BryLog

Marriage Laws (via The Daily Dish)

Ningen: Humanoid Sea Creatures of the Antarctic (via BoingBoing)

To a Mosquito, Matchmaking Means ‘Singing’ in Perfect Harmony (via ScienceDaily)

In finding a partner of the right species type, male and female mosquitoes depend on their ability to “sing” in perfect harmony. Those tones are produced and varied based on the frequency of their wing beats in flight.

Licorice Root: Trip to the Candy Store Might Help Ward Off Rare, but Deadly Infections (via ScienceDaily)

…a compound from licorice root (glycyrrhizin from Glycyrrhiza glabra) might be an effective tool in battling life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant infections resulting from severe burns.

New Evidence Of Culture In Wild Chimpanzees (via ScienceDaily)

A new study of chimpanzees living in the wild adds to evidence that our closest primate relatives have cultural differences, too. The study, reported online on October 22nd in Current Biology, shows that neighboring chimpanzee populations in Uganda use different tools to solve a novel problem: extracting honey trapped within a fallen log.

Kibale Forest chimpanzees use sticks to get at the honey, whereas Budongo Forest chimpanzees rely on leaf sponges — absorbent wedges that they make out of chewed leaves….

Spectacular Mars Images Reveal Evidence of Ancient Lakes (via ScienceDaily)

Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to research published in the journal Geology.

Cells Reveal Brain Chemistry Secrets (via BBC News)

Scientists have developed biological cells that can give insight into the chemistry of the brain.  The cells, which change colour when exposed to specific chemicals, have been used to show how a class of schizophrenia drug works…

Schizophrenia is most commonly associated with symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.  But people with the illness also struggle to sustain attention or recall information.

A class of drugs called atypical neuroleptics has become commonly prescribed, in part because they seem to improve these problems.  However, the way they altered brain chemistry was uncertain.

It was known that the drugs trigger the release of a large amount of a chemical called acetylcholine, which enables brain cells to communicate with each other.  However, the drugs have also been shown to hobble a receptor on the surface of the receiving cell, which would effectively block the message.

The San Diego team designed biological cells - called CNiFERs - which changed colour when acetylcholine latched onto this particular class of receptors - an event scientists have not previously been able to detect in a living brain.

They implanted the cells into rat brains, then stimulated a deeper part of the brain in a way known to release acetylcholine nearby.

In response, CNiFERs changed colour - proving that they were working.

They then gave the rats one of two atypical neuroleptics. In both cases the drug severely depressed the response from the CNiFERs.  This suggested that the drugs’ receptor-blocking action over-rides the increase they trigger in acetylcholine.

Computer Method Finds Fake Art (via BBC News)

A simple method to distinguish artistic fakes and imitations has been demonstrated by researchers.  The approach, known as “sparse coding”, builds a virtual library of an artist’s works and breaks them down into the simplest possible visual elements.  Verifiable works by that artist can be rebuilt using varying proportions of those simple elements, while imitators’ works cannot….

Archaeologists find ancient geoglyphs carved in the Amazon Jungle (from Treehugger, via Gadling)

With the aid of satellite imagery from Google Earth, soon archeologists in Brazil will be finding more and more large geometric designs carved into the ground in the Amazon rainforest. The geoglyphs are believed to have been sculpted by ancient people from the Amazon region around 700 years ago, though their purpose is still unknown. So far, nearly 300 geoglyphs have been identified, but with advances in satellite imaging—and increased clearing of the jungle coverage—scientists are hoping to discover many more of these strange, geometric designs.

One of the factors that contributed to so many geoglyphs being undetected prior to the aid of satallites is their enormous size. According to leading geoglyph scientist Alceu Ranzi, his latest discoveries—five sets of geometric shapes, with circles, squares and lines—can measure more than a mile from one extreme to another….

According to a report from Globo, the new marks were only discovered because the jungle coverage had been removed to due to deforestation in the Amazon. These structures are deep, with grooves are as large as 12 meters wide and four deep, but it is believed that they were built when jungle abounded—which would make their construction all the more difficult….