# evol behav: apropos singular convergences, the case of the sea snail Elysia cholorotica; it's unique, controversial, elusive ...

<< Elysia cholorotica, a sea slug found off the U.S. East Coast, can steal photosynthetic plastids from algae and survive by basking in the sun. >>

<< It’s unique; it’s controversial; it’s elusive; it never eats, (..)  If you don’t know exactly where you’re looking and what you’re looking for, you won’t find it. >> Patrick Krug.

<< But these special slugs are becoming increasingly rare, and the small number of experts who studied them have mostly retired or have moved on to other areas. >>

Douglas Main. Solar-Powered Slugs Hide Wild Secrets-But They’re Vanishing. The photosynthetic sea slug, which lives off the U.S. East Coast, is becoming almost too rare to research. NatGeo. Jul 22, 2018.

https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/animals/2018/07/solar-powered-photosynthetic-sea-slugs-in-decline-news

https://twitter.com/NatGeo/status/1112204138841034752

FonT

Elysia cholorotica, an example of a master in the game of life  ...

# evol: inside the "KT boundary", the day the dinosaurs died

<< When I saw that, I knew this wasn’t just any flood deposit, (..) We weren’t just near the KT boundary-this whole site is the KT boundary! (..) We have the whole KT event preserved in these sediments, (..) With this deposit, we can chart what happened the day the Cretaceous died. >> Robert DePalma.

<< No paleontological site remotely like it had ever been found, and, if DePalma’s hypothesis proves correct, the scientific value of the site will be immense. >>

Douglas Preston. The Day the Dinosaurs Died. A young paleontologist may have discovered a record of the most significant event in the history of life on Earth. The New Yorker. April 8, 2019 Issue.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died    

<< When I first read it, I kept saying ‘wow, wow, wow,’ >> H. Jay Melosh.

Ryan F. Mandelbaum. Scientists Find Fossilized Fish That May Have Been Blasted by Debris From Asteroid That Ended the Dinosaur Age. Gizmodo.com Mar 29, 2019.

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-find-fossilized-fish-that-may-have-been-blas-1833671176  

William J. Broad,  Kenneth Chang. Fossil Site Reveals Day That Meteor Hit Earth and, Maybe, Wiped Out Dinosaurs. A jumble of entombed plants and creatures offers a vivid glimpse of the apocalypse that all but ended life 66 million years ago. NYT. Mar 29, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/29/science/dinosaurs-extinction-asteroid.html  

# gst: programmed cell death (apoptosis) also in algae

<< bacteria that live on single-cellular algae can cause programmed cell death. "It is the first documentation of true apoptosis via bacterial pathogens in microorganisms like algae," >>  Rebecca Case.

Study shows first evidence bacterial-induced apoptosis in algae. University of Alberta.  Mar 21, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-evidence-bacterial-induced-apoptosis-algae.html    

Anna R. Bramucci, Rebecca J. Case.
Phaeobacter inhibens induces apoptosis-like programmed cell death in calcifying Emiliania huxleyi. Scientific Reports. Volume 9, Article number: 5215 (2019) March 21.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-36847-6  

# gst geo: a model of a cascading, zig-zag fashion earthquake on weak crustal faults

<< The model confirmed that the Kaikoura earthquake involved a complex cascade of fault ruptures, which propagated in a zig-zag fashion. Propagation velocities along the individual fault systems were not unusually slow, but the complex geometry of the fault network and delays at the transitions between fault segments led to a tortuous rupture path.  >>

A surprising, cascading earthquake. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Mar 20, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-cascading-earthquake.html

<< the complex fault system operates at low apparent friction thanks to the combined effects of overpressurized fluids, low dynamic friction and stress concentrations induced by deep fault creep. >>

Thomas Ulrich, Alice-Agnes Gabriel, et al. Dynamic viability of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake cascade on weak crustal faults. Nature Comm. volume 10, Article number: 1213 (2019) Mar 14

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09125-w

# gst phyto: how cheaters are favored

<< Our data show that natural selection favors cheating rhizobia, and support predictions that rhizobia can often subvert plant defenses and evolve to exploit hosts, >> Joel Sachs.

<< The study (..) is the first to uncover cheater strains in natural populations and show how natural selection favors them. >>

Study finds natural selection favors cheaters. University of California - Riverside. Mar 19, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-natural-favors-cheaters.html

<< Legumes have mechanisms to defend against rhizobia that fail to fix sufficient nitrogen, but these data support predictions that rhizobia can subvert plant defenses and evolve to exploit hosts. >>

Kelsey A. Gano‐Cohen, Camille E. Wendlandt, et al. Interspecific conflict and the evolution of ineffective rhizobia. Ecology Letters. Mar 18, 2019 doi: 10.1111/ele.13247

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ele.13247

# gst: the auto assembly of a drop (from thermal capillary waves)

<< after single or multiple bridges form due to the presence of thermal capillary waves, the bridge growth commences in a thermal regime. Here, the bridges expand linearly in time much faster than the viscous-capillary speed due to collective molecular jumps near the bridge fronts. Transition to the classical hydrodynamic regime only occurs once the bridge radius exceeds a thermal length scale l_(T) ~ sqrt(Radius). >>

Sreehari Perumanath, Matthew K. Borg, et al. Droplet Coalescence is Initiated by Thermal Motion. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 104501 Mar 13, 2019.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.104501

Supercomputer sheds light on how droplets merge. University of Edinburgh. Mar 20, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-supercomputer-droplets-merge.html

# brain: a pause (acyclic pauses?) approach to enhance and manage creativity

AA << find that participants  with quantity incentives outperform  the high creativity production of their fixed-pay counterparts only in the second-stage task, after the incubation period. Mediation analyses suggest that quantity-incentivized participants’ propensity to try more divergent ideas in the first stage sparks their creativity advantage in the second stage. >>

Steven J. Kachelmeier, Laura W.  Wang, Michael G. Williamson. Incentivizing the Creative Process:  From Initial Quantity to Eventual Creativity. Accounting Review. 2019 March (preprint).

http://aaahq.org/Portals/0/newsroom/Incentivizing%20the%20Creative%20Process.pdf

To stoke creativity, crank out ideas and then step away.  University of Texas at Austin. Mar 22, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-stoke-creativity-crank-ideas.html  

Also

2123 - le dislocazioni pausali di Theo. Feb 26, 2007.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2007/02/2123-le-dislocazioni-pausali-di-theo.html

2107 - coll'anse d'apostrofo. Jan 14, 2007

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2007/01/2107-coll-anse-d-apostrofo.html

# brain behav: a hypothesis of 'loss of self' when they have to assume a 'fictional perspective'

In a functional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) study, AA << sought to identify brain regions preferentially activated when actors adopt a Fic1P (fictional first-person) perspective during dramatic role playing. >>

<< Compared to responding as oneself, responding in character produced global reductions in brain activity and, particularly, deactivations in the cortical midline network of the frontal lobe, including the dorsomedial and ventromedial prefrontal cortices. Thus, portraying a character through acting seems to be a deactivation-driven process, perhaps representing a 'loss of self'. >>

Steven Brown, Peter Cockett, Ye Yuan. The neuroscience of Romeo and Juliet: an fMRI study of acting. Royal Society Open Science. Mar 13, 2019 doi:.10.1098/rsos.181908

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.181908

<< It is often said that great actors lose themselves in their roles, and now a brain activity study shows that is more than just a turn of phrase. >>

Chelsea Whyte. Brain scans reveal actors lose their sense of self when acting a role. March 13, 2019.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2196303-brain-scans-reveal-actors-lose-their-sense-of-self-when-acting-a-role/amp/

# phys: a base-level fuzziness; black holes and strange metals go to extremes in some common way

<< black holes and strange metals go to extremes in some common way (..)  electrons inside a variety of ceramic crystals called "cuprates" seem to dissipate energy as quickly as possible, apparently bumping up against a fundamental quantum speed limit. >>

<<  ħ is the quantum unit of uncertainty:  an inescapable, base-level fuzziness in nature >>

Natalie Wolchover. Universal Quantum Phenomenon Found in Strange Metals.   Nov 19, 2018.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/universal-quantum-phenomenon-found-in-superconductors-20181119/

https://twitter.com/QuantaMagazine/status/1104730889500745731

A. Legros, S. Benhabib, et al. Universal T-linear resistivity and Planckian dissipation in overdoped cuprates. Nature Physics. volume 15, pages 142–147 (2019).

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-018-0334-2

# behav: a "Snack Friends Effect" (to get some pulses) also among spotted Hyenas

<< When it comes to advancing social status, it's not what you know, it's who you know-for humans and spotted hyenas alike. >>

Layne Cameron.  For hyenas, there's no 'I' in clan. Michigan State University.  Mar 11, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-hyenas-clan.html

Eli D. Strauss, Kay E. Holekamp. Social alliances improve rank and fitness in convention-based societies.  PNAS Mar 11, 2019. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1810384116.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/03/05/1810384116

Also

# life: the "Snack Friends Effect" on careers to get some pulses, by Matthew. Mar 13, 2019.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2019/03/life-friends-effect-on-careers-to-get.html

# life: the "Snack Friends Effect" on careers to get some pulses, by Matthew

<< To understand why people succeed or fail, look at their circle of friends. Like it or not, said Stanford economist Matthew Jackson, people's fates are closely connected to their human networks. >>

Melissa De Witte. How human networks drive inequality, social immobility. Stanford University. Mar 6, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-human-networks-inequality-social-immobility.html  

FonT

verosimile, tuttavia possono emergere  eccezioni; invece sara' interessante osservare (per gli ipotetici sopravviventi) come una AI (entita' a intelligenza artificiale) sapra' gestire il potere di cooptazione, in parallelo oppure in sostituzione degli "human networks" ...

Also

<< Furono proprio il carattere fondamentalmente allegro, l'esuberanza vitale, il senso dell'umorismo, l'intelligenza vivace e realistica, che permisero a Dizzy [Dizzy Gillespie] di superare meglio di ogni altro musicista del suo entourage le difficolta'  (..) >>

2110 - sbecchi di prua. Jan 18, 2007.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2007/01/2110-sbecchi-di-prua.html

# ai.bot: adaptive robotics, the beginning

<< The goal of Zhao's lab is to create small, lightweight robots that can reconfigure themselves in response to a need. "In general, if you have a robot, its mechanical structure is fixed," says Zhao [Jianguo Zhao], an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. "If we can change the mechanical structure on the fly, without redesigning the robot, this is pretty useful, especially if the robot is very small … I don't think many people are trying to do that." >>

Anne Manning. These robots are small, shape-shifting, and they adapt to their surroundings. Colorado State University. Mar 6, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-robots-small-shape-shifting.html 

https://engr.source.colostate.edu/these-robots-are-small-shape-shifting-and-they-adapt-to-their-surroundings/

# behav: how to gain a competitive advantage over larger rivals by teaming up with another species (among the beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides)

AA << report that conflict within burying beetles Nicrophorus vespilloides influences the fitness that can be gained from interacting with the mite Poecilochirus carabi. Beetles transport these mites to carrion, upon which both species breed.  >>

Syuan‐Jyun Sun, Nicholas P.C. Horrocks,  Rebecca M. Kilner. Conflict within species determines the value of a mutualism between species. Evolution Letters. Mar 6, 2019. doi: 10.1002/evl3.109.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evl3.109

<< In a study featuring a miniature 'gym' for beetles (complete with beetle treadmills), [AA] found that beetles who consistently lose out to members of their own species have the most to gain by forming a mutually-beneficial cross-species partnership. >>

Mighty mites give scrawny beetles the edge over bigger rivals. University of Cambridge. Mar 5, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-03-mighty-mites-scrawny-beetles-edge.html

# gst astro: approaches to hack a black hole (to distinguish scrambled information from noise)

paper.1

Adam Mann. Physicists May Have Found a Way to 'Untangle' Information Trapped in a Black Hole. Mar 6, 2019

https://www.livescience.com/64935-black-hole-information-paradox.html

K. A. Landsman, C. Figgatt, et al. Verified quantum information scrambling. Nature. volume 567, pages 61–65 (2019) Mar 6,  2019.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-0952-6

paper.2

Mike McRae. Physicists Want to Use Quantum Particles to Find Out What Happens Inside a Black Hole. Mar 6, 2019.

https://www.sciencealert.com/entangled-particles-could-help-reveal-the-hidden-workings-of-black-holes

Beni Yoshida, Norman Y. Yao. Disentangling Scrambling and Decoherence via Quantum Teleportation. Phys. Rev. X 9, 011006. Jan 9, 2019

https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.9.011006

# gst astro: when a superbubble can generate trains of shock waves

<< Sixty-seven million light-years away, a galaxy is blowing enormous bubbles. We know what they are. Known as nuclear superbubbles, the structures are likely created by the supermassive black hole in the galaxy's centre. Now, thanks to new data, we know something incredible is occurring inside them. >>

<< Observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory of spiral galaxy NGC 3079 have revealed that the bubbles are actually a huge cosmic particle accelerator, producing energetic high-speed particles around their edges.  >>

<< As the bubbles expand into the surrounding gas of the interstellar medium, they generate shock waves, which in turn produce tangled magnetic fields. (..)  particles ricochet around these shock magnetic fields; when they pass through the shock front, they get an acceleration boost.  >>

Michelle Starr. Astronomers Have Found 'Superbubbles' Producing Shock Waves in Another Galaxy.  Mar 4, 2019.

https://www.sciencealert.com/colossal-bubbles-blown-by-a-supermassive-black-hole-are-a-cosmic-particle-accelerator

Jiang-Tao Li, Edmund Hodges-Kluck, et al. Detection of non-thermal hard X-ray emission from the "Fermi bubble" in an external galaxy.  ApJ in press. arXiv:1901.10536v1 [astro-ph.HE] Jan 31, 2019.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.10536

# astro: quiescent black holes abound in our Galaxy

AA << results provide new circumstantial evidences for a wandering intermediate-mass black hole in the Galactic center, suggesting also that high-velocity compact clouds can be probes of quiescent black holes abound in our Galaxy. >>

Shunya Takekawa, Tomoharu Oka, et al.  Indication of Another Intermediate - mass Black Hole in the Galactic Center. arXiv: 1812.10733v1 [astro-ph.GA]  doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aafb07

https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.10733

"The Invisible Galaxy" - 100 Million Black Holes Lurking in the Milky Way (Weekend Feature). Mar 2, 2019

https://dailygalaxy.com/2019/03/the-invisible-galaxy-100-million-black-holes-lurking-in-the-milky-way-weekend-feature/

# gst phyto: an evidence for alternative transient states

AA << have discovered that plant communities follow different trajectories when they adapt to dryer conditions than when they adapt to more frequently flooded conditions. Further, in two side studies in the same experiment they found that flooding history of the vegetation alter the response of germinating seeds and of litter decomposition to the current conditions. >>

<< This is one of the most direct experimental evidence to date for alternative transient states, >> Judith Sarneel.

Plant communities do not take the same route from A to B as from B to A. Umea University. Feb 25, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-02-route.html

Judith M. Sarneel  Maria Dolores Bejarano, et al. Local flooding history affects plant recruitment in riparian zones. Journal of Vegetation Science.
doi: 10.1111/jvs.12731 Feb 3, 2019

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jvs.12731

# behav: familiarity vs. aggression (among the fish Poecilia formosa)

<< Contrary to our predictions, fish that were the most familiar with each other showed the highest levels of aggression. Additionally, fish that were less familiar with each other exhibited the highest group cohesion and took the longest to begin feeding, compared to the more familiar fish. >>

Carolina Doran, David Bierbach, Kate L. Laskowski.  Familiarity increases aggressiveness among clonal fish. Animal Behaviour. Volume 148, February 2019, Pages 153-159. doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.12.013

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347218303725?via%3Dihub

Fish with a high level of familiarity are more aggressive towards each other. Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB). Feb 19, 2019

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-02-fish-high-familiarity-aggressive.html