“Star Trek” actor Kenneth Mitchell died Saturday after battling ALS for years. He was 49.

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The first study of bottlenose dolphins’ sensitivity to electric fields has found some can detect electric direct current (DC) fields as weak as 2.4 microvolts per centimeter, even better than the measured capacities of platypus. Although still less capable in this regard than sharks and rays, the finding suggests electroreceptivity may play a more important role in dolphins’ survival than previously suspected.

Dolphins have small pits rich in nerve endings on their face, known as vibrissal crypts. A 2022 study confirmed these allow them to detect weak electric fields, but provided no indication on how weak that can be. It makes sense for species that live in murky rivers or estuaries to develop alternatives to seeing underwater, but for those dolphins that inhabit clearer waters such capacities might prove superfluous.

However, it seems even in their frequently crystal-clear waters bottlenose dolphins find electrosensitivity useful enough they have maintained it to a considerable degree.

IBM presents API-BLEND

A comprehensive corpora for training and benchmarking API llms.

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Researchers found microplastics in layers of sediment that date back as early as the first half of the 18th Century.

Interested in learning more about the dynamic field of bioinformatics? Explore our guide to how bioinformatics is revolutionising personalised healthcare.

Time depends on speed and mass, which means it’s not as consistent as we think.

The development of RNA technologies demands accurate assessment of transcript size and heterogeneity. Here, authors report a nanopore-based approach to study full-length RNA transcripts at the single-molecule level, identify premature transcription termination and study rolling-circle transcription.