Four ways wildfires generate tornadoes, lightning and other extreme weather, sometimes miles from the flames
Wildfires create thick smoke that spreads across North America and Europe, generating tornadoes, lightning, and other extreme weather sometimes miles from the flames. The mechanisms behind these phenomena remain less widely recognized than the health impacts of breathing particle-filled air from massive fires.
Read full story →AI opens new era in cognitive studies of wild primates
Scientists developed CapuchinAI, an AI system using facial recognition and real-time touchscreen testing to automate cognitive studies of wild capuchin monkeys. The proof-of-concept method was published in the American Journal of Primatology by researchers from Emory University and Georgia Tech.
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds a mysterious honeycomb landscape on Mars
Curiosity rover discovered a landscape on Mars covered in tiny polygon-shaped fractures forming honeycomb patterns, each measuring only a few inches wide. The patterns extend across the valley and surround a nearby 20-foot-tall butte.
Ant brains reveal how evolution turned hunger into parenting
Two chemical signals in ant brains control whether ants care for larvae or forage for food, with their balance shifting as ants age. Clonal raider ants demonstrate that the same brain systems regulating hunger in mammals may have been repurposed by evolution to drive parenting behavior.