A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. When I’m not outside, I love digging into my discoveries about the places I live and travel to. Here are some of the best natural history links I found this week.

sharknado attitude

Sharks vs Orcas: Does it make sense to be afraid?: Killer whales and great white sharks are among the most feared marine creatures. Statistics show that sharks are more likely to bite humans than killer whales. But statistics also show that humans are more likely to bite you in the water than killer whales. In fact, he has only one case of a wild killer whale attacking a human.

One reason for this is that killer whales “tend to be denser in cold, high-latitude areas, where the water is not particularly attractive to the average beachgoer,” says the marine mammal population. Researcher Emma Luck explains.

In fact, regardless of water temperature, neither sharks nor killer whales care much.

Voyager probe: less memory than a cell phone

Voyager marks 45 years in space: NASA’s twin Voyager probes have been in space for 45 years. They are the only probes to have explored interstellar space, the vast region through which our Sun and Solar System pass.

NASA launched Voyager 2 on August 20, 1977, followed 16 days later by Voyager 1 on September 5. First went to Saturn and Jupiter. Voyager 2 then became the first and only spacecraft to approach both Uranus and Neptune. They captured images at every stop, providing an insight into a world never seen before.

When Voyager 2 orbited the planet, Voyager 1 went to the edge of the heliosphere. It stayed there until 2012 and discovered that the heliosphere blocks 70% of the cosmic rays emitted by stellar explosions.

After spending decades in space, they are older than many of the researchers currently operating them, and much of their technology is outdated. 1. Nevertheless, they are still at the forefront of space exploration.

“I don’t know how long it will last Mission Suzanne Dodd, JPL’s Voyager project manager, said:

One of the Voyager probes in the Space Simulator chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, April 27, 1977. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal

missing membrane

Evolutionary changes that helped pave the way for human speech: Scientists have discovered evolutionary differences in the human vocal cords when compared to other primates. This difference may be the reason why we can talk.

Scientists analyzed the vocalizations of 43 primate species. The human larynx lacked his 2 of the vocal membranes and air sacs that were contained in her other 42 larynxes. The loss of organization has allowed humans to produce long, steady speech and to control the pitch of their voices.

“The vocal structures of non-human primates are more complex, which can make it difficult to precisely control vibrations,” says primatologist Tsuyoshi Nishimura.

Massive meteorite impacts created continents: A new study suggests that giant meteorite impacts formed Earth’s continents. did.

Researchers have analyzed zircon crystals from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia. They are the best preserved remnants of the Earth’s ancient crust. The oxygen isotope composition in the crystals is similar to that found in the impact sites of giant meteorites.

“Our study is the first to show that the process that eventually formed the continents began with a giant meteorite impact similar to the one that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs,” said geologist Tim Johnson. provides solid evidence of

Small holes found in regularly repeating patterns on the ocean floor. Photo: NOAA

mystery digger

“Alien” Holes in the Seabed: Researchers have discovered a series of perfectly aligned pits on the ocean floor. The row of holes lies 2.6 km below the surface, and researchers have no idea where the holes came from.

A team from the NOAA Oceans Explorer has discovered an unusual pattern in a relatively unexplored region, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The holes are evenly spaced in a straight line. A small mound of sediment surrounds each hole. They resemble holes discovered in the area in 2004 by two marine scientists. At the time, scientists proposed that sediment-dwelling organisms created tiny holes, but no one had ever seen anything that behaved like this.

“These pits have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery. , looks like it was excavated by something,” the NOAA researchers said.

A new detection system could save whales from ship collisions: A Greek research team has developed a new whale detection system. They are testing a prototype known by the acronym SAvEWhales in the Mediterranean.

In this region, collisions with ships are the leading cause of death for sperm whales. The new system uses the clicks of sperm whales to detect location with an accuracy of 30 to 40 meters. Tests have shown that the sooner a nearby vessel has time to reroute or slow down to avoid a whale, the sooner this can be detected.

This system uses hydrophones to pick up sound. The time it takes for sound to reach different hydrophones allows the system to calculate the whale’s position. With each click, the scientist noticed that she could hear a second faint click. This is the reflection of the click bouncing off the surface of the water. After noticing this, scientists were also able to calculate the whale’s depth.