science news 26.6.2019

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.


astrobiology

Star tours
"Astronomers have a new tool in their search for extraterrestrial life -- a sophisticated bot that helps identify stars hosting planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn."

Hubble finds tiny 'electric soccer balls' in space, helps solve interstellar mystery
let's just call them fullerenes, it's not so difficult a word ... (esp. for a US audience who wouldn't be all that familiar with the geometry of a European-style football either)


zoology

Dung beetles use wind compass when the sun is high
... and the Milky Way at night, as earlier work had shown ...

Researchers model how octopus arms make decisions

How the dragon got its frill
"The frilled dragon exhibits a distinctive large erectile ruff. Researchers (UNIGE and SIB) report that an ancestral embryonic gill of the dragon embryo turns into a neck pocket that expands and folds, forming the frill. They demonstrate that this robust folding pattern emerges from mechanical forces during the homogeneous growth of the frill skin, due to the tensions resulting from its attachment to the neck and head."



Folded and erected frill of a Chlamydosaurus dragon.
Credit © UNIGE, A.Debry/S.Montandon/M.Milinkovitch


humans

Levänluhta jewellery links Finland to a European exchange network
"A recently completed study indicates that the material of the jewellery found together with human remains at the Levänluhta water burial site originates in southern Europe, contrary to what researchers had previously thought."