Thursday, March 19, 2020

science news 19.3.2020

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

Ancient fish fossil reveals evolutionary origin of the human hand

'Wonderchicken' fossil from the age of dinosaurs reveals origin of modern birds


ecology

Salmon provide nutrients to Alaskan streambanks
I knew that, it's in my recent salmon feature as well as in the earlier megapoo feature.

Reef manta rays in New Caledonia dive up to 672 meters deep at night


Manta ray tagging
Credit: Hugo Lassauce


Two new species of the rarely seen six-gilled sawsharks have been found in the West Indian Ocean

6000-8000 km round trip flight of migratory wading birds tracked


biomedical

Digestive symptoms are prominent among COVID-19 patients
still no excuse for hoarding toilet rolls.


food and drink

New sensor could help prevent food waste


climate change


Greenland shed ice at unprecedented rate in 2019; Antarctica continues to lose mass


humans

Mirror, mirror, on the wall
How accurately can you judge your own looks? Researchers looked at how we rate our own bodies when viewed from a first-person perspective compared to when viewed from an outside perspective. They did this by creating three virtual bodies ('avatars') for each participant. Participants rated their own body as more attractive when viewing it from a third-person perspective in virtual reality and showed that our internal representation of our own body shape is highly inaccurate.




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From the news media:

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