Shrews exhibit reversible size changes in their skulls and noses to get through the winter

AIMode News Desk · curated summary

August 19, 20261 min readScience

Automated news aggregation. Headlines and summaries are gathered from public feeds; see our editorial standards for sourcing, corrections, and AI-assist disclosure.

Scientists had previously observed that some species of shrews undergo a form of biological plasticity in which their bodies, skulls, brains and some organs shrink in the winter, then regrow in the spring. Now, a new study in Japan, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, has taken a closer look at this phenomenon and found that shrews' snouts exhibit an inverse effect, growing and then shrinking again.

Key takeaways

01Scientists had previously observed that some species of shrews undergo a form of biological plasticity in which their bodies, skulls, brains and some organs shrink in the winter, then regrow in the spring.
02Now, a new study in Japan, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, has taken a closer look at this phenomenon and found that shrews' snouts exhibit an inverse effect, growing and then shrinking again.

About this story

This story was aggregated from Phys.org. Headlines, summaries, and links are gathered automatically from public RSS feeds for your convenience.

Read the full story →

For agents:JSON record OpenAPI WebMCP llms.txt

Parasite linked to 'mushy fish' could be much more widespread than thought

If you're a keen angler and regularly catch yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi), you may have encountered instances of the fish's flesh turning mushy and unpalatable once cooked. Some have said it's a bit like trying to eat wet newspaper.

Phys.org · 34 minutes ago

Science

Gentle chemical glow helps scientists capture sharper images of living cells

We reach for brighter, better lighting for sharper pictures, whether we're photographing a puppy or a microscopic cell. In most cases, the light comes from outside the object being photographed. A recent study explored a different approach, using the cells' own chemical glow to illuminate their internal structures. This new experimental framework, called REID, lets microscopes capture super-sharp, high-resolution details of cell structures by bypassing the need for harsh external lasers that can sometimes damage the cells being imaged.

Phys.org · 34 minutes ago

Science