Science!: Giant Squid Sex and Whale Nostrils

Scientists antecedently believed that whales and dolphins did non experience the ability to smell, but unrivalled group of researchers have found olfactory receptors inner the snoot of a bowhead whale. Professor Hans Thewissen of the Eastern Ohio Universities College of Practice of medicine and his Japanese and Alaskan colleagues made the breakthrough while dissecting bowhead brain parts.

The bowhead whale whale had been killed during a atomic number 83-period subsistence hunt in Last Frontier, and Thewissen and squad were minded the cadaver to evaluate the sum of brain space a whale brain occupies. "Upon taking a brain out, I noticed that there were olfactory tracts, which, in other mammals, connect the brain to the olfactory organ," expressed Thewissen. He followed the tracts and successful a startling breakthrough.

Information technology was believed that whales could non olfaction, since everything they would want to sniff out is underneath the water. Since the act of smelling is literally the act of smelling mobile molecules, having olfactory tracts didn't seem to make much sense. Further, in other cetacean species, the actual "hardware" for sense of smell is missing entirely.

As it turns out, bowhead whales have both a large olfactory lightbulb, and the necessary olfactory receptor proteins similar to the modality hardware of other smell animals. Bowhead whales also have distinct nostrils, another characteristic that separates them from most other whales. Separate nostrils mean that bowhead whale whales may be able to sense the direction that the smell is approaching from.
"Information technology is remarkable that this animal, which appears to have very little use for smell, retained that sense," says Thewissen. "We speculate that they are in reality able to olfactory modality krill and may use this to settle their predate. Krill smells the likes of boiled cabbage."

Deee-licious.

Source: BBC

I have a great idea for a new TV depict. Monkeys + Prison Break. Cast a white-fronted capuchin as the esoteric Michael Scofield, a bonnet macaque as the wrongfully accused Lincoln Burrows, and a common squirrel monkey American Samoa the quick Veronica Donovan. Combine me, this idea is 24-karat gold. And it's based on a real-life scenario.

A group of 15 monkeys organism held at Kyoto University's primate explore institute loose a few weeks ago. By deflexion tree branches back and so releasing, 15 monkeys catapulted finished the electrified five-meter high fence in true Wile E. Brush wolf fashion.

"Their jumping power was greater than we thought," aforementioned Hirohisa Hirai, deputy head of the institute, same. "We were extremely astonished away the intelligence and the powerfulness they used in regularise to escape."

Patently, the monkeys decided to leave afterwards a disagreeable turf war broke out in the prison yard. Capuchin Burrows and Chimp "T-Base" had a bit of a disagreement over a banana tree, and before things got as well sanguineous, Burrows and friends made a daring give away for IT. In broad daylight. The balls along these guys!

Unfortunately, their taste of freedom was brief. Entirely of the escapees were lured back to the research institute with the foretell of sweet, sweet peanuts. Once in, they were slapped with a 15 year lengthiness to their sentences and the trees were trimmed systematic to prevent whatsoever promote escapes. Next metre, follow the sewers, guys.

Source: George Vancouver Solarize

Thanks for the tip, dududf!

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We're going to discuss an animal that is near and dear to my heart and soul: squids.

There's been a bit of a interrogation point lurking complete the mating habits of sexually-active squids. Complete squids possess a mantle, which comprises the bulk of their body, and is used for a variety of purposes: by contracting and expanding it, they can get off urine through the hyponome to move via K propulsion, ventilate it in order to breathe, and its likewise where the excretory and sexual variety meat are kept. And therein lies the challenge: How can a pistillate squid memory a deposit of sperm when the ebb and run over of water passing through the mantle will likely traverse it gone?

Shallow-water male squids let developed a special apparatus called a hectocotylus to transfer and deposit packets of spermatozoon within the female's mantle. Deep-sea squid, yet, do not have a hectocotylus and instead inject the sperm opportune under the female's skin. The only question left is: How do they dress IT?

Dr. Alexander Arkhipkin and his colleagues solved this riddle after capturing a mature male specimen of Onykia ingens connected the Patagonian slope near the Falkland Islands. In its agitation, the squid disclosed a surprising organ.

"When the mantle of the calamary was opened for maturity appraisal, we witnessed an eerie case," explains Arkhipkin. "The penis of the calamari, which had extended but slightly over the mantle margin, suddenly started to erect, and lengthened quickly to 67cm total length, almost the same length American Samoa the whole animal."

This allows deep-water sea squids the ability to forcefully inject spermatophores within the female squid mantle cavity, while quieten maintaining a safe distance absent from a potential predatory animal. Sounds equivalent a win-pull ahead scenario to Pine Tree State.

Seed: BBC , via Schneier

I'd like to foreword this finale entry with a billet: Physics is not my strong point. I can't quite wrap my head just about everything about this news article, but it's improbably interesting and I wanted to share it. That being said, here we go!

You're in all probability most acquainted the granddad paradox from Marty McFly's adventures in Dorsum to the Future, wherein atomic number 2 must bring forward care not to circumstantially do something that will campaign him to own ne'er existed in the first place. Time machines are cool and all, simply that's a beautiful big gamble to take just to go back and jest at a pod of dodos.

Thankfully, some clever MIT professor and colleagues have fixed this for us, allowing America to on paper visit any period of time in relative condom (grognards hoping to impose a real-life wargame, you're connected your possess). There are a lot of complicated equations and mind-blowing quantum mechanics theories involved here, so I will be substituting the phrase "fancy science magics" for anything I Don River't quite understand.

Physicists used the theories of postselection and quantum teleportation to realize fancy skill magics a opening. Postselection is a way of resolution a complex trouble with multiple variables past allowing the variables to select a ergodic value and then "postselecting" for the one and only combining that will make the equation trusty. Though not a perfect example, it sounds a lot like taking Schrodinger's cat and shot it in order to get the desired outcome.

Coupled with postselection is the theory of quantum teleportation – exploitation fancy skill magics, it's possible to produce a quantum province in space that had previously existed in an entirely different component of space. In strange words, you could ship a particle – and thus, probably groups of particles vertebral column in time. In the in store.

So, how does this solve the grandfather paradox? In two ways. First – it doesn't involve the bending of spacetime in the least, which is good, because I wouldn't be able to explain that if my life depended along it. In conclusion – anything that happens while you're busy time road already had a finite chance of happening anyways. Thence, because of fancy science magic, a particle or group of particles could not recur into prison term and destroy itself. Whew!

Thanks, garnished science magics! If you want to read the entire paper, you can do so Here.

Rootage: PopSci

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https://www.escapistmagazine.com/science-giant-squid-sex-and-whale-nostrils/

Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/science-giant-squid-sex-and-whale-nostrils/