Your tongue can smell.
Science Daily reveals the existence of olfactory receptors – the nerves that give us a sense of smell – located on our tongues:
… Read the rest “Your tongue can smell.”“Our research may help explain how odor
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We’ve 3D-printed a complete heart out of a patient’s own cells.
Science Daily reports on an Israeli research team who created a whole heart – not just tissues or pieces – from scratch – or, at least, from cells taken from a patient’s… Read the rest “We’ve 3D-printed a complete heart out of a patient’s own cells.”
Science Art: Sinocalliopteryx gigas as a stealth hunter feeding on the primitive bird Confuciusornis, by Cheung Chungtat
Click to embiggenAn Easter Sunday lunch is served: an early bird!
This is the Chinese feathered dinosaur Sinocalliopteryx gigas, chomping the bird Confuciusornis – something … Read the rest “Science Art: Sinocalliopteryx gigas as a stealth hunter feeding on the primitive bird Confuciusornis, by Cheung Chungtat”
The pigs were dead for 10 hours, and then they weren’t: “The ethics of experimenting on partially reanimated brains is uncharted territory.”
So this is a study from Nature, but I like the way Vox covered it. Yale scientists, using a kind of artificial blood (and machine heart and kidney), have brought the brains of slaughtered pigs… Read the rest “The pigs were dead for 10 hours, and then they weren’t: “The ethics of experimenting on partially reanimated brains is uncharted territory.””
U.S. measles outbreak keeps breaking….
Science News tracks the new outbreak of a disease we’d formally “eliminated”:
… Read the rest “U.S. measles outbreak keeps breaking….”The viral disease has sickened at least 555 people in 20 states, according to numbers
Science Art: Chandra X-ray Observatory close-up of the core of the M87 galaxy, by NASA/CXC/Villanova University/J. Neilsen
Click to embiggen
This is not the famous Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) black hole image that you’ve probably seen by now. It’s a visualization of some of the data that helped… Read the rest “Science Art: Chandra X-ray Observatory close-up of the core of the M87 galaxy, by NASA/CXC/Villanova University/J. Neilsen”
New species of human discovered in the Philippines
Nature introduces Homo luzonensis, who was hanging out – possibly with other human species – in a cave in the Philippines 50,000 years ago:
… Read the rest “New species of human discovered in the Philippines”The first traces of the new species
We’ve got a photograph of a supermassive black hole.
Science News has a historic snapshot that it took a long while to take – and from a long, long way away:
… Read the rest “We’ve got a photograph of a supermassive black hole.”A world-spanning network of telescopes called the Event Horizon Telescope zoomed
Scientists discover a Peruvian four-legged whale – with “otter-like features”.
Science Daily has more on the creature named Peregocetus pacificus, which unfortunately hasn’t been around for a 42.6 million years, but was once a whale with four legs that crossed… Read the rest “Scientists discover a Peruvian four-legged whale – with “otter-like features”.”
Science Art: Verge Watch Escapement, from The Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary, Vol. 2, 1820.
A horological device called a “verge escapement” (on the bottom) with a balance wheel (on the top) from a pocketwatch.
An “escapement” is the thing that makes… Read the rest “Science Art: Verge Watch Escapement, from The Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary, Vol. 2, 1820.”
Fix the climate… by making things the way they used to be.
The Guardian has a conservative (in the original sense) take on our biggest ecological challenge, with a science-based campaign to fight climate change by restoring forests, beaches,… Read the rest “Fix the climate… by making things the way they used to be.”
A “kelt” is a salmon that survives spawning. Again and again.
Hakai Magazine looks at the few mighty salmon who survive the rigors of the spawning run year after year. Where most fish die after (or during) their first trip, what turns some tough salmon… Read the rest “A “kelt” is a salmon that survives spawning. Again and again.”
Quantum engine gives more power than a standard engine, for the first time.
Science News has more on the very tiny engine that could:
… Read the rest “Quantum engine gives more power than a standard engine, for the first time.”The device is a type of engine called a heat engine. Traditional heat engines turn heat into motion. For example, a car’s internal
Science Art: Plate LIL, Fig 3: Cepheus bifidatus Nymph, from British Oribatidae, 1884
Mm. Mighty mite.
From a this book of mites.
Luckily for us, these mites (the Oribatidae) aren’t parasitic. They live in dirt (which they turn, like earthworm), and… Read the rest “Science Art: Plate LIL, Fig 3: Cepheus bifidatus Nymph, from British Oribatidae, 1884”
China opens a window on life before the dinosaurs.
Science News describes a dizzying array of unknown animals from “the Cambrian explosion,” when life took a sudden turn for the weird and wonderful. The 518 million-year-old… Read the rest “China opens a window on life before the dinosaurs.”