nature

The latest study published by Virginia Tech on flying snakes revealed a key point in the process. With motion capture technology and high-speed cameras aplenty, researchers created a three-dimensional mathematical model of snake flight that incorporates aerodynamic and inertial effects. They confirmed that it's not any one element that allows this flight, but a combination of the shape the snakes makes, the locomotion of the snake, and other elements that make the glide function. This work shows "a different function than known uses of undulation in other animals" - which COULD be used to make new dynamic flying robots!

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With the debate over "reopening the US" continuing to rage, COVID-19's potential impact on pets and other animals has led to new guidance from the FDA for those worried about possible infection. The number of cases worldwide of animals being infected by COVID-19 is still low - exponentially smaller, in fact, than human coronavirus cases, which now exceed 1 million in the US, and more than 60,000 deaths - though that hasn't prevented concerns that dogs and cats could be a risk vector.

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A group of researchers engineered a group of tobacco plants to product self-sustained luminescence that lasts the plant's whole life long. The light is visible to the human eye. These researchers at the Moscow-based biotech startup Planta and the Russian Academy of Sciences suggested in their report that their findings "could underpin development of a suite of imaging tools for plants." That's radical potential for the future of living light!

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A breakthrough in breeding an endangered coral could have huge implications for the Florida Reef Track, with researchers managing for the first time to reproduce the at-risk animals. Coral reefs can take hundreds or even thousands of years to form, but the impact of overfishing, rising temperatures, ocean pollution, and other factors have seen them dramatically reduced in recent years.

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What could be the longest animal ever recorded, a weird and wonderful sea creature 150 feet in length, has been caught on video for the first time by researchers of the coast of Australia. The siphonophore Apolemia was spotted by crew aboard the research vessel Falkor, as they plumbed the depths of deep-sea canyons in search of new species.

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We thought the subject of the research published this week seemed familiar. Back in the year 2016, SlashGear featured a story on the possibility that ancient monkeys crossed a large body of water to move from one continent to another. Now, here in 2020, a new finding ancient monkey teeth has a completely new set of researchers suggesting that a different set of monkeys ALSO made a trip across a large body of water to live in a new land.

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What's likely the most massive string jellyfish ever caught on video was shared today by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. This is just one of a WILD collection of living oddities the latest deep sea crews have captured on film, sharing the lot from the region called the Ningaloo Canyons. What you're about to see will make you forget ALL about the living nightmare happening on dry land with our current global pandemic - because down here, there's a WHOLE different nightmare going on.

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Antarctica may be inhospitable ice today, but 90 million years ago it could've been home to a flourishing rainforest, new research has discovered. Published today, the study rewrites our assumptions about the polar region, and ignites new questions about how Earth's climate could change so dramatically.

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Joseph Schubert likely has the strangest job you've heard about in a very long time - he's a peacock spider specialist. Today, a report written by Schubert was released, showing seven new peacock spider species he discovered in South Australia. These seven new spiders show how gorgeous the peacock spider can be, complete with fur "plumage" that'll make you forget that you're looking at the stuff of nightmares.

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The folks at X, a moonshot company builder, from the folks at Alphabet (who also run Google), made a group called Tidal. This group is different from that of the Tidal you might know from music streaming services - this one's all about fish. It's about tracking fish, working with machine perception to identify how fish are feeding!

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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.

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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.

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