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☆ Scientists tickle rats to learn about brain activity during play
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Kate Golembiewski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

To learn more about the neuroscience behind this widespread behavior, he and his colleagues played with and tickled rats and observed the rodents’ brain activity. Researchers studied how playing and being tickled affected rats’ brain activity. Key brain areaTo learn more about how playing and being tickled affect rats’ brain activity, the researchers devised a series of experiments. The researchers played “hand chasing games” with their rat subjects and gently tickled them, while tiny, wireless neural probes recorded the rats’ brain activity. Furthermore, in trials where the scientists inhibited activity in this part of the brain, the rats were less inclined to play or laugh when tickled.

Persons: Michael Brecht, they’re, Brecht, it’s, ” Brecht, “, ”, everyone’s, —, one’s, we’ve, Alexa Veenema, Veenema, ” Veenema, Kate Golembiewski Organizations: CNN, Bowl, Humboldt University, Michigan State University Locations: Berlin, Chicago

☆ Newly discovered ancient creature may have been the heaviest animal ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

This week, scientists shared discoveries of ancient species that lived and died tens of millions of years ago, providing tantalizing insights into creatures never documented until now. The colossal ancient whale, which swam the seas about 39 million years ago, likely weighed two to three times more than the blue whale. NASA/ESA/Joseph Olmsted (STScI)When the Hubble Space Telescope initially observed a young planetary system 32 light-years from Earth, it didn’t reveal any surprises. And the James Webb Space Telescope spied new details within the colorful, iconic Ring Nebula. The fruit flies in the groundbreaking study don’t typically reproduce through virgin births, also called parthenogenesis, although many animal species do.

Persons: Alberto Gennari, Michael Brecht, ” Brecht, Joseph Olmsted, Euclid, James Webb, —, Hala Alarashi, Alice Burkhardt, Ba, Emperor Nero, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Canadian Rockies, Humboldt University, NASA, ESA, Hubble, Telescope, Petra Museum, CNN Space, Science Locations: Ica, Berlin, Jordan, East Coast, United States

"Germans are cautious by nature," said Stephan Fetsch, Germany's head of consumer goods at KPMG. Economists polled by Reuters are split on its second quarter fortunes: views ranged from a 0.3% GDP fall to a 0.5% gain, with a median forecast of 0.2% growth. However, German consumer sentiment remains below its pandemic low in the spring of 2020 and the consumer barometer from the German Retail Association (HDE) shows a similar picture. German consumers were hit particularly hard by high energy prices, being more dependent on Russia gas. "The German consumer has reasons to be scared and the result of all the economic uncertainty is usually an increase in precautionary savings," said Michael Burda, economics professor at Humboldt University Berlin.

Persons: Wolfgang Rattay, Germany's, Stephan Fetsch, Holger Schmieding, Carsten Brzeski, KPMG's Fetsch, Joerg Kraemer, Michael Burda, Brzeski, Maria Martinez, Prerana Bhat, Indradip Ghosh, Mark John, Toby Chopra Organizations: REUTERS, KPMG, Reuters, German Retail Association, Berenberg, ING, European Central Bank, Humboldt University Berlin, Thomson Locations: Cologne, Germany, BERLIN, Europe, France, Italy, Russia, Berlin, China, Bengaluru

☆ An elephant living in a Berlin zoo has taught herself how to peel a banana
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Kate Golembiewski | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Now a team of researchers in Berlin have documented an elephant using her trunk for another novel behavior: peeling bananas. Pang Pha was a baby when she arrived at the Berlin Zoo, where she was fed bananas. Lena KaufmannThe star of this new study, an Asian elephant named Pang Pha, was a baby when she arrived at the Berlin Zoo in 1987. When Pang Pha peels a banana, she doesn’t crack the stem and peel down the sides one by one. It’s also not possible to definitively say that she learned to peel bananas by copying her human caretaker.

☆ An Asian elephant learned to peel her own bananas with her trunk — and may have figured it out after watching her caretaker do it for her
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Kelsey Vlamis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An elephant named at the Berlin Zoo really likes peeling her bananas. The study said Pha would only engage in peeling if handed a yellow banana with brown spots. When given a green or yellow banana, she will eat the entire thing, peel and all, similar to other elephants. In that setting, she will typically eat spotty yellow bananas whole, just like everyone else — except for one. Though elephants have been documented using their trunks in many interesting ways, researchers said peeling bananas appeared to be a rare behavior.

☆ This Isn't What Millennial Middle Age Was Supposed to Look Like - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Jessica Grose | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +25 min

Things have been difficult for her family, she says, but one thing she isn’t worried about: a midlife crisis, looming just over the horizon. One of our questions was about whether they had experienced a midlife crisis and how they would define the term. Many people said they felt they couldn’t be having a midlife crisis, because there was no bourgeois numbness to rebel against. “Who has midlife crisis money?”The traditional midlife crisis, as presented in popular culture, at least, unfolds amid suburban ennui. We just increase our Lexapro.”Was the midlife crisis ever even real?

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