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Ko Mochizuki of the University of Tokyo has discovered that Vincetoxicum nakaianum, a dogbane species native to Japan described for the first time by Mochizuki and his collaborators only a year ago, mimics the smell of ants attacked by spiders to attract flies that feed on such attacked insects, and in the process pollinate the…

Australian shark experts have tested four bite-resistant materials to assess their ability to reduce injuries and blood loss. While internal and crushing injuries may still occur, bite-resistant wetsuits can now be added to the ‘toolkit’ of measures available to reduce shark-bite risk and resulting injuries, say researchers from Flinders University’s Southern Shark Ecology Group. Shark…

Researchers at Hiroshima University have developed a realistic, highly sensitive method to detect the Unruh effect — a long-predicted phenomenon at the crossroads of relativity and quantum theory. Their novel approach opens new possibilities for exploring fundamental physics and for developing advanced technologies. The work was recently published in Physical Review Letters. The Fulling-Davies-Unruh effect,…

Traditionally, black holes are usually thought to “reside” at the centers of galaxies. However, a research team led by Dr. AN Tao from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a wandering black hole in a dwarf galaxy located about 230 million light-years away (redshift z = 0.017). Unlike typical…

It was long thought that fat in the brain played no role in neurodegenerative diseases, but Purdue University researchers are challenging that assumption. The research findings, published in Immunity, show that excess fat in the brain’s resident immune cells, called microglia, impairs their ability to combat disease. This insight opens a path to lipid biology-based…