Green light given to fruit fly's color preference

Researchers have made two unexpected discoveries. First, they found that, given a choice, fruit flies are drawn to green light early in the morning and late in the afternoon, when they are most active, and to red, or dim light, in midday, when like many humans, they slow down to eat and perhaps take a siesta.

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Before He Spammed You, this Sly Prince Stalked Your Mailbox

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 18:53:16 +0000

A reader forwarded what he briefly imagined might be a bold, if potentially costly, innovation on the old Nigerian prince scam that asks for help squirreling away millions in unclaimed fortune: it was sent via the U.S. Postal Service, with a postmarked stamp and everything. In truth these “advance fee” or “419” scams- – so-called because they violate section 419 of the criminal code of Nigeria where many such lures originate — predate email and have circulated via postal mail in various forms and countries over the years.

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Dust from a giant asteroid crash caused an ancient ice age

About 466 million years ago, long before the age of the dinosaurs, the Earth froze. The seas began to ice over at the Earth's poles, and new species evolved with the new temperatures. The cause of this ice age was a mystery, until now: a new study argues that the ice age was caused by global cooling, triggered by extra dust in the atmosphere from a giant asteroid collision in outer space.

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Shape-shifting robot built from 'smarticles' shows new locomotion strategy

Building conventional robots typically requires carefully combining components like motors, batteries, actuators, body segments, legs and wheels. Now, researchers have taken a new approach, building a robot entirely from smaller robots known as 'smarticles' to unlock the principles of a potentially new locomotion technique.

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Learning to read boosts the visual brain

How does learning to read change our brain? Does reading take up brain space dedicated to seeing objects such as faces, tools or houses? In a functional brain imaging study, a research team compared literate and illiterate adults in India. Reading recycles a brain region that is already sensitive to evolutionarily older visual categories, enhancing rather than destroying sensitivity to other visual input.

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Rethinking scenario logic for climate policy

Current scenarios used to inform climate policy have a weakness in that they typically focus on reaching specific climate goals in 2100 – an approach which may encourage risky pathways that could have long-term negative effects. A new study presents a novel scenario framework that focuses on capping global warming at a maximum level with either temperature stabilization or reversal thereafter.

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