New species of beaked whale confirmed by DNA

An international team of scientists who searched out specimens from museums and remote Arctic islands has identified a rare new species of beaked whale that ranges from northern Japan across the Pacific Ocean to Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

Japanese whalers call the enigmatic black whales "karasu," the Japanese word for raven. The new species is darker in color and about two-thirds the size of the more common Baird's beaked whale, but so scarce that even whalers rarely see them.

A DNA analysis of 178 beaked whales from around the Pacific Rim found eight known examples of the new species, the scientists reported today in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The eight included specimens from the Smithsonian Institution and Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, a skeleton on display in an Alaska high school, and another that puzzled researchers trying to identify it when it washed up on an island in the Bering Sea.

"The challenge in documenting the species was simply locating enough specimens to provide convincing evidence," said Phillip Morin, a research molecular biologist at NOAA Fisheries' Southwest Fisheries Science Center, and lead author of the new study. "Clearly this species is very rare, and reminds us how much we have to learn about the ocean and even some of its largest inhabitants."

An earlier Japanese study had suggested that the black whales, sometimes considered a dwarf form of Baird's beaked whale, might represent a new species. That sent Morin in search of additional genetic samples to definitively answer the question and better understand the range of the elusive species.

He turned first to the Southwest Fisheries Science Center's marine mammal tissue collection, the largest in the world, and found two samples that appeared to represent a new species. One came from a whale found in Alaska's Aleutian Islands in 2004, whose skeleton now hangs on display at Unalaska High School. Then he and his colleagues pursued additional DNA samples from museums, research institutions and Japanese markets where whale meat is sold.

In 2014 scientists found a dead beaked whale on St. George Island, one of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea. When it did not match any known species, they sent samples to Morin. Genetic tests later showed it to be the new species.

"We knew it was not any whale we knew from our area," said Michelle Ridgway, a marine ecologist with Oceanus Alaska who documented the whale in the Pribilofs and is a coauthor of the new research.

DNA analysis shows that the new species and Baird's beaked whale are each more closely related to Arnoux's beaked whale from the Southern Hemisphere than they are to each other. The genetic differences and smaller size indicate that the black whale is distinctive enough to represent a new species, the scientists found. Official recognition and naming of the species awaits a formal review of the animal's characteristics and differences from other beaked whales.

Beaked whales remain among the least known whales in the ocean, with several species identified only in the past few decades. They have beaks like dolphins, diving thousands of feet into deep underwater canyons and basins to feed on squid and bottom fish. Japan hunts Baird's beaked whales, the largest of the beaked whales at about 35 feet long.

"Japanese whalers have known about the black form but didn't consider it a separate species," said Erich Hoyt, a research fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation in the United Kingdom and co-director of the Russian Cetacean Habitat Project. He is a coauthor of the new research, and his research group contributed genetic samples from beaked whales in the Russian Far East.

"The implication of a new species of beaked whale is that we need to reconsider management of both species to be sure they're sufficiently protected, considering how rare the new one appears to be," Hoyt said. "Discovering a new species of whale in 2016 is exciting but it also reveals how little we know and how much more work we have to do to truly understand these species."

The eight known examples of the new species cluster around northern Japan and the Aleutian Islands and Bering Sea. That suggests that the species has a smaller range than Baird's beaked whale, which occurs throughout the North Pacific from Japan to Baja California.

Scars from the cookie-cutter-like bites of tropical sharks suggest that, like other beaked whales, the species may migrate to tropical waters.

"As much as we know about the genetic heritage of this animal, we still do not know very much about the animal itself," Morin said. "We can draw some indications from what we know about other beaked whales in terms of its range and behavior, but we still have many more questions than answers."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Hey robot, shimmy like a centipede

Centipedes move quickly. And when one is coming directly at you, you might not care to spend a moment pondering its agility.

So perhaps our lack of understanding about just why centipedes move with such dexterity, even over obstacles, has been related to fear. But undeterred, researchers at Kyoto University have asked precisely this question, and have turned to computer simulations and ultimately robotics to find an answer.

What they have uncovered is a surprising insight into the mechanics of locomotion itself, namely that taming instability -- a factor that might be a disadvantage -- is a key to the centipede's success.

"During their locomotion, many legs are in contact with the ground to support the body against gravity and produce propulsive and decelerating forces," explains lead scientist Shinya Aoi. "These many legs are physically constrained on the ground, and this constraint can impede their locomotion maneuverability."

Centipedes overcome these constraints by harnessing instability, producing the creature's characteristic undulating movement.

"Our group developed a mathematical model of centipedes and found that the straight walk becomes unstable and body undulations appear through a supercritical Hopf bifurcation by changing the locomotion speed and body axis flexibility," continues Aoi, referring to a mathematical description of the walking system's tipping point from stable to unstable.

First with computer models and then with segmented, multi-legged robots, the team was able to replicate the centipede's movement, including the wave-like body motion, as described in a paper in the online journal Scientific Reports.

But Aoi and his colleagues are not satisfied with merely taming creepy crawlies.

"This study provides clues to unresolved issues of intelligent motor functions of animals, and meaningful insight for biological sciences," he says, pointing out that much remains unknown about the exact mechanics of animal locomotion.

And further down the line, such knowledge could lead to better motion for robots -- no matter how many legs they may have.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Kyoto University.Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

New detector at South Pole shows early success at neutrino hunting

In the second it takes to read these words, 65 billion neutrinos will shoot through every square centimeter of your body. Luckily, these infinitesimal particles don't do any harm -- they pass through us, as they do with most everything, without stopping or interacting.

"Partly because it's so tiny, a neutrino has this unique property -- it's able to penetrate through matter very easily," said David Besson, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas. "A neutrino produced in the center of the Sun can typically require a light year's worth of solid lead to stop that neutrino, whereas light, in the form of photons from the Sun, you can block out easily with dark sunglasses."

According to Besson, the ability of neutrinos to pierce through anything and keep on moving makes them ideal cosmic messengers.

"The fact that neutrinos are so penetrating makes them interesting to astrophysicists," he said. "Huge and cataclysmic stellar explosions that we'd like to understand produce lots of particles, but most of them will be absorbed by material in the interstellar medium before getting to our observatories. But neutrinos, because they're so penetrating, can carry info from much farther away -- much more than a photon, for example."

Yet, neutrinos are tricky to detect precisely because they don't interact with matter.

Today, Besson is part of a multinational research effort at the South Pole to build and operate the Askaryan Radio Array, a large-scale radio-detection instrument that will identify radio waves cast off from high-energy neutrinos far underneath the Antarctic ice shelf. Eventually the array will be composed of 37 antennae stations that effectively will transform hundreds of cubic kilometers into a colossal neutrino detector.

The ARA team recently published a performance review of the first two stations to come online in the peer-reviewed publication Physical Review D.Their findings showed great potential for the detector to push forward understanding of the cosmos once it's fully operational.

"The first two stations are showing a lot of promise of detecting neutrinos," Besson said. "Radio transparency within the ice is very high. We measured at this at the South Pole and were able to send radio waves through about 4 miles' worth of ice. So that's pretty transparent, and it means you can bury an antenna in the Antarctic ice and scan for several kilometers around for potential neutrino interactions."

Besson performs data analysis and serves as a spokesman for the ARA group. He said once the array is fully operational, it could produce information from neutrinos that would shed light on the state of the current universe and also the universe's origins.

"Neutrinos tell us something about cataclysmic explosions that happen today or within the recent history of the universe," he said. "But also, because they can reach us from very farthest periphery of the distant universe, they carry an imprint of processes that occurred in early universe. If you can accumulate enough data from them, you can test theories of evolution of the cosmos."

While scientists are learning secrets of the universe, KU undergraduate and graduate students will have the opportunity to learn about neutrinos and neutrino detection via the array. Moreover, two of the graduate students will travel to Antarctica to engage in research this October. Their route will take them from Lawrence to Kansas City, Los Angeles, New Zealand, McMurdo Station in Antarctica, and finally to the South Pole aboard a C-130 military jet.

"There's a particle astrophysics group here at KU -- they work on radio-wave detection of cosmic rays," Besson said. That group includes four graduate students and three undergraduates.

Further, Besson is working with high school students at KU this summer, including soon-to-be Jayhawks.

"Two of them are coming here as undergrads in the fall," he said. "The nice thing about radio waves, unlike gamma rays or x-rays, is they're familiar to people, and the equipment you need to send and receive radio waves are just antennas, and it doesn't take much work to get to point where you can design and build and test your own antennae."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Kansas. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

A new key to understanding molecular evolution in space

Scientists at Hokkaido University have revealed temperature-dependent energy-state conversion of molecular hydrogen on ice surfaces, suggesting the need for a reconsideration of molecular evolution theory.

Molecular hydrogen, the most abundant element in space, is created when two hydrogen atoms bond on minute floating ice particles. It has two energy states: ortho and para, depending on the direction of proton spins. Ortho-hydrogen converts to para-hydrogen on extremely low temperature ice particles, though its mechanism remained unclear.

When molecular hydrogen is released from tiny ice particles in space, the particular state of its energy plays a key role in molecular evolution -- the process of generating a wide range of molecules over a long period of time in space.

In the study, the researchers developed a special system that could detect the ortho/para ratio of molecular hydrogen on artificial ice particles. The study discovered that the ratio of the ortho-to-para conversion rate (as time passed) was dramatically different in the relatively small temperature range of between -264C and -257C, thus, in a world first, unraveling the conversion mechanism. Ortho-hydrogen converts to para-hydrogen by releasing energy to the ice, in a temperature dependent manner.

Until now, the energy conversion rate was believed to be identical regardless of the temperature of ice particles -- a theory that has been scotched by the new research. The finding will likely prompt scientists to rebuild theories of molecular evolution, opening new horizons in studies of molecular formation and molecular evolution.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Hokkaido University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

New catalyst is three times better at splitting water

With a combination of theory and clever, meticulous gel-making, scientists from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the University of Toronto have developed a new type of catalyst that's three times better than the previous record-holder at splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen -- the vital first step in making fuels from renewable solar and wind power.

First non-utilitarian weapons found in the Arabian Peninsula

An exceptional collection of bronze weapons dating from the Iron Age II (900-600 BC) has been uncovered near Adam, in the Sultanate of Oman. The remains were discovered scattered on the ground in a building belonging to what is thought to be a religious complex, during excavations carried out by the French archaeological mission in central Oman. In particular, they include two complete quivers and weapons made of metal, including two bows, objects that are for the most part non-functional and hitherto unknown in the Arabian Peninsula.

Foldable material can change size, volume and shape

Imagine a house that could fit in a backpack or a wall that could become a window with the flick of a switch.

Gravitational waves detected 100 years after Einstein's prediction

For the first time, scientists have observed ripples in the fabric of spacetime called gravitational waves, arriving at Earth from a cataclysmic event in the distant universe. This confirms a major prediction of Albert Einstein's 1915 general theory of relativity and opens an unprecedented new window onto the cosmos.

Magnets levitate above a superconductor: New properties of superconductors discovered

New findings from an international collaboration led by Canadian scientists may eventually lead to a theory of how superconductivity initiates at the atomic level, a key step in understanding how to harness the potential of materials that could provide lossless energy storage, levitating trains and ultra-fast supercomputers.

From genes to latrines: Vikings and their worms provide clues to emphysema

In a paper published in Nature: Scientific Reports a group of researchers led by LSTM have found that the key to an inherited deficiency, predisposing people to emphysema and other lung conditions, could lie in their Viking roots.

Turbulent times: When stars approach

HITS astrophysicists use new methods to simulate the common-envelope phase of binary stars, discovering dynamic irregularities that may help to explain how supernovae evolve.