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I have fantastic news on Europe’s rewilding. Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows that many of the continent’s mammal populations are flourishing again. pic.twitter.com/XQ3XtZKJpH

— Dr. William J. Ripple (@WilliamJRipple) December 23, 2022

How a See-Through Frog Hides Its Red Blood From Predators — NY Times (FREE ARTICLE NO PAYWALL)

At first glance, you might miss the glass frog of the Costa Rican rainforest. It is, as the name suggests, nearly transparent. Apart from a lime green smear across its back, its skin, muscle and other tissues are see-through. Then there are its tiny organs, which seem to float within this clear flesh, like a pale fruit cocktail in the weirdest Jell-O salad ever to grace a tree branch.

As handy as translucence might be for evading predators, it is rare in animals that live on land. Their bodies are full of substances that light can’t penetrate, many of them essential for life. Glass frogs seem to have evolved see-through versions of some of these anatomical features, but they also have some tricks to hide lingering colors when they are at their most vulnerable.

In a study published in the journal Science on Thursday, researchers report that when a glass frog falls asleep, almost all of its red blood cells retreat into its liver. They hide in the organ and allow the frog to achieve near invisibility while it rests. In addition to revealing another remarkable adaptation in nature, the discovery could lead to clues for how to prevent deadly blood clots…

…what the researchers still don’t understand, was how the frogs could cram all these cells together without dying from blood clots. In most vertebrates, when blood cells bump into each other, it leads to coagulation. The resulting clot can make a scab to seal a wound — or, if the clot is in a blood vessel, it can plug up the circulatory system and kill the creature.

The physical intelligence of ant and robot collectives — science daily

The other paleo diet: Rare discovery of dinosaur remains preserved with its last meal — science daily

Microraptor was an opportunistic predator, feeding on fish, birds, lizards — and now small mammals. The discovery of a rare fossil reveals the creature was a generalist carnivore in the ancient ecosystem of dinosaurs.

Finding the last meal of any fossil animal is rare. When McGill University Professor Hans Larsson saw a complete mammal foot inside the rib cage of the small, feathered dinosaur, his jaw dropped. Of the many hundreds of carnivorous dinosaur skeletons, only 20 cases preserve their last meals. This new find makes 21.

“At first, I couldn’t believe it. There was a tiny rodent-like mammal foot about a centimeter long perfectly preserved inside a Microraptor skeleton. These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long extinct animals — and they are exceptionally rare,” says Larsson, who came across the fossil while visiting museum collections in China.

A type of simple DIY air filter can be an effective way to filter out indoor air pollutants — Tech Xplore

A team of researchers from Brown University’s School of Public Health, Brown’s School of Engineering and Silent Spring Institute found that simple air filtration devices called Corsi-Rosenthal boxes are effective at reducing indoor air pollutants.

The study, which analyzed the effectiveness of Corsi-Rosenthal boxes installed at the School of Public Health to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, is the first peer-reviewed study of the efficacy of the boxes on indoor pollutants, according to the authors. […]

“The findings show that an inexpensive, easy-to-construct air filter can protect against illness caused not only by viruses but also by chemical pollutants,” Braun said. “This type of highly-accessible public health intervention can empower community groups to take steps to improve their air quality and therefore, their health.”

Corsi-Rosenthal boxes, or cubes, can be constructed from materials found at hardware stores: four MERV-13 filters, duct tape, a 20-inch box fan and a cardboard box.

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Space studies documented new milestones, named new asteroids, and grappled with the problem of trash in Earth’s orbit. Look back on these stories and more in our 2022 review!
https://t.co/REu66MdQ7k

— Caltech (@Caltech) December 23, 2022

Ten times this year the Webb telescope blew us away with new images of our stunning universe — Phys.org

It is no exaggeration to say the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) represents a new era for modern astronomy … the JWST is 1.5 million kilometers distant, far beyond the moon. From this position, away from the interference of our planet’s reflected heat, it can collect light from across the universe far into the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

This ability, when combined with the JWST’s larger mirror, state-of-the-art detectors, and many other technological advances, allows astronomers to look back to the universe’s earliest epochs.

As the universe expands, it stretches the wavelength of light traveling towards us, making more distant objects appear redder. At great enough distances, the light from a galaxy is shifted entirely out of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum to the infrared. The JWST is able to probe such sources of light right back to the earliest times, nearly 14 billion years ago.

Let’s have a look at ten images that have demonstrated the staggering power of this new window to the universe.

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