Popular Science

I’m writing this very sentence while sitting in a so-called “body doubling” session. On an open Zoom screen are the friendly, if focused, faces of fellow writers. Cameras are on, audio is muted, and I know we’re all working on similar tasks. That’s because we’ve shared our to-do list in the chat. When the hour wraps up, we’ll celebrate what we’ve accomplished and move on with our days. 

Body doubling—a focus technique where friends, colleagues, or classmates work alongside one another to stay on task or power through difficult work—is fairly new to me. But the concept has been floating around the internet for years. It took off during the pandemic as we sat at home, struggled to focus, needed a little accountability, or just wanted to see some friendly faces. It’s especially touted in the neurodivergent community, including among those with ADHD, as a way to direct attention toward a task they’re not excited about.

But body doubling isn’t a quick fix for everybody, Will Canu, a licensed psychologist and psychology professor at Appalachian State University, tells Popular Science. Canu’s research interests include attention-deficit disorders, and he was one of the founders of AsUR, Appalachian State’s intensive student support program for, primarily, first and second-year students with executive functioning challenges. The program helps students build new academic habits and self-management skills to navigate the college transition and to support long-term academic success.

Body doubling works for some, and there are plausible scientific reasons why, Canu says. But that doesn’t mean it’s a hack that solves every focus challenge, whether the individual has ADHD or not. 

“Some people with ADHD may actually do worse body doubling than by being by themselves and reducing distraction,” Canu says. “It may really be something that depends a lot on who you are.” 

What is body doubling? 

Exactly what constitutes body doubling depends on who you’re talking to. For Canu, it’s intentionally having a partner who is there to help facilitate your work. “Not necessarily actively,” he says. They’re “not giving you tips” he adds, “but being there with you and not being distracting.” 

Russell Ramsay, a clinical psychologist who specializes on adults with ADHD and co-founded the University of Pennsylvania’s Adult ADHD Treatment and Research Program, sees body doubling a bit more broadly. It could include classmates in a study group, walking buddies, personal trainers at the gym, or people trading services, such as “I’ll help you clean out your closet if you help me clean out my garage,” Ramsay tells Popular Science.

People practice body doubling in various ways, including virtually or in person. A growing industry of apps, such as Focusmate and Focus Space, along with live streamers on social media, also market themselves as a way to boost productivity with others. 

Why body doubling might work

While headlines swirl around body doubling, there aren’t any large, randomized trials to show it works. “Despite the theoretical possibility of this being something that’s beneficial, we don’t have evidence that it is, besides anecdotal evidence,” Canu says. That gap prompted him to study the question a few years ago. 

During the 2022 to 2023 academic year, Canu and fellow researchers added a few questions about body doubling to a larger survey of 1,600 students across seven college campuses. About 10 percent had ADHD. Their research found that while some with ADHD preferred to work with someone else, the boost in performance wasn’t huge and they weren’t seeking it out more than students without ADHD. 

The two groups, however, differed in why they wanted to work with others. For students with ADHD, accountability was the top reason to study with another person, the research found. Those without ADHD were more likely to say it made studying more fun, or that they simply had someone available to lean on for help if needed. 

Around 8.4 percent of children and 2.5 percent of adults experience ADHD, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Video: What is ADHD? | APA, @AmericanPsychiatricAssociation

Some theories exist around why body doubling might work for some of us. For example, Ramsay notes, body doubling draws on the fact that we’re a social species. It works by externalizing motivation, turning a private intention into a shared plan. That social commitment, plus the anticipation of meeting someone, can create a kind of dopamine “wave” that pushes people through tasks. 

“A little bit of face time and that social contract helps,” Ramsay says. 

Tips for a body doubling session

Does body doubling sound like something you want to try? Here are some tips about how to get started. 

1. Pick the right partner: Look for someone who will work during the session and not spend the hour chatting. Finding partners who do similar work, such as a classmate or co-worker, can help. If you get stuck, your partner is more likely to understand the task and normalize the struggle.

2. Create a simple structure: Start with a quick check-in where each person states a specific, actionable goal for the session. Work quietly for a defined period, then end with a quick debrief on what got done. Regularly scheduled sessions and clear time boundaries—a set block, such as an hour—can keep tasks manageable and sustainable, Ramsay says. 

3. Evaluate honestly: Don’t expect body doubling to work for you, Canu advises. Try it a few times, and then evaluate the results honestly. Did you actually focus better and get more done? Or were you more distracted, drained, or resentful?  

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Body doubling isn’t for everyone

Canu worries that people, especially those with ADHD, will see the hype around body doubling, assume it’s a proven solution to work on undesirable tasks and then either skip better-supported treatments or feel discouraged if it doesn’t work for them.

“What bothers me is that it’s described by some as being this kind of miraculous thing, and everyone with ADHD should do it,” Canu says.

If it works, great, he says. But if you’re still struggling with getting a task done, other approaches work well and even better. Canu points to evidence-supported strategies such as breaking big tasks into smaller chunks, working at your own optimal time of day, and using low or no-cost timers or apps, such as Pomodoro-style tools, that reward sustained focus.

“There are lots of other things that you can do to maximize your effectiveness,” he says. 

For me, some days a body doubling session is exactly what I need. Other days, I just need to step away from the computer and take a walk to get back on track. And that’s fine too.  

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

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In 2025, paleogeologists announced the discovery of the world’s oldest known asteroid impact. Trace evidence of the strike is still standing in northwest Australia, and the team estimated the region known as the North Pole Dome (NPD) formation dated back around 3.5 billion years ago.

However, the timeline needs to be corrected a bit after months of further analysis. But at roughly 3 billion years old, however, the asteroid strike still remains the most ancient example of a cataclysmic interstellar event on Earth. The details are laid out in a study published today in the journal Geology and hinge on miniscule trace minerals.

“The impact left a ‘mineral clock’ behind. By dating minerals that were remade or newly grown in the damaged rocks, we can now pin down when this extraordinary event happened,” Chris Kirkland, a Curtin University planetary scientist and study co-author, said in a statement.

Kirkland explained the central evidence resides in the tiny, resilient mineral called zircon. At the NPD structure, some traces exhibited unique, skeletal shapes indicating they formed under extreme conditions.

“We interpret these as impact-modified crystals, formed when older zircon was disrupted, partly recrystallised, and in places regrown during the intense heating caused by the impact,” he said. These zircon crystals point to an event about three billion years ago, which is their best estimate so far about the age of the impact.

To further solidify their theory, Kirkland and colleagues also looked at apatite. This second mineral only forms while hot fluids transfer through rocks damaged by shocks. The dates on the apatite and zircon aligned within the same 3 billion-year-old window.

“The agreement between two different mineral systems gives us confidence that we are seeing the signature of a single major event—a meteorite impact,” said Kirkland.

The evidence reinforces the NPD structure as the oldest asteroid impact ever discovered. It also remains the only asteroid impact confirmed from the Archean Era about 4–2.5 billion years agoTKTK. The rarity of such ancient events is owed to Earth’s ever-shifting geology. Although imperceptible to humans, the planet’s rocky surface and interior are constantly influenced by immense pressure, heat, and fluids. This means that particularly ancient evidence like the NPD impact almost never survives to the present-day.

“This discovery pushes Earth’s impact record deeper into geological time than any previously well-dated crater, offering a rare glimpse of the violent processes that shaped the early Earth,” said Kirkland.

Although the oldest known to researchers, the NPD structure is far from the most famous. The Chicxulub impactor struck Earth much more recently, about 66 million years ago. And while that doesn’t earn it any timeline records, it is largely responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs.

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In yet another lesson about the great circle of life, Sandy and Luna are getting ready to leave the nest. Over the weekend, Luna began going out further on one of the tree limbs surrounding the nest. Called the “front porch,” this limb does not have any nest underneath to protect the birds, so exploring it can be a bit dangerous. Sandy also briefly stepped out on the front porch, before getting her talon stuck on a twig that appeared to put her off balance. However, Sandy did get in some good wing tests. 

While preparing to fledge, the pair are flapping their wings frequently. 

“While Shadow was playing a little hide and seek in the quiet of the Twin Pines, Luna was busy displaying a close-up demonstration of his wing’s ability on the back porch of the nest,” Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) writes. “Sandy practiced her wingers on the front porch all while firmly gripping her talons on the branches. Luna, however, could not pass up another chance to show off his beautiful wing for the camera.”

Both eagles are right on target to fledge, and will keep venturing out further on the branches to test out winds and build their confidence.  Sandy and Luna will turn 11 weeks old this weekend and Big Bear eagle chicks generally fledge at around 13 weeks, give or take a few days. Based on past eaglets, they may return to the nest for food, sleep, or a little hang out from time to time. They also generally stay near parents Jackie and Shadow for about one month, learning how to fish and be adult eagles.

Jackie and Shadow’s 2026 babies: Everything you need to know

It’s been another roller coaster nesting season for Jackie and Shadow, a pair of internet-famous bald eagle parents living in San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. After two of their eggs were destroyed by ravens in January, Jackie and Shadow laid two new eggs that have successfully hatched.

Chick 1 hatched on April 4 at 9:33 p.m. PDT, while Chick 2 followed on April 5 at 8:30 a.m. Their large nest in Big Bear Valley east of Los Angeles is livestreamed 24 hours a day by nonprofit Friends of Big Bear Valley (FOBBV) and has captivated millions. 

On May 1, FOBBV announced the chicks’ names: Sandy and Luna.

How long will the chicks stay in the nest? 

Chicks usually stay in the nest until 10 to 14 weeks of age.

What challenges do the eaglets face?

Before leaving the nest, the chicks face threats from other birds of prey, including hawks, ravens, other eagles, and owls. Inclement weather can also present challenges for the chicks. In 2025, a March snowstorm resulted in the death of one of Jackie and Shadow’s three chicks.

During fledging, only 70 percent of eaglets survive. One of the greatest threats is from cars that can injure or kill the birds while they scavenge for food on roadkill. 

Who are Jackie and Shadow? 

The pair first got together in 2018 and successfully raised chicks in 2019 and 2022. However, their eggs failed to hatch in 2023 and 2024. Only 50 percent of eagle eggs successfully hatch, so this pair has already beaten the odds.

What happened to Jackie and Shadow’s 2025 eaglets?

In 2025, Jackie laid three eggs that all hatched in early March. On March 13, a strong snowstorm dumped up to two feet of snow and battered the nest with strong winds. Only two of the chicks were visible on the live cam when the storm passed by the next morning. FOBBV later confirmed the passing of one of the chicks. The two surviving chicks were later named Sunny and Gizmo after 54,000 names were submitted by fans.

What happens after chicks fledge? 

Young eagles usually fledge–or leave the nest and fly–when they can flatten their wings and have feathers capable of flight. This typically occurs when the birds hit 10 to 14 weeks of age. Males also tend to take their first flight a little sooner than females. 

According to FOBBV, fledglings from Southern California have been spotted as far south as Baja California, as far north as British Columbia, and as far east as Yellowstone National Park.

About 70 percent of bald eagles survive the fledgling stage. FOBBV does not tag their eagles, so it’s not possible to follow the chicks’ journeys after they flee the nest.

Can I help Jackie and Shadow?

Yes. Environmental groups are currently fundraising $10 million to protect Jackie and Shadow’s foraging area from development. Learn more at SaveMoonCamp.org.

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Researchers have officially solved a shipwreck mystery that has plagued historians for nearly 30 years—the identity of a ship discovered off the southern coast of England in 1995. The ship is the ill-fated Dutch trading ship Dom van Keulen, which left Morocco for the Netherlands in the fall of 1633 with a hefty cargo that included more than 9,000 gold coins. But just before reaching home, the ship sank off the coast of England. The ship’s identity and its legacy are detailed in a new book From Morocco to the Coast of England: The Story of the Dom van Keulen and its Remarkable Cargo. 

Historian Ian Friel uncovered documents chronicling the Dom van Keulen’s final voyage in the United Kingdom’s National Archives. The crew “met with much tempestuous weather,” and the ship eventually sprang a leak. The large ship wrecked near the coastal town of Salcombe, 30 miles southwest of Plymouth.  

Luckily, all of the crew survived, and most of the cargo was likely salvaged shortly after the sinking. According to Dave Parham, a marine archeologist at Bournemouth University who helped edit the new book, the ship was loaded with 150 bags of gum arabic (a tree gum used in thickening), 64 bags of saltpeter (used in gunpowder), 320 goat skins, and 9,000 Barbary ducats and other gold Moroccan coins.

These coins and goods originated from the Barbary Coast (present-day Morocco). In the 16th and 17th centuries, Dutch merchants actively traded manufactured goods for pure West African gold from the Sa’dian Sharifs. This Arab Sharifian dynasty ruled Morocco between 1549 and 1659. Around the same time, the Netherlands had a large maritime industry and a global trading empire that spanned five continents. Dutch officials melted down the West African gold to make their own coins, which became one of the most widely accepted trade currencies in the world.

A diver above the wreck site with cannons below on the sea bed. Image: Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST).

400 of the ship’s gold coins remained embedded in the seabed until 1995, when a team from the South West Maritime Archaeology Group discovered the wreck. 

The coins themselves provide “important context for the wealth and architecture of the Sa‘dian Sharifs, the trade in African gold, and tangible evidence of the flourishing 17th-century maritime trade linking Morocco, the Low Countries, and Britain,” Parham added in a statement.

Other recovered artifacts include: a pewter bowl and spoon, a ceramic sounding weight shaped as a pilchard, stamp seal, and finger nugget. Image: British Museum.

According to the team, very little is known about theDom van Keulen’s size and appearance, and no known paintings of the ship exist. The wreck site itself is about 98 feet-long and is about 60 feet below the surface. The wreck site is still littered with cannons, anchors, and other small items of cargo. The British Museum owns several items from the wreck, including a pewter bowl and spoon, gold jewelry, a weight in the shape of a fish, a stamp seal, and pottery.

In 1995, “the discovery of African gold from under the sea off the coast of Devon was an amazing discovery that raised so many questions about how it came to be there,” added Jeremy D. Hill, the head of research at the British Museum. 

Now, we finally know the exact ship that carried the gold-laden cargo. “The story can now be told of how a Dutch ship carrying North African gold was wrecked off the English coast, making this a discovery of international importance,” said Hill. “It reminds us how much there is still to be found under our seas.”

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Wine grapes from Texas will soon join worms, human sperm, and cookie dough on a growing list of Earth objects sent to space. Hundreds of grape seeds will spend about six months being exposed to cosmic radiation on the International Space Station (ISS). The seeds will then return to Earth for planting. They might even be turned into wine. If so, they’d become the first wine ever made from grape seeds that traveled through space, much like a meteorite-infused vodka. 

This experiment is part of the Texas A&M/Aegis Aerospace Multi-Use Space Platform Integrating Research and Innovative Technology (TAMU-SPIRIT) research mission. The project is designed to serve as a “satellite campus in space,” that will host several experiments. 

Texas A&M seniors Coby Arnold and Arvind Subramanyam built the carrier that will bring the seeds to the ISS as their senior capstone project, under the guidance of Texas A&M viticulture specialist Justin Scheiner. Once the seeds leave the protection of Earth’s atmosphere, the extended exposure to space radiation could induce genetic mutations. According to Scheiner, the carrier will protect the seeds from harmful radiation exposure that could damage the seeds and prevent them from sprouting.   

Once they are back on Earth, the seeds will be planted next to identical control seeds at the AgriLife Research vineyard at Thomas Ranch in central Texas. Scientists will then study differences in plant growth, vine and wine grape performance, and genetics between the seeds that went to space and the control seeds.

Three wine grape varieties were chosen to go to space based on their disease resistance and adaptations to soils and water conditions that help them thrive in Texas vineyards. One of three grape varieties is called lomanto. Horticulturist and pioneering viticulturist T.V. Munson developed the variety in 1902.  Called “the grape man of Texas,” Munson and his lomanto grape is credited with helping save the global wine industry. 

In the late 1800s, tiny aphid-like insects called phylloxera destroyed many of France’s vineyards. Lomanto is a hardy vine that is naturally resistant to several diseases and droughts, and Munson sent lomanto vines to help fortify French vineyards. Scheiner said this new mission represents a “full circle” moment for the historic vine with roots in the Lone Star State.

“The research will help us understand how different levels of radiation impact the seeds and their varietal genetic expression once we grow them, but there is also the novelty that in several years we will potentially be bottling wine from seeds that left Earth,” Scheiner said in a statement. 

Testing the seeds in such a stressful and alien environment could help scientists produce more resilient, adaptive, and productive plants. The knowledge gained from experiments like this and understanding mutations could benefit future space missions and crop production on Earth. 

Mutations have long shaped horticulture and wine production throughout for centuries. For example, pinot gris originated from just one mutation that yielded the ever popular pinot noir wine grapes. 

“From a research standpoint, we want to see how being in space might influence these varieties,” Scheiner said. “For the wine geek in me, it would be very interesting if these seeds show some random positive mutation.” Who knows maybe the next pinot noir will come from space seeds?

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They may have tiny bodies, but fruit flies produce giant sperm. Adult male Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies are about two millimeters long (roughly the size of a sesame seed) and their sperm can be just as long, with the sperm tails taking up most of that space. 

In order to keep the thousands of sperm cells inside their bodies untangled, the insects use movement in an ingenious way. The sperm cells are organized into densely aligned groups that move by pushing off one another to keep themselves more taut. The more taut, the less likely it is that the tails will get tangled. The findings are detailed in a study published today in the journal Nature Physics.

Fruit fly sperm are about 40 times larger than human sperm, and thousands of sperm cells are stored inside the tightly confined spaces of both the male and female reproductive systems. One of those organs is the seminal vesicle, where males store the sperm before mating. 

The seminal vesicle is only about 200 micrometers in size. That’s really small compared to the sperm cells that are two millimeters long. In theory, this cell-to-storage size ratio should be similar to putting a pair of wired earphones inside of a pants pocket. The earphones often come out as a tangled mess.

“Now imagine putting thousands [of earbuds] in your pocket. The sperm are of course different from passive wires: the sperm are active, generating bending waves along their long tail,” Jasmin Imran Alsous, a study co-author and computational biologist at the Center for Computational Biology, tells Popular Science. “So how do thousands of active sperm organize and move within the tight confines of the reproductive system?”

To see how male fruit flies keep so many lengthy sperm organized, the team dyed the sperm’s heads and tails with a fluorescent substance and examined them with a powerful 3D electron microscope. They saw that the sperm cells are densely packed, but instead of staying still, they generate collective movements. These movements, called flows, can span the entire seminal vesicle for hours at a time. 

According to Imran Alsous, individual sperm move smoothly past each other, similarly to cars moving along a highway in opposite directions. 

Microscopy image of a giant fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) sperm. Its head is colored magenta and tail is cyan. The sperm cell is also to scale with the much smaller human sperm. Image: Jasmin Imram Alsous.

“Each sperm is attached to a long tail, that tail is moving just as quickly as the heads, but the tails collectively move more slowly together, in this flowy slow churn. It would be as if the highways now began to fold and bend while the cars within them continued to dart in opposite directions,” she explains. 

The team believes that these forces help to keep the sperm cells’ long tails from getting tangled in both male and female reproductive organs. The contact-based interactions help them move by pushing off of each other, which keeps the cells more taut, instead of a mushy mess.

Another example of these tight-packed systems in biology is how six feet of DNA is stored inside of a cell nucleus or how humans’ large and small intestines are about 30-feet-long when combined. This set-up allows living things to store more than their bodies should allow. For sperm cells, this increases the chance reproduction will be successful and the species will survive. 

“Our work suggests that sperm can move in a way that’s very different from the textbook picture of a lone sperm swimming through fluid,” says Imram Alsous. “Individually, fruit fly sperm exhibit very little directed motion, but together they can move through interactions with their neighbors.”

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While warfare seems like a deeply human conflict, a tiny carnivore also makes its own strategic moves before battle.

The warriors in question are common dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula), the smallest carnivore in Africa. They are native to parts of East to southern Central Africa, including Angola and Zambia and some provinces in South Africa. They live in communities of five to 30 individuals, and when different groups meet, potentially dangerous fights usually ensue. 

According to a study recently published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, these mammals predict meeting rival groups and change how they communicate, move, and protect resources before it happens. The research demonstrates that these groups change their behavior in regions with the  greatest chance of rival fights, even if there is no other group. Additionally, the greatest changes take place in the face of the highest predicted danger. 

“We know that battles between groups can be very dangerous for participants. What we’ve shown now is that there are constant behavioural changes to mitigate these risks and enhance the likelihood of future contest success,” Andy Radford, senior author of the study who teaches behavioral ecology at the University of Bristol, said in a statement.

Dwarf mongoose acting as a sentinel (raised guard) gathering and conveying information to groupmates about potential rival threats. Image: Shannon Wild.

The team observing dwarf mongooses in South Africa noted that individuals keeping an eye out for incoming danger call out more if it’s a larger group that poses the possible threat. On the other hand, certain behaviors, like selecting where to snooze in the evening, shift most in the presence of well-matched neighbors with whom conflict can be most damaging.

“Not only are the mongooses keeping track of where their enemies might be, but they’re factoring in the relative size of different groups. They can then tailor their pre-emptive behaviour accordingly,” said Josh Arbon, lead author of the study and behavioral ecologist at the University of Cambridge. “This work provides insight into how smaller groups are able to survive, and even thrive, amongst more powerful enemies by strategically moving through space and communicating about potential dangers.”

Radford, Arbon, and colleagues used 10 years of observational and GPS data collected in South Africa for their research. 

Ultimately, “conflict between groups is rife throughout the natural world,” said Amy Morris-Drake, a co-author of the study and biologist at the University of Bristol. “We have shown that animals are continuously making decisions in a landscape of conflict, not just when they actually encounter rivals.”

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Cataracts are a common eye condition marked by a cloudy lens that can be extracted fairly easily. For humans, anyway. But on June 12th, the patient on the operating table wasn’t a person—it was a lion. 

Experts diagnosed an African lion (Panthera leo) named Tsavo with cataracts over half a year ago. He was rescued as a cub in 2013 and currently lives at Wildlife Safari, a wildlife park and conservation center in Oregon. Last week, his veterinarian team successfully carried out the eye operation. It should improve the lion’s quality of life significantly and represents an international effort, with experts using equipment from around the world. 

Tsavo was diagnosed with two cataracts in 2025. Image: Marcus Doshi.

The surgical process started at around 2 p.m., and less than three hours later the team had removed the two cataracts and replaced them with custom-made artificial lenses. At 5:15 p.m. Tsavo was back in the Lion Hut, where he started his recovery under the watchful eye of the wildlife park’s carnivore team. 

“One of the most surprising things is that the surgery itself is almost identical to modern human cataract surgery,” Cassandra Bliss, a veterinary ophthalmologist at Bliss Animal Eye Care who co-led the entire team, tells Popular Science. “The biggest differences are the anatomy and the patient. A lion’s eye is significantly larger than a human eye, requiring specialized calculations and a much larger artificial lens.”

Tsavo was rescued as a cub in 2013. Image: Marcus Doshi.

The successful operation was the result of months-long preparation and coordination among veterinary professionals and medical technology experts from across the planet. Tsavo now has clear visual pathways again, and he is also expected to regain his binocular vision and depth perception. 

Tsavo receiving diagnostic imaging from a Butterfly Network ultrasound. This ultrasound technology provided the clinical insight needed to plan and perform the procedure.  Image: Marcus Doshi.

“Vision is one of the primary ways lions interact with their environment,” Bliss explains. “Restoring sight isn’t just about seeing again, it’s about allowing an animal to navigate its world, engage with enrichment, recognize familiar caretakers and companions, and express the natural behaviors that contribute to its quality of life.”

Benjamin Alcantar, Head Veterinarian at Wildlife Safari was the other co-lead. He and Bliss had previously carried out cataract surgeries on two Wildlife Safari lions last year. 

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In the animal kingdom, fatherhood exists on a spectrum. Some species like grizzly bears or lions will leave after mating and never really interact with their offspring again. Others do everything from keeping eggs warm solo to carrying their young in their mouths and even giving birth. 

“By the male investing in offspring it increases the chance of their survival, and specifically the survival of his genes,” Karen McDonald, an educational specialist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center tells Popular Science. 

“Male-only parental care is rare in mammals and vertebrates, but it’s surprisingly common in ray-finned fish (over 50 percent of families), with many species caring for large broods of their offspring from different females. In birds, male-parental care is less than one percent of the species.”

Here are some of the unique ways that some animals experience fatherhood. 

Seahorses and their little ‘fry’

Seahorses are the unofficial poster species for animal fatherhood. While the female produces the eggs, the male is the one who gets pregnant. After mating, the female transfers her eggs to a brood pouch on the male’s tail for him to fertilize. 

“Crazy cool fact, the seahorse brood pouch is really like a placenta,” McDonald explains. “It does the same things, with respiratory gas and waste exchange, salinity regulation, nutrient supplementation, and immune protection. Essentially it’s what is confirmed as a ‘vertebrate pregnancy.’”

The male then cares for the eggs for roughly two to four weeks and before releasing the babies–called fry. Depending on the species, they can have anywhere from five fry  up to 2,000 at one time. Having as many babies as possible is critical since only about one in 200 will survive. 

A lined seahorse (Hippocampus erectus). Image: Jonathan Irons/Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Water bugs and their egg glue

Some aquatic animals like giant water bugs (aka toe biters) make use of a staple found in human dad’s tool chest—glue. 

“Eggs are laid by the female onto the males’ dorsum or back using a protein-based egg glue,” McDonald explains. 

The water-resistant secretion helps the eggs stay in place. Depositing the sperm directly helps the male insect ensure paternity.

Three-spine stickleback and hidden nests

Like giant water bugs, male three-spine stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus) also make use of glue, but with a twist. They use a sticky secretion from his kidneys called spiggin to cobble together marine debris and algae into a tunnel-like nest. 

“The male spiggin or kidney glue that is used to glue the nest has genetic plasticity, allowing for nest construction based on the environment they are in,” McDonald says. “The male can actually tune the chemistry of the glue to match the water chemistry, so that it holds it together better and can adjust to the environment.”

Once he’s ready to breed, his belly turns red and he performs a special zig-zag dance for the female. She will then take a look at the den he built and deposit the eggs. She leaves after fertilization and he will then stay to protect them.

Greater rheas and their single dad skills

If seahorses are the poster species for males who can give birth, greater rheas (Rhea americana) are a model for stay-at-home dads. These large, flightless birds will build nests for their mate’s eggs, take care of all the incubation, and then rear the chicks alone and keep them safe. 

“Rheas are the largest birds in South America and among the largest birds in the world,” Sara Hallager, Curator of Birds at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, tells Popular Science. “Adult greater rheas don’t have many predators but large cats (cougar, puma, jaguar) native to their range can take down an adult. Chicks and juveniles are the most vulnerable, but once a rhea reaches adult size, they are usually pretty safe.”

Arapaima and their amazing mouths

Native to the Amazon River, arapaima are one of the largest freshwater fish in the world and don’t have many natural predators. For their tiny babies, also called fry like seahorses, it’s a whole different world. To keep them safe, arapaima dads suck their young into their mouths when they sense danger. They then swim to a safe area and release them.

“Arapaima will build a nest and females can lay anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 eggs,” Rebecca Sturniolo, Curator for Amazonia and American Trail at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, tells Popular Science. “Both parents will defend the nest.”

These big fish also breathe air at the surface of the water, to help them survive in habitats with lower levels of oxygen. 

Arapaima are one of Earth’s largest freshwater fish. Image: Smithsonian Institution. Abby Wood Golden lion tamarins and their teaching skills

Golden lion tamarins (Leontopithecus rosalia) are small monkeys found in the trees of Brazil’s Atlantic coast. After birth, their young will spend a few weeks with their mother to nurse. Then, it’s all about dad. Baby golden lion tamarins will cling to dad and ride along wherever he goes.

“Babies are learning the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest,” Kenton Kerns, a curator and biologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, tells Popular Science. “They’re learning what ‘safe’ feels like, what ‘danger’ is, how to react to other animals or other golden lion tamarins. They’re learning what adult tamarins eat by watching dad, how they move, where it’s best to sleep.”

Golden tamarins spend a lot of time with their dads. Image: Smithsonian Institution. Jessie Cohen

Golden lion tamarins were critically endangered until 2003, when they were upgraded to endangered. When they were brought to the zoo during the 1970s, the Smithsonian team and Brazilian researchers collaborated to figure out how much paternal care these primates need. 

“Zoo staff kept the dads in the with the babies, which was a bit unorthodox with primates at the time,” says Kerns. “That change allowed a boom of babies in zoos and led to the eventual reintroduction of zoo-born golden lion tamarins to Brazil.”

Happy Father’s Day!

The post 6 animal fathers who go the distance appeared first on Popular Science.

It’s like something out of an old-school Looney Tunes cartoon: a gorilla, sound asleep and snoring in his nest high in a tree, suddenly stands up and takes a few steps. For the gorilla, this would be a very short story with a very bad ending.

Humans, on the other hand, sleepwalk all the time. It’s a behavior that has fascinated and freaked us out for centuries, from the hand-wringing somnambulism of Lady Macbeth to the strange murder cases involving Ambien-induced sleepwalking. We find the condition unsettling, mysterious, and even funny, possibly because it violates a fundamental idea—that sleep is a state of stillness, of surrender. 

Yet some humans seem to have missed that memo. Sleepwalking affects an estimated five percent of children and 1.5 percent of adults. Which raises an interesting question: Why us?

Other animals have their own versions of restless sleep: the dog’s paws paddling as if in mid-chase, the cat’s whiskers twitching in annoyance at some imaginary unwanted affection. But true sleepwalking, involving standing, walking, and navigating obstacles, has not been documented in other species. 

“Humans are probably not unique in having odd motor events during sleep, but sleepwalking as we define it is overwhelmingly human,” says David R. Samson, associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Toronto and author of the new book The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution.

So, why do only humans do this? The answer has everything to do with where our ancestors slept.

What happens when you sleepwalk?

Sleepwalking primarily occurs during deep non-REM sleep, says Samson, who describes sleepwalking as a “state dissociation.”

“Parts of the brain involved in movement and arousal come online while regions involved in reflective awareness, judgment, and memory remain in a sleep-like state,” he says. 

In practical terms, this means the body can do surprisingly complicated things—navigate stairs, open doors, wander down a dark hallway—while the part of the brain responsible for awareness, judgment, and memory remains essentially asleep. Which is why sleepwalkers can appear eerily purposeful while having absolutely no idea what they’re doing.

In sleepwalking, as Samson puts it, “the body can move before the waking mind has fully arrived.”

Perhaps one of the most famous sleepwalking scenes comes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth when Lady Macbeth emerges night after night in a “slumb’ry agitation.” Image: Public Domain

Samson has a fairly straightforward explanation for why humans sleepwalk while a sleeping gorilla in the tree stays put. Nearly all primates sleep off the ground—on branches, in tree holes, on sleeping platforms—which means a sleepwalking primate would likely fall or be killed. 

“Selection would be severe,” says Samson.

Sleepwalking is a glitch, not a feature 

Samson doesn’t see sleepwalking as a behavior that evolved for a purpose. Instead, he says, it’s a rare flaw in an otherwise finely tuned sleep system.

“For most primates sleeping in trees, this vulnerability would be catastrophic,” he says. “But in the human ‘sleep shell’—with socially buffered camps, shelters, fire, bedding, and shared vigilance—the immediate penalty of getting up from sleep may have been reduced.”

In other words, the communal safety net our ancestors built for themselves at night did the protective work that staying perfectly still once did. 

This is an especially compelling example of “relaxed selection.” In relaxed selection, certain unfavorable traits are able to persist because the environment doesn’t weed them out.

Natural selection didn’t get rid of sleepwalking in humans, because our early environment didn’t punish sleepwalkers. It likely shielded them “once our ancestors began sleeping in safer, socially protected ground sites,” says Samson.

The body moves, but nobody’s home

A large part of what makes sleepwalking so disorienting—for both walkers and witnesses—is the gap between what’s happening on the outside and what’s happening on the inside. Samson has observed this firsthand in a close friend and colleague with a history of sleepwalking episodes.

“One night, I was walking down a dark hallway to use the bathroom when I saw his silhouette at the other end. Suddenly, he charged toward me, grabbed me, and we ended up in a brief, bewildering struggle in the hallway,” he says. “Then, just as abruptly, he stopped, turned around, and went back to bed as though nothing had happened.”

The next morning, Samson’s friend had no recollection of the skirmish in the hallway, but gave his own vivid account of a much higher-stakes struggle.

“When I told him what happened, he said that in his dream, a wall of lumber was falling on me and he was trying to save me,” Samson says. 

“That, to me, is one of the most striking things about these episodes: From the outside, the behavior can look sudden, physical, and even alarming, but from the inside, the dream logic may be protective, purposeful, and emotionally coherent.”

Sleepwalking runs in the family 

The protective “sleep shell” might explain why humans have the luxury of being able to sleepwalk, but the evolutionary story gets even more interesting when you look at who actually sleepwalks.  

Genetics plays a clear role, Samson says, though there’s no single “sleepwalking gene.” It’s more of a knack for sleeping so deeply you can’t quite claw back up to the surface—a knack that tends to run in families.

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Sleepwalking also shows up more often in childhood, when deep non-REM sleep is most prevalent and the brain’s sleep-wake cycles are still maturing. Genetics plays a role here, too. Having a mom or dad who sleepwalks definitely increases your chance of plodding to the kitchen while catching some Z’s. 

One longitudinal study found that children with no family history of sleepwalking had about a 22 percent chance of sleepwalking themselves. But that jumped to 47 percent with one sleeping parent, and 61 percent when both parents were sleepwalkers.

“There is clearly a familial, genetic component,” says Samson.

Most of us file sleepwalking away as a quirk, a punchline, or a far-fetched plot device. But Samson says it can also reveal important things about your health.

“Sleep deprivation, fever, stress, alcohol, some medications, and sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea can all increase risk.” So if you’re prone to sleepwalking, it’s important to consider outside factors that might be contributing to your 2 a.m. wander down to the kitchen. 

Sleepwalking presents a very strange vulnerability for people, one that’s stuck around precisely because, for much of human history, it didn’t need to be fixed. 

But at least we can rest assured that even with all the twitching and kicking, our pets won’t go wandering off into the night. We humans might be summoned into motion by whatever’s playing out in our sleeping brains, but our furry little buddies, snoozing blissfully through the day, seem to have a more efficient setup. They’re not going anywhere.

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

The post Why only humans sleepwalk appeared first on Popular Science.

Insects are not typically considered  food in Western society, and many would probably balk at the idea of chowing down an insect bar (though gym bros might be excited at the idea of a new low-fat source of protein). However, the participants in a recent study were actually more likely to prefer an insect protein bar over a cereal bar.  

“Insect-based food, a potential solution for the escalating global food demand, faces consumer acceptance challenges in some regions,” a team wrote in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics study. “This article aims to understand the physiological reactions to an insect bar to assess its potential acceptance, thereby fostering the quest for sustainable food sources.”

Thirty-eight adults in Portugal aged between 18 and 55 took part in the study. None of them had ever tasted insect-based foods, and they began by taking a survey of their knowledge and thoughts regarding insect-based products. Next, the team measured their heart rate and brain activity with an electrocardiography (ECG) and electroencephalography (EEG) while they tried an insect protein bar and a cereal bar. 

The prediction was that the participants who had little awareness of insect-based foods would have a stronger physical response to the insect protein bar, and prefer the cereal bar. The researchers informed some of the participants which bar was which, though they told others that the insect bar was the cereal bar. 

Heart rate and brain activity revealed that participants started paying more attention and became more engaged as they ate the insect protein bar. Heart activity also increased during the tasting, and the team read this as evidence of increased arousal and attentiveness. Interestingly, these dynamics also occurred for participants who weren’t aware that they were snacking on an insect protein bar, indicating that there was more behind the reaction than just presumptions about eating insects. 

Perhaps most shocking of all, however, is that when the researchers asked the participants which food they preferred, they were overall more likely to pick the insect protein bar. That’s despite the fact that, before trying them, the participants had frequently voiced doubts or surprise when speaking about insect-based foods. 

“The findings were very surprising,” Andreia Ferreira, lead author of the study and a PhD candidate at the University of Beira Interior, said in a statement. “This was really an unexpected result as literature said to us that consumers tend to reject these novel foods. The results show us the relevance of tasting experiments on promoting this new alternative.”  

Furthermore, the “results highlight the need for improved communication about insect-based food and its advantages, given limited awareness,” the researchers wrote. “Still, when people are informed about it, they are more likely to accept it.”

The participants represent a relatively small sample size, among other limitations to the study, and additional research is necessary, according to the researchers. Still, the results confirm the rather basic notion that people might change their minds about unfamiliar foods after trying them. In other words, “don’t knock it till you try it.”

The post You may actually like eating bugs appeared first on Popular Science.

Though more commonly associated with their long migrations from Alaska to Hawaii or showing off for whale watchers off the coast of New England, a unique population of humpback whales call the Arabian Sea home. About 80 endangered Arabian Sea humpback whales (ASHWs) live off the coast of Oman, and they are believed to be the only humpbacks that do not migrate seasonally. That does not mean that they don’t get around. A study published today in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science documented their first long-distance movement across the Arabian Sea. 

“The Arabian Sea provides unique conditions allowing a once-migratory species to completely change its ecology,” Suaad Al Harthi, a study co-author and the executive director of the Environment Society of Oman, said in a statement. “It’s a testament to how extraordinary the region is.” 

Humpback whale surfacing in front of a vessel with scientists. Image: Environment Society of Oman/D. MacDonald. Darryl MacDonald A divergent whale

Previous studies suggest that ASHWs diverged from southern hemisphere humpback whales about 70,000 years ago. Unlike their relatives, ASHWs typically only move within the Arabian Sea in the southwestern portion of the Indian Ocean. This new research points to the possibility that they have other critical habitats.

The team used 14 satellite tags to monitor whales’ dives. The tags were deployed at Hallaniyat Bay in the north and the Gulf of Masirah to the south. They transmitted data for 53 days on average, sending just over 1,800 locations for all tagged whales. 

“Leading into this study we had so many questions about the daily life of the mysterious humpback whales found in the Arabian Sea, of which we would only get fleeting glimpses during long hot hours of boat surveys,” said Dr. Andrew Willson, a study co-author and marine scientist and founding director of Future Seas Global SPC. “Tagging these whales allowed us to peel back the lid of the sea and check in online to see where they were each day.”

For the whales that stuck to the Gulf of Masirah, five stayed in the area while the tags transmitted their locations, and two traveled south to Hallaniyat Bay. All six whales tagged in Hallaniyat Bay moved between the bay, Gulf of Masirah, and northern Yemen. 

The Gulf of Masirah was also the most important ASWH habitat. Roughly 57 percent of locations were transmitted from there, followed by 18 percent transmitted from Hallaniyat Bay. The home and core ranges reflected strong loyalty between these areas less than 258 miles apart. The monsoons in the western Arabian Sea makes it a productive upwelling zone, giving the whales food all year. 

“We think the movements of the whales in our study relate to their tracking of inshore prey, likely sardines, over the continental shelf,” explained Willson. “Deeper dives off the continental shelf could be related to searching for other food found in deeper water, such as krill.”

Luban’s unexpected journey

Only one female whale stuck out from the pod. Researchers call her Luban, the Arabic name for the frankincense-shaped pattern on her tail fluke. Luban traveled east across the Arabian Sea and was also detected off the western coast of the Indian state of Goa. On her return journey, Luban covered about 4,350 miles.

Humpback whale song has previously been connected between whales between Omani and Indian coasts, Luban’s long journey is first direct evidence of an ASHW crossing the Arabian Sea.

Luban’s fluke with a frankincense-shaped pattern. Image: Environment Society of Oman/Matt Leslie

For up to a month, Luban remained in a spot off the southern coast of India that is known for high food productivity. The team believes that finding food or reproducing may have been simultaneous drivers for her journey. Both food and mating motivate humpback journeys in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

Scientists also spotted Luban swimming in the Gulf of Masirah recently.

“It’s always a relief when we make resightings of these amazing whales given the limited size of the population,” said Willson.

The team hopes that this research will help protect a small and isolated population of whales. These whales face increasing threats from climate change and human activity. Parts of the Arabian Sea are warming roughly 1.5 times faster than the global ocean average.

Data collected in this study could also help keep fishing activities away from these whales.  

“Coastal fishing communities in Oman have revered and respected these whales for many generations,” said Aida Al Jabri, a marine expert supporting the study with the Oman Environment Authority. “For rapidly modernizing societies in this region the study puts these whales more into view. This is critical to supporting their conservation.”

The team pointed out that tracking data alone cannot answer all of our questions about these unique whales. Future vessel surveys are needed to confirm how ASHWs use this habitat and how they respond to climate change and other threats.

“We hope their adaptability will help ASHWs in uncertain times when their domain is influenced by accelerated climate change,” Al Harthi concluded.

The post For the first time, biologists observe a humpback whale crossing the Arabian Sea appeared first on Popular Science.

Fourth of July celebrations got an early start in a nearby galaxy. Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to observe galaxy Messier 83 (M83) spotted the unexpected explosive aftermath of a supernova. Typically, the aftermath of a stellar explosion is a slowly fading cloud of piping hot gas. In this case, the supernova debris was dramatically bright—like a firework. The supernova is detailed in a study recently published in The Astrophysical Journal.

M83 is located about 15 million light-years away from Earth and is forming stars at a high rate. Using 14 years of Chandra data of the galaxy (2000 to 2014), the team caught some surprising variations in the X-ray brightness of sources of light previously identified as supernova remnants. 

Initially, the team expected that the supernova remnants that were over 100 years old would have X-ray flares whose brightness stayed the same. But they were in for a surprise. Instead, roughly half of the 22 X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants showed changes in X-ray brightness over the 14 years. 

“We knew that individual X-ray sources could vary dramatically,” Andrea Prestwich, a study co-author and astronomer from The Catholic University of America, said in a statement. “But finding that so many supernova remnants were behaving this way was a real surprise. Something unusual is going on in these objects. Pinpointing the cause remains a challenge, as M83’s distance limits the detail we can observe.”

One of the 22 changing supernova remnants has a fairly straightforward explanation—SN 1957D. This supernova debris was first observed nearly 70 years ago and is ramming into material surrounding the explosion site. This collision is producing X-ray flares that the team observed. However, it does not explain the flares seen in the rest of the sample. 

The team believes a population of stars that survived their partner’s destruction in a supernova explosion could be causing the flares. In this scenario, each variable X-ray source started out as a pair of massive stars orbiting each other. When the bigger star collapsed and exploded as a supernova, a black hole or ultra-dense neutron star was left behind. As for the  companion star? It survived.

“It may be that this galaxy contains a collection of supernova remnants where one massive star survives the supernova and becomes locked into an orbit with a black hole or neutron star,” added study co-author and Harvard University astrophysicist Michael McCollough. “The neutron star or black hole can then start pulling material from the massive star’s surface.”

They also found another possible explanation. Instead of pulling in material from a companion star, that black hole or neutron star could be taking back some of the material that was blasted outward by the original explosion.

“This could be an example of cosmic recycling, where debris from the explosion falls back onto the very object the supernova created,” said co-author and astronomer Roy Kilgard from Wesleyan University. “And it’s quite possible that both explanations are at play — different sources in our sample may have different origins.”

These results are also not unique to M83. A follow-up study of the nearby star-forming galaxy M51 by Kilgard and Zoe Hoiland of Vassar College and Kilgard found a similar population of variable X-ray sources associated with supernova remnants. These kinds of systems may be a feature of galaxies undergoing vigorous star formation.

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If you’ve developed World Cup fever over the past few days, then researchers at Bielefeld University want to hear about it. The team is inviting football/soccer fans to share the data collected from their smartwatches for a study on how supporters around the world physically experience their team’s thrilling victories and heartbreaking defeats.

“We are interested in whether fans of different national teams react with differing intensity to the same match event, for example, whether a goal is measurably different for German fans than for Turkish or Brazilian supporters,” Dr. Christian Deutscher, co-project leader and sports scientist, said in a statement. “The World Cup provides an ideal research setting because it places fans from all over the world in comparable emotional situations at the same time.”

In time for the World Cup, they are calling on football fans to provide their vital data via smartwatch (from left): Professor Dr. Timo Adam, Professor Dr. Christian Deutscher, Professor Dr. Roland Langrock, Professor Dr. Christiane Fuchs, and Sophie Kammerer, press spokesperson for Bielefeld’s Wissenswerkstadt. Image: © Alejandro Arditi www.alejandroarditi.com

Those interested can register online, providing their country of residence, gender, and nationality, preferred team, and how intensely they identify as a supporter. When a sufficient number of fans of a particular national team has registered, the researchers will send invitations to connect their smartwatch. Throughout the rest of the World Cup, participants will also be asked which matches they watched live, if they wanted on TV, via a live ticker, or at a public viewing event. 

The project can use smartwatches or fitness trackers from 13 brands, including Garmin, Apple, Google, and Samsung. Using a data-protection-compliant interface, the team will then have access to anonymized data from fans who have voluntarily registered for the study. 

“The long battery life enables us to obtain uninterrupted data series over several days,” added Dr. Christiane Fuchs, a co-project leader and a data scientist.

This new study builds on research that the same team conducted during the 2025 German Football Association (DFB Cup) final between first-division club VfB Stuttgart and third-division club Arminia Bielefeld. Over 12 weeks, the team collected data from 229 Arminia Bielefeld supporters wearing smartwatches. The fans attending the match in the stadium reached an average heart rate of 94 beats per minute. By comparison, those watching on TV averaged 79 beats per minute. After goals, the heart rates recorded in the stadium measured up to 36 percent higher than those watching elsewhere. Stress levels also began to rise in fans as early as 14 hours before kick-off. The results of that study were published in February in the journal Scientific Reports. 

The post Got World Cup Fever? Send scientists your smartwatch data. appeared first on Popular Science.

Meet Brötchen. The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) was born on May 9th at Germany’s Zoo Berlin, weighing in at 13 pounds. “Brötchen” means “breadroll,” in German, and the zoo’s new member is rapidly becoming everyone’s favorite carb. The baby girl is making headlines and gracing the zoo’s Facebook cover photo. What’s more, its name was revealed in a social media post on June 10 that has now accumulated over 6,000 likes.

A number of Brötchen’s internet appearances involve water. In fact, “water plays an incredibly important role for pygmy hippos,” the zoo explains. “Bathing helps care for their sensitive skin while also allowing the little one to slowly and comfortably get used to the water.”

According to the zoo, pygmy hippo skin secretes a substance that keeps the hippos from drying out. It features antibacterial qualities and also acts as a sunscreen. And for those who think the keeper in the video is washing Brötchen with soap, think again—water makes this secretion foam. 

Brötchen with her mother Debbie. Image: Berlin Zoo. Hendrik Gergen

These mammals stand at 2.5 to 3 feet at the shoulder, are 4.5 to 6 feet long, and weigh 400 to 600 pounds once fully grown. Brötchen’s birth is also welcome news from a conservation standpoint. The IUCN Red List classifies Pygmy hippos as endangered, with a decreasing population and only 2,000 to 2,499 adult individuals left. The species is nocturnal and lives in areas of West Africa, and is impacted by mining, deforestation, and habitat destruction. 

“While Brötchen is now exploring her outdoor enclosure every day with her mother Debbie, her endangered relatives in West Africa are fighting for survival: fewer than 2,500 adult pygmy hippos remain in their natural habitat,” the zoo wrote when announcing Brötchen’s name. “Protecting them is therefore more important than ever.” 

The post Hallo Brötchen! Berlin Zoo welcomes baby pygmy hippo appeared first on Popular Science.

A team from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) untangled a young humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) off the coast of Massachusetts. The whale was caught in fishing gear in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary east of Boston between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Stellwagen Bank is a hotspot for humpbacks and other whales, who feed on the plentiful plankton and fish in the bank’s rich waters during the spring and summer.

The whale was freed by CCS’ Marine Animal Entanglement Response (MAER) team, who is trained to safely disentangle whales. CCS has freed over 200 large whales and other marine life from entanglements since 1984.

Recreational boaters in the area reported a relatively small whale struggling in the gear’s buoy line. Once the MAER team was on the scene, they found the humpback with ropes wrapped around the base of its tale. The ropes were essentially keeping the whale anchored in place and the whale spent most of its time at the surface.

The process was further complicated by the weather. With winds forecasted to significantly increase, the team had to work quickly and assess the animal’s conditions and attempt disentanglement. 

“Approaching from behind, the team used a hook-shaped knife at the end of a 30-foot pole to make a series of cuts to the wraps of rope at its tail, eventually freeing the whale,” CCS wrote in a statement. 

Once freed, the whale stayed fairly still at the surface, and the team remained with the humpback until it began to move again. The whale sustained some injuries due to the entanglement, but the team believes that it will recover. The CCS Humpback Whale Studies Program is working to identify the whale using their database. 

According to the CCS, this rescue is an example of what can happen when several organizations work together. The boaters reported the sighting to the United States Coast Guard, who then contacted the NOAA Fisheries and CCS hotlines. The Massachusetts Environmental Police also responded, as they were in the area when the call came in and stayed with the whale until the MAER rescue team arrived. TowBoatUS also overheard the report and offered to stand by and assist as needed

“It was really great that so many people and institutions helped out in this case. The whale has a much better prognosis due to that,” MAER Assistant Director Bob Lynch said in a statement.

A whale first responder from over 5,000 miles away also assisted. Maria Harvey from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary happened to be working with the CCS team as part of an ongoing partnership. “It was an honor to help this whale and great to continue the collaboration between our teams,” Harvey added.

Over the past month, this particular whale has been spotted several times by whale watchers in the area. It has several deep but healing wounds from prior entanglements. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) estimates that over 300,000 whales and dolphins die every year due to bycatch and entanglement in fishing gear. 

According to CCS, their disentanglement work is supported in part by grants from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (MA-DMF), the Massachusetts Environmental Trust, and private foundations and donors. All disentanglement activities are conducted under a federal permit authorized by NOAA.

The post Young humpback whale freed from fishing line near Cape Cod appeared first on Popular Science.

Food and medicine have always been deeply intertwined. In tracing the origins of a food product, it can be hard to separate its supposed health benefits from all the other reasons we choose to eat something.

Take meat extract, for example. As far back as the 18th century, people were cooking with dried bouillon powder and cubes made from meat stock that we would find pretty recognizable today. Dehydrating and salting a meat broth proved an effective way of lengthening its shelf life, especially for soldiers or sailors who needed to carry light, long-lasting rations. 

But by the middle of the 19th century, doctors were prescribing concentrated extracts with names like “beef tea” for every imaginable ailment: from stomach problems and fever to depression and dementia. Medical records from the time show that liquid beef was a major component of hospital diets. At the London Hospital in 1851, adult patients were fed 12 ounces of bread, two pints of milk, and one pint of beef tea (made from eight ounces of beef) per day. 

As Canadian museum curator Melissa Cole wrote in 2017,  “If you open a book about 19th century dietary remedies, it would be hard to find one that does not mention beef tea.”

As chicken farming did not become industrialized until the late 20th century, long after cattle farming, early medicinal meat broths were typically beef-based. However, we can see an echo of the practice in the modern association of chicken soup with recovery from illness.

The medical fad for meat extracts, though widespread, was fairly short-lived. By the 20th century, meat extracts were seen less and less as medicine, largely ending up back in the kitchen pantry where they came from. So how did this obsession with drinking meat for health emerge in the first place? 

The German scientist behind meat extracts 

Considered one of the founders of organic chemistry, German scientist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) made extensive studies of nutrition and metabolism. One of Liebig’s most influential ideas was that the liquid in meat and other foods, not just the solids, carries the most important nutrients. It was Liebig who first suggested searing meat before cooking to prevent its juices from leaking out. (This belief remains widespread, despite evidence that it isn’t really true.)

German scientist Justus von Liebig is considered one of the founders of organic chemistry. He also developed some of the first beef extract cubes. Image: Public Domain

Liebig was a major contributor to what was then called the “rational” approach to diet, where people sought to apply the principles of modern science to cooking. Combined with prevailing beliefs in the general healthfulness of meat, and an increasing urban population who could not afford it, 19th-century nutritionists identified a major social problem: Not enough people were eating enough meat.

In 1847, Liebig proposed a solution. Inspired by earlier culinary bouillon, he developed a procedure for boiling down beef into a concentrated paste or solid. In theory, those who could not afford fresh meat could reconstitute this extract into a nutritious broth. 

Today, we know that Liebig’s method doesn’t actually preserve much of the original nutrients in the beef, although it’s full of flavor thanks to compounds like MSG. But for Liebig, the main flaw in his plan was that the ratio of meat to extract was about thirty to one by weight, making it far more expensive to produce than fresh beef. 

Years later, engineer George Christian Giebert approached Liebig with the suggestion of industrializing production in South America, where beef was cheap as a byproduct of the leather industry. The two men went into business together, creating Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company (LEMCO) in 1865. 

LEMCO’s products, such as their UK-based Oxo line of beef extract cubes, became widely popular and soon spawned imitators. Liebig’s research laid the groundwork for other beef extracts such as Bovril and Valentine’s Meat Juice, as well as extracts derived from chicken or even yeast, such as Marmite and Vegemite.

Meat tea for the sick

While Liebig and others were figuring out how to mass-market beef extract, home recipes for “beef tea” proliferated. Based on the concept of liquid nutrients as essential, the intention was not to replace meat for those who could not afford it, but to provide nutrients for the sick, especially patients with delicate stomachs. Some medical texts even promoted beef tea enemas, such as an 1867 treatment plan for delirium tremens (alcohol withdrawal).

Even in the 19th century, there was debate about the actual health benefits of meat juice. Some disagreed with Liebig’s assertion that the solids in meat were less nutritionally important than the juices. 

“Almost the whole of this enormous mass of nutritious matter,” one British doctor wrote scornfully in 1879, “was simply wasted” in producing beef tea. However, he did praise an enterprising London saleswoman for making meat pies from the dregs.

How beef tea was made

Isn’t beef tea the same thing as beef broth? Well, not exactly. 

While beef broth was (and still is) made by simmering meat in water for long periods, many recipes for beef tea called for pressure-cooking meat in jars. This technique was an early form of the method we now call sous vide (French for “under the vacuum”), often done using a submerged plastic bag today.

Chefs would heat sealed jars full of raw meat in a pot of boiling water. This created a pressurized vacuum seal, preventing water from escaping as the meat cooked and broke down inside. The resulting liquid would have a richer, more intense flavor than regular beef broth, as well as, it was believed, more nutrients. 

Modern research suggests that pressure-cooking really does preserve more nutrients than many other cooking methods, especially boiling. While it isn’t the cure-all that it was once promoted as, beef tea may have benefited some patients. The concoction could provide a boost of iron for people suffering from iron-deficiency anemia or recovering from major blood loss, such as after surgery.

Fresh-squeezed beef

Another related remedy was the liquid squeezed from half-cooked meat. This could be prepared using a metal “meat juice press” designed for the purpose. Some recipes for beef tea even combined pressure-cooking and pressing to get as much juice out as possible. 

In a recipe recorded by London’s Royal College of Physicians, beef is pressure-cooked in jars, then squeezed in a press, and the liquid from the press is mixed with the liquid from the jars.

In 2019, food YouTuber EmmyMade prepared both beef tea and fresh-squeezed beef juice according to 19th-century recipes. Emmy noted that the press produced a smaller amount of bloodier-looking liquid than the jar method. She found both tasty (although they needed salt), describing the flavor as “very, very heme-y.” Heme is the part of the hemoglobin compound found in blood that contains iron. In other words, beef juice has some of the same metallic tang as organ meats like liver (and blood, of course).

YouTuber EmmyMade made both beef tea and fresh-squeezed beef juice using out an old cast iron Columbia meat juice press from the late 1800s. She found the results pretty dang tasty. Video: BEEF EXTRACT Recipe for the INFIRM — 1800s Meat Juice Extractor Antique Gadget Test | HARD TIMES, emmymade The end of meat juice

With the establishment of national standards for the production of medicines and commercial medicines supplanting home remedies, beef tea started to decline. However, companies that produced extracts for health realized that their products were still being appreciated for their flavor and convenience. By the early 20th century, many of them had shifted fully into the culinary market.

Valentine’s Meat Juice, once a widely popular medicinal remedy, rebranded as a cooking ingredient in 1906 and managed to stay in business until 1986. LEMCO’s Oxo brand is still going strong, though it’s primarily associated with cooking today. Similarly, the dehydration technology used in producing modern chicken bouillon was developed for soldiers and refined for NASA astronauts before landing in our supermarkets and kitchens. 

People initially invented meat extracts to add concentrated flavor to their food and preserve it for longer. For a time, doctors and scientists touted its health benefits, but flavor seems to have won out in the end. Maybe it’s just too delicious to resist.

In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation.

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The post Beef tea was all the rage in the 1800s appeared first on Popular Science.

Food and medicine have always been deeply intertwined. In tracing the origins of a food product, it can be hard to separate its supposed health benefits from all the other reasons we choose to eat something.

Take meat extract, for example. As far back as the 18th century, people were cooking with dried bouillon powder and cubes made from meat stock that we would find pretty recognizable today. Dehydrating and salting a meat broth proved an effective way of lengthening its shelf life, especially for soldiers or sailors who needed to carry light, long-lasting rations. 

But by the middle of the 19th century, doctors were prescribing concentrated extracts with names like “beef tea” for every imaginable ailment: from stomach problems and fever to depression and dementia. Medical records from the time show that liquid beef was a major component of hospital diets. At the London Hospital in 1851, adult patients were fed 12 ounces of bread, two pints of milk, and one pint of beef tea (made from eight ounces of beef) per day. 

As Canadian museum curator Melissa Cole wrote in 2017,  “If you open a book about 19th century dietary remedies, it would be hard to find one that does not mention beef tea.”

As chicken farming did not become industrialized until the late 20th century, long after cattle farming, early medicinal meat broths were typically beef-based. However, we can see an echo of the practice in the modern association of chicken soup with recovery from illness.

The medical fad for meat extracts, though widespread, was fairly short-lived. By the 20th century, meat extracts were seen less and less as medicine, largely ending up back in the kitchen pantry where they came from. So how did this obsession with drinking meat for health emerge in the first place? 

The German scientist behind meat extracts 

Considered one of the founders of organic chemistry, German scientist Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) made extensive studies of nutrition and metabolism. One of Liebig’s most influential ideas was that the liquid in meat and other foods, not just the solids, carries the most important nutrients. It was Liebig who first suggested searing meat before cooking to prevent its juices from leaking out. (This belief remains widespread, despite evidence that it isn’t really true.)

German scientist Justus von Liebig is considered one of the founders of organic chemistry. He also developed some of the first beef extract cubes. Image: Public Domain

Liebig was a major contributor to what was then called the “rational” approach to diet, where people sought to apply the principles of modern science to cooking. Combined with prevailing beliefs in the general healthfulness of meat, and an increasing urban population who could not afford it, 19th-century nutritionists identified a major social problem: Not enough people were eating enough meat.

In 1847, Liebig proposed a solution. Inspired by earlier culinary bouillon, he developed a procedure for boiling down beef into a concentrated paste or solid. In theory, those who could not afford fresh meat could reconstitute this extract into a nutritious broth. 

Today, we know that Liebig’s method doesn’t actually preserve much of the original nutrients in the beef, although it’s full of flavor thanks to compounds like MSG. But for Liebig, the main flaw in his plan was that the ratio of meat to extract was about thirty to one by weight, making it far more expensive to produce than fresh beef. 

Years later, engineer George Christian Giebert approached Liebig with the suggestion of industrializing production in South America, where beef was cheap as a byproduct of the leather industry. The two men went into business together, creating Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company (LEMCO) in 1865. 

LEMCO’s products, such as their UK-based Oxo line of beef extract cubes, became widely popular and soon spawned imitators. Liebig’s research laid the groundwork for other beef extracts such as Bovril and Valentine’s Meat Juice, as well as extracts derived from chicken or even yeast, such as Marmite and Vegemite.

Meat tea for the sick

While Liebig and others were figuring out how to mass-market beef extract, home recipes for “beef tea” proliferated. Based on the concept of liquid nutrients as essential, the intention was not to replace meat for those who could not afford it, but to provide nutrients for the sick, especially patients with delicate stomachs. Some medical texts even promoted beef tea enemas, such as an 1867 treatment plan for delirium tremens (alcohol withdrawal).

Even in the 19th century, there was debate about the actual health benefits of meat juice. Some disagreed with Liebig’s assertion that the solids in meat were less nutritionally important than the juices. 

“Almost the whole of this enormous mass of nutritious matter,” one British doctor wrote scornfully in 1879, “was simply wasted” in producing beef tea. However, he did praise an enterprising London saleswoman for making meat pies from the dregs.

How beef tea was made

Isn’t beef tea the same thing as beef broth? Well, not exactly. 

While beef broth was (and still is) made by simmering meat in water for long periods, many recipes for beef tea called for pressure-cooking meat in jars. This technique was an early form of the method we now call sous vide (French for “under the vacuum”), often done using a submerged plastic bag today.

Chefs would heat sealed jars full of raw meat in a pot of boiling water. This created a pressurized vacuum seal, preventing water from escaping as the meat cooked and broke down inside. The resulting liquid would have a richer, more intense flavor than regular beef broth, as well as, it was believed, more nutrients. 

Modern research suggests that pressure-cooking really does preserve more nutrients than many other cooking methods, especially boiling. While it isn’t the cure-all that it was once promoted as, beef tea may have benefited some patients. The concoction could provide a boost of iron for people suffering from iron-deficiency anemia or recovering from major blood loss, such as after surgery.

Fresh-squeezed beef

Another related remedy was the liquid squeezed from half-cooked meat. This could be prepared using a metal “meat juice press” designed for the purpose. Some recipes for beef tea even combined pressure-cooking and pressing to get as much juice out as possible. 

In a recipe recorded by London’s Royal College of Physicians, beef is pressure-cooked in jars, then squeezed in a press, and the liquid from the press is mixed with the liquid from the jars.

In 2019, food YouTuber EmmyMade prepared both beef tea and fresh-squeezed beef juice according to 19th-century recipes. Emmy noted that the press produced a smaller amount of bloodier-looking liquid than the jar method. She found both tasty (although they needed salt), describing the flavor as “very, very heme-y.” Heme is the part of the hemoglobin compound found in blood that contains iron. In other words, beef juice has some of the same metallic tang as organ meats like liver (and blood, of course).

YouTuber EmmyMade made both beef tea and fresh-squeezed beef juice using out an old cast iron Columbia meat juice press from the late 1800s. She found the results pretty dang tasty. Video: BEEF EXTRACT Recipe for the INFIRM — 1800s Meat Juice Extractor Antique Gadget Test | HARD TIMES, emmymade The end of meat juice

With the establishment of national standards for the production of medicines and commercial medicines supplanting home remedies, beef tea started to decline. However, companies that produced extracts for health realized that their products were still being appreciated for their flavor and convenience. By the early 20th century, many of them had shifted fully into the culinary market.

Valentine’s Meat Juice, once a widely popular medicinal remedy, rebranded as a cooking ingredient in 1906 and managed to stay in business until 1986. LEMCO’s Oxo brand is still going strong, though it’s primarily associated with cooking today. Similarly, the dehydration technology used in producing modern chicken bouillon was developed for soldiers and refined for NASA astronauts before landing in our supermarkets and kitchens. 

People initially invented meat extracts to add concentrated flavor to their food and preserve it for longer. For a time, doctors and scientists touted its health benefits, but flavor seems to have won out in the end. Maybe it’s just too delicious to resist.

In That Time When, Popular Science tells the weirdest, surprising, and little-known stories that shaped science, engineering, and innovation.

Related That Time When Stories

4 times drinking coffee was illegal—or even punishable by death

In medieval France, murderous pigs faced trial and execution

The radioactive ‘miracle water’ that killed its believers

Andrew Jackson’s White House once hosted a cheese feeding frenzy

During WWII, a dress-wearing squirrel sold war bonds alongside FDR

Idaho once dropped 76 beavers from airplanes—on purpose

The post Beef tea was all the rage in the 1800s appeared first on Popular Science.

If you missed the chance to get your name in space during Artemis II’s historic mission in April, you don’t have to wait until Artemis III in 2027 for another opportunity. Today, NASA opened up submissions to have your name put aboard the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. 

Currently scheduled to launch on August 30, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’s next space observatory. According to NASA, it will pair a large field of view with crisp infrared vision to scan vast, deep swaths of sky. Roman’s field of view is at least 100 times larger than the still-chugging Hubble Space Telescope and could measure light from one billion galaxies. The observatory will also be able to block starlight, allowing it to directly see exoplanets and planet-forming disks. Engineers plan to use Roman to take a complete statistical census of all the planetary systems in our galaxy, and settle some of the essential pressing questions about dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.

Roman is named in honor of the late Dr. Nancy Grace Roman. She was NASA’s first chief astronomer and paved the way for the space telescopes focused on the broader universe that we know and love today. Dr. Roman is considered the “mother” of the Hubble Space Telescope, and she tirelessly advocated for space-based platforms that help us understand the broader universe from above Earth’s hazy atmosphere. 

“Despite facing adversity, she persisted in finding new ways to explore the universe, including advocating for the development of a space-based telescope,” NASA writes. “Dr. Roman’s zealous leadership made Hubble, and all of the other space telescopes that followed, a reality.”

The submitted names will be uploaded to an SD card attached to the observatory, as it travels over one million miles in space. You will also receive a digital boarding pass to commemorate your name’s journey. 

The post Put your name aboard NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope appeared first on Popular Science.

Body temperature is considered a crucial vital sign of general health, but getting a reading with an oral or forehead thermometer does not always tell the whole story. And getting an internal by  putting a thermometer up the rectum is not exactly the most pleasant experience.

Those rectal reading days could be numbered. A new ingestible sensor developed at MIT can send doctors continuous body temperature readings right from the GI tract, and could be heading to clinical trials in only a few years. Continuous monitoring like this could make it easier to determine whether a patient is sick and if they’re at risk of developing a dangerously high fever. It can also help for people tracking their fertility or those under anesthesia. 

The sensor is shaped like a small berry, only four millimeters high and six millimeters around and is smaller than existing ingestible temperature sensors. The sensor is detailed in a study published today in the journal Nature Electronics.

“A sensor like this gives us the ability to monitor infections and identify them early,” said Giovanni Traverso, a study co-author, engineering professor at MIT, and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in a statement. “That’s very relevant, particularly for at-risk populations like people who are immunosuppressed from chemotherapy treatments or immunosuppressive drugs.”

The wild world of ingestible electronics

Several ingestible temperature sensors are currently on the market. However, most of them are the size of a multivitamin or slightly larger. The size makes these sensors more challenging for patients to swallow and can also increase the risk that they obstruct the GI tract. 

The sensors’ large size comes from the complex internal circuits inside of them, which require a lot of power. The power comes from on-board batteries that take up the bulk of the capsule’s real estate.

The MIT team’s goal was to design smaller ingestible sensors that can measure temperature accurately.

“The reason for them to be small is safety,” said Traverso. “We want something that is so small that the risk of any blockage or obstruction is highly mitigated, and also so that it can be easily ingested.”

The first step towards a smaller device was reducing the size of the three main components—the temperature-sensing circuit, the antenna that relays temperature data, and the battery.

To shrink the circuit, the team built one of their own that can fit onto a 1-square-millimeter silicon chip. They also designed an oscillator based on leakage current to reduce power consumption. Leakage current is a small current that flows through a circuit when it’s switched off. The temperature of the chip’s surroundings affects the current’s frequency.

The circuit can detect temperature with an accuracy of 0.01 degrees Celsius and only requires about 10 nanowatts of power. It can be powered with a small 1.55-volt coin cell battery, that is only 4.8 millimeters around. In one of the trials, the sensor was deployed endoscopically into a sedated pig’s stomach, and then traveled through the GI tract until it was excreted with the pig’s feces.

The new sensor design also used a communication strategy called backscattering to cut energy consumption even further. Backscattering allows most of the sensor’s power requirements to be outsourced to an external antenna located outside the body, generally within a foot or two of the sensor. That external antenna emits an ultra-high-frequency radio wave. The radio wave is then modulated by a tiny antenna within the sensor and sent back to the antenna outside of the body. That external antenna then can calculate the temperature value by interpreting the changes to the radio wave. 

“We combined all of these different pieces together—the silicon chip, the battery, and the antenna—and we made it into an ingestible capsule, which is the smallest ingestible capsule that we have seen for temperature-sensing paradigms,” added study lead author and MIT postdoctoral researcher Saransh Sharma.

The internal antenna then sends out a temperature reading once per second, so temperature can be continuously monitored.

Wide applications

According to this team, this type of sensor could be used in several scenarios. Anesthesia often disrupts the body’s normal temperature regulation mechanisms, which can put patients at risk of hypothermia. These sensors could monitor for infection and observe patients both during and after anesthesia. It also could be used at home, monitoring children’s fevers, reading the core body temperature that signals ovulation for couples trying to conceive, and could monitor athletes, soldiers, or anyone else who risks being exposed to extreme temperatures.

The researchers tested the sensors in a pig under anesthesia and also when the animal was awake and moving. The sensors could accurately detect and transmit temperature information in both scenarios. 

The team is now working on combining the temperature sensor with different sensors that could measure other vital signs such as heart rate. They hope to begin testing their sensors in clinical trials within a few years.

Traverso believes that sensors like these could become widely used by anyone who needs to monitor their temperature, as long as they are effective for people in high-risk situations.

“I think this could replace all thermometers, because it’s the most accurate way of taking temperature,” he said. “If we have miniature systems that can be easily swallowed and give very accurate data that’s superior to the current data, I think it can be helpful in so many ways.”

The post A berry-sized thermometer measures body temp. But you have to eat it. appeared first on Popular Science.