The early bird catches the worm – especially if it’s a cuckoo. According to an article in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (Series B) cuckoo eggs, laid in a hijacked nest of another species, hatch almost a day and a half earlier than the rightful occupants. The researchers found that cuckoo moms incubate their eggs internally for around 24 hours before laying them in a surrogate bird’s nest.

 

Because a cuckoo’s body temperature is about 4°C higher than the incubation temperature in the nest, the internal incubation gives the developing embryo a distinct advantage. By the time the other eggs hatch, the day-old cuckoo chicks can deftly kick them out of the nest and monopolise the food the foster parents bring.
 

 

 

Some tennis players make quite a racket. And intentionally it seems. According to a study published in an issue of PLoS ONE last month, a tennis player’s grunt may serve to distract the opponent. 

 

Researchers showed 33 viewers videos of tennis players hitting a ball, with the shots accompanied by either a grunt-like sound or silence. Using keyboard buttons, the viewers had to indicate the direction of the shot as quickly and accurately as possible. On shots that came with a grunt participants responded much slower and made more mistakes than when viewing silent shots.

 

Although the results still need to be verified in real life, the preliminary findings suggest that grunting may distract an opponent during response preparation.

 

 

 

A connection is just as strong as its weakest link. And scientists write in a recent issue of the Biophysical Journal that it’s true about tendons too. Tendons, which connect bones to muscles, consist of bundles of collagen fibres held together by a biological type of “cement”. This is made of proteoglycans.

 

The researchers found that collagen fibres can stretch to double their original length before breaking, yet a bundled tendon snaps when drawn out to only an extra fifth of its original length.

 

Further investigation showed that tendons toughen in watery surroundings and since the proteoglycans control the degree of hydration of the tissue, they are likely responsible for reducing collagen’s elasticity. The findings may be useful for developing drugs that could help to control tendon strength. (More below)

 

 

 

Cooking brain tumours with lazers: http://tiny.cc/donteatthat

 

For when the Nobel Prize is just too clever: http://tiny.cc/laughandthink 

 

There is no such thing as free will: http://tiny.cc/wearerobots