In the 2015 movie “The Martian,” when Matt Damon, playing an astronaut stranded on Mars extracts water by burning leftover rocket fuel and adding oxygen. In a recent study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at Northwestern University used a similar method to create water using the rare metallic element, palladium as the catalyst.
They witnessed the ethereal reaction that produced tiny, nano-sized bubbles of water. The breathtaking footage of this chemical reaction was published on YouTube. The breakthrough was achieved while researchers were busy investigating the properties of palladium and how it generates water. Researchers have known since the early 1900s that palladium can react with gases to generate water, but achieving the reaction was a mystery. So, when they witnessed the little water bubbles popping out, it was nothing less than astonishing. The study was led by Vinayak Dravid, lead researcher and Abraham Harris Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and founding director of the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) Center.
“It’s a known phenomenon, but it was never fully understood,” said Yukun Liu, the study’s first author and a Ph.D. candidate in Dravid’s laboratory. In a university press release, Liu added, “Because you really need to be able to combine the direct visualization of water generation and the structure analysis at the atomic scale in order to figure out what’s happening.”
The footage in question displays a hydrogen atom making its way inside the palladium molecule. Since hydrogen atoms are so small, they can easily squeeze themselves inside the palladium molecule, causing its lattice to expand, and soon a tiny little water bubble pops out in an unreal manner. “We think it might be the smallest bubble ever formed that has been viewed directly,” Liu said. “It’s not what we were expecting. Luckily, we were recording it, so we could prove to other people that we weren’t crazy.”
Witnessing this reaction in real-time was next to impossible until January 2024 when Dravid’s team published another study, revealing a groundbreaking method to capture gas molecules. The team crafted an ultra-thin glassy membrane that could hold gas molecules in honeycomb-shaped nonreactors, from where they viewed these through high-vacuum transmission electron microscopes. They used the same electron microscope method to capture the footage of this palladium molecule. IFL Science explains that this method is similar to the one that India’s Chandrayaan-1 used to detect water on the Moon.
In a first, scientists witnessed—in real time and at the nanoscale—hydrogen and oxygen atoms merge to form tiny water bubbles.
Researchers also noted in the study that the hydrogen oxidation rate catalyzed by palladium is significantly affected by the sequence in which the gases are introduced. They added, “These nanoscale insights help identify the optimal reaction conditions for Pd-catalyzed hydrogen oxidation, which has substantial implications for water production technologies. The developed understanding also advocates a broader exploration of analogous mechanisms in other metal-catalyzed reactions.” If water can indeed be generated by palladium, then astronauts on space missions would be able to create water in space outside Earth, and probably in the realms beyond.
Since 2015, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, created by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, have been delivering laugh-out-loud moments through the lens of nature. With a mission to entertain while raising awareness about wildlife conservation, the competition celebrates the charming and comical side of the animal kingdom.
Let’s take a joyful stroll down memory lane with some of the most funniest entries from the 2019 contest (and if you’re feeling inspired, you’ll also learn how to submit your own wild and witty shots for future competitions).
OVERALL WINNER, CREATURES OF THE LAND WINNER: “Grab Life By the…”
You don’t think about how hard it would be to be the parent of a small, curious creature with massive, sharp claws. Let’s all take a moment to be grateful that even though it’s very hard to have a human baby, they don’t have super sharp claws. That would make things ten times worse.
CREATURES IN THE AIR WINNER: “Family Disagreement”
I think if I were an otter, I too would constantly clutch my face in disbelief. “I can’t possibly be this cute, can I? Cute nose, fuzzy head, tiny little eyes? That can’t be! Oh, but it is! I really am this adorable! I am! I am!”
Have you seen those videos of foxes diving headfirst into the snow to catch prey? It’s hilarious and fascinating, and I think this fox forgot that there was no snow. His friend is really trying to help him not hurt himself, but his buddy insists on being dumb. Oh, foxes!
“And then Carol was like, ‘You otter come over for dinner sometime!’ Get it? Get it? Man, Carol’s hilarious. So I went over for dinner and she had like, this whole seafood spread. Crabs, clams, mussels…the whole shebang. Anyway, I think I’m going to marry her.”
Just think about how much poise it took for this photographer to take this photo. Not only is the shark sneaking up on this poor fish, but there’s a person behind that camera! Presumably, the photographer escaped unscathed, since he was able to enter this photo in the contest.
It’s clearly not just human women who have to put up with the incessant nagging conversation from dudes we have no interest in talking to. See the look on that bird’s face? Staring straight out just willing him to go away? Tell me you haven’t made that face. Yeah, that’s what I thought.
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?” No one really knows this, but squirrels are generally huge Shakespeare fans. They saw him put up a play in Europe centuries ago and have just carried that love for his words through generations and generations of squirrels.
I relate to this bear hard. Anyone who has had to get up and go to work after a long weekend knows this feeling. Sometimes, you just don’t want to deal with anything. Sometimes, you just want to lie on the ground, cover your face with your hands, and nap for a little while longer.
I love this photo so much. Because not only is it a picture of a penguin farting, but it’s a picture of a penguin who is clearly trying to hide the fact that he’s farting and play it off like he’s doing absolutely nothing. He’s just standing there twiddling his wings. He has no idea what that big bubble under his butt is.
There seems to be a whole genre of “Small rodents holding flowers” photos, and I am a sucker for every single one of them. I’m pretty sure this comes up when you look up “cute” in the dictionary. It’s just so pure.
“Hi there! Welcome to my flower. So glad you could make it! It’s a little cold and wet right now, but once the sun comes up we’ll be in business. Help yourself to a dewdrop. They’re especially fresh this morning.”
“And then my friend Steve, the otter, told me that Carol said to him, ‘You otter come over for dinner!’ Get it? Get it? Because they’re otters! So it’s funny. Hey, where’d you go?”
These poor monkeys were just trying to get it on. Their kids were finally out of the tree, they had some peace and quiet, and then they were so rudely interrupted by a photographer. Although mom looks like she was kinda zoning out anyway.
This little chimp is living the life! He’s got it all figured out, and from the looks of him, he’s still a tiny baby. He’s just looking out at the jungle, thinking about all that milk he’s going to drink later.
I bet that when you’re a Snowy Owl and it finally snows, you are just so ecstatically happy. I mean, it’s right there in your name. Look at her face! It’s full of such pure joy.
Like this little monkey, I, too, usually save my existential crises for bath time. There’s something about the weightlessness of floating in the water that makes you question everything you know to be true about yourself and the world.
Who’s calling this snapping turtle slow? He’s just “taking his time.” On another note, I think turtles are probably the most prehistoric-looking creatures that still exist. If you really take the time to look at them, they’re so crazy.
Imagine playing hide and seek on a block of ice as a polar bear. On one hand, there aren’t too many places to hide. On the other hand, you’re looking for white on white, and that’s not easy.
I don’t know if you knew this, but rodents love ABBA. Here is one getting down to “Dancing Queen.” Because they’re so small, they really feel the music down to their bones. Raise your hand if you would watch an all-rodent adaptation of Mamma Mia! Yeah, me too.
If you want to enter next year’s competition, follow the link here to sign up for mailing list updates!
This article originally appeared six years ago. It has been updated.
A common saying among pet owners is that the hardest thing about loving a dog is saying goodbye. Having a senior dog, especially one raised from a puppy, can be difficult not just because of the inevitable, but also because the pet may be going through age-related ailments or disease before crossing over. It’s a hard thing to experience anyway, but especially when you remember how they were in their prime. Well, veterinary scientists are testing a daily pill that extends a dog’s lifespan while also maintaining their quality of life.
Loyal, a biotech company based in San Francisco, has been trying to develop anti-aging drugs for dogs ever since it was founded. After years of research and testing, they have developed LOY-002, a beef-flavored daily prescription pill for senior dogs aged 10 and older that weigh over 14 pounds. Early testing shows that the pill can add years to a dog’s life, especially larger breeds.
What does this dog lifespan pill do?
The pill interacts and manipulates IGF-1 (Insulin-Like Growth Factor 1), a hormone that’s key to a dog’s cellular growth and metabolism. IGF-1 helps a dog grow in both size and calorie consumption. This hormone helps make young puppies become strong adult dogs. However, it also continues and accelerates aging at a cellular level when a dog is fully grown.
This explains why many larger breeds of dogs tend to live shorter lives than smaller ones. Their IGF-1 levels are higher. It moves them faster towards age-related diseases and discomfort than smaller dogs.
By reducing the excessive IGF-1, LOY-002 reduces the speed of a larger dog’s biological clock. It doesn’t just make them “feel” younger. Slowing everything down adds years to their life and curbs the risk of age-related organ dysfunction, disease, and early death. After thorough testing, LOY-002 cleared two out of the three sections of acceptance before being fully vetted by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Since founding Loyal six years ago, my goal has always been to get the first drug FDA approved for lifespan extension. This safety acceptance brings us very close to achieving that vision,” said Loyal Founder and CEO Celine Halioua. “We are well on our way to bringing the first dog longevity drugs to market.”
How can a senior dog live longer?
Should Loyal receive that final approval, the LOY-002 drug should go to market before the end of 2026. However, veterinarians and dog care experts have some tips on how to help your older dog live longer and healthier.
Visit your dog’s veterinarian often for checkups and keep them notified of any changes in their behavior. They may recommend a specific diet for your dog at their advanced age. Similar to humans, older dogs are encouraged to follow a healthy diet. They should exercise regularly (through walks or playtime) to keep a healthy weight and keep joints strong.
If your dog has joint trouble, your vet may recommend some supplements to help the dog’s mobility and comfort. No matter the issue, it is best to consult with a veterinarian before making lifestyle changes for your dog.
Such advice can help both you and your dog live full lives together. It may also add a few more years of furry companionship along the way, too.
Photo credit: Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, taken under NMFS MMPA Scientific Research Permit – Bottlenose dolphins are social creatures that use whistles and clicks to communicate with each other.
But it wasn’t until the 1960s that methodical research into dolphin communication began. Scientists like John Lilly and the husband-and-wife team of Melba and David Caldwell tried various experiments to decipher the sounds dolphins can make.
The Caldwells figured out a way to record isolated animals in human care. They discovered that each individual dolphin communicated mostly with one unique whistle, which they called the “signature whistle.” Researchers now know that these whistles convey identities much like human names do. Dolphins use them to stay in touch with each other in their murky habitat, where vision is limited. It’s like announcing “I’m over here!” when someone can’t see you.
This collaborative study, led by Randall Wells of Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, involves numerous researchers from a variety of institutions, who study different aspects of dolphin biology, health, ecology and behavior. Begun in 1970, this is the longest-running research project on a population of wild cetaceans – whales, dolphins and porpoises – in the world.
Photo credit: Photo by Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, taken under NMFS MMPA Scientific Research Permit – Each dolphin has distinctive markings on its dorsal fin. Experienced researchers can sometimes identify them by sight in the field, and they photograph them to confirm their identity in the lab.
Recording and observing
Researchers know the age, sex and maternal relatedness of almost all of the approximately 170 dolphins in the Sarasota community. This depth of knowledge provides an unprecedented opportunity to study communication in a wild cetacean species.
The dolphins in the Sarasota project are periodically subject to brief catch-and-release health assessments, during which researchers, including me, briefly handle individual dolphins.
Our team attaches suction-cup hydrophones directly onto each dolphin’s melon – that is, its forehead. We then record the dolphins continuously throughout the health assessments, taking notes on who is being recorded when, and what is happening at the time.
This is how my colleagues and I were able to confirm that wild dolphins, like captive animals, produced large numbers of individually distinctive signature whistles when briefly isolated from other dolphins. Through observations and recordings of known free-swimming dolphins, we were further able to confirm that they produced these same signature whistles in undisturbed contexts.
We have organized these recordings into the Sarasota Dolphin Whistle Database, which now contains nearly 1,000 recording sessions of 324 individual dolphins. More than half of the dolphins in the database have been recorded more than once.
We identify each dolphin’s signature whistle based on its prevalence: In the catch-and-release context, about 85% of the whistles that dolphins produced are signature whistles. We can identify these visually, by viewing plots of frequency vs. time called spectrograms.
Spectrograms of signature whistles of 269 individual bottlenose dolphins recorded in Sarasota. Figure created by Frants Jensen, with sound files from Laela Sayigh
Signature whistles and ‘motherese’
The Sarasota Dolphin Whistle Database has proved to be a rich resource for understanding dolphin communication. For instance, we have discovered that some calves develop signature whistles similar to those of their mothers, but many do not, raising questions about what factors influence signature whistle development.
Dolphin mothers modify their signature whistles when communicating with their calves by increasing the maximum frequency, or pitch. This is similar to human caregivers using a higher-pitched voice when communicating with young children – a phenomenon known as “motherese.”
Also similar to humans is how dolphins will initiate contact with another dolphin by imitating their signature whistle – what we call a signature whistle copy. This is similar to how you would use someone’s name to call out to them.
Our team is interested in finding out if dolphins also copy whistles of others who aren’t present, potentially talking about them. We have seen evidence of this in our recordings of dolphins during health assessments, which provide a rare context to document this phenomenon convincingly. But we still have more work to do to confirm that these are more than chance similarities in whistles.
Shared whistle types
Another exciting development has been our recent discovery of shared whistle types — ones that are used by multiple animals and that are not signature whistles. We call these non-signature whistles.
I could hardly believe my ears when I first discovered a repeated, shared non-signature whistle type being produced by multiple dolphins in response to sounds we play back to them through an underwater speaker. We had previously believed that these non-signature whistles were somewhat random, but now I was hearing many different dolphins making a similar whistle type.
Our team originally had been using the playbacks to try to determine whether dolphins use “voice cues” to recognize each other – similar to how you can recognize the voice of someone you know. Although we found that dolphins did not use voice cues, our discovery of shared non-signature whistle types has led to an entirely new research direction.
The author listens to dolphin whistles on a boat in Sarasota. Jonathan Bird from the film ‘Call of the Dolphins’/Oceanic Research Group, Inc.
So far, I’ve identified at least 20 different shared non-signature whistle types, and I am continuing to build our catalog. We are hoping that artificial intelligence methods may help us categorize these whistle types in the future.
To understand how these shared non-signature whistle types function, we are carrying out more playback experiments, filming the dolphins’ responses with drones. We’ve found that one such whistle often leads the dolphins to swim away, suggesting a possible alarm-type function. We have also found that another type might be an expression of surprise, as we have seen animals produce it when they hear unexpected stimuli.
More difficult, more interesting
So far, the main takeaway from our experiments has been that dolphin communication is complex and that there are not going to be one-size-fits-all responses to any non-signature whistle type. This isn’t surprising, given that, like us, these animals have complicated social relationships that could affect how they respond to different sound types.
For instance, when you hear someone call your name, you may respond differently if you are with a group of people or alone, or if you recently had an argument with someone, or if you’re hungry and on your way to eat.
Our team has a lot more work ahead to sample as many dolphins in as many contexts as possible, such as different ages, sexes, group compositions and activities.
This makes my job more difficult – and far more interesting. I feel lucky every day I am able to spend working on the seemingly infinite number of fascinating research questions about dolphin communication that await answers.
