(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight Science News Digest: Is monarch winter pop data 'troublesome' or 'inconsequential'? [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: 2023-03-25 Troubling news for monarch butterfly populations — world wildlife federation So, if monarchs are in trouble, what might be the reasons? Some scientists point to dwindling amounts of native milkweed as a weak link, others identify the over-abundance of non-native tropical milkweed that promotes high levels of OE, a deadly pathogen. For the western subpopulation overwintering in California, one scientist claims that tropical milkweed is a boon that can help the species transition to year-round activity (eliminating migration and overwintering diapause), while most others say the presence of non-native milkweed is damaging because of OE and promoting breeding out of season. Thousands of non-scientists claim their captive rearing and release of monarchs is essential to saving the species, while almost all scientists say this (a) doesn’t amount to much in terms of the population size, and (2) it has no benefit but greatly harms the population’s genetics and increases OE. Scientists also disagree on the significance of the 2022-23 overwintering population data from Mexico: World Wildlife Federation calls it “troubling.” Other monarch researchers claim the decreased overwintering pop size is inconsequential, the winter pop is stable over time, and regardless of the winter data, the summer population is thriving. One point of agreement among biologists and WWF, however, is that the increased logging and degradation of the Mexican forests where monarchs overwinter is more than troublesome, it threatens monarchs and hundreds of other species, including five million humans in Mexico City whose drinking water comes from those forests. x WWF-Mexico and its partners today released two new reports related to the population and winter habitat of the Eastern migratory monarch butterfly. Together, they remind us how vulnerable the unique migratory phenomenon is: https://t.co/hFx116DJ9L. — World Wildlife Fund (@World_Wildlife) March 21, 2023 The annual WWF-Mexico-led survey, Forest Area Occupied by Monarch Butterflies Colonies in Mexico, measures the area of forest in which monarch butterflies hibernate each winter, providing a scientific indicator of their population status. The 2022-2023 report shows a 22% decline in forest area when compared to last year, down from 7.02 acres to 5.46 acres this winter. The second report, Forest Degradation at the Core Zone of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, found 145 acres of forest have been degraded, a major increase when compared to the 47 acres lost in the previous year. Forest degradation impact far more than butterflies. The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve not only provides monarchs with the right microclimate for hibernation but also serves as one of the main freshwater contributors for five million people in Mexico City and its metropolitan area. Its biodiverse forest ecosystems are home to 132 species of birds, 56 species of mammals, 432 species of vascular plants and 211 species of fungi. don’t forget to duck tonight! x 🪨On Saturday, a 40-100 m #asteroid will fly by Earth at less than half the distance of the Moon. 🪨#2023DZ2 was discovered ~3 weeks ago. At first, it showed a small risk of #EarthImpact in 2026 but further observations ruled this out. 🧵👇https://t.co/lI4aBsusBh #CloseApproach pic.twitter.com/gMdOBtWEwX — ESA (@esa) March 21, 2023 A Cognitive Revolution in Animal Research — the atlantic More and more scientists are realizing that animal people, like human people, are individuals: They have distinct tendencies, habits, and life experiences that may affect how they perform in an experiment. x Animal researchers are starting to think that every creature might have its own individual traits—an idea that could force them to reevaluate even some foundational experiments, @Inkfish writes for @KnowableMag: https://t.co/i4Ke6Y3ZCa — The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) March 20, 2023 Several years ago, Christian Rutz started to wonder whether he was giving his crows enough credit. Rutz, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, and his team were capturing wild New Caledonian crows and challenging them with puzzles made from natural materials before releasing them again. In one test, birds faced a log with drilled holes that contained hidden food; they could get the food out by bending a plant stem into a hook. If a bird didn’t try within 90 minutes, the researchers removed it from the data set. But, Rutz says, he soon began to realize that he was not, in fact, studying the skills of New Caledonian crows. He was studying the skills of a subset of New Caledonian crows that quickly approached a weird log they’d never seen before—maybe because they were especially brave or reckless. [...] Studies claiming to show something about a species as a whole—the distance that green sea turtles migrate, for example, or how chaffinches respond to the song of a rival—may say more about individual animals that were captured or housed in a certain way, or that share certain genetic features. That’s a problem for researchers who seek to understand how animals sense their environments, gain new knowledge, and live their lives. x Over 200 million Americans watched the total solar eclipse in August 2017, but no one had a better view than photographer Jon Carmichael. He spent years plotting how he could capture the total eclipse in a unique way ✨🤩 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The image was created by shots… pic.twitter.com/M1GyMZ6hfy — Amazing Astronomy (@MAstronomers) March 25, 2023 Mathematician Who Studied Equations That Describe Nature — New York times As a mathematician, Luis A. Caffarelli of the University of Texas at Austin tries to answer questions that sound simple, even potentially useful: How does the shape of a piece of ice change as it melts? Can a smooth flow of water ever spin out of control? What is the shape of an elastic sheet stretched around an object? These questions are not simple to answer. The behavior of these and many other phenomena in the world around us — including the gyrations of financial markets, the turbulence of river rapids and the spread of infectious diseases — can be described mathematically, using what are known as partial differential equations. The equations can often be written down simply, but finding exact solutions is devilishly difficult and indeed usually impossible. Yet, Dr. Caffarelli, 74, was able to make major progress in the understanding of partial differential equations even when complete solutions remain elusive. For those achievements, he is this year’s winner of the Abel Prize — his field’s equivalent of the Nobel. x Bird flu is causing brain infections in wild mammals such as foxes and raccoons and may be making them behave in unusual ways, according to a study in the US https://t.co/owNRueqPzs — New Scientist (@newscientist) March 25, 2023 In Africa, researchers gather saliva samples from partially chewed leaves that the primates discard after eating. They then extract the DNA and analyze it for viruses. [...] “Humans and gorillas share more than 98 percent of their DNA, meaning that much of our physiology and the way that we respond to pathogens are similar,” says Tierra Smiley Evans, research faculty member at the One Health Institute of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. “If we can collect information about viruses that infect gorillas, we can learn about similar viruses that infect humans.” [...] One goal is to better understand what happens to emerging viruses as a result of climate change, especially the transition from forest to urban landscapes. “We know that climate change will continue to impact the distribution and epidemic patterns of infectious diseases,” Evans says. “Primates are often the first to be impacted by infectious diseases moving into new locations and can be indicators of impending outbreaks of disease in humans. A good example of this is yellow fever virus, where acute outbreaks and die-offs in primate populations in South America often are the first indicator of an impending human outbreak.” The mosquito — known by its scientific name of Culex lactator — is typically found in Central and South America. Researchers with the University of Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory first discovered it in a rural area near Miami in 2018. It's since spread to other counties in Southwest Florida. [...] Mosquito biologist Lawrence Reeves is the lead author of a report on the newly-discovered species, published Wednesday in the Journal of Medical Entomology. He says, "There are about 90 mosquito species living in Florida, and that list is growing as new mosquito species are introduced to the state from elsewhere in the world." Scientists have now recorded brain waves from freely moving octopuses — science news x Researchers adapted portable data loggers typically used on birds, and surgically inserted the devices into three octopuses.https://t.co/ZaqevNYvFC — Science News (@ScienceNews) March 25, 2023 Octopuses also tend to be feisty and clever. That means they don’t usually put up with the uncomfortable equipment typically used to record brain waves in animals, says neuroethologist Tamar Gutnick of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. To work around these obstacles, Gutnick and colleagues adapted portable data loggers typically used on birds, and surgically inserted the devices into three octopuses. The researchers also placed recording electrodes inside areas of the octopus brain that deal with learning and memory. The team then recorded the octopuses for 12 hours while the cephalopods went about their daily lives — sleeping, swimming and self-grooming — in tanks. Some brain wave patterns emerged across all three octopuses in the 12-hour period. For instance, some waves resembled activity in the human hippocampus, which plays a crucial role in memory consolidation. Other brain waves were similar to those controlling sleep-wake cycles in other animals. The researchers also recorded some brain waves that they say have never been seen before in any animal. Microfibers are the most common type of microplastic and account for up to 91% of the microplastics that float around our seas. These minuscule fibers are shed from textiles as a result of the wearing and washing of clothes, and from the weathering and abrasion of marine equipment. Marine animals will encounter and even consume these microplastics. Shellfish, which feed by filtering organic particles from the water, are particularly vulnerable. One study found that shellfish ingest far higher concentrations of microplastics than most other marine animals … In our paper, now published in Microplastics and Nanoplastics, we found that prolonged exposure to polyester microfibers led to smaller mussels that grew at a slower rate. x Currently there are huge knowledge gaps in our understanding of how these particles are processed by the human body.https://t.co/qsgb7xbuJ6 — Science News (@ScienceNews) March 25, 2023 Morning Brew reported: Nature’s endorsement of Joe Biden for president in 2020 probably hurt Nature and barely helped Biden, according to new research. In the lead-up to the election, the prestigious scientific journal accused former President Trump of neglecting science in his handling of Covid and climate change and threw its support behind Biden. But a study published this week concluded that the move could have undermined public trust in Nature and science more broadly. [...] What we learned: Reading Nature’’s endorsement of Biden was unlikely to turn someone into a supporter of him, but it did make some Trump fans skeptical of Nature and more distrustful of scientists in general. Nature stood by its campaign advocacy. It claims the scientific community has an obligation to take a stand against politicians who “threaten a retreat from reason.” Road noise makes your blood pressure rise -- literally — science daily If you live near a busy road you might feel like the constant sound of roaring engines, honking horns and wailing sirens makes your blood pressure rise. Now a new study published today in JACC: Advances confirms it can do exactly that. Previous studies have shown a connection between noisy road traffic and increased risk of hypertension. However, strong evidence was lacking, and it was unclear whether noise or air pollution played a bigger role. The new research shows that it is exposure to road traffic noise itself that can elevate hypertension risk. what a beautiful way to report appalling news In late 2017, our Solar System received its very first known interstellar visitor: a bizarre cigar-shaped object hurtling past at 44 kilometers per second, dubbed 'Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "messenger from afar arriving first"). Was it a comet? An asteroid? A piece of alien technology? Scientists have been puzzling over the origin and unusual characteristics of 'Oumuamua ever since, most notably its strange orbit, and suggesting various models to account for them. But perhaps the answer is much simpler than previously thought. That's the conclusion of a new paper published in the journal Nature. The authors suggest that 'Oumuamua's odd behavior results from the outgassing of hydrogen as the icy body warmed in the vicinity of the Sun—a simple mechanism common among icy comets. The Paja Formation: An ecosystem of monsters — ars technica Roughly 130 million years ago, in an area within what is now central Colombia, the ocean was filled with a diversity of species unseen today. Within that water swam several massive apex predators that are the stuff of nightmares. These marine reptiles could reach lengths of 2 to 10 meters (about 6 to 32 feet), some with enormous mouths filled with teeth, others with relatively small heads (also filled with teeth) attached to long, snake-like necks. These giants shared the ocean with countless smaller species, many of them predators themselves. These included ichthyosaurs—dolphin-like reptiles—as well as turtles, fish, ammonites, crabs, mollusks, sharks, and at least one species of crocodyliform. Allowing all these creatures to thrive must have required a flourishing ecosystem at all levels. Thanks to discoveries in what’s called the Paja Formation, a treasure trove where fossils are abundantly and exquisitely preserved, researchers are now beginning to figure out how the ecosystem supported so many apex predators. And they may find hints of how it flourished so soon after a mass extinction brought the Jurassic to a close. another industry that dismisses science to protect their profits x BREAKING: The meat industry lobbied to have the @IPCC_CH remove their recommendation of a plant-based diet to cut 50% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a leaked draft of an earlier report. pic.twitter.com/i1pfifD5Et — Jenny Stojkovic (@jennystojkovic) March 25, 2023 applications open for pretending to survive on mars x Members of the media, want to see our 3D-printed habitat where we'll start a simulated Mars mission this summer? Apply to check out where four volunteers will live for the next year practicing various space mission activities at @NASA_Johnson on April 11: https://t.co/JLSQG6Tb18 pic.twitter.com/UAdCCOsv56 — Jim Free (@JimFree) March 25, 2023 on march 28th, don’t forget to look up [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/25/2159310/-Overnight-Science-News-Digest-Is-monarch-winter-pop-data-troublesome-or-inconsequential 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/