After trudging upslope for weeks, a giant tortoise slows its hundreds of cumbersome kilograms to a stop. Dense woods defended by barbed wire–like blackberry bushes block its path. After a…
Category: Life
Unlocking the Secrets of Soil Carbon Storage in Mangrove Ecosystems – Functional Ecologists
In this post, Guoming Qin—a postdoc at the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences—share his recently published paper: “Contributions of Plant- and Microbial-Derived Residues to Mangrove Soil Carbon…
Imperfect Harmony: Rethinking Pythagoras’ Musical Consonance
Summary: New research challenges Pythagoras’s ancient theory on musical consonance, revealing our preference for slight imperfections in chords rather than the perfect integer ratios traditionally associated with beautiful music. The…
Prevalence of Female Psychopaths: More Common than Believed
Summary: Researchers provide novel insights into female psychopathy, challenging the conventional 6:1 male-to-female psychopath ratio with new evidence suggesting a closer 1.2:1 ratio. The research indicates that societal gender biases…
AI Tunes into Emotions: The Rise of Affective Computing
Summary: Affective computing is transforming how machines understand human emotions, enabling them to respond to our feelings in real-time. This interdisciplinary field merges computer science, psychology, and neuroscience, aiming to…
The Brazilian flea toad may be the world’s smallest vertebrate
A Brazilian flea toad’s head is too tiny to bear its many crowns. Scientists have bestowed the frog — which is native to Brazil but is neither a flea nor…
Snake venom toxins can be neutralized by a new synthetic antibody
The antivenom for a black mamba’s bite could one day work for a slew of other snakes. Scientists have developed an antibody that shuts down paralyzing toxins in the venom…
