Wednesday, August 07, 2019

science news 7.8.2019

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

Dead planets can 'broadcast' for up to a billion years
"Astronomers are planning to hunt for cores of exoplanets around white dwarf stars by 'tuning in' to the radio waves that they emit."


evolution

NZ big bird a whopping 'squawkzilla'
"Australasian palaeontologists have discovered the world's largest parrot, standing up to 1m tall with a massive beak able to crack most food sources. The new bird has been named Heracles inexpectatus to reflect its Herculean myth-like size and strength -- and the unexpected nature of the discovery."



Reconstruction of the giant parrot Heracles, dwarfing a bevy of 8cm high Kuiornis -- small New Zealand wrens scuttling about on the forest floor.
Credit: Dr Brian Choo, Flinders University


behaviour

Staring at seagulls could save your chips
Can't you just imagine the many hours of tireless fieldwork that were necessary to come to this result?


conservation

Industrial fishing behind plummeting shark numbers


food and drink

Guacamole lovers, rejoice! The avocado genome has been sequenced


quantum information processing

Striped glow sticks
"It may be possible to reach new levels of miniaturization, speed, and data processing with optical quantum computers, which use light to carry information. For this, we need materials that can absorb and transmit photons. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Chinese scientists have introduced a new strategy for constructing photonic heterostructure crystals with tunable properties. Using a crystalline rod with stripes that fluoresce in different colors, they have developed a prototype of a logic gate."


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From the news media:


Tardigrades alive on the Moon?



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