Is SCIENCE!!!! still weird and cool in 2025? You betcha.

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Some of the most significant events in the development of life on Earth are the major mass extinctions. The best known of those is the K-Pg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) in which 75 or so percent of species became extinct, including the non-avian dinosaurs (and even among the avian ones, aka birds, toothed ones largely died off leaving just the ones with beaks we know today), and the large marine reptiles like mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. The hypothesis that an impact by a large body like a comet or asteroid did a lot of the damage in that event dates to the 80s and we've known the location of the impact since the 90s (Chicxulub Crater on the North side of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula), but the details are still being debated. Here's GeoGirl, a postdoc at the University of South Carolina, in partnership with the Geological Society of America discussing some of the latest work studying that catastrophic event.

 
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More theories ... no proof because few survived the process, but it does create space in psyche for the abstract side ... downstream from a light wind ... breezy (bust of the Zae)! This query always arises when one questions whether the wind causes water movement or the opposite ... and the water freezes ... kohl, eh!
 
There's a lot of fussing about the Yellowstone supervolcano from time to time but the fact is, there are no signs an eruption is imminent or even close. However, it is the remnant of a much bigger system that last erupted something like 17 million years ago so is of great interest to geologists, climate researchers, and others interested in the impact of volcanic events on the world. That system is a large igneous province, one of several around the world whose eruptions have been shown to be linked to past mass extinctions and major climate shifts. Most famously, the one in Siberia seems to have been a major factor in the "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian Period, the largest mass extinction event to date. The Deccan traps in India have been implicated in the K-Pg event, too, though their role is less clear given the asteroid impact discussed above. So here's PBS Terra with the story of the large igneous province in the US West and the role of these volcanic features in climate change events over the millennia.

 
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I tend to avoid posting PBS Spacetime videos here. It's an excellent series but host Matt O'Dowd, an Aussie astrophysicist working in the US, tends to go deep into the weeds and that makes it hard to follow sometimes for folks who aren't either regular viewers or already somewhat familiar with the ideas. Still, he goes interesting places and this is one.

For the past century and a bit, one of the big gaps in physics has been how General Relativity, which describes gravity, and the Standard Model, which describes basically everything else, can be related to each other. As it stands, they are so different, that it seems like the universe is almost a different place on micro vs. macro scales. The problem is that while we can live with this weird dichotomy in the everyday world, it causes our models to break down at the extremes, such as in a black hole or at the beginning of spacetime (aka the Big Bang). So finding a way to harmonize them is an ongoing quest. And one key piece missing in all the attempts at a theory that unites them is the absence of the graviton. a hypothetical boson that is the carrier particle for gravity as photons are for the electromagnetic force (e.g. light, radio waves, etc.). Matt tackles the problem here, pointing out that we kind of know what the graviton should look like, just don't entirely know how it fits in with the two existing theories. And finding it will be a major challenge given it is likely like beyond the capabilities of current accelerators and other experimental techniques in physics.

 
Complexly Media produces some of my favourite science content on YouTube and there's a couple good examples out today.

First up, from PBS Eons, the question of how chewing evolved. Mammal are the only major group of animals that chew their good. Most others swallow it whole or in chunks. The only other animals we know of that evolved the ability to chew are the reptile order Rhynchocephalia but those are mostly extinct, with the tuatara of New Zealand being the only extent example (and, yes, it chews its food). So where did this ability come from? And did it contribute to mammals (and Rhynchocephalians') survival in the K-Pg extinction that took down so many other groups of vertebrates?


And then from SciShow, an interesting look at the role in history of the most annoying of insects (indeed, arthropods), the mosquito. In today's video, they review the deaths of historical figures whose deaths may (and some cases certainly were) caused by mosquito-borne illnesses. They range from a couple popes who died of malaria (Rome used to be terrible for it), to Oliver Cromwell (a different variety of malaria combined with salmonella), to Alexander the Great (who might possibly have had West Nile Virus). Plus Napoleon's brother-in-law (Yellow Fever) and a modern Indian activist (Dengue Fever).

 
And then there's this fascinating story about a wolf population on the coast of BC. The footage below shows a wolf using a crab trap's rope to pull it ashore so it can eat the bait. This is the first time people have witnessed an canid species (wolves, dogs, etc.) demonstrating a form of tool use in the wild.

 
There are many things that are hard to receive as mental items ... too unimaginable considering the nature of the mind and its persona!

Individuals will fight it and chew it all apart ... thus mental bitz ... flying like blitz ... there and then gone ...
 
Mendalla said:
And then there's this fascinating story about a wolf population on the coast of BC. The footage below shows a wolf using a crab trap's rope to pull it ashore so it can eat the bait. This is the first time people have witnessed an canid species (wolves, dogs, etc.) demonstrating a form of tool use in the wild.

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I saw that but it didn’t surprise me that much. Domestic dogs can be just as smart. To survive in the wild I’d think wolves would be at least as smart.

I’m sure they play. And they are food motivated. What’s the big deal? Is it really tool use or just how canines’ brains think? Think of all the things dogs can learn to do - assistance dogs, K9s, rescue dogs?
I’ve known some very smart pets.

They saw humans pull it up. They recognized the buoy - like a dog recognizing a ball - and that there was a food reward attached. The buoy was the cue just like a red and white oblong ball. It really isn’t that surprising. It’s not totally in the wild because the crab trap and buoy are not things found in the wild - people put them there and they saw it (and smelled it) and realized there was a treat involved - like a dog could do. I guess I’m in oddball to think that?
 
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If they set the traps and put them back out - that’s tool use! This seems like they sniffed a treat when the traps were on the shore and saw the buoy attached and knew that’s what was in the water.
 
Thus the initiation of the "pull" syndrome! Later a disjointed leg ... UK Beef?

No end to*wit ... keep pulling ... may lead to pullman's (a place to play chance with the traveller). In some traditions this is quantum ... in Scanty Din Avia ... long legs from the sea ... Fiords? So much to put together ... Phi Rha M'N?
 
Kimmio Laughterlove said:
I saw that but it didn’t surprise me that much. Domestic dogs can be just as smart. To survive in the wild I’d think wolves would be at least as smart.
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Yeah, it certainly makes sense but science isn't based on pure reason (anymore, Aristotle certainly thought it should be resulting in some, to us, weird conclusions), it needs clear observational evidence and this provided it.
 
Mendalla said:
Yeah, it certainly makes sense but science isn't based on pure reason (anymore, Aristotle certainly thought it should be resulting in some, to us, weird conclusions), it needs clear observational evidence and this provided it.
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Is observation something of science or declared unseen by those with psyche block? Can psyche this be chiselled out?

Will something thus be deficient and in reason nothing appears as a hollowed out spot? Mental bubble or just boob lay ...
what is the sound of that laid out? Blunderers ... blun de roues ... like Beethoven ... mores to chew upon as bones ... Xylose ...
 
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Hemicellulose ... some chemical relating required!

Matter bound by lignan and tannin ... tree stuff? treats for beavers ... mores to gnaw upon in circles! Thus scarfing ... dry uprights occur ... caution when they come down ... folly?
 
Mendalla said:
Yeah, it certainly makes sense but science isn't based on pure reason (anymore, Aristotle certainly thought it should be resulting in some, to us, weird conclusions), it needs clear observational evidence and this provided it.
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But it’s not tool use in a pure sense. It would be if they had found something like a stick in the wild and used for a specific purpose never seen before. But people put the traps in the water. The wolves observed it and smelled it. It’s more like a sign of domestication of the wolves than tool use in the wild.
 
Kimmio Laughterlove said:
(To add: the article I read said it was a few wolves and that they’d taught each other to do it. Again, doesn’t surprise me at all.)
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Really, what this and other cases of tool use and knowledge sharing among non-hominin animals (i.e. not closely related to us and the great apes) shows is that these capabilities, once regarded as "human", really developed on a continuum and we have just evolved a more sophisticated way of understanding and reflecting on them. Given birds like corvids are among the animals using tools and learning in context, we can probably safely assume some dinosaurs (birds are offshoots of that lineage) did, too. And octopuses have shown similar capabilities and the cephalopod lineages goes back even further so it is possible that animal tool use goes back very far in evolutionary history.
 
Mendalla said:
Really, what this and other cases of tool use and knowledge sharing among non-hominin animals (i.e. not closely related to us and the great apes) shows is that these capabilities, once regarded as "human", really developed on a continuum and we have just evolved a more sophisticated way of understanding and reflecting on them. Given birds like corvids are among the animals using tools and learning in context, we can probably safely assume some dinosaurs (birds are offshoots of that lineage) did, too. And octopuses have shown similar capabilities and the cephalopod lineages goes back even further so it is possible that animal tool use goes back very far in evolutionary history.
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Again, this to me is the equivalent of playing fetch and giving a dog a treat. A dog could pull apart couch cushions looking for a toy. We used to play hide n seek in a wooded area with our dog. She’d get a treat for finding us - she did that easily but she wasn’t even the brightest dog. I just don’t get the big deal. This wolf was just using her senses, and her own strength, not tools she discovered herself. I don’t see evolution I see domestication.

Is bears getting into garbage cans evolutionary “tool use”? Or just trying to get into the thing with the food that people left out?
 
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(I’m thinking of “tamed” rather than domesticated. That they’ve become accustomed to human presence and the things people left out with food in them. Though, “domestication” ie. wolves as pets isn’t totally unheard of - just not a good idea.)
 
I like this guy’s explanation. He explains that Sea Wolves eat mostly marine food sources. They dig for clams and dive for fish. These wolves were using things left in their environment by humans, to get at things they already eat. The humans made it easier, they didn’t make the crab traps (with visual cues like the buoy or the orange cup inside the trap). If they’re swimming and diving they’d be seeing this in their environment fairly often and they’re looking for the same food crabs eat, and for crabs! I’d be surprised if they hadn’t figured it out after a couple of food scores from the nets.

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7574194831061273887

That’s like your a dog sniffing a steak left in a shopping bag on a car seat and eating it. And then recognizing the same shopping bag up on the counter another day, and getting up there see if there’s another steak in it. And then it showing the dog that you’re pet-sitting, to do the same because it saw the first dog do it, and they both love getting into food - especially if food tends to be in the same bag. Not really shocking behaviour. Annoying, more likely lol.

Not evolutionary tool use. Just humans leaving food in a shopping bag. Makes their job easier for them - but they didn’t come up with the tool.

Sorry to go on about this but I feel like it’s not a grand discovery to publicize. When they show us sea wolves making crab traps I’ll be shocked lol.
 
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