[Zbignieww]

It Takes Three Zebrafish To Make A School, Two Won’t Do
I bet many teachers would love to have schools this small.



How many fish does it take to make a school? The answer may vary, but for the much-studied zebrafish, the answer is three. Put a triad of the little fish together and they will display the same schooling behavior that can save their lives in larger numbers. Two zebrafish act quite differently.

Some birds have been claimed (possibly incorrectly) to count: “One, two, many,” allowing the theft of a fourth or fifth egg from their clutch without distress, as they consider there to be “many” remaining. Something similar may be going on with zebrafish, except that in this case the individual fish doing the counting is one of the three.

For small fish, the safest place is usually a crowd, whose schooling behavior makes it hard for predators to catch them (although not so much for humans with nets). Schooling fish have developed ways to relate to each other that maintain cohesion, causing the whole school to make the quick adjustments to direction that can keep most of them alive. This behavior has been heavily studied and scientists are interested in the minimum numbers required for it to occur. Curiously, it’s physicists, not zoologists, who have found the answer.

The researchers had to step outside their usual territory, applying an understanding of fluid dynamics and pair and triplet correlations from thermodynamics to fish.

After fitting an aquarium with synchronized cameras that can track fish’s movements in three dimensions the team put differing numbers of zebrafish in the tank to investigate their behavior.

With 50 zebrafish (Danio rerio) in the tank, schooling was no surprise, but the cameras allowed the team to capture this in movements computers can analyze. Sometimes the fish formed a circle, at other times they moved in the same direction, either lining up or side-by-side. It makes sense the fish have developed a few methods of co-swimming, as being too predictable would be a gift to predators.

The team found that groups of four and even three zebrafish display the same coordination as a school of fifty, but two fish alone in a tank do not. Three fish swim side-by-side, whereas, with two, one follows the other.



The team also investigated the behavior of small fish sub-populations within a larger group, marking them so the cameras picked up their movements specifically. Three marked fish within a school showed similar movements to three alone in the tank. However, when two were marked, their behavior in the school looked nothing like two with the tank to themselves. “This indicates that fish interact predominantly with their nearest neighbors, perceiving the rest of the group as a fluctuating background,” the researchers write.

Dr Alexandra Zampetaki of Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, said in a statement: "Practically, three fish form a school, but two are not enough." Or as Dr Seuss might have said: “One fish, two fish, red fish… school’s in.”

Zebrafish are a model animal for zoologists because they are small, produce lots of embryos, and are easy to genetically modify. Senior author Professor C. Patrick Royall of the University of Bristol acknowledged not all fish may have the same minimum, and suggested goldfish and sardines should be studied as well.

Transferring the techniques to flying animals could be more difficult, but Royall hopes the work can be done in the air as well, including “flocks of birds such as starling murmurations and swarms of insects such as dancing mosquitos." If a common pattern is found, it could reveal something profound about social animals. If not, differences between species could prove significant. Already, the team have noticed the zebrafish group movements resemble those of midges, but not starlings where one bird’s change can propagate through the flock.

The most ambitious project is to study human behavior at mass gatherings. "We will see whether the simple limit of the number three then also applies,” co-author Professor Hartmut Löwen said. Such information could prove useful in preventing stampedes that cause fatal crowd crushes.

If you’ve ever seen three suspicious characters moving together and thought something was fishy, you may just be right.

The study is open access in Nature Communications.

https://www.iflscience.com/it-takes-thr ... t-do-73541

[midgemental]

Blinded by the lights...
Bright outdoor lights at night could increase stroke risk, new study warns


Continuous exposure to artificial light at nighttime can put people at an increased risk of stroke, new research warns.

“We advise people, especially those living in urban areas, to consider reducing that exposure to protect themselves from its potential harmful impact,” said study author Jian-Bing Wang, whose work was published Monday in the scientific journal Stroke.

“Despite significant advances in reducing traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as smoking, obesity and Type 2 diabetes, it is important to consider environmental factors in our efforts to decrease the global burden of cardiovascular disease,” Wang added in his statement.

New research shows that exposure to artificial light at night can lead to increased risk of stroke.New research shows that constant exposure to artificial light at night can bring an increased risk of stroke.

Researchers evaluated 28,302 adults living in the densely populated city of Ningbo, China, from 2015 to 2018.

They found that those with the highest levels of nighttime light exposure had a 43% higher risk of developing cerebrovascular disease, which includes ischemic stroke (caused by a blocked artery in the brain) and hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding).

Over the six-year follow-up period, 1,278 participants developed cerebrovascular disease, including 910 who had a stroke.

Exposure to high levels of pollution was another notable factor, with those who often encountered emissions from the combustion of gasoline, oil, diesel fuel or wood facing a 41% increased risk of cerebrovascular disease.

The researchers caution that artificial light sources like LEDs or fluorescents can disrupt and suppress the production of melatonin, a natural hormone that helps the body sleep.

The study found that bright artificial lights and night can lead to an increased risk of stroke.The work was published Monday in the scientific journal Stroke.

Over time, a lack of melatonin can disrupt the body’s 24-hour biological clock and long-term sleep patterns.

The study’s authors say that those who have chronic sleep problems are most at risk for poor cardiovascular health.

“We need to develop more effective policies and prevention strategies to reduce the burden of disease from environmental factors such as light as well as air pollution, particularly for people living in the most densely populated, polluted areas around the world,” Wang said.

Wang acknowledged “several” study limitations, including a lack of data on indoor lighting tools and window treatments used by participants, who were only from one city in China.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/25/lifestyle ... isk-study/

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
TUESDAY MARCH 26
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS

[ozswede]

Charity steps in to rehome 300 cats from ‘overwhelmed’ man in Canada

An animal welfare charity in western Canada is scrambling to secure the resources needed to care for about 300 cats – all of them seemingly in good condition – after a call came in from a man who described himself as being “overwhelmed” by the sheer number of cats and kittens in his home.

Bruce Robinson told the British Columbia SPCA that he had taken in cats that had been abandoned during the Covid-19 pandemic but that the cost of caring for them had become a herculean task after he lost his job.

The charity had sent staff to his home in the small town of Houston to assess the situation, said Eileen Drever of the BC SPCA. “When asked how many cats he had, I think he said it was like counting bubbles in boiling water.”



The cats were sociable and seemed to be in good condition, she told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “You know, he had a huge heart, and he was caring for them,” she said. “And then they just kept multiplying. One cat can have three litters in a year.”

Robinson estimated that the number of cats in his home had swelled to 298, including 15 pregnant cats that were expected to deliver in the coming days.

“I ended up in a crazy situation,” he told the broadcaster. “I made a bad decision … I thought I could handle the cats.”

He had tried to give away the cats, but with little luck. Instead, he found himself spending thousands of dollars a month – at times going without food himself – to ensure they had the 28kg of food a day they needed and to buy cat litter for their 10 litter boxes.

He said he had named each one of the cats. “I love every one of them,” he said. “I wanted to give them a safe home.”

Drever said the SPCA was racing to raise funds and find a building capable of housing the cats while they are assessed by a veterinarian, vaccinated and spayed or neutered before being put up for adoption at centres across the province.

“This is a huge undertaking and it’s going to take resources from around the province to bring these animals in,” she said.


Robinson estimated that the number of cats in his home had swelled to 298, including 15 who were pregnant.

In the meantime, SPCA staff were helping to provide food, supplies and litter for the cats. “He had, the other day, between 70 and 80 newborn kittens,” she said. “That’s why we need to move as quickly as we can.”

She said charges against the cat’s guardian were not being considered, as he was the one who had reached out for help. “Kudos to him for recognising he was overwhelmed,” she said.

It also appeared that he had done his best to care for the animals, even as their population rocketed. “I have never seen so many cats in good condition, they appear to be in good condition,” she said.

“And the fact that they’re sociable is incredible. It’s quite shocking, actually.” (At least that's pawsitive…)

[midgemental]

The shocking truth about Gen Z’s spending habits revealed

Coming of age amid inflation and the sky-high cost of college, many members of Gen Z say they’re struggling to make ends meet.

Others have been derided on TikTok for “doom spending” — splashing whatever money they have on spontaneous trips and treats with no thought for the future.

However, new research has revealed that there’s actually a shockingly high number of Zoomers savvily saving their dollars.

Cleo, an AI finance app, polled 750 members of Gen Z aged between 16-27 about their attitudes towards money, finding that almost three-quarters save some cash “regularly.”

A sizable 40% of those surveyed say they manage to put away money at least once a month, with about half of those saving for a big-ticket item such as a house or a car.

However, the Zoomers did admit that inflation had forced them to alter their spending and saving habits in the past two years. Per the poll, some 67% said they are prioritizing their money on food, given the rising cost of groceries.

It proves that inflation is affecting all demographics, with spending on fitness, fashion and travel trailing behind for members of Gen Z.

Meanwhile, a whopping 80% of Zoomers polled by Cleo claimed that “doom spending,” or reckless splurging, wasn’t a fully accurate representation of their generation’s money habits.

While many young Americans flaunt their fabulous lifestyles and opulent spending on TikTok — saying homeownership is “so out of reach” — the social media app is also full of financial advice videos encouraging youngsters to start saving and investing very early on.

This has possibly increased Gen Z’s financial literacy and could be partially responsible for the surprisingly high number of savers within the demographic.

To mitigate that, a wealth of online trends have increased the honesty around spending.

“Loud budgeting,” a trend marked by Zoomers lamenting their lack of dollars, has ushered in a new era of financial transparency among the generation, as people share their personal finance goals and budgeting strategies, even among their friends.

Now, when asked about dinner plans or Saturday night outings, Gen Z feels empowered to tell their pals they’d rather stay in and save, rather than sheepishly come up with an excuse.

Meanwhile, TikTokers have been sharing their “payday routines” online, breaking down exactly where their money goes when the direct deposit hits.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/23/lifestyle ... -revealed/

[Alessa9]

Vet issues Easter egg warning as pet chocolate poisonings soar

With many indulging with chocolate treats this weekened, an urgent warning is issued to pet owners


Households often have more sweet treats than usual over the Easter weekend

A vet has issued a warning in time for Easter as cases of chocolate poisoning in pets are surging over the holidays.

With many celebrating Easter this Sunday by exchanging chocolate eggs, vets are reminding dog owners to keep chocolate far away from their mischievous animals.

The ingestion of chocolate can lead to serious symptoms including seizures and in the worst cases, fatalities.

The problem is worsened by the closure of most surgeries over public holidays, which can lead to pricier vet bills as owners have to take their animals to out-of-hours clinics.

Veterinary surgeon Dr Mark Boddy, from pet helpline PawSquad, said: "Last Easter, we saw calls relating to chocolate ingestion more than double during Easter week. Cases of toxicity and gastric upset in general can be up to triple their usual volume around holidays like Easter, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.


Don’t let your dog end up at the vet

“In these instances, it is crucial to be able to speak to a vet quickly, particularly while in-person vets may be closed."

The helpline, which runs 24/7 for pet owners, said it saw a stark rise in calls during the Easter week of 2023.

It said requests regarding toxicity almost tripled compared to the previous week, and phone calls specifically referring to chocolate cases more than doubled.

Over bank holidays a rise in gastrointestinal problems in pets is reported too, with households enjoying more tempting food.

Insurance provider Admiral received claims for a cocker spaniel which ate a chocolate bar still in its wrapper, and a small dog that scoffed an 150g piece of chocolate - the same amount as an entire Terry’s Chocolate Orange.


A cocker spaniel was poisoned after eating a chocolate bar last year

Although the majority of pet owners are aware that chocolate is poisonous to their furry friends, there are many other food items that can pose serious problems.

Contrary to popular belief, cooked bones can be a choking hazard to dogs. Nuts, particularly Macadamia nuts, are also dangerous for cats and dogs.

Grapes and raisins, found in hot cross buns, are highly toxic to dogs.

What should you do if you think your animal has eaten chocolate? Dr Mark Boddy offers his advice to pet owners.

Assess the situation
Firstly, assess the amount and the type of chocolate which has been ingested and reach out to a vet immediately. Dark chocolate and cocoa contain higher levels of theobromine, which is toxic to pets. The smaller the pet, the more dangerous even a small amount can be.

Keep a close eye on your pet
Symptoms of chocolate toxicity can include vomiting and diarrhoea, restlessness, or rapid breathing and heart rate. If your pet shows severe symptoms such as seizures or loss of consciousness, head to an emergency vet immediately.

Ensure your pet stays hydrated
Offer water if your pet is stable, but avoid home remedies for inducing vomiting without veterinary guidance.

Speak to a vet as soon as possible
They’ll ask about the type of chocolate amount ingested and your pet size, so follow their guidance on what to do next.

[lush]

The Crow Buster – A Translucent Piece of Plastic That Keeps Crows at Bay
010824*

A Japanese company that has been developing crow repellants for 15 years claims that its Crow Buster, a translucent piece of yellow plastic, is more effective than any scarecrow.

Crows are auspicious omens in Japanese culture, but in day-to-day life, they can be quite pesky pests. Notoriously intelligent and highly adapted to both rural and urban environments, crows have been known to cause serious damage to fruit and vegetable farms, rummage through garbage in search of food, and attack smaller birds, animals, or even humans, if they perceive them as threats. Because of their higher-than-average bird intellect and excellent memory, crows can be very tough to deal with, so even the most realistic of scarecrows may prove ineffective. However, one Japanese company claims that all you need to keep crows at pay is its surprisingly simple Crow Buster.



With a name like Crow Buster, you’d expect some sort of elaborate deterrent, but in reality, it’s just a diamond-shaped yellow piece of plastic that has to be hung in the area you’re trying to protect from crows. It works on power lines, in orchards, on house roofs, or pretty much anywhere you can think of, and it apparently works for up to six months after installation.

Despite its aggressive name, the Crow Buster is actually a gentle way of dealing with crows. Although the company website doesn’t really explain how the 14cm by 14cm piece of yellow plastic works, it apparently has to do with the way light is reflected, which makes crows uncomfortable, although that doesn’t explain why it only works for six months.



The ingenious crow repellent has already been on the market for 9 years now, and based on the limited video footage we found online and the customer reviews on the company website, it actually works wonders on crows.

the Crow Buster is available both on the manufacturer’s website and on Amazon, although I’m not sure it is available outside of Japan.

[rflash8]

New experiment to search for mysterious hidden particles

The project marks "a new era" in the search for mystery particles, according to its leader.



Scientists are looking for mysterious hidden particles which they believe could help answer some of our most burning questions about the universe.

The so-called "hidden sector particles" have so far evaded all previous attempts to observe them and line up very weakly, if at all, with the current theory of particle physics, known as the Standard Model.

The Search For Hidden Particles (SHiP) experiment, an international collaboration between 54 institutes over 18 countries, will see a proton beam used to hit a fixed target and produce a variety of particles - far more than current methods have been able to.

Scientists hope hidden particles will then be found in within the mix.

SHiP will have its own facility built by CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, from 2027, with the experiment set to begin collecting data as soon as 2030, CERN says.

The project's approval, which comes 10 years after its first pitch, marks "a new era" in the search for hidden particles, according to its leader Professor Andrey Golutvin.

Prof Golutvin, from Imperial College London, said: "SHiP has the unique possibility to solve several of the major problems of Standard Model of particle physics and we have the prospect of discovering particles that have never been seen before."

Why is the experiment happening?

CERN, located near Geneva in Switzerland, is already home to the world's largest particle accelerator - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC, which started operating in 2008, discovered the so-called "God particle" - the Higgs boson - which enabled researchers to better understand where matter gets its mass from.



However, it has still been unable to find out more about the secrets of dark matter and dark energy - little known forces and particles that would allow scientists to have a better understanding of the universe.

And those undetected forces and particles make up around 95% of the universe.

CERN have already put forward proposals for a new £17bn "supercollider" called the Future Circular Collider (FCC) which it hopes will help it uncover those mysteries - but that isn't set to be constructed until the 2040s.

The hope is the SHiP experiment, which is significantly cheaper, will help the LHC find some non-Standard Model particles while the wait for the FCC goes on.

Professor Golutvin said: "Hidden sector theories give us the prospect of solving problems of the Standard Model and as time has passed, and we have not observed new particles at the energy-frontier, the case for exploring this area has been getting stronger and stronger."

What is it looking for specifically?

The SHiP experiment is designed to be very broad in its search, looking for a range of particles that only interact very weakly with regular matter, including potential dark matter.

Dark matter, which is unobservable from Earth, is thought to make up around 80% of matter in the universe - but it doesn't seem to absorb or emit detectable radiation.

Its existence can be inferred from the way galaxies move - they stay together and those in clusters move faster than expected.

SHiP also hopes to find particles that could explain other mysteries of the Standard Model - such as why there currently exists much more regular matter than antimatter, known as the matter-antimatter asymmetry.

How will it work?

To simplify an incredibly complicated process: SHiP will use high-intensity proton beams to smash particles into a block of material, producing a variety of particles at a bigger volume than current experiments.

Imperial College London, which is leading the collaboration, explains: "When these particles decay or interact, they can produce the hidden particles SHiP is looking for.

"The energy and intensity of the SPS beam will enable huge numbers of well-known particles to be produced, meaning that SHiP will be able to make the world's best searches for new hidden particles."

[HogwartsExpress]

All aboard the Hogwarts Express! Harry Potter fans campaign to save real-life station that doubled as Hogsmeade in the boy wizard movies


Fans of Harry Potter are campaigning to save the real-life station that featured in the popular film series.

The fictional Hogsmeade station is the final stop for the Hogwarts Express - which transports the young wizards from Platform 9 and 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London to Hogwarts Castle.

The real train station is called Goathland station in the village of the same name in North Yorkshire and appeared in both the first film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and the fifth installment - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Since it featured in the films it has become a popular tourism spot for Harry Potter fans who flock to the station every year.

However, an 89-year-old bridge which is used by fans to reach the station has started to decay. It is now deemed unsafe for vehicles to cross it.









To fix the bridge, Harry Potter fans are being urged to donate £10 towards the refurbishment.

North Yorkshire Moors Railway has issued an urgent appeal for donations to fix the bridge.

A spokesperson for North Yorkshire Moors Railway said: 'Hogsmeade Station is a charming railway station located near the magical village of Hogsmeade, the only all-wizarding village in the country.

'Serving as the primary transportation hub for students attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the station is the final stop for the Hogwarts Express, a magical train that transports young witches and wizards from Platform 9(3/4) at King's Cross Station in London.

'In reality, the Hogsmeade Station you see in the first Harry Potter movie is part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and is nestled within the scenic landscapes of the North York Moors National Park in a super-sparse rural village called Goathland.

'The problem is, right now, people can't get there.

'To access our famous magical station, you have to cross Bridge 27A, built in 1935.

'Unfortunately, the bridge is starting to show its age, and despite our best efforts, time and weather have impacted the steel girders that give strength to the structure and it is now unsafe for vehicles to cross.

'We desperately need your help to get ready for the 2024 season.'

src: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... meade.html

[Fatima99]

Greek Archaeologists Use The Iliad as a Map to Find 10 Ancient Shipwrecks



Covering almost 5,000 years of history, a team of maritime archaeologists from Greece have located a series of shipwrecks off the coast of the island of Kasos.

Dating from as far back as (3,000 BCE), and through the Classical period (460 BCE), the Hellenistic Age (100 BCE to 100 CE) and Roman times, all the way up to the Byzantine period (800 to 900 CE), the medieval, and Ottoman periods, they are like a barnacle-encrusted history of Hellas and her neighbors.

Since 2019, the research team of the National Hellenic Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture has utilized sources, testimonies, and references, from Homer’s Iliad until modern times, to locate the wrecks, according to the Ministry.

In the epic, Homer writes that the people of Kasos sent ships to fight in the wars with Ilium (Troy).

The findings were recorded and documented with modern scientific methods, while sample recoveries of archaeological objects were carried out, the study of which offers new information and archaeological data, aspects of the history of Kasos, and the rich cultural heritage of the Mediterranean.

Sunken remains of ancient ships with merchandise from Spain, Italy, Africa, and the coast of Asia Minor were brought to light by an interdisciplinary team of Greek and foreign researchers that included divers, geologists, and others.

Among some of the objects discovered were amphorae stamped with a seal from Spain in 170 CE, as well as drinking vessels and flasks from Roman North Africa. A stone anchor was identified from the period in the aftermath of the Trojan wars.

The Kasos maritime project was documented with underwater footage for an 11-minute film called Diving into Aegean History

[PennySerenade]

24-year-old bald eagle keeps planes safe at Toronto Pearson Airport in, Ontario



This worker at Pearson Airport in Toronto quietly goes about his daily business of helping to keep planes of all sizes — and their passengers and crew — safe from a very specific threat.

He’s been performing the important task for more than two decades now — since 2001, to be exact — and he hasn’t received a single pay increase in that time.

No complaints, though, from Ivan, a 24-year-old bald eagle who heads up a team of some 25 birds of prey that helps keep the five runways and airspace at and around Canada’s biggest and busiest airport clear of smaller birds.

Along with their human handlers, the large winged creatures reduce the number of smaller birds “and thus the chances of an airplane experiencing a bird strike,” Pearson officials said in a post to social media this week.

Bird strikes have been the cause of numerous plane crashes over the years in Canada and the U.S. resulting in loss of human life. Still, the number of such incidents is very low, according to aviation authorities.

Ivan is the lone bald eagle among Pearson’s winged runway/airspace safety crew, airport officials note. Weighing seven pounds, he’s the biggest bird of prey on duty at the airport and joined the wildlife management team in 2001.

“Ivan can reach speeds over 50 km/h in normal flight and over double that speed when diving,” Pearson Airport officials said in a post to X (formerly Twitter). “Our wildlife management team takes Ivan out to patrol the airfield, along with the creeks, grassland areas, floodplains and wild areas that pocket our property. The team begins an hour before sunrise and works until an hour after sunset to ensure wildlife is properly managed on the roughly 4,600 acres of property the airport sits on.”

Falcon Environmental, described as a North American leader in management of nuisance wildlife at airports and landfill sites, has been using birds of prey at Pearson since 1999.

Dozens of bird species in addition to an array of other wild animals call Pearson Airport and surrounding area, which includes Etobicoke Creek, home.

[goldie0608]

Zoo Vets Use a Cotton Swab to Make 'World's Tiniest Neck Brace' for a Struggling Bug

The teeny-tiny device kept the Peruvian jumping stick's "neck" from flopping around, per the zoo



When a bug at the Houston Zoo was in a bind, a bathroom staple quickly became a life-altering device!

Earlier this year, veterinarians and zookeepers fashioned a brace from a cotton swab for one of the zoo's female Peruvian jumping sticks. A February blog post from the Texas zoo details the entire process.

According to the zoo's post, the insect, a "stick-like" grasshopper, had just gone through molting (which typically occurs when the bug is about 6 months old) and the "shedding of her exoskeleton" when a zoo employee noticed something was wrong.

An entomology keeper named Julie observed that the bug "had a crease/weakened area around a non-joint area of the 'neck,' which is actually her thoracic region but resembles the neck," per the post.

"Since these grasshoppers spend most of their time climbing and being up in tree branches, it was essential to keep her head level as the crease on her 'neck' was causing her head to flop all the way back due to its weight when she climbed upwards," according to the post.

To prevent the bug's head from flopping and to keep her "neck in a neutral position," Julie and a team of the zoo's veterinarians began brainstorming solutions.

The winning answer? A teeny-tiny brace. Or, as the zoo phrased it on Instagram, the "world's tiniest neck brace."

"She had the brilliant idea to create a miniature neck brace that would provide temporary support for this insect while its exoskeleton hardened," the blog post said of Julie.

So, with Julie's plan for a micro-brace, Dr. Melissa, a zoo vet, found the perfect materials for the unique project.

According to the blog post, she created the brace using "the shaft of a sterile Q-tip" and attached it to the grasshopper's body using "soft microspore tape."

The makeshift micro-brace was a success. After a few days of wearing the cotton swab contraption, it was removed, and the Peruvian jumping stick "was able to support her own head."

"She had a small visible mark where the original crease happened but was able to climb and move about like normal in her exhibit," per the zoo.

[Misstee]

Cadbury Announces 2024 Cadbury Bunny Tryouts Winner - Louie the Raccoon!






Louie from Miami, FL is the first-ever raccoon rescue to be crowned the CADBURY Bunny

HERSHEY, Pa., March 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Thousands of pet lovers across the country have spoken and Louie the Raccoon is officially the winner of the sixth annual Cadbury Bunny Tryouts. As the grand prize winner, Louie will not only have a starring role in the 2025 Cadbury Bunny Tryouts commercial but will also take home $7,000 in prize money.

Louie is a two-year-old raccoon from Miami, FL who was rescued by his owner Jaime in 2021 after he had been deemed unfit to live in the wild. When he isn't lounging in his favorite tree, he's busy fundraising for wildlife rescue & rehabilitation centers by creating art using his toe-painting skills!

This year's Cadbury Bunny Tryouts featured a bracket-style elimination tournament on Instagram – a first for the storied annual competition. Pet-owners nationwide submitted their pets for consideration through Instagram posts explaining why their beloved furry (or scaly) friend should be the next Cadbury Bunny. Throughout the month of March, pet lovers and Cadbury fans voted for their favorite contestants as finalists were narrowed down from Thirty-Cute to the Final Bunny.

"Each year we look forward to crowning a new Cadbury Bunny, especially this year where we engaged fans in a new way through our bracket-style competition. It was incredible to see pet lovers getting in on the fun," said Natalie Shuntich, senior associate marketing manager at The Hershey Company. "Witnessing how fans participated in each wave of voting, and the loving support for our thirty-cute finalists from Cadbury fans across the U.S. is a testament to the love for the Cadbury brand."

Louie joins fan-favorite past winners in the Cadbury Bunny Tryouts Hall of Fame, Crash the Rescue Cat (2023), Annie Rose the Therapy Dog (2022), Betty the Frog (2021), Lieutenant Dan the Treeing Walker Coonhound (2020), Henri the English Bulldog (2019).

"We're thrilled that Louie has been chosen as the winner of this year's Cadbury Bunny Tryouts – we are longtime fans of the Cadbury brand and are honored to see Louie join the long legacy of incredible Cadbury Bunnies," said Jaime Arslan, Louie's owner. "Louie's TV debut in Cadbury's 2025 commercial can't come soon enough!"

Keep an eye out for Louie's starring role in Cadbury's iconic Cadbury Bunny Tryouts commercial in 2025 and for the next chance to submit your own pet for the coveted title!

The Largest Environmental Restoration in History’ Continues to Restart the Heart of the Everglades


Everglades National Park, Marjory Stoneman Douglas/NPS

24 years ago, a fledging Good News Network reported on a vote in Congress to restore the Florida Everglades.

Rep. Clay Shaw, (R – FL) who left office in 2007, and who passed away a decade ago, called the plan “the biggest environmental restoration project in the history of the world” at the time, which aimed to undo the Army Corps of Engineers “Drain the Everglades” project which started in 1949.

Today, that plan is now in full effect, with over 60 infrastructure projects earmarked for $20 billion that will perform ecosystem-wide “heart bypass surgery.” The Florida fiscal year 2024 budget alone included $740 million for this kind of work, which the Everglades Foundation applauded.

As featured in CBS Mornings, the Drain the Everglades project disconnected Lake Okeechobee from feeding the Everglades ecosystem. This large lake gradually fed the 300-mile-wide river of grass that is the Everglades, and when it was removed, the water quality and quantity declined precipitously.

As wet as it is, South Florida has experienced a catalogue of environmental problems stemming from the loss of water from Lake Okeechobee, including seagrass die-offs, exacerbation of red tide, wildfires in the Everglades ecosystem, and blue-green algae blooms.

Reconnecting the “beating heart,” or the lake, to the millions of acres its water helps refresh is the aim of the modern-day restoration effort.

The first step was to build a large reservoir south of the lake, which has been partially completed already. The next will be to raise up the Tamiami Road, an east-west byway that cuts significant water flow off to the southern Everglades.

Florida sugar plantations are also an impediment to the restoration work. Runoff from the agricultural fields would otherwise contaminate the Everglades, and the state has responded by building the largest man-made wetland on Earth (63,000 acres) to capture the runoff.

The construction was paid for upfront by the state, with polluters footing the financing in the form of a pollution tax, levied particularly hard on the large sugar plantations, CBS reports.

It’s estimated the reservoir will be finished by 2036, and restoration participants believe it won’t be for another 15 years that the landscape and the people of South Florida really begin to experience the benefits of these projects.

But these are all small incremental steps in a project that might not intend to move heaven, but certainly the earth, to give South Florida’s wildlife, wetlands, and people back the healthy river of grass that has no equal in size and complexity anywhere in the world.

Pushing back the limits of optical imaging by processing trillions of frames per second


The new device called SCARF (for swept-coded aperture real-time femtophotography) can capture transient absorption in a semiconductor and ultrafast demagnetization of a metal alloy. This new method will help push forward the frontiers of knowledge in a wide range of fields, including modern physics, biology, chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Credit: INRS

Pushing for a higher speed isn't just for athletes. Researchers, too, can achieve such feats with their discoveries. This is the case for Jinyang Liang, Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), and his team, whose research results have recently been published in Nature Communications.

The group based at INRS's Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre has developed a new ultrafast camera system that can capture up to 156.3 trillion frames per second with astonishing precision. For the first time, 2D optical imaging of ultrafast demagnetization in a single shot is possible.

This new device called SCARF (for swept-coded aperture real-time femtophotography) can capture transient absorption in a semiconductor and ultrafast demagnetization of a metal alloy. This new method will help push forward the frontiers of knowledge in a wide range of fields, including modern physics, biology, chemistry, materials science, and engineering.

Improving on past advances

Professor Liang is known around the world as a pioneer of ultrafast imaging. In 2018, he served as the principal developer of a major breakthrough in the field, which laid the groundwork for the development of SCARF.

Until now, ultrafast camera systems have mainly used an approach involving sequentially capturing frames one by one. They would acquire data through brief, repeated measurements, then put everything together to create a movie that reconstructed the observed movement.

"However, this approach can only be applied to inert samples or to phenomena that happen the exact same way each time. Fragile samples, not to mention non-repeatable phenomena or phenomena with ultrafast speeds, cannot be observed with this method."

"For example, phenomena such as femtosecond laser ablation, shock-wave interaction with living cells, and optical chaos cannot be studied this way," explains Liang.

The first tool developed by Professor Liang helped fill this gap. The T-CUP (Trillion-frame-per-second compressed ultrafast photography) system was based on passive femtosecond imaging capable of acquiring ten trillion (1013) frames per second. This was a major first step towards ultrafast, single-shot real-time imaging.

Yet challenges still remained.

"Many systems based on compressed ultrafast photography have to cope with degraded data quality and have to trade the sequence depth of the field of view. These limitations are attributable to the operating principle, which requires simultaneously shearing the scene and the coded aperture," Liang continues.

SCARF overcomes these challenges. Its imaging modality enables ultrafast sweeping of a static coded aperture while not shearing the ultrafast phenomenon. This provides full-sequence encoding rates of up to 156.3 THz to individual pixels on a camera with a charge-coupled device (CCD). These results can be obtained in a single shot at tunable frame rates and spatial scales in both reflection and transmission modes.

A range of applications

SCARF makes it possible to observe unique phenomena that are ultrafast, non-repeatable, or difficult to reproduce, such as shock wave mechanics in living cells or matter. These advances could potentially be used to develop better pharmaceutics and medical treatments.

What's more, SCARF promises very appealing economic spinoffs. Two companies, Axis Photonique and Few-Cycle, are already working with Professor Liang's team to produce a marketable version of their patent-pending discovery. This represents a great opportunity for Quebec to strengthen its already enviable position as a leader in photonics.

The work was carried out in the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) Laboratory in collaboration with Professor François Légaré, Director of the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre, and international colleagues Michel Hehn, Stéphane Mangin and Grégory Malinowski of the Institut Jean Lamour at the Université de Lorraine (France) and Zhengyan Li of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (China).

More information: Jingdan Liu et al, Swept coded aperture real-time femtophotography, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45820-z (open access)