The sticky hairs found in the Triantha occidentalis (common name: western false asphodel) is a detail that has been overlooked, as there are also other plant species with similar features. These sticky hairs are usually used by plants as a defense mechanism to ward off insects that are harmful to the plants. And so when scientists took a closer look at the plant, they found something rather interesting.

… the hairs [of the T. occidentalis] attract the bugs, and then keep the ones unfortunate enough to wander too close stuck to the stem. Slowly, the plant releases an enzyme which breaks down the prey into liquified food that can easily be absorbed through the stem.

This only happens during the flowering process, however.

It is also worth noting that the bug trapping mechanism found in the T. occidentalis is located directly underneath its flower, which is very different from most carnivorous plants, like the venus flytrap, which has its trapping mechanism found further away from its snare. In other words, only insects unlucky enough to go too far before the flower will be trapped. Fortunately, the plant is considerate enough for insects such as bees and butterflies.

Instead of using force strong enough to hold down every single insect that enters it, the hairs are only mildly sticky, and will effectively only ensnare smaller insects while allowing the stronger ones to escape.

The question is, why would a plant who needs bugs for pollination also eat bugs? Scientists theorize that the plant needs bugs to make up for the fact that it grows in nutrient-poor locations.

More about this intriguing plant over at Mashable.

Nature sure is weird.

(Image Credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Why does your voice sound instantly better once you step inside the shower? And why do you suddenly feel the desire to sing when you feel the gush of warm water? If you’ve ever wondered about these things, then you’re in luck. Classic FM provides us with answers for both questions, and they’re completely scientific. They state that the key ingredients that make up the perfect acoustic, namely, the materials in which the wall is made up of, the size of the hall, and the reverb, are all found inside the shower.

Meanwhile, our tendency to sing in the shower might be due to the relaxing effect brought about by the warm water, which could trigger our brain to release dopamine, which could, in turn, trigger us to sing.

Learn more about this over at the site.

Good to know!

(Image Credit: tookapic/ Pixabay)

Perhaps the most defining trait of the Shinto religion is its reverence for nature. This is why you’ll find Shinto shrines in places filled with trees and plants. Of course, when there’s flora, expect that there will also be fauna. It is normal to encounter them when you go to Shinto shrines. And, because fauna is also part of nature, the Shinto finds a way to co-exist with them in harmony. This Shinto shrine called Hitokotonushi, which is located in Ibaraki Prefecture, is a great example. When the shrine’s staff realized that bees went to the shrine to quench their thirst, they decided to make something for the latter.

...the shrine has installed a gorgeous miniature drinking fountain especially for them.

...the bees no longer have to cling precariously to the edge of the large water trough to get a sip of water — they can now quench their thirst in a more secure position, atop two mounds of wet moss.

... [the] staff have added a sign to let visitors know the bees are gentle and rarely sting unless provoked.

Now that’s wholesome.

(Image Credit: @hitokoto0913/Twitter via SoraNews24)

The Bank of England takes pride in the fact that no gold has ever been stolen from their vaults. However, they also admit that it might have been because of extreme luck.

In 1836, during the Victorian period, the directors of the bank received anonymous letters from a man claiming to have access to the bank’s gold. The man even offered to meet the directors inside the vault at their chosen time. Convinced, the directors accepted the offer, and they assembled a meeting at the vault.

At the agreed hour a noise was heard from beneath the floor and a man popped up through some of the floor boards.

The man was a sewerman who, during repair work, had discovered an old drain that ran immediately under the gold vault.

Despite his opportunity, the sewerman did not take any of the bank’s gold, as confirmed by a stock take. The Bank of England then rewarded the man with £800 (worth £90,000 today) for his honesty.

Via Reddit

(Image Credit: Bank of England)

Located about 175km (110 miles) south of Naples is Marsili. It is the largest active volcano in Europe, with a height of 3 km (9,800 ft), with a span of 70km (43 miles) and a width of 30 km (19 miles). However, despite its giant size, a person might not notice it, because it is underwater. But what would happen if it erupted? It would surely be catastrophic, and there would be “next-to-no warning” when it happens.

Scientists have known of Marsili's existence for a century, but it is only within the last decade that they have started to investigate the dangers that Marsili might pose – and their findings are concerning. According to some recent models, its activity could potentially trigger an enormous tsunami, with a 30m-high (98ft) wave hitting Calabrian and Sicilian coasts.

As the lava and ashes will just be absorbed by the water, the eruption will not be the thing to worry about. Rather, it will be the possible underwater landslides, which could result in the enormous tsunami.

More about this over at BBC.

(Image Credit: Ferdinando chiodo/ Wikimedia Commons)

Light that goes into the black hole becomes trapped inside and is unable to escape. However, in spite of this, the enormous gravity around the black hole can heat up material to millions of degrees, which could result in the release of waves and X-rays. 

Astrophysicist Dan Wilkins and his colleagues were observing this release of x-rays from the supermassive black hole located at the center of a galaxy, when Wilkins spotted small flashes of X-rays behind the black hole. This is the first time scientists witnessed such a phenomenon.

Because the light is trapped inside the black hole, seeing what’s happening behind the black hole would be impossible. So how did Wilkins notice it?

"The reason we can see that is because that black hole is warping space, bending light and twisting magnetic fields around itself," he said.

[...]

Einstein's theory, or the idea that gravity is matter warping space-time, has persisted for a hundred years as new astronomical discoveries have been made.

The findings of Wilkins and his team prove that Einstein’s prediction is true.

"Fifty years ago, when astrophysicists starting speculating about how the magnetic field might behave close to a black hole, they had no idea that one day we might have the techniques to observe this directly and see Einstein's general theory of relativity in action," said Roger Blandford, study coauthor and the Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and professor of physics at Stanford University, in a statement.

Einstein indeed was ahead of his time.

(Image Credit: Dan Wilkins)

Want to get better at night photography? Stuart Palley has some tips for you. And if you’re wondering who he is, he is a seasoned photographer who has spent nine years taking photos of wildfires in California at night. He is, as he says, “well-versed in long exposures, adverse conditions, and dealing with weird light sources.” In this video, Palley provides us with practical tips on how to stabilize your smartphone, as well as how to change the camera exposure. He also encourages us to take advantage of the phone camera’s features.

Watch the video over at Outside Online.

(Image Credit: Outside Online)

Around 541 million years ago, the diversity of life on our planet suddenly exploded. This period is known as the Cambrian explosion, and it lasted for 13-25 million years. It is said that fossil records of major animal phyla first appeared in this time period. Recent research, however, suggests that there could have been animals older than those in the Cambrian explosion. This research has found what seems to be sponge fossils that are 890 million years old, about 350 million years older than the animals of the Cambrian period.

The ancient discovery is igniting debate among palaeontologists, who have long contested when complex animal life first evolved.

“If I’m right, animals emerged long, long before the first appearance of traditional animal fossils,” says study author Elizabeth Turner, a sedimentary geologist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. “That would mean there’s a deep back history of animals that just didn’t get preserved very well.”

However, some scientists, like geoscientist and fossil reef specialist Rachel Wood, argue the validity of Turner’s suggestion, saying that “It’s such a big claim that you really have to eliminate all the other possibilities.”

Sometimes crystals also grow in a way that looks like patterns formed by living organisms, she says, meaning that the rock samples Turner found might not be fossils at all.

Turner, however, argues that there are no known reef-building organisms that existed 890 million years ago. Other scientists see the possibility of Turner’s claim.

Whatever the case, Turner’s research creates a stir in the debate about the age of animal life here on Earth.

More about this over at Nature.

(Image Credit: Elizabeth C. Turner)

A few days ago, at around 6:12 PM, a Boeing 747 pilot radioed to report that he spotted “a possible jetpack man in sight” at an altitude of 5000 feet, near the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The Federal Aviation Administration reported in the Los Angeles Times that “air traffic controllers alerted other pilots in the vicinity,” just to be sure. It would also seem that this “jetpack guy” has been disrupting the air traffic in the city for a few times now.

“Use caution, the jetpack guy is back,” said one air traffic alert.

“Did you see a UFO?” one air traffic controller asked a pilot.

“We were looking but we did not see Iron Man,” the pilot responded.

The FBI is working with the FAA to investigate the report, FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller told the Times in an email. The agency has already looked into three other possible jetpack in the skies above Los Angeles, and has “not been able to validate any of the reports,” she said.

What could this be? 

(Image Credit: Pixabay)

Film critic Roger Ebert likens movies to a “machine that generates empathy.” And there is some truth in his statement. Films and other forms of art can, indeed, be a powerful tool in triggering empathy. But if you really want to trigger empathy in a person, one way would be to have the person experience what it’s like to live in the shoes of another, and this could be made possible through the use of virtual reality.

We found that VR was able to elicit empathy in a variety of settings," says Megan Brydon, PACS Application Specialist at IWK Health Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was the lead author of a new research survey published in Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences, which found that VR could help medical professionals to cultivate greater empathy for their patients.  

The survey examined seven studies in which researchers used VR to encourage empathetic behavior in caregivers. They played the role of physician in some cases, along with patients diagnosed with conditions including breast cancer, cranial nerve injuries and dementia. 

[...]

Even with a range of approaches, the studies consistently pointed to an uptick in empathic behavior following the VR experience. To Brydon, these consistent results point to the potential of virtual reality as a training tool for medical professionals.

What made you feel empathy towards other people?

(Image Credit: dlohner/ Pixabay)

Smoking is never a healthy hobby. I wouldn’t recommend it, and doctors definitely don’t, either. But in the days of World War II, Army aviator Lieutenant James Alter recalls, in his 2011 book titled From Campus to Combat, that “nearly everyone smoked.”

… considering the kind of work we were doing, no one would have been too worried about lung cancer even if we had known about it. What we did know was that Chesterfields satisfied; we’d walk a mile for a Camel; and just like us, Lucky Strike Green had gone to war.”

America supplied cigarettes to military men in stunning numbers during World War II. Philip Morris and other U.S. tobacco suppliers reported rolling and selling 290 billion smokes in 1943. In order to relieve boredom and improve the morale of fighting men, cigarettes came standard inside K-ration boxes along with candy and gum. If young soldiers and sailors wanted more, cigarettes were just 50 cents a carton or a nickel a pack. As a result, tobacco consumption skyrocketed during the war.

In those days, smoking was a popular activity among people, and they smoked even in places that they’re not supposed to, such as inside fighter planes.

It was a clear fire hazard. After all, a warplane was a flimsy aluminum shell wrapped around a conglomeration of stuff that naturally wanted to burn or explode—fuel, hydraulic fluid, oil, oxygen, weaponry. Adding a lit cigarette to that mix was perilous.

But at a time where the odds of getting killed instantly in a dogfight were much higher, smoking, which took decades to take effect, was an insignificant risk.

More about this story over at Air and Space Magazine.

(Image Credit: LOC via Air and Space Magazine)

In 1712, a man built the first successful steam engine, and his invention took the mining world by storm. Unlike other inventors, he was the first one to build a working steam engine that built upon (and improved) the principles and designs of those before him. For 60 years, his invention would prove to be the best technology out there, until another man came and built another steam engine in 1772. This other man, much like his predecessor, would improve upon the invention of the first man, and create a more superior steam engine.

The two men in the story were Thomas Newcomen and James Watt, and the two engines were the Newcomen engine, and the Watt engine, respectively. The two of them did not meet, nor are they biologically related. But one, in a way, begat the other.

Learn more about the story of the Newcomen and the Watt engine over at Cosmos Magazine.

(Image Credit: Newton Henry Black, Harvey Nathaniel Davis/ Wikimedia Commons)

Humans and primates share a lot in common when it comes to genome organization. It is said that humans and chimps share 98.8 percent of their DNA. But aside from primates, which animal comes closest to humans in terms of genome organization? You might be surprised that one of the closest would be cats. Not dogs. Not mice. Cats.

Dogs and mice, by contrast, have chromosomes that have been reshuffled over their respective evolutionary histories, making them more complicated to use as genetic analogues for our species.

Cats’ genomic similarity makes them more straightforward models for studying human diseases. It could also [help] scientists understand the genetic dark matter of our genomes—that is, non-coding DNA that doesn’t provide instructions for making proteins yet still comprises some 95 percent of the human genome.

Despite this similarity in genome organization, cat genetics specialist Leslie Lyons remarks that “cats are often underappreciated by the scientific community.”

"As we discover that perhaps animals have more similar spacing between genes and the genes are in the same order, maybe that will help us to decipher what's going on with humans," Lyons says in a statement. "Working with a primate is on the expensive side, but a cat's affordability and docile nature make them one of the most feasible animals to work with to understand the human genome."

In light of this,...

Lyons and her collaborators have… published the most detailed cat genome ever sequenced, reports James Gorman for the New York Times. This new genome is even more detailed than the most exhaustively sequenced dog genome.

Surprising.

(Image Credit: cocoparisienne/ Pixabay)

Did you know that nearly 95 percent of animal species are smaller than a person’s thumb? It is pretty surprising that despite this fact, the usual animals that we see displayed in museums are those of vertebrates like monkeys, lions, and birds. Fortunately for us, there is the Micrarium inside The Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London.

There are over two thousand slides on display in the Micrarium, lining the walls from floor to ceiling and lit from behind, allowing visitors to see details like the leg muscles of fleas and cross section of a fly.

Of course, showcasing only the invertebrates would not represent the diversity of the animal kingdom, and so the Micrarium also displays the large animals such as mammoths and squids. But, similar to the tiny animals, the place presents these vertebrates in microscope slides.

Though two thousand is a lot of slides, thanks to their size, the entire collection fits snugly inside a walkable closet-like thing that previously functioned as a storeroom. The ceiling is mirrored which gives the impression that the collection continues to infinity.

In his 2013 tweet announcing the opening of the Micrarium, Jack Ashby, Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology, states that the Micrarium wasn’t built “for visitors to get specific insights into individual specimens or species.” Rather, it was built “to appreciate the sheer vastness of invertebrate diversity.”

Now that’s a place worth visiting at least once in your lifetime.

(Image Credit: Kate McNab)

This is the Casamia Community House, a structure built by VTN Architects, a Vietnamese architectural studio. Located at the coastal area of Cam Thanh, Hoi An city in Vietnam, the place not only boasts a very windy spot, but also a beautiful design and a large open area. The interior floor area measures 1,600 sq m (17,222 sq ft), and its arched ceiling reaches almost 9 meters high.

Elsewhere in the building lies a gym, a storage area, a medical area, a bathroom, and a kitchen. There's also a swimming pool outside. Glass doors open the building up to the outside so it can be cooled naturally, though ceiling fans are also installed, too.

As you can see from the pictures, the building is made mainly of bamboo. But thanks to its roof being thatched, the structure is not easily destructible.

… VTN Architects says that the building has been designed to be long lasting, even in the face of storms and other severe weather.

VTN Architects certainly has plenty of experience creating bamboo structures and some of its previous bamboo-based works include the Diamond Island Community Center and Vedana Restaurant.

Looks like a comfortable place to stay at. What do you think?

(Image Credit: Hiroyuki Oki/ New Atlas)