Science Illustrated

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TURTLE CLEANSING Shell scheme: sea turtle gets a deep cleanse Sea turtles often have to put up with algae and barnacles that settle on their shells and stay there. The uninvited guests are not dangerous to the turtle in themselves, but if the layer is allowed to grow, it can increase water resistance, making it harder for the turtle to swim, leading to exhaustion. Luckily, there are special fish keen to help out, offering a kind of underwater wellness treatment. The fish ‘earn’ their living by cleaning turtles and other creatures suffering from similar growths. In this photograph, they are treating an olive ridley sea turtle in Mexico’s Cabo Pulmo national marine park. › Photo // Henley Spiers HIMALAYA Peak district: Himalaya range photographed from space This image was taken on 8 February 2023 from the…

NATURE The US supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, is a sleeping giant. If it erupts without warning, an estimated 90,000 people will be killed instantly, and the eruption is predicted to produce a 3km-high ash cloud that will spread across 1600 kilometres, cooling the entire planet. The Yellowstone supervolcano is one of the world’s biggest. It has had three large eruptions in the past 2.1 million years, with the current caldera (the crater formation left after a previous volcanic eruption) formed by the most recent big eruption 631,000 years ago. Since then around 80 mostly non-explosive eruptions have occurred. Needless to say, the Yellowstone supervolcano is one of the most monitored and analysed volcanoes in the world. And now scientists from the University of California have determined that the volcano seems…

EVOLUTION A tiny marine creature less than 1.5cm long could rewrite the story ofhow brains developed, and help to settle a long-term disagreement. So claim the scientists who examined 525-million-year-old fossils found in China and discovered what they think is the world’s oldest sample of brain tissue. The fossils include the remains of a worm-like arthropod, Cardiodictyon catenulum, embedded in rock from Yunnan province in South-Eastern China. With a length of 1.5cm, the fossil was too small to examine with X-rays, so the scientists instead used a special imaging technique that filters light of different wavelengths, mapping the structure of the fossil. The surprise was to find that the brain of the tiny ancient creature that roamed the ocean floor so long ago had been conserved, and that it was comprised of…

HUMANS Insomnia feels like a curse for those left tossing and turning as they try to fall asleep. Such problems can be not only frustrating, but also harmful to the brain, as revealed in last issue’s article on sleep. Scientists from the US University of Washington have been using bracelets to monitor the sleep patterns of 507 university students over a period of three years. They have published their results in the journal Pineal Research. The bracelets allowed scientists not only to monitor the sleep patterns of their subjects but also to examine their exposure to light during the day. And this is the factor confirmed as critical in governing how quickly the brain surrenders to the build-up of the sleep molecule adenosine. The data revealed that the students enjoyed about the same…

NATURE Ant larvae metamorphose into adults by pupating. It was assumed that these inert pupae don’t play any role in the wider ant colony, but a team of researchers have now found the pupae themselves secrete a fluid that is consumed by both adult ants and larvae. This ‘moulting fluid’ is rich in proteins and metabolites, and appears to be an important source of larval nutrition. The study was led by scientists at New York’s Rockefeller University, with the results published in the journal Nature. They found that ant pupae secrete a nourishing liquid that contributes to keeping both larvae and adult ants alive. Young larvae exhibit stunted growth and decreased survival without access to the moulting fluid, which is not only rich in nutrients but also contains hormones and neuroactive substances.…