An Austrian cow named Veronika can use a broom to scratch her body. Plus, Japan is about to restart the world’s biggest nuclear plant and an effort to measure the extent of ‘toxic masculinity’.
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Veronika can use her tongue to adjust the length and orientation with which she holds tools such as this scrub brush. (Antonio J. Osuna Mascaró)
Veronika, a pet cow (Bos taurus) that lives on an Austrian farm, can use a utensil to scratch and groom parts of her body — the first documented instance of tool use in cattle. Over the years, she’s advanced from sticks to implements as large and heavy as brooms, and swaps between using the handle and the bristles to scratch different areas of her body. The use of a single tool for more than one purpose has only been seen before in chimpanzees and humans, says cognitive biologist and study co-author Alice Auersperg.
Science | 6 min read
Reference: Current Biology paper
Researchers have attempted to put a number on the concept of ‘toxic masculinity’ — the idea that some stereotypically ‘masculine’ traits, such as dominance and aggression, can have damaging social impacts. Researchers defined eight indicators of toxic masculinity and applied them to the results of a large survey in New Zealand. Of more than 15,000 participants that identified as heterosexual males, the smallest group, at just 3.2%, held ‘hostile toxic’ views, such as that women seek to gain control over men and that “inferior groups should stay in their place”. The group was made up mainly of marginalized, disadvantaged men.
Nature | 6 min read
Reference: Psychology of Men & Masculinities paper
NASA carefully rolled the most powerful rocket ever built onto its launch pad on Saturday in preparation for a crewed mission around the Moon. The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is almost 100 metres tall and took almost 12 hours to make the 6-kilometre journey from assembly building to launch pad. The SLS is being tested in preparation for the Artemis II mission, which aims to take three US and one Canadian astronaut on the first crewed trip to the vicinity of the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. If all goes well, that will happen sometime after 6 February, in what would be only the second-ever launch of the SLS.
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