(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: Did dinos squawk like parrots? Can fungi zombify us? & other science news [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-25 Cockatoos are only the third animal, besides humans and chimpanzees, known to select varying tools based on the tasks they expect to face. x Cockatoos in a series of experiments planned ahead, bringing the right toolkit for the task of getting a prized cashew out of a puzzle box. https://t.co/RU633Wfmov — NYT Science (@NYTScience) February 10, 2023 Dr. Auersperg and other researchers showed the innateness of this curiosity in 2021, when they reported that wild Goffin’s cockatoos use tools. The researchers observed birds, temporarily housed in a field aviary, using their beaks to fashion three tools — a wedge, a knife and a spoon — to help them pry open tropical Wawai fruits, “like a set of cutlery,” Dr. Auersperg said. It was clear the cockatoos were crafting different tools for different purposes, known as a tool set, but a critical question remained: Did the birds see the tools that way? In a study published Friday in Current Biology, Dr. Osuna-Mascaró, Dr. Auersperg and their colleagues showed that the cockatoos are only the third animal, besides humans and chimpanzees, known to select varying tools based on the tasks they expect to face… …the grand prize was a cashew, their favorite food. Getting the treat out of a puzzle box required two tools: a short, sharp tool that had to first cut a membrane blocking the bird’s access to the nut, and a long, flimsy pole that had to be stuck into the hole to fish out the cashew… …The critical experiment came next, when the box was moved farther from the tools, meaning the birds had to choose the right implements and then carry them over, either by climbing a ladder or flying a short distance. When deciding which tools to bring on their journey, the cockatoos planned ahead, like humans grabbing their phone, wallet and keys before heading out for the day. For a long time now, we have known modern birds evolved from certain lineages of dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago. This has led researchers to look to dinosaurs to explain some of the features unique to birds, for example, feathers, bone structure and so on. But there's something special about the wings of birds in particular that piqued the interest of researchers at the University of Tokyo's Department of Earth and Planetary Science. "At the leading edge of a bird's wing is a structure called the propatagium, which contains a muscle connecting the shoulder and wrist that helps the wing flapping and makes bird flight possible," said Associate Professor Tatsuya Hirasawa. "It's not found in other vertebrates, and it's also found to have disappeared or lost its function in flightless birds, one of the reasons we know it's essential for flight. So, in order to understand how flight evolved in birds, we must know how the propatagium evolved. This is what prompted us to explore some distant ancestors of modern birds, theropod dinosaurs." Self-awareness is a crucial component in the development of empathy, which is an essential step in the development of social intelligence x Can Geckos Recognize Themselves? https://t.co/zqNabXdezs — Forbes Europe (@ForbesEurope) February 22, 2023 Reptiles have long been considered to be dim-witted and cold-blooded (in more ways than one), but research is beginning to find that they possess an impressive collection of cognitive abilities. For example, a recent study of Tokay geckos, Gekko gecko, has discovered that these lizards can distinguish their own scent from that of others of their species, indicating they possess the ability to recognize themselves as distinct from others, which is the first step in the development of social intelligence. For this reason, we think that geckos may be able to communicate with others of their own kind and thus, they may be more intelligent than we give them credit for. Every animal on Earth may house the molecular machinery to sense magnetic fields, even those organisms that don't navigate or migrate using this mysterious 'sixth sense'. Scientists working on fruit flies have now identified a ubiquitous molecule in all living cells that can respond to magnetic sensitivity if it is present in high enough amounts or if other molecules assist it. The new findings suggest that magnetoreception could be much more common in the animal kingdom than we ever knew. If researchers are right, it might be an astonishingly ancient trait shared by virtually all living things, albeit with differing strengths. That doesn't mean all animals or plants can actively sense and follow magnetic fields, but it does suggest that all living cells might, including ours. Human body temperature and brain chemistry may be impenetrable barriers for zombifying fungi x Climate change has helped fungi infect people — but a zombie pandemic is unlikely.https://t.co/bZVXY9bBYR — Science News (@ScienceNews) February 25, 2023 A sweeping analysis of shin bones has given researchers a glimpse into how some dinosaurs evolved into mega-beasts such as Tyrannosaurus, and others into smaller, bird-like creatures. The work, published this week in Science1, reveals that dinosaurs used more than one evolutionary trick to become larger — or smaller — over time. Prevailing wisdom held that large-bodied animals are bigger than their smaller-bodied relatives because they grow faster during their most rapid period of growth. That trend holds true for modern animals including birds and mammals — elephants and ostriches grow faster than chihuahuas and sparrows, for example … ...palaeontologists had assumed that for theropod dinosaurs — a group that includes the iconic T. rex and which spawned modern birds — large species got big through rapid growth spurts. “It’s kind of become the established idea in dinosaurs,” says palaeontologist Michael D’Emic at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. The Milky Way may be spawning many more stars than astronomers had thought Gamma rays reveal the galaxy’s star-making power x Our galaxy makes two to four times more stars each year than astronomers had thought, says a new study. https://t.co/AMjgo0VZHX — Science News (@ScienceNews) February 25, 2023 A mysterious object is being dragged into the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center — ucla newsroom For two decades, scientists have observed an elongated object named X7 near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and wondered what it was. Was it pulled off a larger structure nearby? Was its unusual form the result of stellar winds or was it shaped by jets of particles from the black hole? Now, having examined the evolution of X7 using 20 years of data gathered by the Galactic Center Orbit Inintiative, astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group and the Keck Observatory propose that it could be a cloud of dust and gas that was ejected during the collision of two stars. Starfish Whisperer Develops a Physical Language of Life x This “living crystal” is a clump of rotating, jiggling starfish embryos in the lab of the biophysicist Nikta Fakhri. It embodies a state of matter known as an odd material that may have previously unknown biological functions. https://t.co/ZSZybpuwFn pic.twitter.com/Ty82wySqxb — Quanta Magazine (@QuantaMagazine) February 25, 2023 In a sunny lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, two starfish fought over their prey. Overlapping arms pinned a hunk of thawing cocktail shrimp against the side of the tank. Thousands of suction cups rippled furiously against the glass as each echinoderm struggled to inch the prize toward its own maw. The physicist Nikta Fakhri looked on with a grin. Not many physicists keep ocean life in their labs, but Fakhri has learned to care for starfish nearly as well as a marine biologist would. And now she’s expanding her menagerie; when a reporter visited recently, a couple of tanks awaited the imminent arrival of sea urchins. Fakhri has turned to echinoderms in the hope of answering an age-old question: What is life? Or, in one modern formulation: How do the microscopic operations of proteins and cells add up to a clash between hungry starfish? We don't need 'miracle' green technologies to save the planet A focus on revolutionary solutions like carbon capture and geoengineering is slowing the uptake of existing answers to the problems of climate change, air pollution and energy security, says environmental engineer Mark Jacobson x A focus on revolutionary solutions like carbon capture and geoengineering is slowing the uptake of existing answers to the problems of climate change, air pollution and energy security, says environmental engineer @mzjacobson https://t.co/GDJ2OAtyXY — New Scientist (@newscientist) February 25, 2023 Related green washing scam x I met someone who flatly insisted to me earlier that their last flight didn't cause any warming because they had bought a carbon "offset". So, I made this... pic.twitter.com/4CDXm932yI — Dr. Aaron Thierry (@ThierryAaron) February 24, 2023 A new biomaterial heals heart attack damage in animals. Humans could be next The treatment, delivered through IV, could go to human clinical trials soon x “A lot of my motivation is moving things out of the lab, actually into the real world,” says bioengineer Karen Christman.https://t.co/WDwrTiYoQa — Science News (@ScienceNews) February 25, 2023 ...animal experiments showed that the extracellular matrix material bound to the leaky vessels, preventing some inflammatory cells from moving into the heart tissue in the first place and causing further damage. The material reduced inflammation in the heart and stimulated the healing process by encouraging cell growth, the team reports. Further safety studies will be needed to get the biomaterial ready for clinical trials. The first trial in humans will most likely be for repairing cardiac tissue post–heart attack. “A lot of my motivation is moving things out of the lab, actually into the real world,” Christman says. The Edges Matter: Hedgerows Are Bringing Life Back to Farms — civil eats Researchers have found that planting hedgerows helps farmers sequester carbon in the soil, manage pests, and provide habitat for pollinators and other wildlife. x Xerces has worked with partners to plant more than 100 miles of hedgerows in CA. A study found hedgerows in CA would capture so much carbon, it would help the state to reach up to 12 percent of its greenhouse gas reduction goals. https://t.co/S3F717F415 pic.twitter.com/ycVon9rXLw — Scott Black (@XercesSB) February 22, 2023 nature is incredible x Waiting for 8-dog teams in La Ronge we came across this beautiful imprint in the snow at the lakeside. We’re pretty sure its an owl hunting a mouse. Nature is incredible. pic.twitter.com/3UxdyQaNo7 — Canadian Challenge (@CCSleddograce) February 24, 2023 “yeah we know” say the eagles [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/25/2154863/-Overnight-News-Digest-Did-dinos-squawk-like-parrots-Can-fungi-zombify-us-amp-other-science-news Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/