From exploring octopus consciousness to an amazing breakthrough in nanotube technology; from the first fossilized heart ever found to a dark galaxy discovered by the ALMA telescope; and from the reclassification of a type of thyroid cancer so it isn’t cancer anymore to climatologists clashing over the affect of climate change on the weather and peoples’ attitudes about it….
Yes, it’s been yet another fascinating and amazing week in the world of science!
And here are this week’s most popular stories on Science Rocks My World as voted by your clicks:
Octopuses are super-smart… but are they conscious?
Inky the wild octopus has escaped from the New Zealand National Aquarium. Apparently, he made it out of a small opening in his tank, and suction cup prints indicate he found his way to a drain pipe that emptied to the ocean.
Nice job Inky. Your courage gives us the chance to reflect on just how smart cephalopods really are. In fact, they are real smart…
How Nanotubes Can Self-Assemble into Tiny Wires [Video]
The strong force field emitted by a Tesla coil causes carbon nanotubes to self-assemble into long wires, a phenomenon scientists are calling “Teslaphoresis.”
Chemist Paul Cherukuri of Rice University, who led the team that made the discovery, thinks the research sets a clear path toward scalable assembly of nanotubes from the bottom up…
The first fossilised heart ever found in a prehistoric animal
Palaeontologists and the famous Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz were once in search of the same thing: a heart. But in our case, it was the search for a fossilised heart. And now we’ve found one.
A new discovery, announced today in the journal eLife, shows the perfectly preserved 3D fossilised heart in a 113-119 million-year-old fish from Brazil called Rhacolepis.
This is the first definite fossilised heart found in any prehistoric animal…
Astronomers Find a ‘Dark Galaxy’ Lurking in This Image
New analysis of an image taken by the ALMA telescope in Chile reveals evidence that a dwarf dark galaxy—a tiny halo companion of a much larger galaxy—is lurking nearly 4 billion light-years away.
This discovery paves the way for ALMA to find many more such objects, which could help astronomers address important questions on the nature of dark matter…
This Noninvasive Thyroid ‘Cancer’ isn’t Cancer Anymore
The reclassification of a noninvasive type of thyroid cancer that has a low risk of recurrence is expected to reduce the fears and the unnecessary interventions that come with a cancer diagnosis, experts say.
The incidence of thyroid cancer has been rising partly due to early detection of tumors that are indolent or non-progressing, despite the presence of certain cellular abnormalities that are traditionally considered cancerous, says senior investigator Yuri Nikiforov, professor of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh.
“This phenomenon is known as overdiagnosis,” Nikiforov says. “To my knowledge, this is the first time in the modern era a type of cancer is being reclassified as a non-cancer…”
Has climate change really improved U.S. weather?
According to a new report published in “Nature” on April 20, 2016 by Patrick Egan and Megan Mullin, weather conditions have “improved” for the vast majority of Americans over the past 40 years. This, they argue, explains why there has been little public demand so far for a policy response to climate change.
Egan and Mullin do note that this trend is projected to reverse over the course of the coming century, and that Americans will become more concerned about climate change as they perceive more negative impact from weather. However, they estimate that such a shift may not occur in time to spur policy responses that could avert catastrophic impacts…
[Video] This Octopus has an Odd Way of Grabbing a Meal
Unlike most octopuses, which tackle their prey with all eight arms, a rediscovered tropical octopus subtly taps its prey on the shoulder and startles it into its arms.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” says Roy Caldwell, professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Octopuses typically pounce on their prey or poke around in holes until they find something…
Also Trending This Week, Check Out:
- How Deep-Sea Creatures Survived the Dino-Killer Asteroid
- Software Will Let you Design & Print Your Own Custom Robot
- Consensus confirmed: over 90% of climate scientists believe we’re causing global warming [Video]
- New Study of Snails Suggests that Indeed Sex May Have its Perks
- These Coral Reefs Have Become ‘Ghost Towns’ in Just a Few Months [Video]
- Explainer: what is the gut microbiota and how does it affect mind and body?
- This Stretchy Material Heals Itself and Twitches Like Muscle Tissue