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Rodent Regret

Boy, do I regret eating that last cheese stick.

Sometimes a decision is made that should not have been made (I’m looking at you, weekend in Cabo). Perhaps there was a better decision, one that wouldn’t fill you with woeful self-loathing whenever you think about it. Humans in particular demonstrate a strong desire to avoid feeling regret. It seems humans are not the only species to feel this way, as a recent study bluntly titled “Mice Learn to Avoid Regret” found that mice can also hate themselves for their ill-conceived failings.

Further, they make decisions to avoid future scenarios that may induce regret. This is the first time the behavior has been observed in nonhuman studies. As one researcher stated, “We separated principal commitment decisions from secondary reevaluation decisions across space and time and found evidence for regret-like behaviors following change-of-mind decisions that corrected prior economically disadvantageous choices.” At least now we know humans aren’t the only animal to regret their “economically disadvantageous choices.”

Cocoa Currency

Photos iStockphoto.com

When you’re a child, a Kit Kat bar is likely more appealing than a crisp $20 bill. And, now that some of us have grown up ... Well, it’s still not a very easy choice. As it turns out, though, there was a time when the two were essentially the same to certain cultures.

A recent study claims that, in Mayan times, chocolate was used for payment. According to anthropologist David Freidel, chocolate was “almost certainly used as a currency,” as the ancient Maya did not use coins.

Interestingly enough, the growth of chocolate as a currency may have ultimately been a poor decision, as a drought (and subsequent loss of cacao) might have caused economic turmoil, leading to the ultimate collapse of Mayan civilization. A sketchy form of currency that fluctuates extremely in worth and demand? Surely that could never exist nowadays.

The Dangers of Dining on Armadillo

Courtesy CDC

This illustration depicts a photomicrograph of a specimen derived from a patient’s lepromatous skin lesion, and reveals the presence of numerous Mycobacterium leprae bacteria.

Leprosy, a debilitating disease, is known in ancient legends mainly for its contagiousness and its ability to separate people from their appendages. The disease is largely on the decline across the globe, except in several Amazonian countries including Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. What do these areas have in common, aside from a higher incidence of leprosy? Armadillos.

A recent study conducted in the Amazon basin concluded that 62 percent of armadillos in the area carry Mycobacterium leprae, the bacteria that causes leprosy. This is concerning for local residents, as more than 60 percent reported regularly eating, handling, or hunting the well-armored mammal. Since the disease is readily transmissible from armadillo to human, it may not come as a surprise that chowing down on the hearty little creatures is a great way to catch whatever disease they’re keeping tucked inside their armor-plated shells.

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If I Could Only Grow a Brain...

Photo courtesy of Muotri Lab/UC San Diego

To study the brains of Neanderthals, researchers have mainly focused on analyzing fossilized skulls to infer what they might have contained. However, a team at the University of California, San Diego is employing a new tactic: growing Neanderthal minibrains in a lab. At the UCSD “Imagination and Human Evolution” conference, geneticist Alysson Muotri, Ph.D., revealed that his team had used stem cells containing Neanderthal DNA and the genome editor CRISPR to create pea-sized lumps that could mimic the brain’s cortex.

For the experiment, the team focused on the protein-coding gene NOVA1, which likely helped produce more than 100 proteins in Neanderthal brains. It takes months to grow a minibrain from Neanderthal stem cells and the results have not yet been officially published. However, Muotri and his team think that the study could shed light on the links between the human and Neanderthal brain. Plus, many academics hope that this new brain-growing tactic could help Scarecrow achieve his dream of having a brain.

Curing Colt Cavities

Photo Wikimedia Commons/Montanabw

While we may always dread that occasional trip to the dentist, the practice of oral care has definitely improved over its long history. Dentistry itself dates back to 2600 BC, where the firstever reference to dental work was made. However, we know what you’re thinking, “But when did horse dentistry get started?” Admit it, that’s exactly what you were thinking.

According to researchers, horse dentistry may have dated back to 3,200 years ago, when Mongolian pastoralists attempted to remove teeth from the animals in order to utilize metal bits. The researchers, who published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also made a connection between this discovery and the dawn of mounted battles and longer travel in certain Asian civilizations soon after.

You have to admit, it’s not often that you get the opportunity to read a story that teaches you the early history of equestrian dental hygiene. Well, now you have something to talk about at your next dinner party.

Grease Me Up, Scotty

Photo Pixabay

The Milky Way is one of the most magnificent sights in the universe. In addition to housing our very own solar system, the Milky Way is extremely large, as it has been discovered that an entire trip across the galaxy would take, at light speed, a total of 200,000 years. Well, that’s not the only recent discovery about the Milky Way as, much like a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, it is large, beautiful, and covered in grease.

But how much of this “space grease” is out there gunking up the beauty of the universe? According to a recently published paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, it’s at the very least known that there’s enough grease that your spaceship would need a trip to the carwash.

Thankfully, due to the solar wind, experts don’t expect the grease to have any major effects on our own solar system. This is great news, as this solar system already has plenty enough grease in our restaurants, meals, and arteries.

All-Sparrow Cover Band

Photo by Robert Lachlan, Queen Mary University of London

Throughout history, humans have passed down stories from generation to generation. But we’re not the only species with this tradition. Researchers at Duke University found a species of bird that has passed their songs down for hundreds of years. In fact, one of the authors, Robert Lachlan, went so far as to claim, “According to the models, some of the songs could go back as far as the Vikings.”

The team developed a mathematical model to simulate how each new song spread within groups in order to establish how young sparrows decide which songs to learn. After recording the songs of 615 male swamp sparrows across New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, the researchers estimate that some song types have persisted among the species for at least 500 years. They also found that sparrows were able to match the notes and patterns of the songs 98 percent of the time. However, there is now some debate among the sparrow community as the younger generation is choosing to play Songbird Hero rather than practice their actual songs.

The Science of the Invisibility Cloak

Photo: Mohamed Seghilani and Luis Romero Cortés, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique

Cloaking technology and invisibility have long been plot devices for the sciencefiction and fantasy genres. Everyone from Harry Potter to The Avengers have utilized the technology for their own needs. Now, researchers from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in Montreal have successfully rendered an object invisible to broadband light, using a new technique called “spectral cloaking.”

By using a cloaking device that can change the light’s frequency, researchers were able to manipulate light into moving around a target object before passing through another filter to return it to its original frequency. Essentially, the light bends around the target object instead of interacting with it. However, the technology will most likely be applied to security rather than helping Harry and friends sneak around Hogwarts.

Game Over, Man!

Photo Erinn P. Fagan-Jeffries

Imagine you’re a cuddly caterpillar, just inching along, living your best life. Suddenly, a swarm of black fury attacks from all sides, needle-like ovipositors jabbing wildly at your soft belly. In a few weeks a new wave will emerge, chewing its way to the fresh air on the other side of your sternum. Sound like a nightmare? It’s the true life journey of a caterpillar injected by the deadly and newly discovered species of Australian black wasp, Dolichogenidea xenomorph.

Named in honor of the fictional creature from the 1979 film Alien, the wasp must deposit its eggs into a sacrificial host in order to complete its life cycle. The wasp larvae then devour their host from the inside, leaving the wounded caterpillar alive to act as a zombie bodyguard for their nest. Of the thousands of species of parasitic wasps around the globe, none are capable of injecting their eggs into human hosts. Which is unfortunate, because I would love to get my hands on one of those zombie bodyguards for my shelf of the fridge.