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What do the crowd at a football stadium, the feet of a centipede, and the inside of your lungs have in common? All of these systems show the same specific kind of organization, as recently discovered by a group of scientists from MPI-DS.

The wave in a stadium looks like a pattern traveling across the tiers. Similarly, the legs of a centipede move in canon with illusory waves sweeping along its entire length. On a , tiny hairs in our lungs called wave together to transport mucus. This serves as a first line of defense against invading pathogens.

To create a synchronized and efficient wave, cilia need to accurately coordinate their beating motion. Unlike watching their and the coordinating the centipede’s legs, cilia have no such intelligent control system.

Like members of a street gang, male dolphins summon their buddies when it comes time to raid and pillage—or, in their case, to capture and defend females in heat. A new study reveals they do this by learning the “names,” or signature whistles, of their closest allies—sometimes more than a dozen animals—and remembering who consistently cooperated with them in the past. The findings indicate dolphins have a concept of team membership—previously seen only in humans—and may help reveal how they maintain such intricate and tight-knit societies.


Findings reveal the marine mammals have a sense of team membership.

Among humans and many other species, parents have a super sense when it comes to a crying baby. Something in that wordless call communicates distress so clearly that it sparks an instinctive response. And the cries of human, chimp and bonobo babies are so compelling that even other species recognize and react to them, including Nile crocodiles. However, to a croc, a human baby’s screams may sound less like a cry for help—and more like a dinner bell.

“Due to their ability to produce oxygen and function as bio-factories, this biotechnology could significantly enhance future space missions and human space exploration efforts,” Nicol Caplin, an astrobiologist at the European Space Agency (ESA), said in a statement.

Related: Scientists Send Kombucha to Space in Search for Extraterrestrial Life

Kombucha cultures, which are multi-species mélanges of bacteria and yeast, are key to creating the beverage. Add one such culture to room-temperature sweetened tea and, as long as the tea has plenty of sugar, microbes within will consume those nutrients, multiply and ferment the tea.