May 7, 2024: Today we're covering mind-body unity, the media's "protest paradigm" and the evolution of puppy-dog eyes.
—Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | A two-week NASA experiment set for launch as soon as May 15 to Earth's stratosphere is meant to help solve a long-standing mystery about how much antimatter there is in the universe and where it comes from. The High-Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX) mission will suspend a cosmic-ray detecting probe from a giant balloon. Cosmic rays are subatomic particles—including antimatter, the opposite-charge version of ordinary matter—that pelt our planet from interstellar and intergalactic space. Why this is so cool: For nearly two decades, scientists have known there's more antimatter—in the form of particles called positrons—washing over Earth than current models can explain. Learning where these excess positrons come from holds great promise for unlocking even deeper cosmic secrets. Scientists suspect their sources "could be almost anything, ranging from emissions by conventional astrophysical objects to the esoteric behavior of dark matter, the invisible stuff that seems to govern the large-scale behavior of galaxies," reports freelance science writer Rachel Berkowitz.
What the experts say: To figure out which explanation best fits the data, HELIX will focus on a deceptively simple measurement: gauging how much time each of two specific particles spent hurtling through the galaxy. "It's like carbon-dating cosmic rays," Berkowitz writes. | | | An illustration of a high-altitude balloon afloat in Earth's upper atmosphere. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/Michael Lentz | | | Evolution of Puppy-Dog Eyes | A 2019 study came to a seemingly heartwarming conclusion: The eyebrow muscles that enable dogs' endearing pleading expressions evolved in domestic canines to help them communicate with humans. The team had found the muscles in several domestic breeds but not in most wolves. Now a new analysis has found the same eyebrow muscles in an African wild dog, casting doubt on the earlier conclusion, reports Gillian Dohrn. The wild dogs likely evolved the muscles to make puppy-dog eyes to communicate with one another, not with humans, the researchers say. "I wonder if these muscles have been around for a really long time and wolves are the ones that lost them," says Anne Burrows, author of the earlier study.
How they did it: For the new study, the researchers dissected a recently deceased African wild dog from a zoo. They found that both the levator anguli oculi medalis and the retractor anguli oculi lateralis muscles, thought to create the puppy-dog eyes expression, were similar in size to those of domestic dog breeds.
What the experts say: "It opens the door to thinking about where dogs come from, and what they are," Burrows says. | | | A pack of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) warily approaches a remote camera near banks of Moremi River in Botswana. Paul Souders/Getty Images | | | • Collapsing sheets of spacetime could explain dark matter and why the universe "hums." | 8 min read | | | • Studying mouse reactions to an optical illusion can teach us about how consciousness works in the brain. | 3 min read | | | • How should wildfire damage, such as smoke, soot and ash, be measured in homes that survive the flames? | 3 min read | • A "protest paradigm" shows what's wrong with the media's coverage of student activism. | 5 min read | | | • Our thoughts about time, aging and sickness can play a remarkably powerful role in the amount of time it takes us to recover from an injury, write Ellen Langer and Peter Aungle, a psychology professor and psychology Ph.D. candidate, respectively, at Harvard University. This conclusion, documented in Langer's recent book The Mindful Body, is the product of the past 45 years of research in the Langer Lab on ways in which the mind shapes the body's physiology. The work suggests that "people can think themselves sick when they could otherwise be healthy and that they can also think themselves well," Langer and Aungle write. | 5 min read | | | Given the opportunity, most people take to experimenting with houseplants, seedlings and digging in dirt. It broadens our horizons and can give us a sense of wonder and awe. I'm no exception. In my suburban youth, I enjoyed countless weekend hours helping my parents tend to indoor plants, spruce up garden beds and attempt to grow vegetables (if you know, you know). Plenty of research confirms that exposure to nature's greenery as well as time outdoors can lift our mood. This review of The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth reveals another aspect of "plant drama," as the book's author Zo├л Schlanger puts it. Her decision to cover botanical scientific discoveries helped her counter the dread that had accompanied years of reporting on climate change. | Send thoughts, comments and your thoughts and photos from any gardening and plant-growing experiences to: newsletters@sciam.com. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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