Once again, the year in science was dominated by what’s happening in galaxies far, far away.
The biggest and prettiest story was the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope, which furthered the idea that the universe is just one big beautiful Christmas tree.
The most stunning image was of the Pillars of Creation, spookily suggestive of the hand of God. Looking a bit ragged, but still cool.
Closer to Earth, Californian scientists for the first time staged a successful nuclear-fusion event – where they managed, for a couple of billionths of a second, to get more energy out of the process than they had to put in.
Nuclear fusion – where pairs of atoms are heated and fused together to make a heavier one – is how the Sun produces energy.
It’s a process that promises limitless clean energy if it could be replicated on Earth. Where we have an energy crisis and attendant global warming.
But moving fusion from the lab to the real world is decades away – so the discovery is more of a tease right now than salvation.
In the meantime, lighten up
One of our stories that delighted far and wide was that of the goldfish who could drive a robotic car – and was able to navigate a room toward a treat.
The fish beat all attempts by researchers to stymie its efforts.
This was a study, from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, that asked a simple yet intriguing question: Is an animal’s innate navigational abilities universal (it can take them anywhere) or are they restricted to their home environments?
Short answer: Like astronauts, if an animal has portable life support, it can go just about anywhere.
Early experiments with caged birds (covered in ink) found they were naturally drawn to fly toward and bump up against the side of the cage, always in the direction of their migrating route.
Going where no goldfish had gone before, the researchers designed a set of wheels under a goldfish tank “with a camera system to record and translate the fish’s movements into forward and back and side to side directions to the wheels”.
By doing so, they discovered that “a goldfish’s navigational ability supersedes its watery environs”.
Feeling guilty about chocolate makes you fat
As we reported in April, a New Zealand study found that the guilt associated with eating chocolate is a waste of time and very bad for you.
Women who celebrate their chocolate experience enjoy better weight control and overall wellbeing.
The study, from the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, found that women who associated chocolate cake with guilt “were less successful at losing weight over a three-month period compared to those associating chocolate cake with celebration”.
They were also “less successful at maintaining their weight over an 18-month period”.
In other words, despite all that angst, fat came to stay anyway.
Big bottom line: Enjoy every bite.
The reason why bees buzz
In a shocking new study, UK scientists have measured the electrical fields near swarming bees and discovered they can produce “as much atmospheric electric charge as a thunderstorm cloud”.
This type of electricity helps shape weather events, including the formation of clouds.
This phenomena isn’t confined to bees. The researchers say it also aids insects in finding food.
“We always looked at how physics influenced biology, but at some point, we realised that biology might also be influencing physics,” said first author Dr Ellard Hunting, a biologist at the University of Bristol.
Read our full report here.
Love stinks. Yeah, yeah
Dog owners do a lot of smiling. Especially when their little friend sniffs the bottom of another dog in the street.
The pups will tend to spring apart or linger in a way that says “I’m your friend”.
So cute, right?
Well, a new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel suggests that humans make friends in much the same way.
There’s no overt bottom-smelling. But the researchers say that people have a tendency “to form friendships with individuals who have a similar body odour”.
Read our full report here.
How to expose a liar according to science
Let’s keep it simple and talk about a husband you suspect is behaving badly.
He comes home late, again. You ask the usual 20 questions, which he smoothly neutralises with a detailed and sort-of-plausible narrative.
It really seems like the excuse is writing itself.
Next time, try this: Create a small emergency that requires him to multitask while he explains his waywardness.
According to research, “lie tellers who are made to multitask while being interviewed are easier to spot”.
In other words, if someone is trying to spin a story to underpin a lie, and if they can be distracted by something that truly needs their attention (while at the same time attempting to keep the narrative in play) the plausibility of the lie should fall apart.
It’s clunky, but it just might work.
Read our full report here.
Brains cells play a video game
Brain cells living in a dish have learned to play the tennis-like computer game Pong, and scientists plan to get them drunk next.
The 800,000 brain cells were grown together by a Melbourne-led team of scientists who figured out how to stimulate them to perform goal-directed tasks.
The scientists signalled what side a ball was on to the cells using electrodes.
Feedback from the electrodes taught the cells how to return the ball. They did this by acting as though they were the paddle.
The findings open the door for scientists to experiment on a living model brain, lead study author Dr Brett Kagan said.
“We have shown we can interact with living biological neurons in such a way that compels them to modify their activity, leading to something that resembles intelligence,” he said.
Read the full report here.
