ScienceDaily: All - December 19, 2023
Today's top research news
Ringing in the holidays with ringed planet Uranus
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently trained its sights on unusual and enigmatic Uranus, an ice giant that spins on its side. Webb captured this dynamic world with rings, moons, storms, and other atmospheric features -- including a seasonal polar cap. The image expands upon a two-color version released earlier this year, adding additional wavelength coverage for a more detailed look.
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Mysterious fruit shown to be the oldest known fossils of the Frankincense and Myrrh family
Early in the 1970s, paleontologists discovered strange fossilized fruits between hardened rock from one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth's history. The identity of these fossils remained elusive for the next several decades. Using CT scanning, scientists have now determined they are the oldest fossils from species in the Frankincense and Myrrh family.
People living in different communities follow different social customs or norms. In some places, for instance, it might be standard practice to greet each person you see on the street, while in others that simply isn't done. In some cases, such differences may even vary from one neighborhood to the next. Now researchers have found similarly varied social traditions and styles among neighboring groups of vervet monkeys.
Snowflakes swirling in turbulent air as they fall through a laser light sheet
A winter wonderland calls to mind piles of fluffy, glistening snow. But to reach the ground, snowflakes are swept into the turbulent atmosphere, swirling through the air instead of plummeting directly to the ground. Researchers found that regardless of turbulence or snowflake type, acceleration follows a universal statistical pattern that can be described as an exponential distribution.
Apes remember friends they haven't seen for decades
Apes recognize photos of groupmates they haven't seen for more than 25 years and respond even more enthusiastically to pictures of their friends, a new study finds. The work, which demonstrates the longest-lasting social memory ever documented outside of humans, and underscores how human culture evolved from the common ancestors we share with apes, our closest relatives.
