taylorvich writes:https://phys.org/news/2023-10-sunflowers-sun-mechanism.htmlSunflowers famously turn their faces to follow the sun as it crosses the sky. But how do sunflowers "see" the sun to follow it? New work from plant biologists at the University of California, Davis, published Oct. 31 in PLOS Biology, shows that they use a different, novel mechanism from that previously thought."This was a total surprise for us," said Stacey Harmer, professor of plant biology at UC Davis and senior author on the paper.Most plants show phototropism-the ability to grow toward a light source. Plant scientists had assumed that sunflowers' heliotropism, the ability to follow the sun, would be based on the same basic mechanism, which is governed by molecule called phototropin and responds to light at the blue end of the spectrum.Sunflowers swing their heads by growing a little more on the east side of the stem-pushing the head west-during the day and a little more on the west side at night, so the head swings back toward the east. Harmer's lab at the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences has previously shown how sunflowers use their internal circadian clock to anticipate the sunrise, and to coordinate the opening of florets with the appearance of pollinating insects in the morning.Original SubmissionRead more of this story at SoylentNews.
looorg writes:According to an observational study cats are found to have at least 276 different facial expressions combinations. That humans can identify and distinguish between, maybe or sort of ...https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/67273692
looorg writes:Coding with the pope: Catholic school children are going to be tempted to learn to code with the Pope. Or the pope is going to tell them to learn to code, cause that is what God wants? One imagines it will be a bigger draw in catholic countries, not so much in the rest of the world. Unless the program is really good and can be used by heathens and heretics to.Apparently the Pope, or God or some other earthly minion picked Python. What does that tell us ...
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upstart writes:The company pumps out trash-tier AI content, then waits until it's called out publicly to quietly delete it and move onto the next trainwreck:
canopic jug writes:The Mozilla Corporation, known for applications like the Thunderbird e-mail client and the Firefox web browser, has issued a warning statement about some EU legislation sneaking its way through the back rooms. The text of the legislation is slated for approval in a non-public meeting in Brussels on November 8.
DannyB writes:Can humans reproduce in space? Mouse breakthrough on ISS a promising signThis is the first-ever study that shows mammals may be able to thrive in space.
Meeting Announcement: The next meeting of the SoylentNews governance committee is scheduled for Today, Wednesday, November 1st, 2023 at 21:00 UTC (5pm Eastern) in #governance on SoylentNews IRC. Logs of the meeting will be available afterwards for review, and minutes will be published when complete. This will be 5pm eastern time depending on your daylight saving time status.The agenda for the upcoming meeting will also be published when available. Minutes and agenda, and other governance committee information are to be found on the SoylentNews Wiki at: https://wiki.staging.soylentnews.org/wiki/GovernanceThe community is welcome to observe and participate, and so is invited to the meeting.Read more of this story at SoylentNews.
canopic jug writes:Google has rolled out plans to drop the Ogg Theora video codec from its Chrome web browser starting M123. The removal of that open standard for video will trickle down through Chromium and its derivatives.