MOOD DETECTOR: A rock mantis shrimp (Neogonodactylus oerstedii) may communicate its fitness and aggression to rivals through the use of UV- reflective spots on the sides of its body. A.M. FRANKLIN, ET AL., ROY SOC OPEN SCI, doi:10.1098/rsos.160329, 2016.
Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are well known for aggressive temperaments and complex visual systems, but until now we’ve known very little about whether and how they use color to communicate with other mantis shrimp. Our experiments demonstrate that they use a complex signaling system that combines the UV reflectance of an important spot of color as well chemical cues to help them judge their opponent’s state of aggression, fighting ability, and the presence of a stomatopod in a refuge.
—Amanda Franklin, Tufts University grad student, on the Royal Society Open Science paper she recently coauthored describing a novel sensory behavior in a marine invertebrate (TuftsNow...
The most amazing thing is that it’s not like seeing light. It’s almost a feeling, at the threshold of imagination.
—Physicist Alipasha Vaziri of Rockefeller University talking about his recently published Nature Communications paper showing that human beings could detect flashes of light from a single photon (Nature, July 19)
It’s part of our evolutionary history. Magnetoreception may be the primal sense.
—California Institute of Technology geophysicist Joe Kirschvink, on his quest to show experimentally that human beings posses sensory apparatuses that help them perceive Earth’s magnetic field (June 23)
Large, publicly owned publishing companies make huge profits off of scientists by publishing our science and then selling it back to the university libraries at a massive profit (which primarily benefits stockholders). It is not in the best interest of the society, the scientists, the public, or the research.
—University of Cambridge animal behaviorist Corina Logan, on the need for open access in science publishing (From “The 7 biggest problems facing science, according to 270 scientists,” Vox, July 14)
I believe in science. I believe climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good-paying clean-energy jobs.
—Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accepting her party’s nomination during the Democratic National Convention (July 28)
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive.
—Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, from a 2012 tweet
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