The team of Sussex psychologists discovered that cats appear to be exploiting innate tendencies that humans have for nurturing their own offspring. However, in this case the felines subtly bury their “feed me” messages in an otherwise pleasant purr. Lead author Dr Karen McComb initiated the study because her own cat, Pepo, had the knack of consistently waking her up in the mornings with insistent purring.

“I wondered why this purring sounded so annoying and was so difficult to ignore. Talking with other cat owners, I found that some of them – including co-author Anna Taylor – also had cats who showed similar behavior,” Dr McComb said.

Testing human responses to different purring types she said most could distinguish between the different purrs. “When humans were played purrs recorded while cats were actively seeking food at equal volume to purrs recorded in non-solicitation contexts, even those with no experience of cats judged the ’solicitation’ purrs to be more urgent and less pleasant,” McComb explained.

For those with a deep suspicion of cats and their motivations, this may well be the scientific proof they have been waiting for. New research has finally laid bare the degree to which cats can exploit humans. “If you ask people who own cats what they do when they get up, they say they feed their cats. Even before they have a cup of coffee. Cats are very good at getting their own way,” Dr McComb said.

(Agencies)

source: SINA

The nine-spined stickleback could be the first animal to exhibit a key human social learning strategy that allows it to compare the behaviour of others to its own experience and make choices that lead it to better food supplies.

“Small fish may have small brains but they still have some surprising cognitive abilities,” said Jeremy Kendal of Durham University.

Kendal and colleagues from St Andrews University found in tests that 75% of sticklebacks were clever enough to know from watching others that a feeder in a tank was rich in food, even though they had previously got little from it themselves.

This ability represents an unusually sophisticated social learning skill not yet found in other animals, they reported in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

ANI

Astronomers have confirmed that the supernova discovered in November last year by Caroline Moore — called SN 2008ha — is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova.

Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.

Even though this explosion was a weakling compared to most supernovae, for a short time SN 2008ha was 25 million times brighter than the sun. However, since it is 70 million light years away, it appeared very faint viewed from Earth.

Caroline was able to discover the object using a relatively small telescope, but some of the most advanced teleskopes in the world were needed to determine the nature of the explosion.

The data has been verified by Magellan telescopes in Chile, the MMT telescope in Arizona, the Gemini and Keck telescopes in Hawaii, and NASA Swift satellite.

“Coincidentally, the youngest person to ever discover a supernova found one of the most peculiar and interesting supernovae ever,” said Alex Filippenko, the leader of the University of California, Berkeley supernova group. The paper in this regard is due to appear in next issue of the Astronomical Journal.

“This shows that no matter what your age, anyone can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the Universe,” Filippenko said.

The peculiar object effectively bridged the gap between a nova (a nuclear explosion on the surface of an old, compact star called a white dwarf) and a type Ia supernova (the destructive death of a white dwarf caused by a runaway nuclear reaction starting deep in the star).

SN 2008ha likely was a failed supernova where the explosion was unable to destroy the entire star.

“If a normal supernova is a nuclear bomb, then SN 2008ha is a bunker buster,” said team leader Ryan Foley, Clay fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and first author on the paper reporting the findings.

In typical supernova explosions, light from different chemical elements (such as calcium or iron) is smeared out across the electromagnetic spectrum by the Doppler effect (the same principle that makes a police siren change pitch as it passes).

Because the ejected bits of the star were “only” moving at 4.5 million miles per hour (compared to 22 million miles per hour for a typical supernova), the light was not as smeared out, allowing the team to analyse the composition of the explosion to a new precision.

One reason astronomers haven’t seen this type of explosion before might be because they are so faint. “SN 2008ha was a really wimpy explosion,” said Filippenko.

Bureau Report

The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists – scientists responsible for species exploration and classification -announced the top 10 new species.

The other species on the list include the very tiny (a snake just a slither longer than 4 inches or 104 millimeters), the very long (an insect from Malaysia with an overall length of 22.3 inches or 56.7 centimeters) the very old (a fossilized specimen of the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate) and the very twisted (a snail whose shell twists around four axes).

Rounding out this year’s list are a palm that flowers itself to death, a ghost slug from Wales and a deep blue damselfish.The taxonomists also are issuing an SOS – State of Observed Species – report card on human knowledge of Earth’s species. In it, they report that 18,516 species new to science were discovered and described in 2007.

The SOS report was compiled by ASU’s International Institute for Species Exploration in partnership with the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, International Plant Names Index, Zoological Record published by Thomson Reuters, and the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Photos and other information on the top 10 and the SOS report are online at species.asu.edu.

Among this year’s top 10 picks is a tiny seahorse – Hippocampus satomiae – with a standard length of 0.54 inches (13.8 millimeters) and an approximate height of 0.45 inches (11.5 millimeters).

From the plant kingdom is a gigantic new species and genus of palm – Tahina spectablilis – with fewer than 100 individuals found only in a small area of northwestern Madagascar. The plant flowers itself to death, producing a huge, spectacular terminal inflorescence with countless flowers. After fruiting, the palm dies and collapses.

Also on the top 10 list is caffeine-free coffee from Cameroon. Coffea charrieriana is the first record of a caffeine-free species from Central Africa.

And, in the category of “spray on new species” is an extremophile bacteria that was discovered in hairspray by Japanese scientists.

Phobaeticus chani made the list as the world’’s longest insect with a body length of 14 inches (36.6 centimeters) and overall length of 22.3 inches (56.7 centimeters). The Barbados Threadsnake – Leptotyphlops carlae – measuring 4.1 inches (104 millimeters) is believed to be the world’’s smallest snake. It was discovered in St. Joseph Parish, Barbados.

The ghost slug – Selenochlamys ysbryda – was a surprising find in the well-collected and densely populated area of Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales.

A snail – Opisthostoma vermiculum – found in Malaysia, represents a unique morphological evolution, with a shell that twists around four axes.

The other two species on the top 10 list are fish – one found in deep-reef habitat off the coast of Ngemelis Island, Palau, and the other a fossilized specimen of the oldest known live-bearing vertebrate.

Chromis abyssus – a beautiful species of damselfish made it to the top 10 representing the first taxonomic act of 2008 and the first act registered in the newly launched taxonomic database Zoobank.

Also on the top 10 list is a fossilized specimen – Materpiscis attenboroughi – the oldent known vertebrate to be viviparous (live bearing).

“The international committee of taxon experts who made the selection of the top 10 from the thousands of species described in calendar year 2008 is helping draw attention to biodiversity, the field of taxonomy, and the importance of natural history museums and botanical gardens in a fun-filled way,” says Quentin Wheeler, an entomologist and director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University.

ANI