GoKawiilThe findings hint that vocal motor control might have evolved from a shared ancestor. Plus, sea turtles’ navigation skills are only so-so and what’s next for the International Space Station.
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When laughing, chimpanzees and other great apes produce similar patterns of vocalization to human children.Credit: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP via Getty
Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and children laugh in similar rhythms when tickled. Researchers found that kids and apes left evenly spaced intervals between laughing sounds during a tickle attack, though children had a faster laughter rhythm compared with apes. Laughter might have picked up pace during the course of human evolution, the team suggests, which could reveal “something about laughter itself, but also, in a way, about the evolution of human speech”, says primatologist and study co-author Chiara De Gregorio.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Communications Biology paper
A newly discovered gene ‘megacluster’ in Streptomyces bacteria enables them to produce a variety of potent antibiotic compounds. These compounds act as a multi-pronged offensive weapon against other species, with each targeting different stages of the bacterial metabolic process. It’s more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance to attacks that hit several targets, so the discovery could lead to the development of new antibiotics, experts say. The research has “discovered something new in a system so extensively studied — hidden in plain sight,” says medicinal chemist Mark Blaskovich.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature paper
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) use Earth’s geomagnetic field as a map, but are only able to follow it approximately. Researchers tracked eight turtles as they made a journey of more than 1000 kilometres. They found that the animals tended to plough ahead in one direction for extended periods, then stop to reorient when they’d strayed from their course. The turtles have only “an approximate idea of where they are and where they’re going”, says marine ecologist and study co-author Graeme Hays. So they take “circuitous routes that eventually get them where they want to be”.
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