Science

I'll be waiting for the Photons Be Free premier

The demand for the widely used cancer drug Taxol is increasing, but it’s difficult and expensive to produce because it hasn’t been possible to do it biosynthetically. Until now, that is. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have cracked the last part of a code that science has struggled with for 30 years. The breakthrough could halve the price of the drug and make production far more sustainable.

• Animal abduction: On Panama’s Jicarón island, biologists documented five male capuchin monkeys carrying at least eleven different infant howler monkeys—a behavior never before seen in wild primates.
• Rise and spread: The sightings were remotely recorded by over 85 camera traps, which allowed scientists to pinpoint the origin and subsequent spread of this social tradition over a 15-month period. (See interactive timeline https://www.ab.mpg.de/671374/Capuchin-tool-use/interspecies-abduction-tradition).
• Novel animal tradition: The research offers the first known documentation of a cultural tradition in which animals repeatedly abduct and carry infants of another species—without any clear benefit to themselves.

While concentrations of older “forever” chemicals appear to have decreased in many foods over the last two decades, a new study found that drinking water, along with seafood, eggs, and brown rice, still contribute to PFAS exposure in adults. More attention is needed to newer, replacement PFAS.

• Language Connection: Researchers discovered a neuronal connection related to language in chimpanzee brains, previously thought to be unique to humans.
• Arcuate Fasciculus: The arcuate fasciculus links language areas in the brain; this connection exists in chimpanzees but is weaker than in humans.
• Evolutionary Insight: The study suggests that the architecture for complex communication existed in the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees about seven million years ago.