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Readers’ wildlife photos

Why Evolution is True Feed - Wed, 02/26/2025 - 6:15am

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.

Categories: Science

Redefining Dyslexia

Science-based Medicine Feed - Wed, 02/26/2025 - 5:14am

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.
Categories: Science

Toward high electro-optic performance in III-V semiconductors

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 5:12pm
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.
Categories: Science

Automatic cell analysis with the help of artificial intelligence

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 5:12pm
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.
Categories: Science

People in industrial societies get more sleep than hunter-gatherers

New Scientist Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 4:01pm
Individuals in industrialised societies seem to sleep for longer than people in non-industrialised ones, but their circadian rhythms are more out of sync
Categories: Science

Hunter-gatherers get less sleep than people in industrial societies

New Scientist Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 4:01pm
People in industrialised societies seem to sleep for longer than those in non-industrialised ones, but their circadian rhythms are more out of sync
Categories: Science

Lunar Trailblazer blasts off to map water on the moon

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:24am
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.
Categories: Science

New insights into efficient water splitting

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:23am
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.
Categories: Science

Rising wages drive innovation in automation technology

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:21am
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.
Categories: Science

Mesoporous silicon: Semiconductor with new talents

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:20am
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.
Categories: Science

From defect to high-tech material

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:20am
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.
Categories: Science

A completely new type of microscopy based on quantum sensors

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:20am
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.
Categories: Science

Longest-runout undersea sediment flows analyzed in unprecedented detail

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:18am
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.
Categories: Science

A new model accurately predicts the movement of elite athletes to catch the ball in parabolic flight

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:18am
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.
Categories: Science

Research reveals potential alternatives to 'forever chemicals'

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:18am
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.
Categories: Science

From waste to wonder: Revolutionary green grout for sustainable construction practices

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:16am
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.
Categories: Science

Materials incorporated into quantum qubit platform

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:16am
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.
Categories: Science

From scraps to sips: Everyday biomass produces drinking water from thin air

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:15am
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.
Categories: Science

Scientists design battery that runs on atomic waste

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:15am
Researchers have developed a battery that can convert nuclear energy into electricity via light emission, a study suggests.
Categories: Science

Mimicking shark skin to create clean cutting boards

Matter and energy from Science Daily Feed - Tue, 02/25/2025 - 9:15am
Keeping work surfaces clean during meat processing is a challenge, and now researchers deliver key insights into a solution that could change the current practice altogether: Instead of working to prevent bacteria buildup, they created surfaces that stop bacteria from attaching in the first place. Using lasers to etch and alter the surface of the metal, the team was able to create micro- or nanoscale textures that make it difficult for microbial cells to attach to the surface. The technique, known as laser-induced surface texturing, also alters the metal's water-repellent properties.
Categories: Science

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