“A team led by UC San Diego was able to mass-produce a key pigment, xanthommatin, that occurs in the psychedelic skin of many cephalopods. Until now, xanthommatin has proven impractical to collect from animals or make in a lab.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/scientists-r... 🧪 🐙 🦑

“A monumental complex built by the Maya around 3,000 years ago was modeled on a map of the cosmos, new fieldwork has revealed.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/oldest-known... 🧪

“They analyzed eye scans and genetic data from 74,434 volunteers, finding that people with simpler, less branched blood vessels in their eyes also had a higher genetic risk of cardiovascular disease.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/a-simple-eye... 🧪

“Experiments revealed that the plant’s odor is a near-perfect chemical match to the distress signals released by injured ants” #scicomm #sensoryecology #mimetism #mimicry #chemicalcommunication www.sciencenews.org/article/flow... 🧪 🌸 🐜 🪰 🐙

“Andrews adds that researchers adapting the task to other species would need to think carefully about what constitutes strong evidence: Dogs, for instance, might consider scent to be a stronger source of evidence than visual cues.” #scicomm www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 🐵 🦊

“‘No they have not turned blue because of radiation and no, we are not saying they have turned blue because of radiation,’ … ‘These are simply some dogs that got into some blue stuff and we are trying to catch them so that we can sterilize them.’” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/dogs-reporte... 🧪 🦊

This time with a link that includes the graphical abstract. Beautiful work on Tawny Owl nesting ecology and how it is influenced by sensory pollution. A study covering many populations across Europe! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📣 New Podcast! "The Sounds That Built a City" on @Spreaker #acoustic #anthropology #city #cultural #design #ecology #experience #field #heritage #noise #pollution #preservation #recording #sensory #sonic #sound #sounds #soundscapes #urban #urbanism

“… fermentation in the civet’s innards does add a little something extra to the coffee’s flavor, including amping up the fat content and the concentrations of certain aromatic compounds”. #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/coff... 🧪 🦊

“Researchers have now used this ambient noise to probe the rising acidity of the ocean. The acoustic technique… could make it easier to measure this key parameter of ocean health across vast distances rather than relying on point measurements.” #scicomm www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

“Across 16 trials with 19 guppies, the fish chose between flakes surrounded by bigger or smaller circles. The guppies chose the flake ringed by smaller circles — the presumably heftier looking option — over 70 percent of the time.” #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/gupp... 🧪 🐟

“If you've ever felt inexplicably furious at the sound of someone chewing or clicking a pen, you might have some insight into what people with misophonia experience.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/misophonia-l... 🧪

“Earworms are providing insights into how music is organised, but they can also bring pleasure by repeating the music you're enjoying.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/theres-a-sci... 🧪 🎵

“The bird is descended from a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), which is native to the eastern and central United States, and a green jay (Cyanocorax luxuosus), which traditionally occurs in Central America, Mexico, and southern Texas.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/grue-jay-spo... 🧪 🦉

“Taste and smell are so intimately connected that a whiff of well-loved foods evokes their taste without any conscious effort. Now, brain scans and machine learning have for the first time pinpointed the region responsible for this sensory overlap in humans”. www.sciencenews.org/article/brai... 🧪 🧠

“Ghostly lights dancing in midair in swamps, forests, and even graveyards have been reported by cultures all over the world, for centuries. According to a new study, there could be a logical explanation after all: a strange form of 'microlightning'.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/the-strange-... 🧪

It’s Yakir Gagnon talking about his work integrating Software Engineering and Sensory Ecology: Tools for Understanding Animal Orientation at #Visionarium2025

👁️This issue features articles from the our 'Visual ecology in challenging environments' Special feature, which aims to target the central question of how visual sensory systems cope in extreme and dynamic environments 🧵2/3 🧪🌍

“The opposite of déjà vu is ‘jamais vu’, when something you know to be familiar feels unreal or novel in some way. In our recent research, which has won an Ig Nobel award for literature, we investigated the mechanism behind the phenomenon.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/the-opposite... 🧪 🧠

“X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the material contained copper and wasn’t a modern paint. The team identified the residue as azurite, a rare but naturally occurring blue mineral that occurs near the earth’s surface…” #scicomm #art www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

📖Published📖 Roemer et al. propose a comprehensive evaluation of the limits and possibilities of passive acoustic monitoring of bats, identifying knowledge gaps and practice barriers, and highlighting novel ideas that may revolutionise practices🦇👇 buff.ly/l8DGN7X 🌍 🧪

“… the musicians' brains responded differently to pain. Their training seems to have given them a kind of buffer against the usual negative effects, both in how much pain they felt and in how their brain's motor areas reacted.” #scicomm #music #pain www.sciencealert.com/musicians-do... 🧪 🧠 🎶

“A global study comparing defensive coloration in insects reveals that camouflage and warning colors each excel under certain environmental conditions.” #scicomm #sensoryecology #camouflage #aposematism #luminosity www.sciencenews.org/article/inse... 🧪 🦉

“The neural real estate there remained unchanged after amputation, follow-up brain scans showed. When the women attempted to move their missing fingers…, the same brain activity patterns showed up as before, even though the fingers weren’t there.” #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/brai... 🧪 🧠

"’Our vision is an entire Dinosaur Choir, leading to social participatory musical experiences and ensemble musical works, learning and experiencing together music, dinosaurs, technology, and science,’ Brown explains on the project's webpage.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/award-winnin... 🧪 🦖 🎶

“Despite never having heard the names “pull” or “fetch” applied to their new toys, the dogs chose the correct toy two-thirds of the time—well above chance level. Some dogs were exceptional performers, including Arya, who was correct 79% of the time” #scicomm www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 🐕 🦊 🧠

“Peer review is supposed to be critical. But too often, Silbiger says, reviewer feedback crosses the line into an unprofessional realm.” #scicomm www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

“Oxytocin of avoidant and anxious cats was found to drop after a forced cuddle. When interactions respect the cat's comfort, the oxytocin flows – but when a cat feels cornered, the bonding hormone is elusive.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/studies-reve... 🧪 🧠 🐈 🦊

“Humans evolved in a world marked by resource scarcity and unpredictability. Having people impulsive — and curious — enough to explore unknown or dangerous situations would have helped their group’s survival”. #scicomm #ADHD #hypercuriosity www.sciencenews.org/article/adhd... 🧪 🧠

“In mice with Alzheimer's, the course of menthol for a six-month-long period was enough to stop the cognitive abilities and memory capabilities of the mice from deteriorating.” #scicomm #neuroskyence www.sciencealert.com/unexpected-l... 🧪 🧠 👃

“The results show that neural reactions to colors are somewhat standard and don’t seem to vary much from person to person. But these neuroanatomical findings can’t answer the question of how it feels to see red…” #scicomm #neuroskyence www.sciencenews.org/article/red-... 🧪 🧠

“Those who drank beer and had sex the night before the experiment were around 1.35 times more attractive to mosquitos than the more sober, abstinent volunteers.” #scicomm www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪 🦟 🍺 💋 🐙

“Sargassum. The smelly, brown seaweed can put a damper on a day at the beach at best and hinder baby turtles on their way to the ocean at worst.” #scicomm #sensoryecology www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪 🐢 🐍

How do light and noise pollution impact selection on sexual signals? We tested mate attraction and bat predation on túngara frogs in the field. Full text: doi.org/10.1093/jeb/... #evolutionarybiology #animalbehavior @eseb.bsky.social @jevbio.bsky.social Photo: Grant Maslowski

“The next time you find yourself in a car, driving along a winding road, why not turn on an uplifting tune? It might help you recover from motion sickness.” #scicomm #neuroskyence www.sciencealert.com/one-kind-of-... 🧪 🧠

⏰ Just 2 days left! The deadline to submit your abstract for #ABL2025 is almost here. Don’t miss this opportunity to present your research at our free online conference on animal behaviour 🎤 15-min oral talks 🎥 5-min video posters 📅 Deadline: September 7 📄 Submit now 👉 ablaoc25.sciencesconf.org

“There's a lot to be said for an optimistic outlook, but a new study suggests that interpreting other people's emotions as more positive than they actually are could be a sign of brain aging and mental decline.” #scicomm #neuroskyence www.sciencealert.com/an-early-sig... 🧪 🧠

“The pigment collection was started by Edward Forbes, the second director of the Fogg Art Museum. ‘Forbes really started this idea of understanding the materials and techniques used by artists… discipline called technical art history’”. #scicomm #sciart www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/11/up-c... 🧪 🌈

“Their findings suggest the brain's immune response plays a key role in the loss of smell linked to Alzheimer's, seemingly killing off neuronal fibers the brain needs for odor perception.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/losing-your-... 🧪 🧠 👃🏻

“These computer-generated images look real but do not belong to any actual people. The approach is in its early stages; models trained on these “deepfakes” are still less accurate than those trained on real-world faces.” #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/fake... 🧪 🧠

“There are many ways to boost brain power, from exercising more often to learning new skills. But what about boosting the actual size of your brain? … wearing the right kind of perfume or cologne can enlarge your brain's gray matter.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/smelling-thi... 🧪 🌹 👃🏻 🧠

Last plenary of #Behaviour2025 ! Hope everyone enjoyed the great talk by Toshitaka Suzuki 🐦

“…injected six plant species, including the popular succulent Echeveria, with micron-size bits of phosphor, called “afterglow particles,” that temporarily luminesce green after exposure to white light.” #scicomm www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 🌱

“Cocoa plants’ genetic makeup plays a role in chocolate’s taste, but ‘fermentation also is driving the flavor development, and I would even argue, has an even bigger impact on the flavor profile’” #scicomm www.sciencenews.org/article/choc... 🧪 🍫

(flashback 2006, LA Times) www.latimes.com/archives/la-... "But when they use The vOICe to create a soundscape of a rooster image, the visual region in their brain lights up instead - even though they're actually hearing sounds." #neuroscience #blindness

Big-eyed species are especially vulnerable to the effects of light pollution, a citizen-science effort shows go.nature.com/4mXMkTX

“In colorful crustaceans like Neptune, these color pigments are either not expressed or overexpressed resulting in blue (about 1 in 2 million), red (1 in 10 million), split-colored (1 in 50 million), … and cotton candy (1 in 100 million) lobsters.” #scicomm www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪 🦀 🦑

“Scientists are making significant strides forward in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, and a newly developed system can translate our thoughts into text or sound.” #scicomm www.sciencealert.com/this-incredi... 🧪 🧠

“A behavioral analysis of nearly 600 bird species suggests that light pollution from human development can lengthen the time birds spend singing by nearly an hour per day” #scicomm #lightpollution #sensoryecology #bioacoustics www.sciencenews.org/article/bird... 🧪 🐦

“This crab isn’t shy. At least not in terms of its looks. Imagine the deepest shade of jamun purple, legs dipped in ink, and a carapace that glistens like it’s been polished for a ball.” #scicomm roundglasssustain.com/species/ambo... 🧪 🦀