Sscience is often considered a serious subject. But while it does tackle some hugely important issues, many of which have life and death consequences, it also has a fun side. This year American scientist has covered stories ranging from “Huh, this is weird” to “Ew, disgusting” to “So. Cool. ”Below we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites (seriously, don’t sleep on the clean cows). We hope you enjoy them and learn about the amazing and weird aspects of the world and come back to see what amazing and wild discoveries 2022 has in store for you.

Moo Over, home trained dogs

Most of the cattle roam their pastures, peeing with abandon, but scientists have now trained the calves to use a special latrine called MooLoo. After only 10 days of training, many calves used MooLoo 77% of the time. This could help farmers mitigate pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and the potential spread of disease. (Also in this story: cubic poo from the wombats, secret pee signals, and the pandas’ unusual strategy for staying warm.)

Are they aliens?

In June, the Pentagon finally released a long-awaited report on a wave of recent UFO sightings by members of the US military. The report denied that a national tech program was the source of the phenomenon and, while citing a lack of sufficient evidence, did not explicitly rule out extraterrestrial visitors as a possible cause. Most experts, however, remain skeptical about the arrival of ET.

Floral fraud

The mushroom Fusarium xylophilum is a master of botanical disguise. it infects Xyris the herb, sterilizes it and then produces strange imitations of the plant’s yellow flowers. F. xylophile is obviously the first known fungus to use this strategy, which is supposed to help it spread its spores.

Lemurs have rhythm

The high-pitched, dismal duets of Madagascar’s Indri giant lemurs may seem chaotic at first, but study shows they actually have a regular underlying synchronization pattern. This makes lemurs the first known non-human mammals to possess rhythm, although they likely won’t win a Grammy anytime soon.

My Primate Professor

Lemurs have also taught us something about ourselves. Baby babbling that says adored parents coo over their balls of joy helps infants learn more about the world around them, including such basic things as the distinction between pets and people. It turns out, however, that these little ears can also learn something from non-human primates, in this case, lemurs. But songbirds fall short as educators, the researchers learned. The distinction highlights the seemingly unique language ability of humans.

When the perfect gift is an edible body

Finding the perfect gift for the kids can be a hassle for parents in a hurry during the holidays. But at least they can take comfort in the fact that they don’t have to wrap a corpse. For some parents of beetles, a well-hidden bird or mouse corpse is the gift that continues to be given. Hope this is a gift you can never order online.

Forget about steaming open envelopes

In the centuries leading up to prepasted envelopes, people sealed their correspondence using a variety of techniques ranging from simple folding and sealing containers to elaborate multistep processes that produced a letter that was impossible to open without tearing the paper, revealing thus any potential espionage attempt. This “letter locking” presented a conundrum to researchers who wanted to read ancient missives without destroying the complicated folds. So scientists turned to 21st-century technology (high-resolution imagery and a virtual unfolding algorithm) to spy on 17th-century correspondence without opening it.

Chopper on Mars

Success was not guaranteed for Ingenuity, the prototype drone that arrived on the Red Planet alongside NASA’s Perseverance rover in February. To take off and stay aloft in the thin Martian atmosphere, this “Marscopter” would have to spin its blades at around 2,800 rpm, or around 10 times faster than helicopters on Earth. When he finally flew off to achieve the very first powered, controlled airplane flight beyond Earth, much of the spectacle took place on our planet, where scientists and engineers erupted from joy.

Sexual zombies of insects

As billions of Brood X cicadas woke up from their 17-year-old underground slumber this year, a subset of them became infected with a soil fungus. And this is where it gets really disgusting: The fungus causes the genitals of male cicadas to drop, leaving behind a white plug of spores that spread when the males attempt to mate. And give them a try, becoming something like sex-obsessed automatons. Scientists are still trying to figure out how the fungus takes hold of its host.

Robot hand, no assembly required

The process of 3D printing a machine typically involves creating each part separately and then putting those parts together to form the final product. But for the first time, researchers printed flexible robots in one process, no assembly required. And to test the effectiveness of one of their devices, a flexible robot hand, they programmed it to beat the first level of Super Mario Bros. Presumably, he doesn’t have those pesky calluses on his fingers.

A new snake move has just been dropped

Researchers in Guam spotted brown tree snakes forming their bodies into “lassos,” which they used to hoist themselves onto smooth metal poles and reach bird nesting boxes. This arduous process allows snakes to climb larger columns than their usual climbing hold does, and it opens up an alarming new option for competing for prey. Yeah !

The longest “long winter nap” in the world

Stop by if this sounds familiar to you, but 2021 has been a tough year. Many of us would probably like to sleep through December and start the New Year all over again. But even this virtual suspension of animation would have nothing on a rotifer: one of these microscopic animals, extracted from the Siberian permafrost, has spent the last 25,000 years in a frozen nap before being revived. Even after all this rest, the little creature may still not be ready for 2022.

New physics of a television classic

In the world of Star trek, a ship’s warp drive allows it to travel at impossible speeds. For fans of the franchise who are also scientists, this fictional technology is an interesting topic of study. In the process of calculating whether faster-than-light travel could ever become possible, they make new discoveries in physics. To hire!

Dangerous Predator or Fishy Spa?

Instead of swimming quickly away from sharks, a surprising number of fish species are actually chasing fearsome predators to use as something like a living back scraper, analysis of drone footage, photographs, and video feeds. diving watch. Scientists don’t know why these fish indulge in shark rubbing, but they might be doing it to kill bacteria and parasites, or because, well, it feels good.

Cutest study of the year

The methods section of any scientific study is often a dry read, but one researcher threw a bone to all of us by putting 375 puppies in their own. Emily Bray, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, took on the scientific challenge of whether dogs should learn to interpret human communications or if it’s something they come naturally. Soft-eared cuteness – and science – followed.