Saturday Literary: Octopuses as substitute guardians for fish; the universe is distorted standard model; very old cheese

This week, biologists found a mysterious group of orcas near Chile; Hubble observed a black hole jet that caused the star around it to explode; and researchers described deep craters that began to appear in the Siberian permafrost in 2010. Maybe you’re here for cheese, cosmology and octopuses, so here you go:

Eight arms to weigh you down

Octopuses are usually solitary creatures, like Boo Radley, living alone and hunting before they have sex, develop a terrible Alzheimer’s like brain and then die. But sometimes they interact socially and even work together in interspecies networks, hunting and fishing.

Researchers at the University of Konstanz carried out an underwater study in which they used a three-dimensional, field survey and collected 100 films of Octopus cyanea hunting relationships with different fish species, finding the secret method of guidance and confusion. human relations.

A forward-looking fish has an extended sensory network for the octopus, which is better at finding and identifying prey. Throughout their sightings, the octopus was the leader of the group, preying on the fish’s presence and taking physical punishment against fish that did not comply.

Previous observations of one type of octopus poaching raised questions about group leaders and exploitation—are octopuses being exploited for easier prey? But the researchers found that across all types of hunting programs, the octopus was the leader of the group, hitting its prey and preying on them to throw them off the edge of the group.

The universe is contradictory to scientists: drop dead

If you’re a fan of anti-prediction as soon as it’s discovered, the universe will knock your socks off. For years, standard physics has been predicting things like the expansion rate of the universe, the age of the universe, and the birth dates of the first stars and galaxies, and then, when engineers use instruments higher performance results. for making observations, the universe says, “haha, no.”

This week, a multi-institutional group of astronomers published a paper that suggests that perhaps it is time for some new physics to reconcile the recent claims obtained by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument about neutrinos.

DESI creates the deepest and most accurate map of the universe, providing measurements of baryonic oscillations, which, together with measurements of microwave cycles, enable scientists to calculate the mass of neutrinos. Neutrinos, among the largest particles in the universe, are difficult to study, and by determining their number, scientists can learn how matter is combined during the evolution of the universe.

However, while astronomers expected to find a reduction in clustering, as predicted by standard deviations, DESI’s observations actually revealed enhanced clustering. “Explaining this improvement may point to some problems in the equation, or it may require some new physics not included in the standard form of particle physics and cosmology,” said Joel Meyers, assistant professor of physics. at Southern Methodist University says.

Old cheese discovered

Chinese researchers extracted and analyzed DNA from cheese samples in ancient food packages unearthed 20 years ago from Tarim Basin mummies in Northwestern China.

The mummies, and the cheese, were recorded around 3,300 to 3,600 years ago. Their research showed the DNA of cows and goats. The microorganisms that have a white substance confirmed that it is kefir cheese, which contains Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens and Pichia kudriavzevii, but the composition of modern kefir grains-researchers report that microorganisms are associated with Tibetan kefir of this time.

“Our observations show that kefir culture has been maintained in the Xinjiang region of Northwestern China since the Bronze Age,” said Qiaomei Fu, a researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

© 2024 Science X Network