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Scientists launch $23 million Arctic mission to uncover what’s hidden beneath the ice: ‘We have basically no information’

In what’s being called “an unprecedented scientific and human adventure at the North Pole,” the $23 million Tara Polar Station will be the home of a team of 18 people made up of scientists, artists, physicians, journalists, and sailors.

The mission of this drifting science station is to gather data and perform research during the period from November to February, a part of the year that lacks observations because of the dangers inherent in a region of the world that is warming faster than anywhere else.

“We have basically no information,” Tara Ocean Foundation’s Chris Bowler told New Scientist. “Which is alarming, considering it is such a fragile place and it is changing so rapidly.”

Shocking Discovery: Scientists Discover Organism That Act Like Living Electrical Wires

Scientists identified a new electrically conductive bacterium, Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis, with potential applications in pollution cleanup and bioelectronics. Researchers have discovered a previously unknown species of bacteria capable of conducting electricity, potentially paving the way for i

Possible evidence found of cuttlefish waving to each other as a form of communication

Sophie Cohen-Bodénès and Peter Neri, neuroscientists at École Normale Supérieure, in France, report possible evidence of cuttlefish communicating by waving their ‘arms’ at one another. Their paper is posted on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that cuttlefish can change their on demand and use that ability as a form of communication. Cuttlefish have also been observed moving their arms in certain ways when confronting other males. They possess eight arms lined with suckers, along with a pair of situated close to their mouths. In this new effort, the researchers took a closer look at the ways cuttlefish move their arms, possibly as a means of communicating with others of their kind.

The researchers put several specimens in a tank in their lab to observe them as they interacted with one another. They also videotaped several as they moved their arms and played the videos back to the cuttlefish to see how they would react. They found four waving patterns that appeared to be consistent—up, side, roll, and crown.

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