Table of Contents
Lightning-resistant trees in Panama, an Australian avian arms race, hydrogen-driven trains in Germany, and a great deal extra in this month’s Quick Hits
AUSTRALIA
An “innovation arms race” could be brewing in between individuals and trash-can-raiding cockatoos in Sydney’s suburbs. People maintain seeking new defenses, this sort of as inserting bricks or rubber snakes on their bin lids, but the birds keep on establishing methods to open them.
BRAZIL
Fossilized enamel discovered Brasilodon, a rodentlike animal that lived 225 million yrs ago, as the oldest known mammal. Scant fossil proof experienced built the animal tricky to classify, but new evaluation suggests that its enamel are mammalian instead than reptilian.
DENMARK
Denmark has develop into the first United Nations member condition to fork out for “loss and damage” triggered by its greenhouse gas emissions. Its $13-million donation will go toward recovery efforts in the countries strike hardest by local climate change.
GERMANY
The world’s very first commuter coach route run completely by hydrogen is in the is effective in the condition of Reduce Saxony. The trains emit only h2o and steam, offering a inexperienced substitute to diesel fuel.
INDONESIA
Skeletal investigation uncovered the earliest regarded limb amputation: 31,000 decades in the past a kid on the island of Borneo experienced the reduced portion of his leg surgically removed. The bone reveals indications of healing, indicating the boy or girl survived the technique.
PANAMA
A multiyear analyze alongside the Panama Canal displays that lightning shapes the composition of forests by killing some tree species more usually than other people. Species with dense wooden and substantial water-carrying tissues can thrive irrespective of lightning strikes, whereas palm trees (which deficiency these features) practically usually die when struck.
This posting was originally revealed with the title “Brief Hits” in Scientific American 327, 6, 22 (December 2022)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1222-22a
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