Study finds parrots use their heads as a 'third limb'

No vertebrate (fish, mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian) has ever had an odd number of limbs. Despite this "forbidden phenotype," some animals seem to use other body parts as a third or fifth "limb" to move from one place to another.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/study-finds-parrots-use-their-heads-as-a-third-limb

3D reconstruction reveals star formation activities of two dust clouds

Using tens of thousands of stars observed by the Gaia space probe, astronomers from MPIA and Chalmers have revealed the 3D shapes of two large star-forming molecular clouds, the California Cloud and the Orion A Cloud. In conventional 2D images, they appear similarly structured, containing filaments of dust and gas with seemingly comparable densities. In 3D, however, they look quite distinct. In fact, their densities are much more different than their images projected on the plane of the sky would suggest. This result solves the long-standing mystery of why these two clouds form stars at different rates.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/3d-reconstruction-reveals-star-formation-activities-of-two-dust-clouds

New strategies to save the world's most indispensable grain

Plants—they're just like us, with unique techniques for handling stress. To save one of the most important crops on Earth from extreme climate swings, scientists are mapping out plants' own stress-busting strategies.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/new-strategies-to-save-the-worlds-most-indispensable-grain

Puzzling features deep in Earth's interior illuminated by high resolution imaging

New research led by the University of Cambridge is the first to take a detailed image of an unusual pocket of rock at the boundary layer with Earth's core, some three thousand kilometers beneath the surface.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/puzzling-features-deep-in-earths-interior-illuminated-by-high-resolution-imaging

Satellite monitoring of biodiversity moves within reach

Global biodiversity assessments require the collection of data on changes in plant biodiversity on an ongoing basis. Researchers from the universities of Zurich and Montréal have now shown that plant communities can be reliably monitored using imaging spectroscopy, which in the future will be possible via satellite. This paves the way for near real-time global biodiversity monitoring.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-science-news/satellite-monitoring-of-biodiversity-moves-within-reach