All articles tagged with #darwin
Bangladesh's disciplined, patient display handed Australia a shocking Darwin defeat, with Mehidy Hasan Miraz taking 5-66 and Hasan Mahmud dismissing Weatherald twice; Australia were bowled out for 482 across two innings while Bangladesh posted 426 in their lone innings, leaving Pat Cummins and selectors to consider whether to intervene on batting and preparation after a rare home setback.
Bangladesh moved to within 67 runs of a historic first Test win in Australia on day three in Darwin, after posting 426 with Miraz's 65 and Hazlewood's 6-89, then Australia were bowled for 198 in reply and slotted to 161-4 in their second innings—Steve Smith falling for 44 to Miraz while Cameron Green was 43* and Alex Carey 19 at stumps.
Hasan Mahmud claimed 6 for 55 as Australia were bowled out for 198 on day one in Darwin, leaving Bangladesh at 96-1 and signalling a rapid rise for the pacer after county cricket stints and multiple five-wicket hauls, underscoring Bangladesh's growing pace-bowling strength.
Researchers confirm Saxifraga candelabrum from southwest China is carnivorous: it uses glandular hairs to attract, capture, and digest insects and absorb nitrogen, providing the first definitive evidence of carnivory in Saxifraga and validating Darwin’s 1875 hypothesis; the finding suggests carnivory evolved independently in multiple plant lineages and may be more widespread among flowering plants than previously thought.
A Nature Communications study shows Saxifraga candelabrum, an alpine flowering plant in China, lures insects with flower odors and digests them using a phosphatase enzyme, transferring nitrogen to the plant—confirming Darwin’s 19th‑century hunch about carnivory in the Saxifraga lineage. Genetic analysis reveals shared carnivory‑related genes across different plant groups, suggesting carnivory is more widespread among flowering plants than previously thought. Found in nitrate‑poor, high‑altitude soils, S. candelabrum’s discovery expands our understanding of plant evolution and may help identify other hidden carnivorous lineages; the work underscores that Darwin’s ideas can be refined and extended with modern techniques."
A study on Saxifraga candelabrum shows the alpine plant lures gnats with attractive odors, digests them using the enzyme phosphatase, and transfers nitrogen from prey to the plant, providing concrete evidence that some Saxifraga species are carnivorous and highlighting that carnivory in flowering plants is more widespread than previously thought.
A Nature Communications study by Mehdi Habibi, Neil Ribe, and Daniel Bonn shows lugworms defecate against gravity and produce a constant-width poop coil that follows elastic rope-coiling physics, revealing universal patterns in fecal morphology and linking Darwin’s worm-focused work to broader functional morphology and soil fertility, with researchers even planning a second poop emoji for Unicode.
Darwin argued that human morality grows from social instincts, amplified by memory and language, with conscience arising when remembered actions clash with social norms under others’ scrutiny; manners and restraint are not enemies of instinct but refined expressions shaped by memory and public judgment, grounding civilization in evolved social tendencies rather than divine or purely rational forces.
Researchers studying blind cave-dwelling fish across three Southern states report rapid, cave-specific adaptations in darkness, suggesting evolution can occur underground and offering a fresh perspective on Darwin’s ideas about where and how evolutionary change happens.
Nature’s News & Views threads a 1920s defense of drawing as a fundamental form of expression with Darwin’s 1876 observation of a squirrel nibbling cherry blossoms, using archival insight to explore how art, observation, and natural history enrich our understanding of the natural world.
Scientists analyzed the Chicago Archaeopteryx fossil, a pigeon-sized specimen from Solnhofen limestone, using CT scanning and UV light to expose preserved soft tissue and long wing tertials. The find provides clear evidence that this early feathered creature could fly and reinforces Darwin’s 1859 prediction that transitional forms would appear in the fossil record, refining our understanding of how flight evolved in dinosaurs and birds.
A developer ports Darwin to the Nintendo Wii and boots OS X 10.0 on the console with a custom bootloader and patched kernel, showing OS X can run on PowerPC hardware outside traditional Macs, though performance is limited and it boots from an SD card.
Chicago’s Archaeopteryx fossil, unusually well-preserved with soft tissues, was CT-scanned and examined under UV light, revealing detailed anatomy from snout to tail and long tertial feathers. The findings suggest this bird could fly and imply that flight evolved more than once among dinosaurs, lending fresh support to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
A global online experiment with 4,000+ participants tested whether humans' sound preferences align with those of other animals when judging mating calls from 16 species. Using audio recordings manipulated to isolate traits, the study found a broad overlap: humans tended to pick calls that animals also prefer, and when they did, choices were about 50 milliseconds faster. Both groups favored acoustic adornments and ancestral sounds, though humans showed a stronger preference for lower pitches; factors like training or occupation did not predict alignment. The authors conclude the results broadly support Darwin's idea that a common sensory basis underlies aesthetic taste across species, while noting limits and proposing future research.
Scientists used Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) to analyze preservation liquids inside Charles Darwin’s sealed Beagle-era specimens without opening the jars, identifying fluids in about 78% of samples and revealing historical preservation methods for noninvasive museum conservation.