Science! (7 Viewers)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Now you see them, now you don’t.

Some frogs found in South and Central America have the rare ability to turn on and off their nearly transparent appearance, researchers report Thursday in the journal Science.

During the day, these nocturnal frogs sleep by hanging underneath tree leaves. Their delicate, greenish transparent forms don’t cast shadows, rendering them almost invisible to birds and other predators passing overhead or underneath.

But when northern glass frogs wake up and hop around in search of insects and mates, they take on an opaque reddish-brown color.

“When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,” said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and study co-author. When they’re awake, they can actively evade predators, but when they’re sleeping and most vulnerable, “they have adapted to remain hidden.”

Using light and ultrasound imaging technology, the researchers discovered the secret: While asleep, the frogs concentrate, or “hide,” nearly 90% of their red blood cells in their liver.


Because they have transparent skin and other tissues, it’s the blood circulating through their bodies that would otherwise give them away. The frogs also shrink and pack together most of their internal organs, Yao said…….

 
 
At any given moment, Earth’s closest star belches fast, blisteringly hot particles known as the solar wind into space. But how do those winds begin?

A study in Nature Astronomy offers one answer to the question, which has long vexed researchers.
Using new satellite and space telescope observations, scientists discovered complex, weblike plasma structures in the sun’s atmosphere that may drive the phenomenon.


The structures are in the sun’s corona, a wispy, intensely hot area that releases a continual, 1 million mph “wind” of charged particles known as plasma into space.

Those particles eventually reach Earth, and the space weather that results can affect satellites and produce phenomena such as the Northern and Southern Lights……..

 
Dr. Seuss had it right: Horton really does hear a Who. Wild elephants can distinguish between human languages, and they can tell whether a voice comes from a man, woman or boy, a new study says.

That's what researchers found when they played recordings of people for elephants in Kenya. Scientists say this is an advanced thinking skill that other animals haven't shown. It lets elephants figure out who is a threat and who isn't.

The result shows that while humans are studying elephants, the clever animals are also studying people and drawing on their famed powers of memory, said study author Karen McComb.

"Basically they have developed this very rich knowledge of the humans that they share their habitat with," said McComb , a professor of animal behavior and cognition at the University of Sussex in England. "Memory is key. They must build up that knowledge somehow."…….

 
Love the term “scar the air”

Sounds like something a martial arts master would say to his star student

“Strike so hard you scar the air”
====================

Researchers in China have unveiled a high-powered laser capable of essentially scorching the air to create patterns.

The Wuhan-based team demonstrated the laser by drawing Chinese characters in the air, which can be viewed from any angle and can be physically touched.

It works by stripping the electrons off air molecules using ultra-short laser pulses and turning them into light. The researchers hope the technology can be implemented in various fields, ranging from brain imaging, to quantum computing.

“With the brand new device, we can draw in the air without using paper and ink,” Cao Xiangdong, lead scientist at the Hongtuo Laboratory of Ultra-Fast Laser in Wuhan’s optics valley, told Science and Technology Daily, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

“The display is an accumulation of our research over more than a decade.”……

 
Cheese is rich and creamy, and it’s irresistible on a cracker, paired with a selection of fresh fruit or sprinkled over a bowl of chili.

Americans really do love it. The per capita consumption is 40 pounds a year, or a little over 1.5 ounces a day.


But when people talk about their fondness for cheese, it’s often in a guilty way, as in, “Cheese is my weakness.”

“Cheese is packed with nutrients like protein, calcium and phosphorus, and can serve a healthy purpose in the diet,” says Lisa Young, an adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University.

Research shows that even full-fat cheese won’t necessarily make you gain weight or give you a heart attack. It seems that cheese doesn’t raise or reduce your risk for chronic diseases, such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and some studies show it might even be protective.


It’s easy to see why people might feel conflicted about cheese. For years, the U.S. dietary guidelines have said eating low-fat dairy is best because whole-milk products, such as full-fat cheese, have saturated fat, which can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, a known risk for heart disease.

Cheese has also been blamed for weight gain and digestive issues such as bloating. It turns out, though, that cheese may have been misunderstood.


Yes, it’s high in calories: Some types have 100 calories or more per ounce. And it’s rich in saturated fat. So why is it okay for most people to eat it? “Cheese is more than its saturated fat content,” says Emma Feeney, an assistant professor at the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin who studies the effect cheese has on health……..

 
Cheese is rich and creamy, and it’s irresistible on a cracker, paired with a selection of fresh fruit or sprinkled over a bowl of chili.

Americans really do love it. The per capita consumption is 40 pounds a year, or a little over 1.5 ounces a day.


But when people talk about their fondness for cheese, it’s often in a guilty way, as in, “Cheese is my weakness.”

“Cheese is packed with nutrients like protein, calcium and phosphorus, and can serve a healthy purpose in the diet,” says Lisa Young, an adjunct professor of nutrition at New York University.

Research shows that even full-fat cheese won’t necessarily make you gain weight or give you a heart attack. It seems that cheese doesn’t raise or reduce your risk for chronic diseases, such as heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and some studies show it might even be protective.


It’s easy to see why people might feel conflicted about cheese. For years, the U.S. dietary guidelines have said eating low-fat dairy is best because whole-milk products, such as full-fat cheese, have saturated fat, which can raise LDL (bad) cholesterol levels, a known risk for heart disease.

Cheese has also been blamed for weight gain and digestive issues such as bloating. It turns out, though, that cheese may have been misunderstood.


Yes, it’s high in calories: Some types have 100 calories or more per ounce. And it’s rich in saturated fat. So why is it okay for most people to eat it? “Cheese is more than its saturated fat content,” says Emma Feeney, an assistant professor at the Institute of Food and Health at University College Dublin who studies the effect cheese has on health……..

Fat is good for you.
 
EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) — The ghostly form floating in a large jar had been the robust reddish-brown of a healthy organ just hours before. Now it’s semitranslucent, white tubes like branches on a tree showing through.

This is a pig liver that’s gradually being transformed to look and act like a human one, part of scientists’ long quest to ease the nation’s transplant shortage by bioengineering replacement organs.

The first step for workers in this suburban Minneapolis lab is to shampoo away the pig cells that made the organ do its work, its color gradually fading as the cells dissolve and are flushed out. What’s left is a rubbery scaffolding, a honeycomb structure of the liver, its blood vessels now empty.

Next human liver cells -- taken from donated organs unable to be transplanted -- will be oozed back inside that shell. Those living cells move into the scaffolding’s nooks and crannies to restart the organ’s functions.


“We essentially regrow the organ,” said Jeff Ross, CEO of Miromatrix. “Our bodies won’t see it as a pig organ anymore.”

That’s a bold claim. Sometime in 2023, Miromatrix plans first-of-its-kind human testing of a bioengineered organ to start trying to prove it…….

 
 
This is a nicely done summary of major scientific discoveries/milestones for 2022

 

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