Cassiopea xamachana jellyfish sit on the floor of a body of water appearing like a fabulous bit of plant life from another world. Their appendages range from light white to dark hues of blue - they're beautiful, and might even seem harmless to the average passerby. But they've got a secret weapon - a projectile spore of sorts - made to shock nearby creatures like an invisible bomb.
This is the cat-related story we need right now - research on whether cats cannot recognize their own name, or recognize their name and just don't care that you've been calling. A paper was published on research of this question - does my cat understand that I'm calling her name? To figure this question out, researchers worked with cats in "ordinary households" as well as cats in the most wonderful establishment on earth - the cat cafe.
Today the latest version of their digital compact WR series camera line with the WG-70. This is the camera line that Ricoh makes to command the rugged handheld digital camera market, doing so with claims that rival the vast majority of other hobby cameras. The ruggedness of this camera seems almost more important than the media which it's meant to capture - it's tough!
A total of four new species of tropical walking sharks were reported this week off northern Australia. These sharks aren't new - they've been in the murky depths for a while now - but they've not been uniquely identified to the public until now. Through this research, it's become apparent that new species of shark are appearing thanks to their ancestors moving away from their original home, then finding future generations evolving to fit their new, unique environment.
A new study expanded on a seemingly impossible scenario in which wood ants survived while trapped for years in an abandoned nuclear weapons bunker in Poland. The wooded area around the former Soviet nuclear base at Templewo, Poland contained (and still contains) large colonies of the wood ant (Formica polyctena Först). In the year 2012, volunteer researchers entered the bunker (one of two, actually), to ascertain information about bats that'd found their way in to hibernate. In 2012 they found bats, but they also found a massive amount of ants - and so they started gathering data on the ants as well as the bats.
A group of researchers showed that vampire bats who made friends with other vampire bats in captivity often kept said bonds in the wild. The research was published this week, showing that a combination of extrinsic constraints and intrinsic partner fidelity caused lasting social structures between tested vampire bats. These lasting friendships were shown via such activities as grooming and food sharing.
Today we're looking at how a fly lands upside-down - up on a ceiling - courtesy of a study published this week in the AAAS's Science Advances. Inverted landing is something a fly takes for granted - largely because, as it would appear in this study, most of this process takes place in a fraction of a second. The findings in this paper show an expanded understanding of the various biomechanical, sensory, and neural processes that take place when a fly attempts to land on a ceiling. This data could lead to fantastic future applications - let's take a look at why.
A human-sized penguin, larger than any current species, has been identified from fossils, the latest discovery from an area gaining a reputation as being rich in previously-unknown remains. Over five feet in height, the Crossvallia waiparensis - dubbed the monster penguin - was once active in New Zealand, during the Paleocene Epoch.
In the year 2018, LEGO started making SOME brings out of sustainable materials, like plant-based polyethylene. They've not exactly pointed out every single bring that's been made with this new material, as it's far more sensible to start in gradually - wouldn't want a mad rush on old LEGO bricks because they'll never exist again, would we? Now, here in 2019, a new LEGO Treehouse set (from LEGO Ideas) will appear with "all 185 plants and leaves" made of "sustainable materials sourced from sugarcane."
One of two pocket sharks ever discovered was part of a study published this week in Zootaxa. This monster's pectoral fins sit just below two pockets, both containing glands that produce bioluminescent liquid. We call it a monster only because it has the name "shark" attached. In reality, this animal's full size is around that of an adult human hand.
Today's crocodiles and alligators may be voracious carnivores, but their early relatives had a vegetarian diet, surprising new research has revealed. While it's hard to imagine a modern-day croc opting for the foliage in a Florida garden, rather than eyeing the pets that live there, studies of fossilized crocodyliform teeth suggest that wasn't always the case.
The mysterious giant squid has been caught on camera again, seven years after a US team first spotted the striking deep sea creature. The elusive squid, or Architeuthis, is believed to potentially grow to up to 43 feet in length, making it one of the largest living organisms. However it's also proved incredibly difficult to film.