|
SPONSORED BY  | | | | February 18, 2025: Wild cats' eyes, the bubble that could annihilate the universe, and why we don't have a vaccine for norovirus. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | • Norovirus infection rates are extremely high this year. So where's a vaccine to protect us from the stomach bug? | 5 min read | | | Snow leopard's colorful eye. Picture by Tambako the Jaguar/Getty Images | | | Wild cats have a stunning array of eye colors, but how did they evolve? To determine the eye colors of extinct wild cats, researchers used a method called ancestral state reconstruction. They examined public images of living wild cats submitted to the database iNaturalist.org for dozens of wild cat species and several subspecies. The team used an algorithm to classify each cat's eye color and mapped the data to the cat family tree, identifying common ancestors' possible eye colors. The results suggest that once an animal develops gray eyes, blue and green eyes are then more likely to evolve soon after.
Why this is interesting: The evolution of eye color is particularly difficult to track: fossils don't preserve it, taxidermy specimens have fabricated eyes, and most books illustrate only one example per species.
What the experts say: The scientists tried to link eye colors with other factors like habitat, fur color and hunting behavior, to help explain why those shades had evolved. But they found little correlation. Sexual selection may have triggered the evolution of colorful eyes in cats, but it would be hard to test, says Julius Tabin, a Harvard University biology graduate student who ran the study. | | | SPONSORED CONTENT BY CALIFORNIA CORRECTIONAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES (CCHCS) | Reclaim Time with Friends and Family | As a psychiatrist, you may have put time with friends and family on hold during your training or in your current job. At California Correctional Healthcare Services (CCHCS), you can reclaim that time and make more memories. Learn More | | | • Researchers think some 10 grams of plastic might reside in a typical human brain, despite the protective blood-brain barrier. Fairly alarming signs are accumulating that plastics may cause serious health problems in humans, writes Megha Satyanarayana, chief opinion editor for Scientific American. Most of the onus has shifted onto the consumer to buy less plastic, even as beaches and our bodies pile up with plastic waste, she says. "When it comes to plastic, when are we going to hold the petrochemical industry accountable for this ugliness?" | 5 min read | | | Here is today's Spellements puzzle. The following clue should help you get started (and is from one of last week's most popular articles!): The moving sofa problem is a nearly 60-year-old mathematical mystery in which the aim is to find the largest "couch" of a given geometric shape that can slide around this hallway feature without getting stuck. | | | Cats have achieved evolutionary perfection, Anjali Goswami, an evolutionary biologist, told Scientific American in 2023. They come in different coat and eye colors, yes, but all are "hard-core" carnivores and don't deviate from their standard developmental shape that much. "They don't need variation," Goswami says. "They might get bigger or smaller, but they don't change anything else, because they're just right otherwise. They're not jacks-of-all-trades; they're masters of one." | Cats seem to know how great they are, and act accordingly. Just ask your family feline. Send their answers to: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 | | | | | | Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American | | | | | | | | | |
Comments
Post a Comment