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SPONSORED BY  | | | | November 18, 2024: Taste buds in weird places, the universe's roundest objects and the brain link between concentration and expertise. —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | | Brown-lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis). Blickwinkel/Alamy Stock Photo. | | | • Warmer temperatures and shifting rain patterns are resulting in color changes, often to lighter hues, among frogs, snakes, snails, bees, lizards and many bird species worldwide. | 6 min read | | | • This astronomer, who worked as a "human computer," created a system for measuring the universe's vast distances by looking at photographic plates. | 20 min read | | | Blind cave tetras develop taste buds on their head. Hanjo Hellmann/Alamy Stock Photo | | | Blind fish living in some of eastern Mexico's underground waterways and caverns now are known to be among the subset of Earth's fauna that sprout taste buds outside their mouths. The new buds develop during adolescence under the chin and on the heads of cave fish, reports freelance science journalist Elizabeth Anne Brown. Their buds are thought to help the fish, which live in pitch black environments, sense the presence of their preferred meal in adulthood—bat guano.
Why this is cool: Humans have similar "extra" receptors outside of our mouths, says respiratory biologist Lora Bankova. So-called tuft cells occur in the mucous tissue lining the nose, throat and colon, in order to detect harmful bacteria and other potential threats and then summon an immune response. Many tuft cells rely on the same kinds of receptors found on taste-bud cells, she says. Other animals that cultivate taste buds outside the oral cavity include damselfish and channel catfish, which sport them on their fins and midsections, respectively.
What the experts say: "Evolutionarily, taste receptors [have moved around] the body to protect us from the air we inhale and all the attacks we're getting through the orifices. They're in the inner ear, the urethra, everywhere something can get into your body," says Bankova. | | | The Roundest Object in Space | | | Most large moons, asteroids, planets, stars and other distinct objects in space are round, but the sun—our nearest star—is among one of the most geometrically perfect orbs known in the universe, writes astronomer and science communicator Phil Plait. An orb grows closer to being perfectly round when the diameter that runs through the poles of the spherical object approaches its equatorial diameter. Based on measurements taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space-based telescope observing the sun since 2010, scientists conclude that "the sun is 99.9992 percent spherical," Plait writes. And the sun's roundness persists throughout its 11-year solar cycle.
The science: Gravity plays a role in smoothing more massive objects. Think of the challenge of piling sand at the beach. The centrifugal force also plays a role in reducing the roundness of spherical bodies, rendering them more "oblate," or flatter at the pole versus the equator. So slower spinning bodies like our sun and Venus generate less centrifugal force at the equator, contributing to smaller gaps between polar and equatorial diameters.
Why this matters: Knowing the exact shapes of planets and stars aids efforts to determine their internal structures. Otherwise, astronomers are in the dark on distant objects' internal structure because we can't visit them and it's mighty difficult to replicate their intense interior pressures and temperatures in a lab. | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY THE HECHINGER REPORT | What Does the Future of Education Look Like? | The Hechinger Report covers inequality and innovation in education, from cradle to career. A new administration means big changes for schools — and we'll keep you updated along the way. Get our stories in your inbox, every Tuesday. | | | • Math experts asked to watch demonstrations of step-wise solutions to complex puzzles in their field exhibit different brain activity than do people without that expertise who are asked to focus on the same demonstrations, writes neuroscientist Hanna Poikonen. Her team noticed that the experts' brains showed a slow, electrical pattern of activity known as delta waves, which are associated with deep sleep and meditative states. Along with other findings, the results suggest that delta waves support states of deep concentration, in which people can suppress irrelevant thoughts and external information. Poikonen and her colleagues suspect that the slow delta waves also might be involved in other immersive or problem-solving experiences. And experience with this type of deep concentration could help us deploy it in other domains, such as listening to music or watching dancers perform. | 5 min read | | | On the 101st anniversary of astronaut Alan Shepard's birthday, today's date in 1923, you might enjoy this dialogue from the movie "The Right Stuff," during a scene shortly before made history and became the first American in space:
Alan Shepard: Dear Lord, please don't let me [eff] up.
Gordon Cooper: I didn't quite copy that. Say again, please.
Alan Shepard: I said everything's A-OK.
| We always like to hear what inspired your interest in or passion for science. Feel free to send your thoughts and comments to us at: newsletters@sciam.com. | —Robin Lloyd, Contributing Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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