Bampot

We found that humpback whales use rings in non–mutually exclusive contexts including feeding (within bubble nets), during inquisitive behavior, and while passively resting.

Most episodes showed evidence of inquisitive behavior with a notable lack of other behaviors indicative of feeding or agonism/aggression. Although there was little evidence of feeding during bubble ring production, this may be limited by the majority of collected sightings occurring on breeding grounds where feeding is scarce.

Additionally, there was no evidence of agonism or aggression in any of the bubble production episodes.

A variety of finds, such as human remains, animal bones, shells, and tools made from stone, bone and shell, show that Mindoro's early inhabitants successfully harnessed both terrestrial and marine resources such that, over 30,000 years ago, they already possessed seafaring capabilities and specific fishing skills that enabled them to catch predatory open-sea fish species, such as bonito and shark, and to establish connections with distant islands and populations in the vast maritime region of Wallacea.

Particularly noteworthy is the innovative use of shells as raw material for tools since more than 30,000 years ago. This culminated in the manufacture of adzes from giant clam shells (Tridacna species), dating back 7,000–9,000 years ago. These bear a striking similarity to shell adzes found across the region of Island Southeast Asia and as far as Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, over 3,000 kilometers away.

Collectively, these discoveries suggest that Mindoro and nearby Philippine islands were part of an extensive maritime network that existed already during the Stone Age and facilitated cultural and technological exchange between early human populations across Island Southeast Asia for many millennia.

Our calculations suggest the Big Bang was not the start of everything, but rather the outcome of a gravitational crunch or collapse that formed a very massive black hole – followed by a bounce inside it.

This idea, which we call the black hole universe, offers a radically different view of cosmic origins, yet it is grounded entirely in known physics and observations.

But Europa has a surprise. Tidal forces from Jupiter stretch and squeeze Europa on its elliptical orbit. This heats the interior, keeping it molten. And so you have a molten interior and a frozen exterior, which means in the middle you have an ocean. A globe-spanning liquid water ocean. An ocean with more water than the Earth has. An ocean that is completely and totally alien to anything we experience or encounter on the Earth: forever blocked from sunlight, with a depth reaching up to a hundred kilometers.

Life as we know it needs water, and Europa's got that in spades. But life needs much, much more than water, which is where we start running into trouble with this little Moon. First is an energy source. Sunlight is definitely not going to be an option here. But while the vast majority of life on Earth ultimately derives its energy from the Sun, there are other creatures that don't.

For Europa, the closest analogs we can find are the deep-sea hydrothermal vents. These are fissures ithe ocean floor where super-heated, mineral rich gases escape into the ocean. At the bottom of the food chain here are chemosynthetic microorganisms, that get their energy from inorganic compounds, like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia. From there, you can entire communities like tube worms and crabs that are totally fine living life without the Sun.

Researchers in Peru have announced the discovery of more than 100 previously unknown archaeological structures at Gran Pajatén, a pre-Columbian settlement in the remote reaches of the Andes Mountains.

Located roughly 300 miles north of Lima in Río Abiseo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Gran Pajatén complex contains remnants of the Chachapoya civilization, which thrived in the northeast Andes between the 9th and 16th centuries, until it was conquered by the Inca Empire.

Sites like Gran Pajatén—all but inaccessible to modern visitors and researchers because of its remote location, high altitude and dense foliage—helped earn the Chachapoya the nickname “Warriors of the Clouds” and resist Inca colonization for longer than other groups.

That remoteness has also contributed to an air of mystery around the Chachapoya civilization.

Two weeks prior to her death, she had experienced two traumatic incidents, leading to over 50 individual signs of injury across her body. The first trauma incident resulted in hairline fractures in both her scapulae (shoulder blades); similar fractures on the scapula and spine are observed as a result of motor vehicle collisions. It is possible that for a 9th-century woman, these injuries were induced by beatings or floggings.

The second suite of injuries occurred on her torso and skull and were likely inflicted using blunt objects or a series of kicks and punches, akin to torture beatings.

A final, precise blow to the left side of her head resulted in her death.

Early Medieval England was a time of change regarding law codes—the law code of Æthelberht (c. 589–616) did not include corporal punishment, but that of Wihtred of Kent (690–725) outlined specific punishments, for instance, beatings for those who could not pay fines.

Capital punishments were also included when willed by the king. As time passed, more crimes were associated with the death penalty under King Alfred (871–899). Crimes such as theft, treason, witchcraft, and sorcery could be met with the death penalty, which could be brought about by stoning or drowning.

In the Problemata, a text contentiously credited to Aristotle, the philosopher tells how his student Alexander the Great descends to the depths of the sea in “a very fine barrel made entirely of white glass”, as a later poet would put it. The reasons for this descent differ across time. For some, it was to scout submarine defenses surrounding the city of Tyre during its siege. Others depict the Macedonian king met with a cruel vision of the great chain of being, stating, upon resurfacing, that “the world is damned and lost. The large and powerful fish devour the small fry”.

In one particularly elaborate version, Alexander submerges with companions — a dog, cat, and cock — entrusting his life to a mistress who holds the cord used to retrieve the bathysphere. However, during his dive, she is seduced by a lover and persuaded to elope, dropping the chains that anchor Alexander and his animal companions to their boat. Through a gruesome utility, the pets help him survive: the cock keeps track of time in the lightless fathoms, the cat serves as a rebreather to purify the vessel’s atmosphere, and the poor hound’s body becomes a kind of airbag, propelling Alexander back to the sea’s surface.

The rule is simple: in every region on Earth, most species cluster together in small "hotspot" areas, then gradually spread outward with fewer and fewer species able to survive farther away from these hotspots.

Given the vast differences in life strategies—some species fly, others crawl, swim, or remain rooted—and the contrasting environmental and historical backgrounds of each bioregion, the researchers expected that species distribution would vary widely across bioregions. Surprisingly, they found the same pattern everywhere.

The pattern points to a general process known as environmental filtering. Environmental filtering has long been considered a key theoretical principle in ecology for explaining species distribution on Earth.

Zimbabwe will cull dozens of elephants and distribute the meat for consumption to ease the ballooning population of the animals, its wildlife authority said Tuesday.

The southern Africa country is home to the second-biggest elephant population in the world after Botswana.

The cull at a vast private game reserve in the southeast would initially target 50 elephants, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) said in a statement.

It did not say how many of the animals would be killed in total or over what period.

Terrestrial planets like Earth have a natural thermostat called carbonate-silicate (Cb-Si) weathering feedback. The Cb-Si feedback is a geochemical cycle that regulates a planet's atmospheric CO2 content over long geological timescales.

When CO2 builds up in the atmosphere, the atmosphere warms. This creates more evaporation and rainfall. Carbonic acid is a weak acid formed in the atmosphere when water combines with carbon dioxide. When a warming atmosphere creates more rain, it also creates more carbonic acid.

Carbonic acid falls on the planet's surface, weathering silicate rocks and removing carbon. The carbon is eventually washed into the sea, where it's taken up in the shells of marine organisms. It falls to the sediment on the ocean floor and is ultimately sequestered back into the crust with help from plate tectonics. The creatures that absorb the carbon into their shells as calcium carbonate play a key role. The carbon in their shells becomes limestone.

This is just the beginning of population-wide characterization of exoplanets and their biotic and abiotic signatures. Instead of looking for the "smoking-gun" signature of life on single worlds, we may be able to detect and identify life through large statistical patterns across numerous worlds. In that case, this work also shows how telescopes with modest observational capabilities can "filter through" the exoplanet population, sparing valuable and expensive observing time on more powerful observatories.

Baboons often travel in structured line formations known as "progressions" as they move through their home range. Previous studies offered conflicting explanations for this behavior. Some proposed that the order was random, while others argued that baboons strategically positioned themselves, with vulnerable individuals walking in the center to reduce their risk of attack....

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that the baboons' movement patterns were driven solely by their social relationships.

The Netherlands' national museum has a new object on display that merges art with Amsterdam's infamous Red Light District: a nearly 200-year-old condom, emblazoned with erotic art.

The Rijksmuseum said in a statement that the playful prophylactic, believed to be made around 1830 from a sheep's appendix, "depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health."

It is part of an exhibition called "Safe Sex?" about 19th century sex work that opened on Tuesday.

The condom, possibly a souvenir from a brothel, is decorated with an erotic image of a nun and three clergymen.

The phrase "This is my choice" is written along the sheath in French. According to the museum, this is a reference to the Pierre-Auguste Renoir painting "The Judgment of Paris," which depicts the Trojan prince Paris judging a beauty contest between three goddesses.

The condom is on display until the end of November.