Using microbes to solve crimes, and more…
The beginnings of our end — where the anus came from Our distant evolutionary ancestors had no anuses. Their waste was excreted from the same orifice they used to ingest food, much like jellyfish do today. Now a new study on bioRxiv that has yet to be peer-reviewed, scientists think they've found the evolutionary link in a worm with only a single digestive hole. Andreas Hejnol, from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, said he found genes we now associate with the anus being expressed in the worms in the opening where its sperm comes out, suggesting that in our evolutionary history a similar orifice was co-opted as a butt hole. Deepfake videos are becoming so real, spotting them is becoming increasingly diceyDetecting deepfake videos generated by artificial intelligence is a problem that's getting progressively worse as the technology continues to improve. One way we used to be able to tell the difference between a fake and real video is that subtle signals revealing a person's heart rate don't exist in artificially generated videos. But that is no longer the case, according to a new study in the journal Frontiers in Imaging. Peter Eisert, from Humboldt University and the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz-Institute HHI in Germany, said detecting manipulated content visually is only going to become a lot more difficult going forward. Crows can use tools, do math — and now apparently understand geometryCrows are known to be among the most intelligent of animals, and a new study has explored their geometrical sophistication. Researchers including Andreas Nieder from the University of Tübingen found that crows can recognize and distinguish different kinds of quadrilateral shapes, an ability we had thought was unique to humans. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. There's gold in them thar magnetically charged neutron stars!Astronomers have discovered a new source of the universe's heavy elements — things like gold, platinum and uranium. A study led by astrophysicist Anirudh Patel found that magnetars — exotic neutron stars with ultra-powerful magnetic fields — may produce these elements in a process analogous to the way solar flares are produced by our Sun. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, found that a single flare from a magnetar could produce the mass equivalent of 27 moons' worth of these heavy elements in one burst. It may not be big, but it's small — and stroppyYou might not expect an insect so tiny you need a magnifying glass to see it properly to be an aggressive defender of its territory, but that's because you haven't met the warty birch caterpillar. Its territory is just the tip of a birch leaf, but it defends it by threatening intruders with vigorous, if not precisely powerful, vibrations. Jayne Yack at Carleton University has been studying this caterpillar since 2008. This research was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Criminals beware — the microbiome leaves fingerprintsScientists have developed a new tool that can track location based on traces of the bacteria characteristic to different places. Eran Elhaik, from Lund University in Sweden, trained the AI tool using nearly 4,500 microbiome samples collected around the world from subway systems, soil and the oceans. He said they could identify the city source in 92 per cent of their urban samples, and in Hong Kong, where a lot of their data came from, they could identify the specific subway station samples were taken from with 82 per cent accuracy. The study was published in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution.
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National Post
2 days ago
- National Post
What eating foods like dark chocolate and berries did to a study group of more than 120,000 people
A new study reveals what drinking tea and eating dark chocolate and berries did for a group of more than 120,000 people. Article content Those foods, as well as fruits like grapes, apples, oranges, and beverages like red wine, all contain flavonoids, which are compounds found in many plant products. Flavonoids can 'help your body function more efficiently while protecting it against everyday toxins and stressors,' per Healthline. The study's authors said those who consumed a diverse range of foods containing flavonoids (such as berries, grapes and dark chocolate) 'could lower their risk of developing serious health conditions and have the potential to live longer,' in a news release. The study has been peer-reviewed. Article content Article content Article content In the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Food, researchers observed 124,805 participants between the ages of 40 and 70 from the UK Biobank, a large-scale database with biomedical information. The participants were tracked for roughly 10 years and their dietary information was collected using a questionnaire asking them about the frequency in which they ate approximately 200 types of food and 30 beverages. Article content Article content Dr. Benjamin Parmenter, a research fellow at Edith Cowan University in Australia, was the study's first author and co-lead. He said consuming roughly 500 mg of flavonoids a day or more was linked to a 16 per cent lower risk of 'all-cause mortality' (meaning death from any cause). Article content It was also linked to a roughly 10 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and respiratory disease. Article content A study published in 2025 in peer-reviewed food science journal Foods said, as it pertains to human health, 'flavonoids are recognized for their ability to combat aging, mitigate inflammation, safeguard the nervous system, and promote overall well-being.' However, in another study published in 2022 in the Nutrition Journal, researchers 'observed an increased risk of prostate cancer by higher intake of total flavonoids.' In a study published in 2016 in the Journal of Nutritional Science, researchers called for further studies on flavonoids so their usefulness 'in the diet could be improved for better human health.' Article content Article content 'Over 30 different types of flavonoids are regularly consumed in the human diet. These are found in different types of everyday foods,' Parmenter told National Post over email. Article content Article content A few squares of dark chocolate could be roughly 25 mg of flavonoids. One apple is equal to roughly 100 mg of flavonoids, while one orange is roughly 60 mg. For tea drinkers, one cup of black tea is roughly 300 mg of flavonoids, while the same amount of green tea is roughly 150 mg. Article content 'We observed that consuming a higher quantity and wider diversity of dietary flavonoids, when consumed together, may represent the optimal approach for improving long-term health, compared with increasing either flavonoid quantity or diversity alone,' Parmenter said. Article content Those with the highest flavonoid diversity were more likely to be female, older, have a lower body mass index (BMI), be more physically active and have a higher education and were less likely to be current smokers, according to the study.
Geek Dad
3 days ago
- Geek Dad
‘Choose Your Own Evolution:' A Book Review
Now and then, a book comes along based on a premise so simple, yet so obviously genius, you can only wonder why you've never seen it before. So it is with Choose Your Own Evolution . Written by Jules Howard and illustrated by Gordy Wright, this book takes you from being a Dickinsonia, 570 million years ago, right up to… well… right up to wherever you want to go. In this book, YOU will choose your very own evolutionary pathway. This is a multiple-pathway adventure book with a difference. We're not slaying heroes here, and you don't have to roll any dice. Instead, after choosing one of several prompts, you will turn to different pages to discover new creatures. Each step through the book will take you forward in time to a new, more evolved organism. The book, while aimed at children, does not talk down to its reader. We start as a Dickinsonia, one of the Earth's first and simplest animals, and one, I must confess, I had never heard of. The entry for the Dicksonia tells you a little about the environment it (you) lived in and its (your) traits and features. It then outlines a situation you, as the Dickinsonian, find yourself in. You'll need to adapt, but what are you going to do? You're given 3 options to escape the danger. Try sea legs, slime, or show some backbone? Each option has a different page number. You pick one, and off you go to become either a Yicaris, a Helcionellid, or a Haikouichthys. Rinse and repeat, learning about different creatures, until you get to the end of your journey. (This feels like a good time to point out that the back of the book has a comprehensive glossary and a handy pronunciation guide!) How do these evolutionary journeys end? There are essentially two ways. You either become extinct (oh no!) or you become a survivor (yay!). There are significantly more survivors than extinctions, and you can become all manner of things, from an arachnid to a woodlouse. If you pick the right 9 choices, you might even end up a human, though my wife considers Emperor Penguin the ultimate victory! (My choice would be the Peacock Butterfly.) At the front of the book, before the multi-pathway fun begins, there is a handy guide to evolution, what it is, and how the theory was developed. At the back of the book, as well as the glossary and pronunciation guide, there is, perhaps best of all, a picture of the evolutionary tree used in the book. Very handy if you want to explore the links between the animals, or want to work your way backwards from human to Dickinsonia. It's a small thing, but the inclusion of this map makes the book all the better. It's hard to convey just how much I love this book. My boys are growing older now (19, 16, and 13) but I've found all of them nosing through it when I left it out on the table. There is something irresistible about the animals explored, and the temptation to see if you can end up as a T-Rex. (Which, worryingly, despite wanting to be a penguin, is where my wife ended up.) The book is suitable for children aged 8 or 9 upwards, younger with some help. The illustrations complement the text perfectly, and the text, with its conversational style, is highly informative but never overwhelming. I've been looking at these types of books for over a decade now, reviewing them for GeekDad but also using them with my children and in their school. This one, I think, is the best of the lot. A success story of publishing evolution, perhaps? Choose Your Own Evolution fires the imagination by challenging readers to forge different evolutionary pathways. As they read about the consequences of their decisions, they learn about the creatures they've become. The information transfer is effortless. The book offers engaging access to the science of natural selection and provides a great way for readers to immerse themselves in the processes of evolutionary biology. If you would like to pick up a copy of Choose Your Own Evolution, you can do so here in the UK. I was unable to find a US retailer for the book, but hopefully a US edition will be available soon. If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here. I received a copy of this book in order to write this review. Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Globe and Mail
Winline Technology Debuts 1500V High-Voltage DC Module UXC150030 at Power2Drive Europe 2025, Accelerating Global Green Energy Transition
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