Curio Cabinet / Nerdy Curio

While some teens spend their summers prepping for the SATs or playing in the pool, others discover new planets. NASA recently published its findings on TOI-1338 b, an exoplanet or planet outside of our Solar System. 17-year-old intern Wolf Cukier discovered the planet in 2019. The teen was put in charge of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a device used to survey Earth-like planets in the universe. On his third day he discovered the unknown planet. TOI-1338 b is the only planet in the TOI-1338 system, which is 1,300 light years away. About seven times the size of Earth, it orbits its two stars, meaning it is a circumbinary planet. It completes its orbit every 95 days. TOI-1338 b is too far away to get a visual of the surface. Nonetheless, computer-generated images like the one above show the gaseous Neptune-like planet with a pink pastel-colored surface. Is it habitable? Absolutely not, but that won't stop us from wishing we could take our next summer vacation there!

 

[Image Description: a computer-generated rendering of the pink and purple gas giant planet TOI-1338 b.] Credit & copyright: NASA GODDARD
 

Written by: Esther P.

Move over Dolly, there's a new clone in town—and she's here to save a species! Born December 10th, Elizabeth Ann is a black-footed ferret unlike any other. Created from the genetic material a ferret named Willa who died more than 30 years ago, Elizabeth Ann is the first clone of a U.S. endangered species in history. Elizabeth Ann was created in a joint effort between five conservation and technology organizations. First, researchers extracted genetic material from Willa, who was frozen upon her death in 1988. They then transferred it into an egg cell which had had its own genetic material removed. The egg was implanted into the uterus of a domestic ferret, which gave birth to Elizabeth Ann. The process took seven years. As lead researcher Pete Gober remarked in an interview with CBS, "It takes extraordinary efforts to put humpty dumpty back together once you let him fall off the wall and get cracked." The "humpty-dumpty" Gober referred to is the black-footed ferret species, which used to roam throughout central North America.
 

Due to human encroachment, much of the prairie dog population, which black-footed ferrets depend on for survival, was wiped out. Today, only around 350 black-footed ferrets survive in the wild. All naturally-born black-footed ferrets alive today share the same seven ancestors. Such close inbreeding causes homozygosity, a state in which offspring are disproportionately affected by harmful recessive traits that would normally be selected out of the gene pool. Elizabeth Ann's genetic material would introduce much-needed genetic diversity to the species.
Researchers are now theorizing that cloning could be key to saving other endangered species, or even bringing back extinct ones, such as passenger pigeons or even wooly mammoths. To think such big things might be possible thanks to one little ferret!
 

[Image description: Elizabeth Ann, a cloned back-footed ferret, pokes her head out of a tube. Her fur is light brown and white with a dark brown stripe across her eye-area.] Credit & copyright: CNN
 

Written by: Maria C.

Baby animals are always a joy, but even more so when they're helping to save an entire species! On January 6, 2021, an Indian rhinoceros calf was born at the Wroclaw Zoo, in Poland, for the first time in the zoo's 155-year history. The female calf is one of around only 3,600 Indian rhinos in the world, with 2,100-2,200 existing in the wild. Only 66 zoos, worldwide, keep Indian Rhinos, which must be kept indoors, in cold temperatures. In 2020, only 7 Indian rhino calves were born in captivity. Yet, not long ago, the Indian rhino's plight was even more dire than it is today. In the 1970s, due to a combination of lax hunting laws and illegal poaching, Indian rhinos had almost disappeared from their native grasslands in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The Indian and Nepalese governments, in conjunction with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), started a successful conservation program, and the first breeding pair of Indian rhinos were reintroduced to Pakistan's Lal Suhanra National Park in 1982. Today, every new Indian rhino calf brings the species one step closer to full health. If only we could all be considered heroes just for being born!

A baby Indian rhino walks on hay in an indoor enclosure. Credit & copyright: Zoo Wrocław/AP
 

Written by: Maria C.

Talk about a high-tech party! Famed American robotics company Boston Dynamics, best-known for their lifelike "dog" robots, recently showed off several models of bot in a New Year's celebration video like no other. Set to the tune of Do You Love Me by The Contours, the video has been described as a "robot dance party". It features three models of Boston Dynamics robots: Spot (a quadrupedal dog-like robot), Atlas (a bipedal humanoid robot) and Handle (a wheeled robot). Together, the three bots dance to a routine featuring jumping, twisting, and foot-shuffling. The impressive video took months to develop. First, choreographer Monica Thomas created a routine for the bots. Then, programmers worked with her and other dancers to break apart each movement, and program the robots to mimic them. In a recent interview, Boston Dynamics VP of Engineering, Aaron Saunders, explained that human dancers "would literally dance out what they wanted us to do, and the engineers would look at the screen and go “that would be easy” or “that would be hard” or “that scares me."" Their dedication certainly paid off, though, as the video has racked up over 25 million views so far. Those are some popular bots!
 

 
Image credit & copyright: Boston Dynamics
 

Written by: Maria C.

If you spent Valentine's Day isolated from your loved ones, know you're not alone. A handful of king penguins have been spotted on the Martillo island at the southernmost tip of Argentina. Researchers are unsure how, and why, the king penguins ended up there. Typically, the penguins live in massive colonies with up to 100,000 breeding pairs. Most likely, their arrival on Martillo was accidental, and the penguins, "were wandering around the ocean looking for food," according to researcher Andrea Raya Rey of the CADIC (Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas or Southern Center for Scientific Research). Martillo island, in the Beagle Channel, is already home to gento and magellanic penguins. The former took residence in the 1970s, and the latter in the 1990s. Researchers suspect the king penguins decided to join their feathered friends during moulting season (between February and April, depending on the penguin's age). King penguins are slightly smaller than emperor penguins, although they share the same striking orange coloring. The species have a circumpolar distribution, that is they are found around the Earth's poles. They are also serially monogamous. Between 5 and 6 years old, on average, king penguins begin mating. They remain faithful to their partners during the breeding cycle. During winter, both partners go to sea in search of food. King penguins are long-distance foragers, with a diet consisting primarily of fish, such as lanternfish, and squid. The king penguins on Martillo island could have swam from Antarctica, a journey of less than 700 miles, the Falkland Islands, an archipelago off the Patagonian coast, South Georgia Island, even farther east in the Atlantic, or nearby in Inútil Bay, Chile or Staten Island, Argentina. One thing's for sure, the king penguins are tired of being alone. Last year, they tried to start a colony by hatching a chick, which sadly succumbed to unusual heat. Here's to hoping they aren't alone long!

 
Image credit & copyright: Getty Images

"Pink slime," aka dyed and processed meat isn't the most controversial news in the fast food industry anymore. Late in December 2020 the Singapore Food Agency approved a product called "cultured chicken" for sale as the world's first regulatory approved lab-grown meat. The nuggets were grown by Eat Just, a San Francisco-based company that (usually) produces plant-based alternatives to egg products. Eat Just cracked the mold with their chicken nuggets, taking muscle cell biopsies from live chickens and feeding those samples plant-based nutrients in 300-gallon bioreactors. The tissues eventually grow into chicken meat. There's only one catch, in 2019 costs were estimated at $50 per nugget! Now, costs have gone down enough to compete with non-lab grown chicken, and currently over 24 companies around the world are working on similar lab-grown meat products. While the sterility and lab work required to grow meat could seem off putting to some, the ethical and environmental implications of industrialized meat production weigh heavily on these lab-grown meat producers. Just ask Josh Tetrick, Eat Just's chief executive whose goal is to ensure future meat production "doesn’t require killing a single animal or tearing down a single tree."

[Image Description: lab grown chicken nuggets on a plate with a side of honey mustard sauce.] Credit & copyright: Just Inc.
 

Written by: Esther P.

Not all that glitters is gold, but plain-looking rocks aren't always what they seem, either! Last month, a woman in the Southern English village of Whiteparish discovered that a stone in her garden was actually an ancient Roman relic. The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, discovered the stone around 20 years ago. Until recently, she used it as a "mounting block", to help boost her onto her horses. Only after a deep cleaning did she notice that the 25-inch-tall, rectangular stone was inscribed with two laurel wreaths, and letters she didn't recognize. The woman took it to a local archeologist, who found that it was a second-century marble slab, likely from Greece or Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). In Greek, the stone's inscription reads: "The people (and) the young men (honor) Demetrios (son) of Metrodoros (the son) of Leukios." According to UK auction house Wooley and Wallis, the artifact came to England in the 18th or 19th Century, during the "Grand Tours", a period when British aristocrats bought and sold many pieces of classical art from abroad. Wooley and Wallis will soon auction the stone off for an estimated $13,000-$20,000 USD. Talk about a great find!
 

[Image description: a grey, rectangular stone with two wreaths of leaves carved into it. There is ancient Roman text carved inside the wreaths and below them. Credit & copyright: Wooley and Wallis]
 

Written by: Maria C.

Think this little guy knows he's famous? In late December, news broke that biologists working in Kenya's tropical Taita Hills had discovered a new species of tree hyrax. These small, furry African mammals bear a resemblance to rabbits and squirrels, though strangely they are more closely related to elephants. They are evasive, nocturnal, and quite noisy. Much of the hyrax's time is spent making complex vocalizations which can carry for miles. In late 2020, scientists set out to record these sounds. Previously, there were only three known species of tree hyrax: the Southern, Eastern, and Western hyraxes. However, along with calls from known hyrax species, other unknown-but-similar calls were recorded. Eventually, scientists even managed to snap a photo of the hyrax in question, which seemed to confirm that it was a previously unknown species. The new hyrax's call was unlike that of other hyraxes, which usually sound like sustained screams and can reach over 100 decibels. Scientists described the new sound as a "strangled thwack". Then again, who are we to judge a new species' singing voice?
 
Image credit & copyright: Hanna Rosti
 

Written by: Maria C.

Move over pigeons, there's a new bird in the big city! A beautiful snowy owl recently appeared in New York City's Central Park, marking the first time the species has been seen in Manhattan in 130 years. Spotted January 27, 2021, the rare bird sent people flocking to take pictures after an announcement was made by popular birdwatching Twitter account "Manhattan Bird Alert". As welcome as the owl's arrival was however, it could be a sign of climate change. Snowy owls sometimes leave the Arctic tundra to fly south for the winter, but since they are easily stressed by noise, they tend to avoid heavily-populated areas. This could mean that the owl was driven to Central Park after being unable to find food elsewhere, as its natural Arctic range has decreased. The Audubon Society is investigating what may have led to the owl's visit, but the exact reason may never be known. Only time will tell if more snowy owls decide to call Manhattan home, in the near future. As for the city's most recent celebrity bird, it vanished from Central Park just one day after it was first spotted. Not everyone's cut out for the pressures of celebrity life!
 

A snowy owl flares its wings as it stands on the ground, in front of a chain-link fence. Credit & copyright: JacquelineUWS/@jacquelineUWS

Written by: Maria C.

Depending on your age and geographical location, your feelings about SPAM ® may range from sheer disgust to pure delight. With only six ingredients—pork, water, salt, potato starch (added in 2009), sugar, and sodium nitrate—the pink lunch meat is particularly popular in the Asia-Pacific region where it is served in dishes like the Hawaiian Spam musabi, a slice of Spam served atop rice and wrapped in seaweed, to Korean Budae jjigae, a spicy stew with Spam and kimchi. An estimated 12 cans of Spam are consumed each second, with 39% of sales coming from Asian countries like China, South Korea, and Japan. But now, they're facing competition from OmniFoods where "western innovation [meets] asian application." The Hong Kong brand's OmniPork (stylized OMN!PORK) is an "all purpose plant-based pork analogue" made from shiitake mushrooms, peas, soy, and rice. With more fiber and less saturated fat, the product is a healthy option, friendly to vegan and Buddhist diets, and the environment. Like its competitor, OmniPork has a pink, patty-like appearance, although it is frozen rather than canned. That certainly does sound more appetizing! Perhaps even Spam's staunchest critics will find the vegan alternative appetizing, especially since it reduces the carbon footprint associated with pork production.
 
Image credit & copyright: OmniFoods

Life's lowest moments sometimes lead to great triumphs! That has certainly proved true for Reuben Schoots. The Australian man became an expert in horology—the study and measurement of time and the instruments which tell time—under unlikely circumstances. During a trip to South America in 2015, Schoots contracted three rare tropical viruses and a parasite. Left partially bedridden for two years, he searched for ways to pass the time. A friend lent him a book by famed watchmaker George Daniel, reigniting Schoots' childhood fascination with mechanical watches. After months of careful study, Schoots decided he wanted to build a pocketwatch of his own, entirely by hand, knowing full well that it would take around three years working full-time. Handmade mechanical watches are extremely rare in modern times. Their internal mechanisms are so complex that creating one by hand is impossible for all but the most skilled and dedicated. If he succeeded, Schoots knew he would become one of only true watchmakers of the modern age, and one of the youngest ever. In late 2020, almost three years after starting his project, Schoots announced that his pocket watch is almost complete. Talk about dedication to one's craft!
 

Image credit & copyright: Reuben Schoots
 

Written by: Maria C.

Who needs a dark side of the Moon when it can disappear altogether? Scientists have recently uncovered an explanation to the Moon's disappearance for a night in medieval England. On the night of May 5, 1110 C.E. a total lunar eclipse was documented in the middle of the night, lasting into the day time. According to researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, the secret to the eclipse was in the trees and snow: ice core samples taken from glaciers date sulphuric aerosol particles from volcanic activity to 1110 C.E. In addition, tree rings dating from the same period reveal unusually ring thinning and cold weather for the year. Several accounts from the time note crop failures, famine, and other incidents of unfavorable weather. While previous research pointed to an eruption at Iceland's Hekla volcano as the cause of the lunar eclipse, the University of Geneva researchers point to a months-long eruption at Japan's Mount Asama in 1108 as the likely culprit of the blackout. Whatever the reasons, we bet the visible moon couldn't come back fast enough on May 6th.
 

Image credit & copyright: CoffmanCMU / Getty Images / iStockphoto
 

Written by: Esther P.

Thank you, thank you very much, vaccines. As the COVID-19 vaccines roll out this year, we're reminded of Elvis Presley's role in promoting polio vaccinations. Just before his second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on October 28, 1956, the King posed for photos while receiving the new polio vaccine. Presley had been recruited by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP, later renamed March of Dimes) to help promote the vaccine among teenagers and young adults. Those populations were not being sufficiently immunized, even though they were a vulnerable population. The NFIP would further court Presley's audience by having him record public service announcements, holding exclusive "Salk hops"—named after the inventor of the polio vaccine Jonas Salk, and offering signed photos to Elvis fan clubs who could prove all of their members were vaccinated. The efforts by Presley and the NFIP helped polio cases drop by 81% between the years of 1955 and 1957. Now that's what we call a little less conversation, a little more vaccinations!

 

Image credit & copyright: Seymour Wally / NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
 

Written by: Esther P.

The days may be shorter in winter, but for one group of Korean scientists, the sun never sets—because it's artificial and indoors! The superconducting fusion device known as KSTAR (Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research), also known as the "Korean artificial sun" uses superconducting magnets and hydrogen isotopes to mimic the sun's fusion reactions inside a specially-built room at the National Fusion Research Institute in Daejeon, South Korea. In late December, 2020, KSTAR achieved an important milestone when it broke its own record and kept its temperature at 100 million degrees for 20 seconds. Previously, in 2019, it had maintained this temperature for 8 seconds. When the KSTAR reactor is switched on, its magnets agitate hydrogen isotopes into a plasma state separating the ions and electrons. This separation leads to a massive release of energy, resulting in the extreme high temperatures the KSTAR reactor is famous for maintaining. KSTAR is part of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor), an international research and engineering project. The project's goal? To find a way to make nuclear fusion the green energy source of the future. Imagine being able to harness the power of the sun all year long!
 

Image credit & copyright: Eco Central
 

Written by: Maria C.

Last month, construction crews completed the largest accessible land bridge in the United States. The Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge connects 7.5 miles of trails in the 330-acre Phil Hardberger Park in San Antonio, Texas. Spanning the Wurzbach Parkway, a busy 12-mile east-west thoroughfare, the land bridge also restores fractured habitats. Not only will native wildlife like armadillos, coyotes, and deer be able to safely navigate the pass, but so will park visitors. Land bridges, defined as strips of land connecting two landmasses, also encourage biodiversity. During the Cretaceous period (145.5-65.5 million years ago), the Hardberger Park site was covered in shallow seas. Today, limestone from the era, known as the Buda Formation, remains. Conservationists are working to transform the land bridge into a savanna, an open grassland with trees. Before 2009, the park site was a cattle and dairy farm. Years of overgrazing killed off many of the native plant species, and allowed non-native (and invasive) species to flourish. Restoring the natural habitat is an ongoing process. While the land bridge might look a bit sparse at the moment, artist renderings show how the newly planted vegetation will eventually create a lush and verdant landscape.
 
Image credit & copyright: Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy
 
See the bridge's construction process:

Dinner guests aren't necessarily sparring partners, but try telling that to an octopus. A recent publication by lead author Eduardo Sampaio in Ecology has the compelling title, "Octopuses punch fishes during collaborative interspecific hunting events." Sampio is part of a team at the University of Lisbon (UoL) in Lisbon, Portugal who've studied the collaborative hunting patterns of sea life. Octopuses at times may work in tandem with other fish species while hunting for food. UoL researchers are starting to discover the benefits of such hunting groups, like coral trout doing a headstand over a spot where prey can be found, and octopuses using their flexible bodies to route out dinner. But some behaviors don't seem to support the cooperative mentality. Sampaio and his team suggest two explanations for the octo-punches: "In the first one, benefits are disregarded entirely by the octopus, and punching is a spiteful behaviour, used to impose a cost on the fish." Ouch. The second explanation is attributed to "a form of aggression with delayed benefits," like smacking a fish to keep it in line during the hunt. Whatever the reason, we know now not to get on an octopus' bad side!

 
Below: a gif of an octopus in the Red Sea. While hunting with several fish, it lashes out at one of them.

 
Image credit & copyright: The Sunday Times
 

Written by: Esther P.

Who says that nothing good happened in 2020? While humanity was busy combatting Covid, Chinook Salmon replenished their numbers in a big way. For the first time in decades, Chinook Salmon are spawning in the upper Columbia River system.Chinook Salmon, also known as King Salmon, are the largest Pacific salmon species, sometimes growing to a weight of 30 pounds. As recently as a year ago, Chinook Salmon and several other salmon species were in dire trouble. Not only was climate change warming the cold waters that the fish needed to spawn, but a series of dams was blocking access to the salmons' breeding grounds. Research scientist Russ Thurow, of the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station, predicted in 2019 that Chinook salmon had "maybe 20 years" before they vanished from the wild.
 
In late 2020, Colville Tribe biologists in Washington state discovered that Chinook salmon were spawning in the Sanpoil River, a tributary of the Columbia. The fish had created at least 36 redds, or nests where female salmon deposit eggs. The fish owe their success to the Columbia River tribes, a group of Native American tribes in Washington and Oregon which have banded together to care for the river. In 2014, the tribes began creating a plan to encourage salmon to breed in the river, despite the presence of the Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams which had caused their numbers to decline, since the 1930s. In 2019, 60 Chinook salmon were released above the dams in the hope that they would breed. Another 100 were released in the Sanpoil River in August that same year, each equipped with a tracking device so that tribal scientists could keep an eye on them. Not everyone expected the fish to survive, but they defied odds and established a breeding population in the Sanpoil for the first time in a generation. In one interview, Crystal Conant, a Colville Tribal member, described the discovery as a jubilant one. "I was shocked at first, then I was just overcome with complete joy. I don’t know that I have the right words to even explain the happiness and the healing," she said. Here's hoping for more happy discoveries throughout 2021!
 
Image credit & copyright: William Mullins via Alamy

 
Written by: Maria C.