Mars had Vast flood plains
The red planet is thought to have generally been a cold and arid environment for the past 2.5 billion years, but buried channels identified beneath the surface point to massive flooding in more recent times.
A 3D reconstruction of Marte Vallis, the largest channel detected on Mars, found that it is twice as deep as previously thought and was likely the site of extensive flooding less than 500 million years ago. Researchers are now examining the channels to determine where they came from, how extensive they were and whether they could have sparked climate change on the planet.
Get ready for intelligent mice
Mice born with human astrocytes, a type of brain cell, instead of the normal rodent version were quicker learners and better at problem-solving tasks like finding their way through a maze. The findings suggest that humans’ development of uniquely large and complex astrocytes may have been a key turning point in our evolution which helped give us higher brain functions. Astrocytes are part of a larger group called glial cells, which connect to nerves and play a key role relaying messages in the brain. The researchers transplanted stem cells which produce human astrocytes into the brains of mice before birth. As the mice developed, a network of human astrocytes developed among the mice’s normal brain cells. Scans showed that these mice’s brain signals travelled much faster than usual.
Beautiful people are always attractive
Beautiful people are seen as good looking even if they distort their faces into grimaces of disgust, surprise, fear or anger, according to new research. Unattractive people, on the other hand, are seen as unappealing even if they smile broadly because the underlying structure of the face is what others recognise, not the expression. But expressions can still make a small difference as a signal of whether someone is worth pursuing as a mate, the researchers found. Dr Ed Morrison, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, wanted to study whether attractiveness was more to do with how you look or how you present yourself.
He found facial attractiveness remained steadfast in other people’s minds no matter what expression a person displays.