Separate polarization and brightness channels give crabs the edge over predators
Fiddler crabs see the polarization of light and this gives them the edge when it comes to spotting potentials threats, such as a rival crab or a predator. Now researchers have begun to unravel how this information is processed within the crab’s brain. The study has discovered that when detecting approaching objects, fiddler crabs separate polarization and brightness information.
When Colleagues Warn You To Keep The Climate Catastrophe On Message
Given the issues raised by the Nature Communications blacklist fiasco last week, I thought it might be useful to show readers who don’t work in science an example of the kind of not-so-subtle dissuasion that can be used by “scientists…
Report: Ties Between Environmentalism And Eugenics ‘Run Deep’
A historical analysis of the environmentalist movement released Monday revealed close ties between radical ecology, population control, and eugenics, which is still evident today in “ecofascism.” An “ultra-violent strain of white-nationalism also embraces climate science,” states the Canadian activist Cory…
Proposal to mine near Okefenokee Swamp raises old fears
The Okefenokee Swamp is a shallow wetland covering 438,000 acres across the Georgia-Florida line. The swamp, which is estimated to be about 7,000 years old, is home to eight different habitat types, ranging from prairies and swamp islands to four…
Hurricanes drive the evolution of more aggressive spiders
Researchers who rush in after storms to study the behavior of spiders have found that extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones may have an evolutionary impact on populations living in storm-prone regions, where aggressive spiders have the best odds of survival.
Mexico wants to run a tourist train through its Mayan heartland — should it?
Big public works like the Maya Train demand careful planning. But the environmental and social repercussions could be disastrous.
To make lakes healthy, you first need the right recipe
(Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)) Pollution of lakes is a worldwide problem. Restoration attempts take a lot of time and effort, and even then they might backfire. A team of researchers led by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) suggests a different approach. First, you have to determine to which of four different types your lake belongs, they write in the August issue of Science of the Total Environment. Spatial differences are the key to a successful restoration recipe.
Global change is triggering an identity switch in grasslands
(Smithsonian) Since the first Homo sapiens emerged in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, grasslands have sustained humanity and thousands of other species. But today, those grasslands are shifting beneath our feet. Global change — which includes climate change, pollution and other widespread environmental alterations — is transforming the plant species growing in them, and not always in the ways scientists expected, a new study published Monday revealed.
Burning invasive western juniper maintains sagebrush dominance longer
(US Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service) Burning invasive western juniper increases the time — post-fire — that native mountain sagebrush will remain the dominant woody vegetation in the plant community by at least 44% compared to cutting juniper back, according to a new study in Ecology and Evolution by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators.
Males of a feather flock together
(Deutsches Primatenzentrum (DPZ)/German Primate Center) ‘Birds of a feather flock together’ or rather ‘opposites attract’? The recently published study on male macaques in Thailand speaks for the former: Behavioral biologists from the German Primate Centre — Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and psychologists from the University of Göttingen have observed that the more similar male Assamese macaques are in their personality, the closer they get and the stronger their social bonds.
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