science news 6.12.2019

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.


evolution

Dull teeth, long skulls, specialized bites evolved in unrelated plant-eating dinosaurs

How flowers adapt to their pollinators



This is a flower of the bee-pollinated species Meriania hernandoi from the Ecuadorian cloud forest.
Credit: Agnes Dellinger


ecology and behaviour

Whales may owe their efficient digestion _of wax esters_ to millions of tiny microbes
I had to add the wax esters into the title because without this it would be no news at all, as I'm fairly sure all mammals use microbes to help with digestion, and we've known that for a while. Also, I think I am developing an allergy against PR people's use of the word "tiny" with things like microbes and molecules.

New study hints at complex decision making in a single-cell organism
how a protist "changes its mind"


conservation

Gulf Coast corals face catastrophe


nanoworld

Artificial cells act more like the real thing


bio-inspired

Squid pigments have antimicrobial properties


climate change

Can Arctic 'ice management' combat climate change?
According to a much-debated geo-engineering approach, both sea-ice retreat and global warming could be slowed by using millions of wind-powered pumps, drifting in the sea ice, to promote ice formation during the Arctic winter.


humans

How extreme environmental conditions affect the human brain
specifically: life in Antarctica


What is a scream? The acoustics of a primal human call
Reminds me of Jared Diamond's News and Views in Nature, back in 1997, with the title: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh,no!" (I've looked it up to get the number of repeated letters exactly right, without that it is hard to find) about why humans spend energy screaming rather than saving it to fight or escape. Back then, as I was writing science journalism in my spare time, I found it very inspiring to see you could get away with Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh,no! as the title of a piece in Nature.

How gene mutation causes autism and intellectual disability
There are several new causes/new cures for autism in my feed every day, but this one seems to make sense more than most of them.


dystopian futures

Can 3D-printing musical instruments produce better sound than traditional instruments?
In the coming dystopia, armies of robots will play 3D-printed ukuleles ...
Seriously though, as far as I understand the PR, the difference in sound detected is not an improvement, so the answer to the headline question would be a no, so far.


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From the news media: