I was surprised how many of these I had read this year, I had no idea I was keeping up on discoveries in 2022! I don't know what the heck I've been reading to have noticed so many.
My favorite has to be the one that some spiders might dream. "Jumping spiders rapidly move their eyes and twitch during rest, suggesting they have visual dreams, never before observed in arachnids."
The runner up is either a new world record for largest freshwater fish, a 661-pound river sting ray, OR, finding the new global record-holder of the tiniest land snail title, with a shell width of 0.6–0.68 mm and a shell height of 0.46–0.57 mm
I don’t get why a 17th century Spanish shipwreck, a whole 200 years after the discovery of the new world, can be considered one of the greatest discoveries of the year. Can someone who understands this domain explain the significance?
I'm swingin' blindly here, but I'd say that first, it's on the other side of the new world, and depending on how early in the 17th century, may represent one of the earliest points of contact between the Spanish and the PNW. Their first official voyage was in the 18th century, I believe. So aside from the possibility of Francis Drake making it that far North earlier (which is another fascinating rabbit hole), this seems to be solid proof of a theory/rumor/legend that now has some supporting evidence.
It's a bit of an outsized local legend among shipwrecks and also the inspiration for the pirate wreck in The Goonies. Oregonian treasure hunters tried to find it for a long time before treasure hunting was banned.
Fantastic read! I did not know about many of these discoveries. My general thought process was that science has somewhat stagnated but this article proves me completely wrong. Not only are we discovering new species but we are pushing the boundaries of medical research (keeping organs alive after death!) We are also learning more and more about prehistoric stuff like new Homo species and death of dinosaurs and rediscovering plants thought to be extinct! Wow, I am left amazed.
Bobcat vs. Python - I get a bit skeezed out when "scientists" start assigning agency to animals like, "local fauna fighting back". I don't think the particular bobcat in this case, or bobcat's generally, are thinking beyond the fact that there's a package lunch sitting there. Seriously doubt they're rallying behind an anti-colonialist banner to oust the snakes, which btw, have been there far longer than any given bobcat has been alive.
> The researchers induced cardiac arrest in pigs and left the dead bodies at room temperature for an hour before infusing their blood with OrganEx, which contains amino acids, vitamins, metabolites, and 13 additional compounds. Using a machine, they circulated the mix for six hours and noticed signs of revival in the dying organs—heart cells began beating, liver cells absorbed glucose from blood, and DNA repair resumed.
To me it doesn't sound that the pig was cut into pieces. It reads to me that everything was left in place.
The Soviets did this experiment with severed dog heads. They pumped blood through it and performed experiments like putting acidic lemon juice on its nose to see how it reacted.
They noted that the dog appeared to be in extreme pain, but otherwise reacted normally.
1.5 billions hogs are killed a year to feed the human race according to the Google, a huge percentage of which I’m sure ends up as waste (uneaten and unsold). This seems like a noble pursuit by comparison.
Society at large is comfortable with the wholesale slaughter of animals for our benefit.
Please don't trivialize hogs by calling them pigs. 'Pig' is a diminutive term derived from "piglet". Calling a hog a 'pig' is like calling a man a 'boy'.
If you really want to show respect, then call them swine.
> From Middle English pigge (“pig, pigling”) (originally a term for a young pig, with adult pigs being swyn), apparently from Old English picga (attested only in compounds, such as picgbrēad (“mast, pig-fodder”)), from Proto-West Germanic piggō, puggō (“piglet”). Compare Middle Dutch pogge, puggen, pigge, pegsken (“pigling”), Middle Low German pugge, pûke (“piglet”). The word applied to an immature animal rapidly gaining weight, so it probably derives from the verb "to big" (build, increase), from Middle English biggen, byggen, from Old Norse byggja, byggva (“to build”), from Proto-Germanic būwijaną (“to build”), from PIE bʰuH- (“to become, to grow”). Pokorny suggests this root might be somehow related to bū-, bew- (“to blow; swell”), which could account for the alternation between "pig" and "big".*
> A connection to early modern Dutch bigge (contemporary big (“piglet”)), West Frisian bigge (“pigling”) and similar terms in Middle Low German is sometimes proposed, "but the phonology is difficult".[1] Some sources say the words are "almost certainly not" related,[2] others consider a relation "probable, but not certain".[3]
IACUCs, the animal version of IRBs, evaluate the potential benefits to both human and animal welfare compared to the suffering of the animals in question - and that a minimum of animals are being used.
It's very possible the argument is that this research outweighs the cost of life for these animals.
It's also possible this was effectively going to happen anyway. Research animals are often, by law, culled rather than sold or the like, and many researchers do their best to ensure that their sacrifice is not wasted. If they are going to be euthanized anyway, they may be directed to a project like this.
My favorite has to be the one that some spiders might dream. "Jumping spiders rapidly move their eyes and twitch during rest, suggesting they have visual dreams, never before observed in arachnids."
The runner up is either a new world record for largest freshwater fish, a 661-pound river sting ray, OR, finding the new global record-holder of the tiniest land snail title, with a shell width of 0.6–0.68 mm and a shell height of 0.46–0.57 mm