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I think one of the coolest things about science is how researchers are so creative in the ways they use the limited data they have. A new paper came out yesterday that, for the first time, showed how large mammals change their risk–taking behavior depending on whether they’re skinny or fat. Its findings aren’t only the first of their kind; for me, they are also very personal.
Before becoming a journalist, I was a marine biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. About 20 miles north of Santa Cruz sits Ano Nuevo State Park, a beautiful point that juts out into the Pacific Ocean. It is home to a large breeding colony of northern elephant seals, and I used to help Costa Lab scientists tag and track female elephant seals there.
Roxanne Beltran and Jessie Kendall-Bar, two marine biologists at the university, used the tagging data from those seals to help answer a question fundamental to ecologists’ understanding of the natural world: “Do hungry animals take more risks to find food?” The paper, which I consider creative field biology at its best, explores the question and its answer almost poetically, delving into the “lightscape of fear” and the relationship among sleep, food and danger in the life of an elephant seal.
Though I didn’t get my name on the paper, I’d like to think that one of the elephant seals I helped collect data on back in my undergraduate days allowed these researchers to do this fantastic science.
Also today:
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Daniel Merino
Assistant Editor: Science, Health, Environment; Co-Host: The Conversation Weekly Podcast
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Female elephant seals take seven-month feeding trips during which they balance danger, starvation and exhaustion.
Dan Costa
Roxanne Beltran, University of California, Santa Cruz; Jessica Kendall-Bar, University of California, Santa Cruz
By measuring how and when elephant seals sleep, researchers were able to figure out how elephant seals change their risk-taking behavior as they gain weight.
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Ethics + Religion
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Steven P. Millies, Catholic Theological Union
Divisions among Catholics have created doubts about the moral acceptability of one of the COVID-19 vaccines. An expert explains why there isn't one 'Catholic view' on the issue.
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Rodolfo Galvan Estrada III, Fuller Theological Seminary
Many within the political left and right draw on the Bible to inform their views on immigration, but neglect to take into account how foreigners were treated under the Roman Empire during the time of Jesus.
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Environment + Energy
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Ermias Kebreab, University of California, Davis; Breanna Roque, University of California, Davis
Cow burps and farts are no joke – they're a big factor in climate change. A new study shows that daily seaweed supplements could tame this major methane source while saving ranchers money.
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Health
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David R. Holtgrave, University at Albany, State University of New York; Amy Lauren Fairchild, The Ohio State University; Cheryl Healton, New York University
Biden wants Americans to be able to celebrate the holiday with small gatherings. What will it take to get the virus under control by then? Three public health school deans explain.
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Politics + Society
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H. Colleen Sinclair, Mississippi State University
A social psychologist explains how to avoid being misled, and how to prevent yourself – and others – from spreading inaccurate information.
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Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino
A president’s persona is always a public act. In that way, Trump's shtick – vulgar man of the people – was not exceptional. And every president has had to invent his version of the role.
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Economy + Business
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Jacqueline Ackerman, IUPUI; Jon Bergdoll, IUPUI
The first survey of its kind in 15 years also indicated that the number of couples in which one partner makes decisions about giving for the whole household is rising.
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Podcast
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Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation; Daniel Merino, The Conversation
Plus we hear about the hardships faced by migrant workers in Canada. Listen to episode 7 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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Trending on Site
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Austin Kocher, Syracuse University
Luck and tenacity paid off for some 15,000 migrants who may now pursue their asylum cases in the US But nearly 42,000 cases filed from Mexico under a Trump-era rule were already rejected.
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Lisa Bitel, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But Patrick's own writings and early biographies reveal the person behind the legend.
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Laken Brooks, University of Florida
Today, beer is marketed to men and the industry is run by men. It wasn't always that way.
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