Poison dart frog brains can hold a mental map

Frogs aren't meant to be able to store a mental map in their brains. 20 years ago, Lainy Day from the University of Mississippi, USA, tested the place memory of amphibians and lizards, but none appeared capable of forming complex spatial memories. Frogs' brains were just too simple to carry a map it seemed. However, Sabrina Burmeister from the University of North Carolina recalls remarking at the time that Day should test the memories of poison frogs. After locating tiny pools of water up in the forest canopy, poison frog parents recall the location and return to deliver their freshly hatched tadpoles to develop safely in their new abodes. So, when East Carolina University ecologist Kyle Summers recently sent some green-and-black poison dart frogs (Dendrobates auratus) to Burmeister, she and graduate student Yuxiang Liu decided to investigate the remarkable amphibian's spatial awareness. They publish their discovery that the brain of the poison dart frog is sophisticated enough to form a mental map of its surroundings in Journal of Experimental Biology.

* This article was originally published here

Magnetism: An unexpected push for the hydrogen economy

Humankind has entered uncharted territory: atmospheric CO2 levels have soared to a record-breaking 415 ppm for the first time in human history. The need to find a sustainable alternative to CO2-producing fuels is urgent. One of the most promising and environmentally friendly energetic sources is hydrogen generated via water splitting, the reaction in which water is broken down into oxygen and hydrogen. Now, researchers from the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia are bringing this hydrogen economy one step closer in an unexpected way.

* This article was originally published here