NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Regina Barber and Aaron Scott of Quick Wave about albatrosses’ spectacular navigational skills, fossilized ocean worms and an upcoming meteor bathe.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Time now for our science information roundup from our pals at NPR’s Quick Wave podcast, Aaron Scott and Regina Barber. Good day to each of you.
REGINA BARBER, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
AARON SCOTT, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: So you have got introduced us three science tales that grabbed you this week. What have you ever obtained?
SCOTT: We have got peak viewing of a meteor bathe.
BARBER: Plus a uncommon glimpse of what the ocean ground seemed like 480 million years in the past.
CHANG: Whoa.
SCOTT: And the way albatross use sound to assist navigate the open ocean.
CHANG: Ooh. Let’s begin with that one, Aaron. Let’s speak in regards to the albatrosses.
SCOTT: Sure. Albatross are wonderful. They’re huge. They’ve the most important wingspan of any chook on Earth, as much as 11 ft. They will weigh as a lot as a toddler. They usually’re wonderful long-distance flyers. They will cowl hundreds of miles in a single journey.
CHANG: Wow.
SCOTT: In accordance with one calculation, over the course of their lifetime, they really fly the equal of going to the moon and again 10 occasions.
CHANG: Oh, my god.
SCOTT: Sure.
CHANG: Yeah. However like with all seabirds, all this journey raises an enormous query. How do they navigate over the open ocean? There is no seen landmarks, so researchers assume they have to be utilizing different cues. There’s some proof that they use scent and the Earth’s magnetic area.
SCOTT: And now researchers have proof for a brand new cue. In a paper within the Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences, they discovered that wandering albatrosses are inclined to fly in the direction of infrasound.
CHANG: Infrasound? Is that like infrared gentle however for sound? What’s that?
SCOTT: Sure, precisely. It is similar to infrared gentle is low-frequency gentle. Infrasound is low-frequency sound.
CHANG: Ah.
SCOTT: We people cannot hear it, nevertheless it’s in all places on the market on the ocean as a result of it is created at any time when waves are colliding with one another. This is among the paper’s lead authors, Natasha Gillies. She’s a postdoctoral researcher on the College of Liverpool.
NATASHA GILLIES: So the concept that different animals can understand infrasound is not completely novel. So elephants, some massive cetaceans, like whales, are recognized to make use of it for communication. However the concept that it may be a cue for motion has been a lot much less properly explored, and definitely by no means in seabirds.
CHANG: Wow. I had no thought about elephants. OK, so how did the researchers discover this with albatrosses, albatrossi (ph)?
SCOTT: Albatrosses. They created acoustic maps of the ocean utilizing knowledge from a community of microphones which can be set as much as really detect nuclear explosions. After which they hooked up GPS trackers to almost 90 birds and in contrast the place they flew by these acoustic maps.
BARBER: They usually discovered that the birds had been extra more likely to fly in the direction of areas with louder infrasound created from sturdy colliding waves.
CHANG: OK. So it looks like the birds had been really making an attempt to fly into areas with sturdy waves. Why would they do this instinctually?
BARBER: Properly, they depend on wind to soar. And uneven, wavy areas typically imply plenty of wind and updrafts to present them a lift. Waves crashing in opposition to a shoreline additionally create infrasound, in order that they thought it additionally might should do with them discovering their means dwelling.
SCOTT: Natasha says, to her data, that is the primary examine to point out that any animal is utilizing infrasound to navigate. However she thinks it is only the start. And learning infrasound really has implications for people, too. Scientists are utilizing it to enhance climate predictions and local weather fashions.
CHANG: OK. So that’s from above the ocean. However now we’ll go beneath the ocean, proper, Regina? You may have a narrative a couple of actually cool fossil from the ocean ground.
BARBER: Yeah. This fossil is from 480 million years in the past. We’re speaking properly earlier than the dinosaurs. And the scene was detailed in a examine that got here out final week in Communications Biology. The fossil reveals how animals lived with one another and typically on one another.
SCOTT: Yeah. On this case, a cephalopod with a shell, which is principally an historical relative of the squid, it died and fell to the ocean ground. After which these sea worms took up residence on its shell and constructed robust tubelike homes round themselves.
CHANG: Oh.
BARBER: Yeah. You possibly can see 88 of them rising throughout its lifeless physique.
CHANG: Ugh.
BARBER: Timothy Topper, a paleontologist not related to the examine, mentioned it seemed like a cephalopod having a nasty hair day.
CHANG: A cephalopod that appears like Medusa. Wait. So, like, a bunch of worms dwelling on a corpse? That is so gross, guys.
SCOTT: Yeah. Yeah. That is our Halloween theme. Though, you already know, this occurs on the backside of the ocean day-after-day. You might need heard about whale falls, Ailsa, the place, like, a whale dies and sinks to the ocean ground, after which its carcass turns into this large all-you-can-eat buffet for crabs and different sea creatures that, you already know, reside on this surroundings the place there’s simply not a lot meals. So you bought to get it when you could find it.
CHANG: Wait. Wait. Wait. Again to the worms, although – what’s so particular about this specific fossil?
SCOTT: So scientists have discovered different fossils that simply had fragments of the worms’ properties on them. However Timothy says what’s thrilling right here is that it is an entire colony. And you’ll see these two species – the worms and the lifeless cephalopod – interacting 480 million years in the past.
BARBER: Yeah. That is one of many issues that makes this fossil such an enormous deal to Karma Nanglu, the lead creator of the examine. He says the worms on this fossil are displaying one thing known as frozen habits.
KARMA NANGLU: They’re nonetheless discovered, like, on the lifeless shells of bivalves and issues like that, rising their tubes – virtually morphologically equivalent. It is a technique that is saved them by each main mass extinction. They simply saved on doing it. And, you already know, half a billion years, no want to alter.
CHANG: So disgusting, however so extremely cool. All proper. I need to finish now on meteor showers. What can we obtained?
BARBER: Yeah. Yeah. So the Orionid meteor bathe peaks this weekend. You possibly can really see the bathe now and even days after this window. However this weekend is your prime sighting time.
SCOTT: And the meteors you are seeing are literally rocky mud burning up because it enters our ambiance. And, Ailsa, you would possibly want some espresso or scorching cocoa as a result of the height magic occurs within the wee hours between midnight and daybreak.
BARBER: Yeah, super-late. And we’re speaking late Friday, October 20 and into the morning of Saturday, October 21.
CHANG: All night time lengthy, child. Why wouldn’t it be value it for anybody to remain up all night time for this? Like, what’s so particular about this specific meteor bathe?
SCOTT: Properly, Ailsa, all meteor showers are particular. This one, although, has a few notable issues. These meteors are items of a really well-known comet. I will provide you with one guess as to which one it’s.
CHANG: Halley’s?
SCOTT: You bought it.
CHANG: It is, like, the one remark I do know offhand.
(LAUGHTER)
SCOTT: Simple peasy. In order Halley’s Comet travels in orbit, it leaves behind this complete path of mud and particles.
BARBER: Which turns into a meteor bathe when it enters Earth’s ambiance. The Orionid meteors are particularly recognized for his or her brightness and velocity. We’re speaking 41 miles per second. In order that they depart glowing trails which may final for a number of seconds to minutes.
SCOTT: And one different enjoyable reality – the Orionids get their identify from the constellation Orion as a result of it really appears to be like like that is the place they’re coming from. However, after all, they are often seen all throughout the night time sky.
CHANG: OK. Possibly you bought me. I’ll keep up, perhaps, all night time for this. It is a lot simpler for me to remain up all night time than to stand up actually, actually early within the morning anyway. So some other tips about how greatest to see this bathe?
BARBER: Properly, ideally, you need to attempt to discover an space, like, away from metropolis lights, streetlights, and at all times give your eyes time to adapt to the darkish. We’re speaking one thing like half-hour or so.
SCOTT: And at its peak, beneath splendid circumstances, the bathe is predicted to supply about 20 seen meteors an hour. So be affected person. You are not going to see one each few seconds.
CHANG: Simply drink extra wine.
BARBER: Yeah.
CHANG: That’s Regina Barber and Aaron Scott from NPR’s science podcast Quick Wave, the place you’ll be able to study all about new discoveries, on a regular basis mysteries and the science behind the headlines. Regina, Aaron, thanks a lot.
SCOTT: Thanks.
BARBER: Thanks, Ailsa.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLUME SONG, “SPACE CADET (FT. GHOSTFACE KILLAH AND AUTRE NE VEUT)”)
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