science news 10.12.2019

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.



astrobiology

How Enceladus got its stripes


evolution

Four-hundred-eighty-million-year-old fossils reveal sea lilies' ancient roots



A modern-day sea lily in the Marianas region.
Credit: (c) NOAA Ocean Research and Exploration

Wing genes responsible for tiny treehopper's extraordinary helmet

When penguins ruled after dinosaurs died


ecology

Navigating land and water
Centipedes not only walk on land but also swim in water. Researchers at Tohoku University, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, University of Ottawa, and Hokkaido University with the support of the Human Frontier Science Program have, for the first time, decoded the flexible motor control mechanism underlying amphibious locomotion, or the ability to walk on land and to swim in water, in centipedes.


climate change

Last remaining glaciers in the Pacific will soon melt away
The last remaining tropical glaciers between the Himalayas and the Andes will disappear in the next decade -- and possibly sooner -- due to climate change, a new study has found. The glaciers in Papua, Indonesia, are "the canaries in the coal mine" for other mountaintop glaciers around the world, said Lonnie Thompson, one of the senior authors of the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


sustainability

Cities and their rising impacts on biodiversity -- a global overview


humans

How playing the drums changes the brain

Rhythmic perception in humans has strong evolutionary roots

In a split second, clothes make the man more competent in the eyes of others
A major course of evil in the world: belief in men wearing suits.

Major political events linked to mood decline among young US doctors
Major political events, such as the 2016 presidential election and inauguration, were associated with declines in mood among young US physicians, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.
The best thing about xmas is the British Medical Journal's special issue ...


dystopian futures

Data Science Institute researcher designs headphones that warn pedestrians of dangers
Wearing no headphones at all would be a cheaper solution to the problem.


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From the news media:

Orca grandmothers looking after the young ones, reports the Guardian