Chamerion Angustifolium (L.) Holub

Biggest collection of dinosaur footprints found on Australian coast

Paleontologists have published a description of one of the best collections of dinosaur footprints on Earth from a stretch of beach on the northern coast of Western Australia. They include one of the largest dinosaur footprints known, as well as the first fossil evidence of stegosaurs in Australia.

Dinosaur footprints exposed on a Western Australia beach prove to be part of the most abundant track sites on Earth. Some are among the largest ever found.

Image by Steven Salisbury et al.

Coral reefs, bays, and Inlets, Flores Island, Indonesia

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Dark Matter

Incredible footage of the critically endangered Hooded Grebe in a full mating dance. This species was not even discovered until 1974 due to the remoteness of where they live in Argentina. Hopefully as more people learn about this species it can help boost conservation efforts to help them! Knowledge is power and we hope to facilitate these kind of connections to the public in the future! Learn more on our website www.keyconservation.org (link in bio) | Repost @sirovenbird | The seldom seen, full mating display dance of the Hooded Grebe, Podiceps gallardoi. @moomgene and I were luckily enough to see a breeding colony develop out of nothing in a few days, and see the whole social dynamic of displaying to pair formation to nest building and egg laying play out less than 10m from us. #patagonia #argentina #proyectomacátobiano #hoodedgrebe #dance #tango #amazing #dramatic #SouthAmerica #discover #travel #bird #birds #birding #criticallyendangered #endangered #wildlifebiologist #wildlifephotography #wildlifeconservation #wildlife #conservation #conservationoptimism #nature #animal #fieldwork #hope #endextinction #KeyConservation

Mallorca Nature Timelapse 1 by  Marcos Molina

The visual spectrum of birds includes UV

“It is now known that many birds, probably most, have some degree of UV vision, which they use to find both food and partners. The berries that some feed on have a UV bloom, and European kestrels can track their vole prey from the UV reflecting off the voles’ urine trails. The plumage (or parts of it) in hummingbirds, European starlings, American goldfinches, and blue grosbeaks reflects UV light, often more markedly in males than females. In certain species, like the blue grosbeak, the degree of UV reflectance may also reflect male quality, though females don’t currently use this aspect of plumage to discriminate between potential partners…”

via: Audubon.org

AI-controlled brain implants for mood disorders tested in people 

Brain implants that deliver electrical pulses tuned to a person’s feelings and behaviour are being tested in people for the first time. Two teams funded by the US military’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), have begun preliminary trials of ‘closed-loop’ brain implants that use algorithms to detect patterns associated with mood disorders. These devices can shock the brain back to a healthy state without input from a physician.

The work, presented last week at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting in Washington DC, could eventually provide a way to treat severe mental illnesses that resist current therapies. It also raises thorny ethical concerns, not least because the technique could give researchers a degree of access to a person’s inner feelings in real time.

The general approach — using a brain implant to deliver electric pulses that alter neural activity — is known as deep-brain stimulation. It is used to treat movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, but has been less successful when tested against mood disorders. Early evidence suggested that constant stimulation of certain brain regions could ease chronic depression, but a major study involving 90 people with depression found no improvement after a year of treatment.1

The scientists behind the DARPA-funded projects say that their work might succeed where earlier attempts failed, because they have designed their brain implants specifically to treat mental illness — and to switch on only when needed. “We’ve learned a lot about the limitations of our current technology,” says Edward Chang, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), who is leading one of the projects.

Holtzheimer, P.E., et al. Lancet Psychiatry. 4(11):839–849. (2017)