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Fungi are fascinating and integral parts of the web of life. They also have a somewhat mixed reputation.
On the one hand, fungi and fungal root networks are sought-after sources of nutrient-rich food, mind-altering drugs, and environmentally friendly materials, helping trees share nutrients and store carbon that can combat climate change.
Other members of the fungal family tree are less desirable and act as disease-causing pathogens that can disrupt ecosystems and impair human and animal health.
But a newly revealed mystery involving a mushroom and a frog suggests that the role of fungi in the environment is anything but black and white.
Once upon a time a planet
Some naturalists came across a strange sight at a roadside pond in the Indian state of Karnataka in June 2023: A golden-backed frog with a tiny mushroom sprouting from its side.
The team photographed the seemingly healthy amphibian and reported the discovery. An expert who examined the images determined that the fungus was a common fungus, a type of fungus that grows mostly on rotting wood.
It is not clear why the fungus made the frog its home. The strange growth may be the result of a fungal infection common in frogs, or evidence of a symbiotic relationship.
The researchers plan to return to the same spot next monsoon to conduct further research.
To look
The DART mission was a groundbreaking test of asteroid deflection technology; It was a proof of concept in case humanity needed to defend Earth against a potentially catastrophic collision with a space rock that killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
The target of the 2022 NASA mission was the moonlet asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos. When the DART spacecraft hit Dimorphos, it changed the asteroid’s orbital period — how long it takes to orbit Didymos — by about 32 to 33 minutes.
Space scientists have since learned more about what happened to Dimorphos. New research has revealed that the impact fundamentally changed the asteroid rather than creating a simple crater.
“If you thought Dimorphos initially looked like a chocolate M&M, now it will look like you took a bite out of it!” said lead study author Dr. Sabina Raducan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
ocean secrets
Whale songs have long been known to echo through the surprisingly loud ocean depths, but it’s not just the sea giants that make their voices heard.
Scientists have discovered a tiny, translucent fish that makes sounds louder than an elephant. Members of the Danionella cerebrum species, which live in shallow waters off the coast of Myanmar, can produce sounds louder than 140 decibels.
Ichthyologist Dr. from the Senckenberg Natural History Collections. “This is comparable to the noise a human perceives of an airplane taking off from a distance of 100 (meters) and is quite unusual for such a small-sized animal,” said Ralf Britz. Dresden, Germany, in a news release.
Britz and his colleagues analyzed high-speed video recordings, micro-CT scans and genetic information to understand the unique way males of the species produce the booming sound.
Turn, turn, turn
Have you forgotten why February has an extra day this year? Here’s a quick refresher.
A leap year is essentially a necessary part of cosmic accounting that keeps the seasons from getting out of control. If this had not happened, the summer solstice, which we usually experience in June, would have occurred 700 years later in December.
According to NASA calculations, a solar year is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. As a result, the widely used 365-day calendar falls behind the solar year by a quarter each year.
While this may not seem like a huge difference, it amounts to roughly a full day over four years.
month update
Odysseus, the first U.S.-built rover to make a soft landing on the moon in fifty years, has had a busy week following a hair-raising landing on February 22 and landing near the moon’s south pole.
Officials confirmed Wednesday that despite the bumpy landing that left Odie on its side — a mishap captured in stunning images — data was being transferred from six NASA instruments on board as well as commercial payloads.
Intuitive Machines’ IM-1 lander now faces another test: surviving the lunar night, a dangerous situation because the transition to ultra-freezing temperatures during this period could damage Odie’s equipment.
Elsewhere in our solar system, space scientists have identified three faint, small moons orbiting the Milky Way’s outermost planets: Uranus and Neptune.
curious things
Discover these mind-expanding stories:
— Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old clay head that once belonged to a god figurine. The rare find provides new context about life in Roman Britain.
—A dead star that once feasted on a planet in its orbit could have foretold the ultimate fate of our own solar system.
— Scientists have identified a reason why invasive Jorō spiders are spreading into the United States.
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