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Researchers worldwide are working to catalog fish sounds to better understand their behavior and the health of aquatic ecosystems. Fish produce sounds through various means, such as rubbing bony structures together or vibrating swim bladders. These sounds serve different purposes, including distress signals, aggression, and reproduction. Understanding fish sounds can help track changes in behavior due to climate change and other stressors, aid in fishery management, and support conservation efforts. Passive acoustic monitoring, or listening to underwater sounds, is an effective and non-invasive method to study fish populations and track changes in aquatic environments. By recording sounds over extended periods, researchers can gather data on fish behavior and migration patterns. This approach is more cost-effective than traditional survey methods and has the potential to provide valuable insights into the impacts of climate change and human activities on marine ecosystems. Efforts are also underway to create libraries of underwater animal sounds and develop AI-based systems to detect different calls. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study published in Current Biology reveals that a species of daddy longlegs has been found to possess four extra eyes, although these eyes do not fully develop. This discovery suggests that this particular lineage of daddy longlegs is approximately 50 million years older than previously believed. Unlike spiders, which can have up to eight eyes, daddy longlegs typically have only two eyes. However, a fossilized four-eyed daddy longlegs was described in a 2014 study, and further research has now indicated that all living daddy longlegs may possess these vestigial side-set eyes. The analysis of these eyes throughout the evolutionary history of daddy longlegs suggests that the fossilized four-eyed arachnid is older than previously estimated, with the group's last common ancestor dating back approximately 537 million years ago. [Extracted from the article]

According to a recent report published in the Lancet, the global obesity rate has reached a significant milestone, with over one billion people worldwide living with obesity as of 2022. This represents about one-eighth of the global population. The study, conducted by researchers from Imperial College London, analyzed health records from over 200 million individuals across nearly 200 countries. The findings revealed that the prevalence of obesity has doubled in women, tripled in men, and quadrupled in children and adolescents from 1990 to 2022. Factors contributing to this upsurge include limited access to healthy foods and lifestyle changes such as reduced sleep and increased stress levels. The study emphasizes the need for governments and societies to address this issue through prevention and affordable medical care. [Extracted from the article]

Scientists are proposing a new epoch called the Anthropocene, which recognizes humans as the dominant force shaping Earth's environment and climate. The International Commission on Stratigraphy formed a committee in 2009 to define the Anthropocene and determine if it deserves its own place in the geologic time scale. After considering 12 sites around the world, the committee chose Crawford Lake in Canada as a potential marker for the beginning of the Anthropocene. The lake's muddy layers provide a precise record of human activity, showing a sharp rise in signs of human impact starting in the early 1950s. However, not all scientists agree on the official definition of the Anthropocene, as some argue that human impacts began before 1950. The proposal for the Anthropocene to become an official epoch is still pending approval from additional committees. [Extracted from the article]

A recent study published in Royal Society Open Science has described a new locomotive behavior in parrots called "beakiation." Researchers observed that some parrots are able to hang from a branch with their beak, swing their body sideways, and grab hold farther along with their feet in order to move along narrow branches. The study found that this movement, while energy efficient, is not as fluid as the swinging motion observed in gibbons. The researchers hope that further study of beakiation will provide insights into the specialized climbing abilities of parrots. [Extracted from the article]

Since water plugs your ears, sound waves directly vibrate the skull. Departments Technically FictionTechnically Fiction ANIMALS Mythical mermaids like Disney's Ariel are often known for their alluring songs. When sound waves gently rattle the skull, "that is directly stimulating the inner ear - the cochlea itself", Singh says. [Extracted from the article]

News An eye drop a day could keep myopia at bay - at least temporarily. Low-dose atropine eye drops are already used to slow myopia progression in several countries in Asia. Only about 25 percent of children who took 0.05 percent atropine eye drops, roughly 30 kids, developed myopia in at least one eye, compared with about 50 percent of children who used 0.01 percent atropine or placebo eye drops, around 60 kids in each group. [Extracted from the article]

News ARCHAEOLOGY Human footprints in New Mexico's White Sands National Park sparked controversy two years ago when scientists found the prints to be surprisingly old, dating to about 22,000 years ago. The researchers also collected quartz grains from above the lowest footprint tracks and used a dating method that estimates how long the quartz had been buried. To add to their past work, Pigati and colleagues radiocarbon-dated pollen stuck in the same layers as some of the footprints. [Extracted from the article]

Scientists have studied cats' social relationships - both with other cats and humans. Gajdos-Kmecová and her colleagues watched about 100 cat videos. But it can be tricky to tell whether two cats are playing or fighting, says Noema Gajdos-Kmecová. [Extracted from the article]

The team compared those patients' outcomes with those of an equal number of patients, matched for age, sex and race, who had undergone chest surgery within that time period but kept their thymus. To look at the effects of getting rid of the gland, Scadden and colleagues examined health outcomes in 1,146 patients who had their thymus removed from 1993 to early 2020 at Mass General. News HEALTH & MEDICINE A mysterious organ that's most active in childhood might play a previously underappreciated role in adults. [Extracted from the article]

Scientists first started using the term Anthropocene in the early 2000s to refer to the ongoing time of humans altering the planet on a global scale. Out of 12 locations around the world, Crawford Lake in Milton, Canada, west of Toronto, has been selected as the site that would mark the official beginning of the Anthropocene, a proposed geologic epoch starting in the 1950s. News EARTH Scientists are one step closer to defining a new chapter in geology, one in which humans have become the dominant driver of Earth's climate and environment. [Extracted from the article]

Indeed, scientists are investigating whether the method could be used to deliver drugs in people with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The method could lead to new treatments for people with brain cancer, McKenzie Prillaman reported in "Ultrasound lets chemo into the brain" (SN: 6/3/23, p. 10). In a clinical trial, microscopic bubbles and ultrasound waves opened the nearly impenetrable blood-brain barrier to help deliver a powerful chemotherapy drug directly into the brain. [Extracted from the article]

Microscopic banded structures in the muscles of ghost catfish separate light passing through the fish's body into different wavelengths, giving the creature its iridescence, McKenzie Prillaman reported in "How a transparent fish turns rainbow" (SN: 5/6/23 & 5/20/23, p. 48). But ghost catfish muscles are so thin that light bends very little when it goes from water to muscle and back to water. Like many other kinds of fish, the ghost catfish has muscles with a molecular structure that is orderly but loosely packed, which readily lets light through. [Extracted from the article]