Some make nests inside seashells, others tote bubbles of air on their backs. The spiders that went back to water evolved lots of slick survival strategies.
Amber Dance
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2024/meet-the-aquatic-spiders
“Attempting to reconstruct the history of early humanity from the available evidence is, it has been said, akin to trying to divine the plot of War and Peace from just 13 of its pages, picked at random.”
On our radar: A vicious dispute raging over fossils of human ancestors // Scott Sayare, The Guardian
From poison frogs to worm-like caecilians, some amphibians are hardworking and surprisingly creative caregivers.
The emergence of antiretroviral drugs saved millions of lives — but some worried about long-term health problems. Here’s how that turned out. Tammy Worth
Simon Benjamin (2022). Le Delphy du LERN quitte le port de Carentan (Manche). #Ifremer https://image.ifremer.fr/data/00956/106796/
#ocean #science #ScienceMastodon
“A lot of the high sensation seekers I’ve talked to actually tell me that adrenaline gets in the way of what they want to do.”
On our radar: Are you an adrenaline junkie? // Science Friday
https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/mission-impossible-stunts-and-adrenaline/
Organs from gene-edited pigs have offered new hope to people in desperate need of kidneys, but there is still much to be learned about how to keep those engineered porcine organs healthy. Scientists are still figuring out which genetic tweaks matter most, for example, as well as the right combination of immune-suppressing drugs, Jon Cohen reports in Science. https://www.science.org/content/article/can-gene-edited-pigs-solve-organ-transplant-shortage #ScienceMastodon
Today the koji mold is a master fermenter, but it has a checkered past. Rachel Ehrenberg.
To protect and rear their young, some insects have transformed wild viruses into tiny biological weapons. Nala Rogers.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2024/parasitoid-wasps-domesticate-viruses
“In all, the N.I.H., the world’s premier public funder of medical research, has ended 1,389 awards and delayed sending funding to more than 1,000 additional projects.”
On our radar: Science, interrupted // The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/04/health/trump-cuts-nih-grants-research.html
Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past. They can help predict the future, too.
Combined a few jars of pond water that I'd collected back in the fall for some classroom labs. Added the leftover Elodea stems and bam...got a cool, living jar aquarium experiment going on now 
. #science #ScienceTeacher #ScienceMastodon #aquarium
Is nuclear power a necessary part of the energy transition away from fossil fuels? As the debate rages on, new technologies and smaller reactors may be shifting the balance.
https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/food-environment/2024/nuclears-role-in-a-net-zero-world
A small black hole that’s journeying through our galaxy is all alone. Scientists suspect there are many such loner black holes, but until now, none have ever been confirmed, Ken Croswell reports in Science News.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lone-black-hole-sagittarius-hubble
Worms — or more likely, molecules derived from them or inspired by their biology — might help treat metabolic diseases 
Most songbird species have complex songs and fairly simple calls. This is why vocalizations sound most melodic during the spring, when birds are attracting mates and breeding.
Chickadees, however, are unusual in that they sing very simple songs relative to the complexity of their calls.
Sofia Marie Haley writes for @TheConversationUS
Of the roughly 1 million named insect species on Earth, about 400,000 are beetles. And that’s just the beetles described so far. Scientists typically describe thousands of new species each year. So — why so many beetle species? “We don’t know the precise answer,” says Chaboo, an entomologist at the University of Nebraska. But clues are emerging.
hey #ScienceMastodon or idk #speculativefiction or anyone else, what do you think, if we had some terraforming power, how crazy would it be to infuse Earth's atmosphere with more oxygen? Would all life be like "hell yeah, we are all more stoked now" or would there be issues?
Diagnosing (brain) tumors in seconds: crossNN is a new AI model developed by researchers at #CharitéBerlin, German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) and Berlin Institute of Health. It recognizes more than 170 types of cancer based on epigenetic profiles with almost 100% certainty. Now #NatureCancer
Glen the dog 
