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☆ Bats use same techniques as death metal singers to vocalize, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Zoe Sottile | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Death metal fans might just have a new animal mascot. Some bats use the same vocal structures as death metal singers to make their unique vocalizations, a new study has found. This allowed the scientists to directly observe the vocal membranes and ventricular folds, also called “false vocal folds,” vibrating at different frequencies. These are “the first direct observations” of these vocal structures in Daubenton’s bats, the researchers said. Ventricular folds, or false vocal folds, are located on top of the true vocal cords.

☆ Startups trying to turn cities into carbon sinks to fight climate change have raised a record $2.2 billion this year, new report shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Green construction startups have raised a record $2.2 billion in 2022, per VC firm A/O PropTech. The construction and operation of buildings account for 37% of global CO2 emissions from energy use, according to the UN. The adoption of bio-based materials, such as wood, and a circular approach to construction can help cities become carbon sinks, the report stated. A carbon sink is when something can store more carbon emissions than it produces. Most building materials are currently "down-cycled" and used for things like filling potholes, she added.

☆ Weight loss startups offer access to new drugs, but do they provide good care?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Darius Tahir | Kaiser Health News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

Now a wave of startups offer access to a new category of drugs coupled with intensive behavioral coaching online. These patients pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, to access new drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, along with online coaching to encourage healthy habits. (That price includes generic drugs, but not the newer GLP-1 agonists, like Wegovy.) The firms say they’re on the vanguard of weight care, both citing the influence of biology and other scientific factors as key ingredients to their approaches. Found said older generics like zonisamide are more accessible than the GLP-1 agonists advertised on social media and their own website.

☆ Making daylight saving permanent could drastically reduce deer collisions, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Evan Bush | Evan Bush Is A Science Reporter For Nbc News. He Can Be Reached At Evan.Bush Nbcuni.Com. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

It also adds more ammunition to the charged debate over seasonal time changes and could bolster political arguments for moving the U.S. to permanent daylight saving time. Daylight saving time is when many parts of the world set clocks back by one hour to shift sunlight earlier in the day, meaning sunsets then happen earlier. The U.S. Senate in March approved a bipartisan bill that would make daylight saving time standard for all states except Arizona and Hawaii. States in the northern U.S. would reduce collisions most from permanent daylight saving. “On the whole, we need a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the way daylight saving time impacts our health and environment,” Cunningham said.

The incessant drumming of a woodpecker on a hollow tree can be an annoying distraction for anyone who has to listen to it. “When you study songbirds, hummingbirds and parrots, you find areas that control vocal learning express parvalbumin more than other parts of the brain,” Fuxjager said. Future studies will look for other similarities, such as if the patterns of woodpecker drumming are learned at an early age, like the singing of songbirds, he said. Fuxjager noted that there are more than 200 species of woodpecker around the world and that they inhabit every continent, except Australia. Scientists study the singing of songbirds — and possibly now the drumming of woodpeckers — because it has parallels to human speech.

No one knows what all the sperm whale codas mean, but they can have distinctive rhythms and tempos, known as “dialects,” Hersh said. They’ve now determined that there are at least seven distinct sperm whale “vocal clans” across the Pacific Ocean, each with their own identity codas, Hersh said. And the sperm whale clans may be thousands of years old. Beguš is part of Project CETI — the Cetacean Translation Initiative — which was established last year to decipher the sounds of sperm whales. “As the authors note, we still understand little about the function of sperm whale codas,” she said in an email.

☆ The forest growing in the world’s hottest sea
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-04 | by ( Barry Neild | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Jubail Mangrove Park is a green expanse of gray mangrove trees on the northeastern edge of Abu Dhabi’s Al Jubail island, where shallow tidal waterways spill out into the clear blue Arabian Sea. It’s a tranquil world away from the shimmering skyscrapers and heat-hazed hustle of downtown Abu Dhabi, albeit just a short drive away. Dreamlike destinationThe Jubail Mangrove Park is an unexpected green escape from the deserts of Abu Dhabi. And observing those genes in action in Abu Dhabi could be a good sign. “It is the only place in Abu Dhabi where you can see so much green.”

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