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The US space agency NASA on Monday released the first audio from Mars, a faint crackling recording of a gust of wind captured by the Perseverance rover. NASA also released the first video of last week's landing of the rover, which is on a mission to search for signs of past life on the Red Planet.

A microphone did not work during the rover's descent to the surface, but it was able to capture audio once it landed on Mars.

NASA engineers played a 60-second recording.

"What you hear there 10 seconds in is an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth," said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the camera and microphone system on Perseverance.

The high-definition video clip, lasting three minutes and 25 seconds, shows the deployment of a red-and-white parachute with a 70.5-foot-wide (21.5-meter-wide) canopy.

It shows the heat shield dropping away after protecting Perseverance during its entry into ...

The US space agency NASA on Monday released the first audio from Mars, a faint crackling recording of a gust of wind captured by the Perseverance rover. NASA also released the first video of last week's landing of the rover, which is on a mission to search for signs of past life on the Red Planet.

A microphone did not work during the rover's descent to the surface, but it was able to capture audio once it landed on Mars.

NASA engineers played a 60-second recording.

"What you hear there 10 seconds in is an actual wind gust on the surface of Mars picked up by the microphone and sent back to us here on Earth," said Dave Gruel, lead engineer for the camera and microphone system on Perseverance.

The high-definition video clip, lasting three minutes and 25 seconds, shows the deployment of a red-and-white parachute with a 70.5-foot-wide (21.5-meter-wide) canopy.

It shows the heat shield dropping away after protecting Perseverance during its entry into ...

Almost 80 years after its discovery, a large shell from the ornate Marsoulas Cave in the Pyrenees has been studied by a multidisciplinary team from the CNRS, the Muséum de Toulouse, the Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès and the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques-Chirac. They believe it is the oldest wind instrument of its type. The scientists have revealed how it sounds in a study published in the journal Science Advances on 10 February 2021. The Marsoulas Cave between Haute-Garonne and Ariège was the first decorated cave to be found in the Pyrenees. Discovered in 1897, the cave bears witness to the beginning of the Magdalenian culture in this region at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. During an inventory of the material from the archaeological excavations, most of which is kept in the Muséum de Toulouse, the scientists examined a large Charonia lampas (sea snail) shell, which had been largely overlooked when discovered in 1931.

The tip of the shell is broken, forming a ...

Rain falls lightly on the ocean's surface. Marine mammals chirp and squeal as they swim along. The pounding of surf along a distant shoreline heaves and thumps with metronomic regularity. These are the sounds that most of us associate with the marine environment. But the soundtrack of the healthy ocean no longer reflects the acoustic environment of today's ocean, plagued with human-created noise. A global team of researchers set out to understand how human-made noise affects wildlife, from invertebrates to whales, in the oceans, and found overwhelming evidence that marine fauna, and their ecosystems, are negatively impacted by noise. This noise disrupts their behavior, physiology, reproduction and, in extreme cases, causes mortality. The researchers call for human-induced noise to be considered a prevalent stressor at the global scale and for policy to be developed to mitigate its effects.

"The landscape of sound - or soundscape - is such a powerful indicator of the ...

The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030, henceforth the Ocean Decade) aims to galvanize the international community to acquire and apply scientific knowledge of the ocean. The Ocean Decade is specifically intended to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including its promise to “leave no one behind,” which includes coastal Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States, and will undoubtedly influence research agendas and financing well beyond 2030. This focus is captured in the phrase “the science we need for the ocean we want” (1). This first-of-its-kind UN Decade will require ambition and commitment, especially during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.

The current draft of the Ocean Decade Implementation Plan establishes a framework of outcomes, actions, and objectives, acknowledging the need for interdisciplinary approaches to design and deliver solution-oriented research alongside ...

I don’t want to die in a poemthe words burning in eulogythe sun howling whythe moon sighing why not

I don’t want to die in bedwhich is a poem gone wronga world turned in on itselfa floating navel of dreams

I won’t meet death in a fieldlike a dot punctuating a pageit’s too vast yet too tinyeveryone will say it’s a bit cinematic

I don’t want to pass away in your armsthose gentle parenthesesnor expire outside of their swoonself-propelled determined shouting

Let the end comeas the best parts of living have comeunsought and undeservedinconvenient

now that’s a good death

what nonsense you saythat’s not even worthwriting down

For scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, the night of January 3, 2004 entailed six minutes of nerve-wracking terror. Around 8:30 PM Pacific Time, the Spirit rover began its plunge to the Martian surface, as an audience of engineers and others - temporarily unable to receive any communication from the craft - waited anxiously to get confirmation of its success. Aided by a heat shield, a giant parachute, airbags, and reverse-firing rockets, the rolling robotic laboratory had to decelerate from 12,000 miles per hour to zero miles per hour, with no input from its human designers, who were nervously drumming on their desks in Pasadena. Spirit’s successful landing was a defining moment in the human exploration of Mars.

As part of projects he calls science-driven art, José Francisco Salgado created a mini-movie for each of the seven parts of Holst’s suite, which Holst had based on astrological characteristics of each world. Image credit: José ...

unforgettable though then hardly noticed greentiled ledgejust up to my right in the glistening shower stall, slightly above my openeyes, square window in it, & slender citrinelip onto which I place, gently, this first handful of hair - always I see it - the window-pane up there letting anything in and out thatwishes to passthru - so freely - drops from the steam of the showeron it, the slipping of forever & for-ever all down thepane, where, beyond the still-wet clump, all seems to shine andmurmur it’s just day, just this day, another day, filled with the onlyof this minute, this split minute, in which if Ireach now I can feelthe years, the fissure in them,these fractions here inside theinstant - oh mine - how mine - moving now sodifferently, as if entering a room with frozen fingers and they sayno you cannot warm them hereat the fire,there is no fire, there is noroom, actually there is nothing, though you canstart carving the nothing, you can test your strengthagainst the ...

Very little is known about the diversity and ecology of tree hyraxes because these animals, which look like large guinea pigs but are distant relatives of elephants, are mainly active at night in the tree canopies in Africa's tropical forests. These animals are known to be able to scream with the strength of more than one hundred decibels, but the 'strangled thwack' calls that have been recorded in Taita's forests have not been described anywhere else.

The recordings reveal that the Taita tree hyraxes sing

The tree hyrax song may continue for more than twelve minutes, and it consists of different syllables that are combined and repeated in various ways.

"The singing animals are probably males attempting to attract females that are willing to mate," postulates Hanna Rosti, who spent three months in Taita's forests, following the nocturnal mammals and recording their vocalizations.

The results suggest that the two populations of dwarf galago in the Taita ...

Very little is known about the diversity and ecology of tree hyraxes because these animals, which look like large guinea pigs but are distant relatives of elephants, are mainly active at night in the tree canopies in Africa's tropical forests. These animals are known to be able to scream with the strength of more than one hundred decibels, but the 'strangled thwack' calls that have been recorded in Taita's forests have not been described anywhere else.

The recordings reveal that the Taita tree hyraxes sing

The tree hyrax song may continue for more than twelve minutes, and it consists of different syllables that are combined and repeated in various ways.

"The singing animals are probably males attempting to attract females that are willing to mate," postulates Hanna Rosti, who spent three months in Taita's forests, following the nocturnal mammals and recording their vocalizations.

The results suggest that the two populations of dwarf galago in the Taita ...

Right now, we’re getting about eight and a half hours of daylight in the Northwoods. That’s about seven hours less than we we’re getting six months ago.It’s also eight and half more hours of light than Svalbard sees right now.Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago and where Sarah Strand has lived for the last six years.“We’re about, approximately 2,500 living on Svalbard. Most of those are in Longyearbyen where I live. It’s the main town,” said Strand.

Strand and I met when we were both interns at Denali National Park in the summer of 2014.

She’s completed her graduate program on Svalbard and is currently working on her PhD studying permafrost.“Most of my fieldwork is in the late summer/early fall,” said Strand. “Basically, it’s the most convenient time to check our equipment. I work with temperature data that’s coming from bore holes in the ground.”While great for studying permafrost, Svalbard’s weather and climate can be harsh on humans.The average temperature in ...

Right now, we’re getting about eight and a half hours of daylight in the Northwoods. That’s about seven hours less than we we’re getting six months ago.It’s also eight and half more hours of light than Svalbard sees right now.Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago and where Sarah Strand has lived for the last six years.“We’re about, approximately 2,500 living on Svalbard. Most of those are in Longyearbyen where I live. It’s the main town,” said Strand.

Strand and I met when we were both interns at Denali National Park in the summer of 2014.

She’s completed her graduate program on Svalbard and is currently working on her PhD studying permafrost.“Most of my fieldwork is in the late summer/early fall,” said Strand. “Basically, it’s the most convenient time to check our equipment. I work with temperature data that’s coming from bore holes in the ground.”While great for studying permafrost, Svalbard’s weather and climate can be harsh on humans.The average temperature in ...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sweep across the globe, the media and the general public are turning to biomedical scientists in hopes of quick remedies. And while terms such as “contact tracing,” “convalescent plasma,” and “PCR testing” become part of our daily vocabulary, a new spotlight has been shone on the importance of academic scientists in the fight for human healthcare and well-being. Yet, for years, few have acknowledged the lack of appreciation experienced by science’s primary workforce: graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Many scientist trainees in academia strive in vain for a sustainable career path. Their plight is well known, and yet trainees still struggle with poor living and working conditions. It's a plight made worse by the pandemic and recently implemented immigration restrictions. Image credit: Dave Cutler (artist).

Indeed, to anticipate and prevent the next pandemic, biomedical science must provide its labor force with the ...

When European settlers began arriving to eastern North America in the 16th century, they were met by staggering numbers of seabirds. One of the world's most abundant is the Leach's storm petrel, which forages at sea during the day. At night, after the birds had returned to the breeding colony en masse, the settlers would likely have heard a cacophony of witch-like cackling.

In the French archipelago of St. Pierre and Miquelon, just off the southern coast of what is now known as Newfoundland, these sailors noted an enormous colony of storm petrels. They described the vast flocks as "colombiers," the French term for the pigeon houses common in Europe at the time, and named the island Grand Colombier.

Seabird colonies like these are especially vulnerable to human activities, and are thought to be in rapid decline today. But the scientists who are trying to conserve species at risk of being lost are often left asking, "How have these populations been changing?" and ...

Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, US science leaders and others have expressed frustration with the lack of an informed and coherent federal response, a sentiment that echoes objections to the handling of other pressing issues, such as climate change. Writing in BioScience, an assemblage of the past presidents of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) have issued an appeal for the reinvigoration of sound policy and governance through the careful consideration of sound science. This effort represents the culmination of decades of service on behalf of informed policymaking. "AIBS has long stood for the use of science to promote informed decision-making based on the best available evidence. We have helped secure new resources for science and education, defeated antiscience initiatives, and promoted integrity in the use of scientific information to make research funding decisions," write the authors. In addition, they highlight the importance of ...

Wrinkle-faced bats not only have the most convoluted faces of any bat species, the males also have a flap of furry white skin they can pull over their lower faces, not unlike the face masks people wear. In a new report published in PLOS ONE, Smithsonian researchers and colleagues describe the first observations of courtship in this species. "This was an incredibly lucky encounter with these rarely observed 'masked seducers,'" said Marco Tschapka, a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute from the University of Ulm.

In September 2018, on a night walk in San Ramon, Costa Rica, two nature guides noticed several "ugly" bats hanging from some low branches near a trail. They called friends who know about bats, who, in turn, called their professor, Bernal Rodríguez-Herrera at the University of Costa Rica.

"Most people think all bats are ugly, so I didn't take the report very seriously at first, but when they sent photos, we realized that these ...

The current pandemic, the subsequent lockdown, and the postlockdown flurry to return to normalcy will have vital positive and negative consequences for biodiversity conservation in places such as the dense forests in the northeast Indian state of Sikkim, pictured here. A world biodiversity hotspot, the Eastern Himalayan region in northeast India has recently been the focus of some debate regarding the compliance of environmental regulations in development projects such as construction of roads and hydroelectric power stations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is the latest episode in a string of environment-borne human tragedies, catastrophic in its magnitude, reach, and repercussions. Understandably, the scientific literature has focused on the causes and consequences of the pandemic from an anthropocentric viewpoint. As immense as the human tragedy surrounding the pandemic is, the glaring blind spot is the ecological impact of the pandemic and the ...

Until now, scientists believed the male fin whale sings just one song pattern, which is unique to the males in his particular group - but new research has blown this theory out of the water. The study, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, suggests that these endangered deep-sea giants actually sing multiple different songs, which may spread to different parts of the ocean through migrating individuals. Understanding the complexity of fin whale song provides new insights into how their populations move and change over time, helping efforts to better protect and manage the world's second largest mammal. "There is still a lot of uncertainty around the fin whale population size and structure in the North Pacific, and so learning about the song could help us understand population dynamics in this region much better", says Dr. Tyler Helble of the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, United States. "Male fin whales in the Pacific sing just two very low notes, which are ...

Mammals underwent an adaptive radiation shortly after the acquisition of several morphological characters in their dentition and jaw. Most of these innovations evolved to facilitate more efficient food processing. The double-rooted molariforms with a specialized crown are one such innovation, but their role in the early diversification of mammals has remained poorly understood. This study shows a comprehensive analysis of an early mammaliaform dentary, which combines data from comparative anatomy, CT scanning, and FEA. The new fossil fills an important gap in our understanding of mammaliaform evolution showing a transitional stage between triconodont-like molariform pattern of morganucodontids and multicusped pattern of haramiyidans. Moreover, this study demonstrates that double-rooted teeth are more resistant to bite-related stresses than single-rooted teeth.

Synapsids are unique in having developed multirooted teeth and complex occlusions. These innovations evolved in ...

Living organisms aren't the only things that evolve over time. Cultural practices change, too, and in recent years social scientists have taken a keen interest in understanding this cultural evolution. Much research has focused on psychological factors among individuals, like how our visual system constrains the shape of written characters. But environmental factors like availability of materials or physical space likely play a role, too, says Helena Miton, a Complexity Postdoctoral Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. Although researchers in the field generally acknowledge the influence of the environment on cultural shifts, she says, the effects have never been investigated experimentally.

To tease out those influences, Miton recently designed a series of experiments - using three identical drums and over 100 participants - to investigate the influence of material constraints on the development of culture. She and her collaborators described the experiment and their ...