (P).

Finally, the Wonderful Fives say that future research is needed to understand "whether dogs’ distinguishing reaction really reflect a capacity to read human intentions or only some form of behaviour reading based on learned associations" (P).

Aaaanyway, dear reader, this dumb blog, in the following cartoon, shows you the true reason why dogs evolved this "human reading" ability.

Dogs can read humans (and probably play poker) (by @sciencemug)

[The poker table pic by slgckgc, is licensed under the Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license (source: flickr); the dog pic is licensed under the CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license (source: pxhere); all pics adapted by @sciencemug]

 
 

 The paper this mini-post is about (P) 

- Schünemann, B., Keller, J., Rakoczy, H., Behne, T., and Bräuer, J. (2021). Dogs distinguish human intentional and unintentional action. Sci Rep 11, 14967.

OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, WHERE THE SUN HASN'T A COMPANION AND DOESN'T EAT ITS PLANETS (UNLIKE MANY OTHER SYSTEMS OUT THERE)!

Hellooo, dear reader! So, a bunch of astro-dudes (led by Dr. Antonella Vallenari and Dr. Lorenzo Spina (aka the VASPs) of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, INAF, Padova, Italy) focus their stellar brains on binary systems (i.e. stars systems where two stars dance around each other since they're bound by gravity) to try and find out why, although these balls of gas come from the very same cosmic stuff, in some cases they show chemical differences.

The astronomers know of two possible explanations for this.

The first is that the gas cloud that the sisters stars originate from has chemical inhomogeneities in it, and therefore the stars eat different things during their formation.

The other is that the stars couple's growing-up diet includes feeding on their own system's different planets.

Aaaand the VASPs publish a paper (Spina et al, 2021 (P)) on the journal Nature Astronomy where, data at hand, they prove that the second case is the right one. 

The astro brains indeed come to such a conclusion after performig a "statistical study on 107 binary systems composed by Sun-like stars" (P) by which they show, precisely, "unambiguous evidence in favour of the planet engulfment scenario" (P). 

Moreover the VASPs find that, unlike what happens in our system "which has preserved its planets on nearly circular orbits" (P), there's a 20 to 35% probability that stars similar to our Sun gulp down their own planets, meaning that "a significant fraction of planetary systems undergo very dynamical evolutionary paths that can critically modify their architectures", that is the orbits, up there, go wild (P).

Soooo, all of the above considered, this dumb blog, in the following cartoon, shows you, dear reader, what was our Solar System's reaction to the VASPs' study.

Our Solar System family quarrel (by @sciencemug)

[The pic by the International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (source: Wikimedia Commons); adapted by @sciencemug]

 

The paper this mini-post is about (P)

- Spina, L., Sharma, P., Meléndez, J., Bedell, M., Casey, A.R., Carlos, M., Franciosini, E., and Vallenari, A. (2021). Chemical evidence for planetary ingestion in a quarter of Sun-like stars. Nat Astron 1–7

THE TRUE REASON WHY THE NEW BAT SPECIES IS ORANGE

A new bat species of the genus Myotis was recently discovered on the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, at an altitude of about 1400 meters (the two animals captured by the researchers were flying out of an abandoned mine adit).
The new species is called Myotis nimbaensis, after the place it lives in.
These bats form colonies that may be small (down to just single individuals), their diet is still unknown, and they're tiny enough to easily fit in a researcher's hand.
Their most striking feature, though, is their color.
They have, indeed, a "bright orange fur on the head and the ruff around the neck" (P), with an "orange-brown thumb and a brown foot" (P) and, unlike other related bat species, a lack of pronounced black spots on their face.
Moreover, they are "strongly dichromatic with black wing membranes and orange along the digits and forearm" (P).
Both wing dichromatism and reddish to yellowish fur, however, are not unusual in the subgenus (Chrysopteron) M. nimbaensis belongs to.
Myotis nimbaensis is the 11th species of the Myotis genus found in Africa (mainland) out of over 120 species existing almost all around the world.
The researchers think that there are good chances there be more species to be discovered, and say that their finding "highlights the critical importance of the Nimba Mountains as a center of bat diversity and endemism in sub-Saharan Africa" (P).
The researchers expect, in fact, that, as M. nimbaensis is "an uncommon to rare endemic with a very small geographic range" species (P), it be already critically endangered.
 

Now, dear reader, enough with the details, it's time for the real important stuff. This dumb blog, in the following cartoon, will tell you the true reason why, these bats, are orange!

Myotis nimbaensis bat according to @sciencemug

[Bat pic: source is "A new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea" (pag 10); adapted by @sciencemug]

 

The paper this cartoon is about (P)

P- Simmons, N.B., Flanders, J., Bakwo Fils, E.M., Parker, G., Suter, J.D., Bamba, S., Keita, M.K., Morales, A.E., and Frick, W.F. (2021). A new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea (American Museum novitates, no. 3963).

THE TRUE REASON WHY WASP-107b NEWLY DISCOVERED EXOPLANET IS SO FLUFFY

A bunch of astronomers, after a four years long survey, found an exoplanet, orbiting very close to its star, that has an "extraordinarily low density" (P). It has, indeed, a mass 1.8 times that of Neptune, but a Jupiter like radius (and Jupiter radius is almost 6 times bigger than Neptune's one). 

The fluffy planet, which discovery is described in a paper (P) published on The Astronomical Journal, is in the WASP-107 system, and it's called WASP-107b.

WASP-107b's super low density puzzles the astro-brains, 'cause the planet has a core mass smaller than 4.6 times the mass of Earth, that is "significantly lower than what is traditionally assumed to be necessary to trigger massive gas envelope accretion" (P) - meaning WASP-107b shouldn't exist, 'cause its small "seed" shouldn't have been able to attract enough gas and dust to eventually form, well, WASP-107b -.

The researchers have one possible explanation: the planet formed far from its star, in a region of space where the gas is cold enough so that the small core mass could attract it and grow a planet around itself very fast. Then, the fully formed WASP-107b migrated toward the inner part of the system, possibly influenced by the second more massive planet, with "a wide eccentric orbit" (P), detected by the astronomers in the same system.

But this dumb blog, pals, has a different idea on the reason why the fluffy planet is up there. Check out the following cartoon, and you'll find out what it is.

"Space candy cotton"-WASP-107b exoplanet (by @sciencemug)

[Exoplanet pic, by NASA, ESA, and L. Hustak and J. Olmsted (STScI), is a Pubilc Domain pic (source: Wikimedia Commons); the alien's hand pic, is a Pubilc Domain pic (source: pixy.org); all images are adapted by @sciencemug]

Bibliography (P)

P - Piaulet, C., Benneke, B., Rubenzahl, R.A., Howard, A.W., Lee, E.J., Thorngren, D., Angus, R., Peterson, M., Schlieder, J.E., Werner, M., et al. (2021). WASP-107b’s Density Is Even Lower: A Case Study for the Physics of Planetary Gas Envelope Accretion and Orbital Migration. AJ 161, 70.

THE TRUE REASON WHY AMERICAN ROBINS MIGRATE EARLIER!

A bunch of researchers from a bunch of US universities finds out that the timing of American robins' (Turdus migratorius) "spring migration to [their] Arctic-boreal breeding grounds" (P) got 12 days earlier in the last 20 years (about 5 days per decade in the 1998-2018 time period).

Moreover, the brains analyze data collected between 2016-2018 from GPS tracking devices stuck on the backs of 55 American robins. And these data indicate that "the [American robins'] arrival timing and likelihood of stopovers, and timing of arrival to breeding grounds" (P) are highly impacted by the environmental conditions the birds find along their migratory paths. Among the factors, the "dynamics in snow conditions" (P) appear to be a key one. 

The researchers' study (P) is published on the journal Environmental Research Letters and can contribute in creating predicting models of birds' responses to climate change.

The findings are coherent with what scientists already know, which is that one of the strongest effects of "global climate change has been the advancement of spring at high northern latitudes [...] where temperatures are rising nearly two to three times faster than the global average" (P), and that migratory birds adjust their trips' schedule to their breeding territories in response to the changes in local climate. 

But, dear reader, this dumb blog has an alternative explanation for the earlier migration's timing of American robins. And a cartoon to explain it.

American robins discuss about smart early departures (by @sciencemug)

[American robin pic by Mark Nenadov is under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (source: Wikimedia Commons); adapted by @sciencemug]

Now, the following ones hare just for fun...

Batman and Robin meme 1 about American robins' earlier migration's timing (by @sciencemug)

[Batman and Robin meme pic by ap. is under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) license (source: flickr); adapted by @sciencemug]

Batman and Robin meme 2 about American robins' earlier migration's timing (by @sciencemug)

[Batman and Robin meme pic by ap. is under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0) license (source: flickr); adapted by @sciencemug]

Paper (P)

Oliver, R.Y., Mahoney, P.J., Gurarie, E., Krikun, N., Weeks, B.C., Hebblewhite, M., Liston, G., and Boelman, N. (2020). Behavioral responses to spring snow conditions contribute to long-term shift in migration phenology in American robins. Environ. Res. Lett. 15, 045003.

THE TRUTH ABOUT FLAMINGOS' SOCIAL LIFE!

Soo, dear reader, from 2013 to 2016 a bunch of scientists studies (P) flocks of captive flamingos at the WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre, a center for science and conservation in the UK.

And the brains find out that the pink birds have pretty intense social lives, that the larger their flocks the more frequent their social behaviors, that "arrangements of dyads, trios and quartets with higher ties strengths were visible [with both] male-male and female-female [stable over time] bonds", and, ultimately, that "flamingo societies are complex (i.e. formed of long-standing preferential partnerships and not loose, random connections)" (P).

So, dear reader, for you and you only, this dumb blog, in the two following cartoons, respectively reports a truth that the good researchers failed to uncover (A), and a common example of what the intense social life those cool flamingos have looks like (B).

A 

A flamingo complaining about the smartphones' design by @sciencemug)

 [Free flamingo pic by Lieselot. Dalle (source: Unsplash); smartphone free pic by Neil Soni (source: Unsplash); all pics adapted by @sciencemug]

B

Two flamingos runnnig on water (by @sciencemug)

Free flamingos pic by Dattatreya Patra (source: Unsplash); adapted by @sciencemug] 

Paper (P)

Rose, P.E., and Croft, D.P. (2020). Evaluating the social networks of four flocks of captive flamingos over a five-year period: Temporal, environmental, group and health influences on assortment. Behavioural Processes 175, 104118.