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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Life
This protist unfolds its ‘neck’ up to 30 times its body length to scout prey
With geometry’s help, 'Lacrymaria olor' can extend its long, necklike protrusion in less than 30 seconds.
- Artificial Intelligence
Reinforcement learning AI might bring humanoid robots to the real world
Reinforcement learning techniques could be the keys to integrating robots — who use machine learning to output more than words — into the real world.
- Animals
Sumatran orangutans start crafting their engineering skills as infants
By 6 months old, young orangutans are experimenting with construction materials, and by 6 years old, they are building platforms 20 meters in the air.
- Animals
Tiger beetles may weaponize ultrasound against bats
In response to recordings of echolocating bats, tiger beetles emit noises that mimic toxic moths that bats avoid.
- Animals
Belugas may communicate by warping a blob of forehead fat
Jiggling the “melon” like Jell-O seems to be associated with sexual behaviors, scientists say.
- Humans
Rain Bosworth studies how deaf children experience the world
Deaf experimental psychologist Rain Bosworth has found that babies are primed to learn sign language just like spoken language.
- Health & Medicine
Aimee Grant investigates the needs of autistic people
The public health researcher focuses on what kinds of support people with autism need rather than on treating the condition as a disease to cure.
- Neuroscience
Tiny treadmills show how fruit flies walk
A method to force fruit flies to move shows the insects’ stepping behavior and holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.
- Artificial Intelligence
This robot can tell when you’re about to smile — and smile back
Using machine learning, researchers trained Emo to make facial expressions in sync with humans.
- Animals
Eavesdropping on fish could help us keep better tabs on underwater worlds
Scientists are on a quest to log all the sounds of fish communication. The result could lead to better monitoring of ecosystems and fish behavior.
- Neuroscience
Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes
Unique subsets of neurons in a chickadee’s memory center light up for each distinct cache, hinting at how episodic memories are encoded in the brain.
- Animals
By fluttering its wings, this bird uses body language to tell its mate ‘after you’
New observations suggest that Japanese tits gesture to communicate complex messages — a rare ability in the animal kingdom and a first seen in birds.
