Detecting the overall characteristics of culture medium components as fluorescence patterns and evaluating quality using machine learning

Rare and endangered animals are often among the species most vulnerable to chemical pollution, yet scientists face a difficult problem when trying to assess those risks. Conventional toxicity experiments may require large numbers of organisms, making them impractical and ethically inappropriate for species with limited populations.

Hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean host a broad range of rare and unusual ecosystems. They can be spread very far apart, and yet there will often be overlap in the creatures which inhabit them. Researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, answer a long-standing question in this field about how creatures migrate between hydrothermal vents. Their process involves inspecting the chemical nature of limpet shells to reconstruct their likely journeys, yielding some surprising results. 

In the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, scientists have uncovered a previously unknown species of monkey named Colobus congoensis. The discovery marks only the fifth new monkey species in Africa identified in the past 75 years. Genetic and anatomical analyses confirmed it as a distinct species, separated from its closest relative by 4 to 5 million years of evolution. Found only within a small range of roughly 1,700 square kilometers, the monkey, which is mainly black with striking orange face patches confronts growing pressure from habitat loss and hunting and is being recommended for endangered conservation status.

Horses know a predator when they see one – even if it’s only on a video screen they’re watching in a stall, with no sounds, smells or previous experience providing context to what they’re viewing, a new study suggests. And though sensors indicated the horses’ heart rates increased when they were looking at wolves on the screen, they otherwise kept a poker face. They didn’t bob their heads or swish their tails, and their gaze wasn’t fixed in a way that would indicate their brain was processing a threat, results showed. The findings are relevant to horse and human welfare: Riders and handlers may not be able to tell when a horse is agitated.

Texas A&M University researchers use a naturally occurring gut chemical to heal the brain after traumatic injury, making post traumatic seizures rarer and harder to trigger while pointing toward a future where epilepsy may be prevented before it begins