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Today we have Part VI of Robert Lang’s recent trip to Brazil’s Pantanal region (wetlands). Robert’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.

Readers’ Wildlife Photos: The Pantanal, Part VI: Birds

Continuing our mid-2025 journey to the Pantanal in Brazil, by far the largest category of observation and photography was birds: we saw over 100 different species of birds (and this was not even a birding-specific trip, though the outfitter also organizes those for the truly hard core). Here we continue working our way through the alphabetarium of common names.

Crested caracaras, adult and juvenile (Caracara plancus):

A caracara eating another bird (too far gone for me to identify, but perhaps our birding experts recognize it):

This one shows an onlooker waiting its turn. The facial color can change, depending on the bird’s mood (according to Wikipedia) and also reflects the dominance hierarchy, so here, yellow = boss, red = underling:

A chaco chachalaca (Ortalis canicollis). Say that five times fast. Its onomatopoeic name reflects its call—it’s one of the chattiest birds to be heard in the Pantanal:

Chalk-browed mockingbird (Mimus saturninus):

Chestnut-eared aracari (Pteroglossus castanotis). I love the wild coloration on this toucan relative:

Cocoi heron (Ardea cocoi) with a fish (unknown species). They hunt by spearing their prey, then can spend a fair amount of time and effort flipping and playing with the foot so that they can swallow it head-first and not get the heartburn of spine-in-the-gullet:

A cocoi heron flying:

Crane hawk (Geranospiza caerulescens):

Crested oropendola (Psarocolius decumanus). These are weaver birds, building elaborate hanging nests, one of which you can see immediately behind the bird:

More birds to come.

What, exactly, is dyslexia? What causes it, how should it be diagnosed, and stemming from that, how should it be treated? We can even ask a more fundamental question – does it actually exist as a discrete clinical entity? These questions have existed since dyslexia was first described and named in 1887, by German Opthalmologist, Rudolf Berlin. Not surprisingly, he thought the […]

The post Redefining Dyslexia first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

From integrated photonics to quantum information science, the ability to control light with electric fields -- a phenomenon known as the electro-optic effect -- supports vital applications such as light modulation and frequency transduction. These components rely on nonlinear optical materials, in which light waves can be manipulated by applying electric fields.

Identifying and delineating cell structures in microscopy images is crucial for understanding the complex processes of life. This task is called 'segmentation' and it enables a range of applications, such as analyzing the reaction of cells to drug treatments, or comparing cell structures in different genotypes. It was already possible to carry out automatic segmentation of those biological structures but the dedicated methods only worked in specific conditions and adapting them to new conditions was costly. An international research team has now developed a method by retraining the existing AI-based software Segment Anything on over 17,000 microscopy images with over 2 million structures annotated by hand.

Identifying and delineating cell structures in microscopy images is crucial for understanding the complex processes of life. This task is called 'segmentation' and it enables a range of applications, such as analyzing the reaction of cells to drug treatments, or comparing cell structures in different genotypes. It was already possible to carry out automatic segmentation of those biological structures but the dedicated methods only worked in specific conditions and adapting them to new conditions was costly. An international research team has now developed a method by retraining the existing AI-based software Segment Anything on over 17,000 microscopy images with over 2 million structures annotated by hand.

Individuals in industrialised societies seem to sleep for longer than people in non-industrialised ones, but their circadian rhythms are more out of sync

People in industrialised societies seem to sleep for longer than those in non-industrialised ones, but their circadian rhythms are more out of sync

This article was mentioned in a comment by reader Ted Gold, but I thought I would highlight it just to show that when the rubber meets the road, people recognize that, yes, there are just two sexes. This is from the NYT on Feb. 25th.

Click headline to read, or find the article archived here.

An excerpt:

Women outlive men, by something of a long shot: In the United States, women have a life expectancy of about 80, compared to around 75 for men.

This holds true regardless of where women live, how much money they make and many other factors. It’s even true for most other mammals.

“It’s a very robust phenomenon all over the world, totally conserved in sickness, during famines, during epidemics, even during times of starvation,” said Dr. Dena Dubal, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.

But if there are more than two sexes, why do articles like this one always accept that there are two, and, in this case, put people in one of the two classes to compare their longevity?  Why are they leaving out all those other sexes that, according to people like Agustín Fuentes and Steve Novella, actually exist? (They are not supposed to be rare, either!)

The article, which by the way is worth reading, though it does not mention evolution (another possible reason), does not refer to members of any other sex. Why not?

You know the answer: there are almost no people who do not fit the gametic definition of male or female, and those people are not members of other sexes. The failure of some Democrats to sign onto this recognition of the obvious is one reason why my party did poorly in the last election.

And yet so-called progressive Democrats and liberals are simply doubling down, as we will see tomorrow when I give a juicy example of resistance to the sex binary from an actual scientist.

On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera blasted off to the Moon as part of NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar water cycle and to guide future robotic and human missions.

A new study has revealed key factors limiting the efficiency of photoelectrochemical water splitting using a titanium dioxide photoanode for clean hydrogen production. Researchers combined intensity-modulated photocurrent spectroscopy with the distribution of relaxation times analysis to analyze charge carrier dynamics. They identified distinct behaviors related to light intensity and recombination at different applied potentials and discovered a previously unreported 'satellite peak,' offering new insights for improving material design and hydrogen production efficiency.

Labor market policies shape firms' innovation dynamics. A new study shows for the first time that higher minimum wages for low-skill jobs drive firms to develop automation technologies. Rising wages for high-skill labor, in contrast, can hamper this effect.

Silicon is the best-known semiconductor material. However, controlled nanostructuring drastically alters the material's properties. Using a specially developed etching apparatus, a team has now produced mesoporous silicon layers with countless tiny pores and investigated their electrical and thermal conductivity. For the first time, the researchers elucidated the electronic transport mechanism in this mesoporous silicon. The material has great potential for applications and could also be used to thermally insulate qubits for quantum computers.

Cadmium selenide nanoplatelets provide a promising foundation for the development of innovative electronic materials. Since the turn of the millennium, researchers around the world have taken a particular interest in these tiny platelets, which are only a few atoms thick, as they offer extraordinary optical and other properties. A team has now taken an important step towards the systematic production of such nanoplatelets.

Researchers have invented an entirely new field of microscopy -- nuclear spin microscopy. The team can visualize magnetic signals of nuclear magnetic resonance with a microscope. Quantum sensors convert the signals into light, enabling extremely high-resolution optical imaging.

An international team of researchers has successfully captured the internal structure of the longest-runout sediment flow ever recorded on Earth. Using seismic measurements, the researchers have for the first time been able to analyze in detail the internal structure of these tens to hundreds of kilometers long turbidity currents -- an oceanographic phenomenon that has been studied for almost a century, but never directly observed. The new insights into the dynamics of these powerful currents will help improve risk assessments for underwater infrastructure, such as submarine cables, and refine models of sediment and carbon transport in the ocean.

How does a tennis player like Carlos Alcaraz decide where to run to return Novak Djokovic's ball by just looking at the ball's initial position? These behaviours, so common in elite athletes, are difficult to explain with current computational models, which assume that the players must continuously follow the ball with their eyes. Now, researchers have developed a model that, by combining optical variables with environmental factors such as gravity, accurately predicts how a person will move to catch a moving object just from an initial glance. These results could have potential applications in fields such as robotics, sports training or even space exploration.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are known as forever chemicals because of their extreme persistence. These compounds have useful properties including durability and waterproofing, so they're commonly used in consumer products like food packaging and cosmetics, as well as industrial processes. But PFAS' potential negative impacts on human health are driving the search for potentially safer substitutes. Now, researchers propose alternatives for many applications.

Grouting is a widely used construction technique that involves injecting stabilizing materials into soil to ensure structural stability, which is especially beneficial in earthquake-prone regions. Now, scientists have developed an innovative, carbon-neutral grout made from waste fluids of geothermal energy harvesting systems. Their new material shows a 50% increase in liquefaction resistance compared to conventional grouts, while also addressing environmental concerns associated with the construction industry.

Researchers detail advances in the measurement of quantum devices that will be needed to realize a topological quantum computer. In an announcement, the team describes the operation of a device that is a necessary building block for a topological quantum computer. The published results are an important milestone along the path to construction of quantum computers that are potentially more robust and powerful than existing technologies.

Discarded food scraps, stray branches, seashells and many other natural materials are key ingredients in a system that can pull drinkable water out of thin air developed by researchers.