Enlarge / An interdisciplinary team of roboticists, engineers and biologists modeled the mechanics of the mantis shrimp’s punch and built a robot that mimics the movement. (credit: Second Bay Studios and Roy Caldwell/Harvard SEAS) The mantis shrimp boasts one of the most powerful, ultrafast punches in nature—it’s on par with the force generated by a. […]
Enlarge / A cartoon of the process that translates the genetic code|code calculatordecoder} in DNA into a protein. (credit: BSIP / Getty Images ) All living things on Earth use a version of the same genetic code. Every cell makes proteins using the same 20 amino acids. Ribosomes, the particular protein-making machinery within cells, read […]
Enlarge / Does this look like the face of someone who started off as a cannibal? Why yes, it does. (credit: REDA & CO / Getty Images) The cane toad may be the poster animal for invasive species. Native to South America, it has been introduced to many other ecosystems in the hope it would […]
Enlarge / Two ants tunneling in green gel. A new Caltech study found that ants search for and remove loose grains of soil when digging their tunnels, much like humans remove loose blocks while playing Jenga . (credit: Kimberly Hosey/Getty Images ) Ants are prodigious diggers, constructing elaborate nests with multiple layers connected by an […]
Back in my high school days, I’d come home after swim practice, finish whatever work I needed to get done for school, and before any of the teams I followed started playing, I’d plop down on the couch to watch River Monsters. You remember that show? It ran for nine seasons on Animal Planet. In […]
Enlarge / A cuttlefish leisurely hanging out in a tank. A new study found that cuttlefish can remember specifics of place and time for receiving their favorite yummy food rewards. (credit: University of Cambridge) Can you remember what you had for dinner last weekend? That ability is a function of episodic memory, and how well […]
Enlarge / Reconstruction of the orthocone ammonite Baculites compressus . A new study reveals that the creatures likely lived a vertically oriented lifestyle. (credit: David Peterman) The fossil record is chock-full of the fossilized remains of spiral-shelled ammonoids , whose shapes are reminiscent of rams’ horns. But there was another type of ammonoid with long, […]
Tuesday was a historic day for baseball in western New York, as the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, introduced beer bats. Read more…
Enlarge / The left- and right-handed forms of an amino acid. Every living thing uses the left-handed form exclusively. (credit: Wikimedia Commons) The central dogma of molecular biology holds that DNA gets transcribed into RNA, which then gets translated into proteins. Of course, there are exceptions—some viruses, like coronaviruses, forego DNA altogether and encode their […]
High-speed video of squirrels executing amazing leaps in pursuit of peanuts captures the animals’ innovative solutions to reaching their goal. Video courtesy of Roxanne Makasdjian and Jeremy Snowden, University of California, Berkeley. High speed video of squirrels executing incredible leaps in pursuit of nuts captures the animals’ innovative options to reaching their goal. Movie courtesy […]