science news 10.10.2019

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 in italics in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without italics if I have any.



astrobiology

Chemical evolution -- One-pot wonder
Before life, there was RNA: Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich show how the four different letters of this genetic alphabet could be created from simple precursor molecules on early Earth -- under the same environmental conditions.

Liquifying a rocky exoplanet
A hot, molten Earth would be around 5% larger than its solid counterpart. This is the result of a study led by researchers at the University of Bern. The difference between molten and solid rocky planets is important for the search of Earth-like worlds beyond our Solar System and the understanding of Earth itself.


earth

Warm ocean water attacking edges of Antarctica's ice shelves


evolution

Meet Siamraptor suwati, a new species of giant predatory dinosaur from Thailand


ecology

Hush, little baby: Mother right whales 'whisper' to calves
A recent study led by Syracuse University biology professor Susan Parks in Biology Letters explores whether right whale mother-calf pairs change their vocalizations to keep predators from detecting them.

A unique study sheds light on the ecology of the glacial relict amphipod Gammaracanthus lacustris



climate change is a threat to the amphipod Gammaracanthus lacustris: as adapted to cold waters the species is not likely to survive in warmer waters.
Credit

The University of Jyväskylä/Jouni Taskinen



biomedical

Tuberculosis: New insights into the pathogen

Antibiotic resistance in food animals nearly tripled since 2000

Humans have salamander-like ability to regrow cartilage in joints


humans

Study finds prehistoric humans ate bone marrow like canned soup 400,000 years ago