size | Common News Update

Jul92020 by adminNo Comments

Species that use sound to ‘fake’ their body size are usually skilled vocal learners

Science

July 8 (UPI) -- Animals that use their voice to sound bigger than they are tend to also be skilled vocal learners, according to new scientific paper, published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters. Previously, researchers approached acoustic allometry, the relationship between voice and body size, and vocal learning as two distinct fields of study. But over time, scientists have started to see the overlap between the two areas of research. Advertisement "We decided to bring our expertise together under an evolutionary framework," study co-author Maxime Garcia told UPI in an email. "In particular, we wondered: For species that are vocal learners, and which can flexibly modify their vocalizations, then how do allometric principles apply?" said Garcia, an evolutionary biologist at the Un...

May142020 by adminNo Comments

US military jet had encounter with ‘silver UFO the size of suitcase’

Technology

New details have been released about encounters between US navy aircraft and "unidentified aerial phenomena" after the Pentagon declassified three videos last month."Hazard reports" from the Navy Safety Center, first published by the website Drive, reveal an incident where a pilot encountered an "unknown aircraft" which was "approximately the size of a suitcase, and silver in colour". During the encounter in March 2014, a navy jet "passed within 1,000 feet" of the object but could not work out the identity of the aircraft.The pilot "attempted to regain visual contact with the aircraft, but was unable", the report said.The documents follow the release of three short videos recorded by navy pilots in November 2004 and January 2015. ...

Mar212020 by adminNo Comments

Diamond samples in Canada reveal size of lost continent

Science

Canadian scientists have discovered a fragment of an ancient continent, suggesting that it was 10% larger than previously thought. They were studying diamond samples from Baffin Island, a glacier-covered land mass near Greenland, when they noticed a remnant of North Atlantic Craton. Cratons are ancient, stable parts of the Earth's continental crust.The North American Craton stretched from present-day Scotland to North America and broke apart 150m years ago.Scientists chanced on the latest evidence as they examined exploration samples of kimberlite, a rock that often contains diamonds, from Baffin Island."For researchers, kimberlites are subterranean rockets that pick up passengers on their way to the surface," University of Briti...

Dec302019 by adminNo Comments

Study links environmental pollution exposure to reduced fetal size

Health

Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Pregnant women may be unknowingly placing their unborn children at risk through exposure to a certain type of pollutants, a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics has found. Research led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and based on ultrasound scans suggests pregnant women exposed to higher levels of persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, had slightly smaller fetuses than women who weren't exposed to the chemicals. The results indicate that the chemicals, which are no longer produced in the United States but remain in the environment, may have lasting health effects even at reduced levels. "The differences we found in fetal growth measures may be more sensitive indicators, compared to birth size, of the potential effects of these compounds," co-...

Oct222019 by adminNo Comments

Warm air shrinks ozone hole to smallest size on record

Science

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The ozone hole is the smallest its been since scientists first began monitoring the human-caused phenomenon in 1982. After reaching an annual maximum measuring 6.3 million square miles in early September, the smallest maximum ever, the ozone hole quickly shrank. By early October, the ozone hole measured 3.9 million square miles. Scientists expect the hole to continue to dissipate in the coming weeks before closing completely -- for now. In a pair of news releases published Monday, scientists at NASA and NOAA confirmed that the ozone hole was the smallest in recorded history. Weather systems near the South Pole triggered an influx of warm air into the stratosphere during September and October, curbing the depletion of ozone gas. Similar climate patterns produced unusually...