science news 17.5.2019

Today's selection of science news. Links are normally to press releases on EurekAlert (at the bottom end I may also add a couple of newspaper stories). I include quotes from the summary (using quotation marks) in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without quotation marks, if I have any.


astrobiology

Galaxy blazes with new stars born from close encounter
"The irregular galaxy NGC 4485 shows all the signs of having been involved in a hit-and-run accident with a bypassing galaxy. Rather than destroying the galaxy, the chance encounter is spawning a new generation of stars, and presumably planets."


climate change

24% of West Antarctic ice is now unstable

Warming climate threatens microbes in alpine streams, new research shows


ecology

Bedbugs evolved more than 100 million years ago -- and walked the earth with T. rex

The global invasion routes of the red swamp crayfish, described based on genetics


conservation

Meet the tenrecs
"Researchers reviewed the conservation priorities for the 31 species of tenrec -- a poorly understood family of small mammals superficially resembling hedgehogs, found only on the island of Madagascar."



Researchers reviewed the conservation priorities for the 31 species of tenrec -- a poorly understood family of small mammals superficially resembling hedgehogs, found only on the island of Madagascar.
Credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS


light and life

Research suggests revision to common view on how retinal cells in mammals process light
As far as I understood, this is because previous view was based on amphibians and mammals use fewer G proteins per photon coming in.


medicine

Antibody responses vs. Ebola keep evolving in survivors, months after recovery


humans

How our current thinking can sway our memories of love

People recycle more when they know what recyclable waste becomes