Preying in plain sight

What’s hot and what’s not in world science and technology.

SCIENTISTS have discovered how the orchid mantis – native to Malaysia and Indonesia – lures its prey. Unlike other predators that mimic flowers and hide among them, the orchid mantis doesn’t imitate or hide, the team at Macquarie University reveals. Instead, it has evolved to look like a flower and sits on leaves.

Despite staying in plain sight, the orchid mantis is able to trap more prey than neighbouring flowers can. The team found that its colour – rather than shape – can trick insects such as bees and butterflies to think that it’s a flower that contains nectar. See: http://bit. ly/1vev421

Lifesaving busters

A NEW nanoparticle developed by scientists at Houston Methodists can destroy blood clots 100 to 1,000 times faster than current clot-busting techniques. The team first loaded magnetic nanoparticles with a commonly used clot-busting drug, then camouflaged them with biochemicals to prevent attacks by the body’s immune system.

Once the nanoparticles arrive at the site of the clot, they trap themselves there and deliver bursts of the drug. The quick delivery to where the drugs are most needed can help prevent severe tissue damage and death – and possibly strokes and heart attacks – that result when clots linger in the body. See: http://bit.ly/1MTD2mz

Anti-bomb stickers

ENGINEERS at GE Global Research have developed a new radio-frequency identification (RFID) sticker to detect explosives and hazardous chemicals. These tags are the size of a stamp, sensitive, battery-free, cheap, and work wirelessly.

Once the RFID tag senses unsafe chemicals, highly flammable oxidisers or explosives, it changes its electrical properties and sends a signal to a nearby detector. The team says the stickers are 300 times smaller than conventional desktop detectors, such as those used in airports, and can be stuck on anywhere from walls to individual packages. See: http://wrd.cm/1zjxqsA

Forgotten fossil

WHAT was thought to be a plaster cast of a fossil for decades has turned out to be a real fossil of a new species. The species is now named Ichthyosaurus anningae – after fossil collector Mary Anning, who found the first confirmed fossil of ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles that look like dolphins and lived at the same time as dinosaurs during the Jurassic period).

The fossil, 1.5m long and 189 million years old, was kept in Doncaster Museum for 30 years before it was loaned to a palaeontologist. It also contains the remains of its last meal in its gut: undigested squid tentacles. See: http://bit.ly/1A9uspE

Supersized brains

SCIENTISTS at Duke University have found the DNA that accelerates brain growth in humans – and sets us apart from chimpanzees. Part of the Human Accelerated Regulatory Enhancer (HARE) group, HARE5 controls gene activity, is found in both humans and chimpanzees, and is near a key gene in brain development and disease.

When the team inserted human HARE5 and chimpanzee HARE5 into mice embryo separately, they found that mice brains with human HARE5 grew 12% bigger and developed more rapidly than those with chimpanzee HARE5. The team says human HARE5 appears to boost the creation of more brain cells and allows human brain development to take advantage of this ability. See: http:// bit.ly/1Fm1h7k

Mandy Thoo is a science writer based in Kuala Lumpur. Tweet her at @techhead_.