Today’s top news
Researchers filmed a sperm whale giving birth while being assisted by 10 other females in its social unit. This is the first time this type of phenomenon has been confirmed in an animal other than primates.
The birth, filmed by an airborne drone in July 2023, took place over an hour, during which the female surrounded the mother and newborn in a protective circle and took turns lifting the calf to the surface, giving the fluke time to unfold and acquire its own natural buoyancy control.
Sperm whale social groups are matrilineal, with lifelong bonds formed between mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and unrelated females. Males, on the other hand, primarily roam the oceans alone, creating nature’s most extreme geographic separation between the sexes.
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It’s a busy time for NASA, with plans announced to build a permanent moon base and a nuclear-powered rocket. The plan was revealed just one week before the planned launch of the Artemis II manned rocket to the moon.
The Artemis mission has been touted as a test of critical systems before an eventual attempt to send humans to Mars, but it’s also a test of something else: the human body.
NASA will rely heavily on astronauts not just as explorers but also as test subjects, closely monitoring how radiation, isolation and microgravity affect them physically and mentally as they venture deep into space.
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today’s photo
NASA’s Artemis II rocket is poised on Launch Pad 39B at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 322-foot-tall (98-meter) Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule stack is ready to launch the mission’s four-person astronaut crew for a 10-day flight around the moon and back as early as April 1.
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word of the day
Maslipithecus — Arabic and Greek. “Masri” means “Egyptian” and “Pithecus” means “monkey” or “trickster”. This is the genus name of a newly identified 18-million-year-old fossil believed to be the common ancestor of all modern apes.
quote of the day
“From the moment a sperm begins its journey to the moment an embryo begins to develop, gravity appears to play a role that we are only beginning to understand. Gravity is not just a background of life; it is deeply embedded in the biological processes that give rise to life.”
Nicole McPherson, a researcher who runs the Sperm and Embryo Biology Group at the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute, talks about why sperm lose their orientation in space.
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The discovery of a common ancestor of ancient apes in Egypt could rewrite human prehistory. But what do you know about our human relatives? Take our quiz.
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