Human Interest

Via Tom D'Amico (@TDOttawa) , Mark E. Deschaine, PhD, Timo Ilomäki, Skuuppilehdet

Ernst Haeckel, a German naturalist around the mid-1800s, used simple microscopes to draw the skeletons of single-celled plankton found in all the oceans of the world. His exquisite drawings capture the incredible, mind-boggling intricacy of this sea life in a way photographs cannot.  These found forms resemble aliens from another planet, yet they are strongly organic and biological. For the past century Haeckel’s meticulous renderings have served as inspiration and guides for architects, designers, scientists, and engineers – and probably science fiction authors.

Memory is a notoriously slippery ally. It’s alarmingly easy to purposely distort recall, even in people with the unusual ability to remember minute details, going back to childhood. Absent manipulation, it is still extraordinarily difficult to be a reliable witness. Studying faults in memory, though, can reveal how it functions—even in such seemingly simple organisms as bees.

The latest work, published in Current Biology, looks at how bees, like humans, can be prone to false memories. Previously, researchers had manipulated the electrical zings of specific mouse brain cells to give rodents a false memory of an event that never happened. But naturally occurring false memory hasn’t been shown in non-humans before. 

Honeybees and bumblebees are favorite subjects in the study of learning and memory because they rely on color, scent and taste to help them find flowers and, therefore, food. They forage, so they are also good at using sensory cues to map their surroundings. In the new study, U.K.-based researchers tested bumblebees’ false memory formation using differently colored fake flowers.

Via Dr. Stefan Gruenwald, Jocelyn Stoller

Was it any different in caveman days? And just how does human sexuality differ compared to that of a bonobo ape? The answers might surprise you.

Via Gracie Passette