science news 12.6.2019

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.


ecology

Skinny cod and grey seal reveals troubling changes to food web in the Baltic Sea
"The prime predators of the Baltic Sea at the top of the food web are losing weight, according to a new study that links the deteriorating health of gray seals and cod with changes in bottom-living crustaceans, isopods and amphipods."

Why Noah's ark won't work
"Many species will need large population sizes to survive climate change and ocean acidification, a new study finds."
You don't say ...

Love songs from paradise take a nosedive
"The Galapagos Islands finches named after Charles Darwin are starting to sing a different tune because of an introduced pest on the once pristine environment. New research shows that Darwin's finch males whose beaks and nostril (naris) have been damaged by the parasitic invasion are producing 'sub-par song.'"



Fledgling tree finches may be infested in the nest.
Credit: Dr Katharina Peters, Flinders University


environment

Catalog of north Texas earthquakes confirms continuing effects of wastewater disposal

Marine oil snow
"Marine snow is the phenomena of flakes of falling organic material and biological debris cascading down a water column like snowflakes. But an oil spill like Deepwater Horizon will add oil and dispersants to the mix, making marine oil snow that is can be toxic to organisms in deep-sea ecosystems."


bio-inspired

'Shield' of sea creature inspires materials that can handle their own impact


nanoworld

Tiny light box opens new doors into the nanoworld
"Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have discovered a completely new way of capturing, amplifying and linking light to matter at the nanolevel. Using a tiny box, built from stacked atomically thin material, they have succeeded in creating a type of feedback loop in which light and matter become one. The discovery, which was recently published in Nature Nanotechnology, opens up new possibilities in the world of nanophotonics."


archaeology

21st century archaeology has rediscovered historical Cordoba
"University of Cordoba researcher Antonio Monterroso Checa applied aerial laser LiDAR technology to draw out the ancient geomorphology of the city of Cordoba"

Breakthrough in the discovery of DNA in ancient bones buried in water
"Fresh evidence rewrites the understanding of the most intriguing archaeological burial site in western Finland. New DNA technology gives significant information on the bones buried in water. The DNA matches present day Sámi people, who nowadays live far from the site. The question why the bones were buried in water remains a mystery and demands further investigation."


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from the news media:

by 2040 most "meat" will not be from slaughtered animals, reports the Guardian.