It is an eerie, foreboding, reverberating tune, enough to send a tingle down your spine reut.rs/32cASfQ
From communication to construction, spiderwebs may offer an orchestra of information, says Markus Buehler, engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has been using artificial intelligence to study them
🕷️ Buehler and his team of researchers created 3D models of spiderwebs when the arachnids were doing different things - such as construction, repair, hunting and feeding
They then listened for patterns in the spider signals and recreated the sounds using computers and mathematical algorithms.
'Spiders utilize vibrations as a way to communicate with the environment, with other spiders,' Buehler says
Buehler hopes his team’s work could enable humans to understand the language of a spider and one day communicate with them.
There are more than 47,000 species of spiders, and all spin silk webs to provide housing and catch food
Scientists say the silk from a spiderweb is five times stronger than steel.
The living structure of a spiderweb could lead to innovations in construction, maintenance and repair, Buehler says.
The ruptures on the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea has led to what is likely the biggest single release of climate-damaging methane ever recorded, the United Nations Environment Programme said reut.rs/3rpS7qA 1/5
A plume of highly concentrated methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent but shorter-lived than carbon dioxide, was detected in an analysis of satellite imagery by researchers associated with UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO), the organization said 2/5
Researchers believe the rate of emissions is higher than from a major leak that occurred in December from offshore oil and gas fields in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico, which spilled around 100 metric tons of methane per hour 3/5
Floods from record monsoon rains in Pakistan and glacial melt in the country’s mountainous north have affected 33 million people and killed over 1,500, washing away homes, roads, railways, bridges, livestock and crops in damage estimated at $30 billion reut.rs/3xIe9sa 1/7
Both the government and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres have blamed climate change for the extreme weather that led to the flooding and submerged huge areas of the nation of 220 million 2/7
Large swathes of the country are inundated, and hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes while some villages have become islands 3/7
Spurred on by soaring demand for seafood, a Spanish company plans to open the first commercial octopus farm next year but as scientists discover more about the enigmatic animals some warn it could be an ethical and environmental disaster reut.rs/3Ig8kFS 1/6
'This is a global milestone,' said Roberto Romero, aquaculture director at Nueva Pescanova, the company pouring $74 million into the farm, which is pending environmental approval from local authorities 2/6
At the company's research centre in Galicia, northwest Spain, several octopuses silently propelled themselves around a shallow indoor tank.
Two technicians in waders plucked a mature specimen into a bucket for transfer to a new enclosure, with five other octopuses 3/6
Scientists are struggling to monitor an active volcano that erupted off the South Pacific island of Tonga at the weekend, after the explosion destroyed its sea-level crater and drowned its mass, obscuring it from satellites reut.rs/3nthFll 1/6
The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kilometers, roughly 1,430 miles, away in New Zealand 2/6
'The concern at the moment is how little information we have and that's scary,' said Janine Krippner, a New Zealand-based volcanologist with the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program.
'When the vent is below water, nothing can tell us what will happen next' 3/6
Japanese scientists say they have succeeded in recreating Wagyu beef, a delicacy renowned for its fat marbling and high prices, in a laboratory to produce something that could eventually look and taste like the real steak reut.rs/303CLhb 1/4
Osaka University researchers led by Michiya Matsusaki used 3-D bioprinters and bovine stem cells to replicate Wagyu's distinctive marbling in a solid steak-like piece, rather than a minced form that has typified other attempts at cultured meat 2/4
It currently takes about three to four weeks to generate a cubic centimeter of cultured meat, so it's not ready for the grocer's aisle just yet. But as the techniques and efficiency improve, the method could produce something that mimics the real thing, Matsusaki said 3/4
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday recognized access to a clean and healthy environment as a fundamental right, formally adding its weight to the global fight against climate change and its devastating consequences reut.rs/3aiXNdB 1/5
The vote passed with overwhelming support, despite criticism in the lead-up from some countries, notably the United States and Britain 2/5
Britain, which was among the critics of the proposal in recent intense negotiations, voted in favor in a surprise, last-minute move. The United States did not vote since it is not currently a member of the 47-member Council 3/5