Electric-sensing dolphins, plants that communicate with bats and an infinity symbol spied at the center of our galaxy, this week was a wild one for science. See for yourself. (Shown here, a bizarre bug that uses parasitic sperm to reproduce.)
The common Guiana dolphin, shown here, has a sixth sense, researchers announced this week: The graceful creature can sense electric fields using specialized pores, which usually number from two to 10 along the dolphin's snout (the pits look like dark gray spots along its snout here). Being able to electrically sense its prey would be advantageous in the murky waters where it lives, the researchers said. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15240-dolphins-sense-electric-fields.html”>Read full story</a>]
The image above depicts a recent discovery of a dying star's last gasps, an observation made by a team comprised of amateur and professional astronomers working together. Austrian amateur astronomer Matthias Kronberger and his team made the discovery of the nebula — shells of gas thrown out by some stars near the end of their lives — using the National Science Foundation-supported Gemini Observatory. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15242-dying-star-planetary-nebula-gemini-nsf-ria.html”>Read full story</a>]
This photo, showing the vine Marcgravia evenia, was released this week in conjunction with a report suggesting the disk-shaped leaves above its flowers emit strong echoes in response to the high-pitched sounds bats emit to locate food. This is some of the first evidence of flowering plants adapting to acoustically attract bat pollinators just like other flowers became colorful to lure insects. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15279-bat-flower-echo-acoustics-sonar-leaf.html”>Read full story</a>]
This bizarre bug that looks like a rolled-up gym sock with a red, cartoonish face has quite an unusual sex life. Researchers from Oxford University in the United Kingdom discovered, and announced this week, that the "cottony cushion scale" insect isn’t a hermaphrodite — the species' females actually fertilize their own eggs through infectious, parasitic tissue that infects them at birth and is derived from the leftover sperm of their fathers. The odd species can be found in citrus groves worldwide. [<a href="http://www.livescience.com/15292-insect-incest-male-reproduction.html">Read full story</a>]
This photo was just too cool to pass up — physicists in a psychedelic-looking lab. Here the CERN researchers prepare to shoot laser beams at hybrid particles called antiprotonic helium atoms that they created. The result of their experiments was the most accurate measurement yet of the weight of an antiproton, the antimatter partner of a proton. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15270-physicists-weigh-antimatter-amazing-accuracy.html”>Read full story</a>]
A twisted ring of gas, one that stretches more than 600 light-years across the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, was just discovered by astronomers using the infrared Herschel Space Observatory. The gaseous ring, which gives birth to new stars, has a kink in the middle, such that it looks like a cosmic infinity symbol. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15243-infinity-symbol-center-milky.html”>Read full story</a>]
Mysterious and gigantic jets of lightning that shoot up to near the edge of space have now been observed in unprecedented detail, revealing just how much charge they pack and how they form. This photo, revealing gigantic jets of lightning emerging from a thunderstorm 200 miles away, was released July 28. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15269-earth-tallest-lightning-unprecedented-detail.html”>Read full story</a>]
On July 26, wildlife officials made a stunning announcement: DNA evidence revealed that a male mountain lion that had been hit by a sport utility vehicle in Connecticut had traveled about 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) from South Dakota, passing through Minnesota and Wisconsin more than a year ago before arriving in the Northeast. The previous travel record for a cougar was 663 miles (1,066 km). The cougar is one of many animals that seem to be traveling long distances. This photo, released this past week, was taken by an automatic camera in a cornfield in Dunn county, Wis. on Dec. 22, 2009. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15307-record-breaking-cougar-trend-wildlife.html”>Read full story</a>]
Scientist Anders Carlson eyes a glacier in icy Greenland, one of the suspects in the case of prehistoric sea level rise. He and his colleagues have been trying to figure out the cause of a rise in sea levels some 100,000 years ago, the last time Earth was as warm as it is today. While the team may have exonerated one suspect — Greenland's ice melted less than expected, they found — they are now eying the other — Antarctica may have melted more than expected. The researchers announced their finding Friday, July 29. [<a href=”http://www.livescience.com/15294-source-sea-level-rise-discovered.html”>Read full story</a>]
