Biology, the Sigourney Weaver edition

20 year-old Purdue sophomore Emilia Czyszczon needed to take a soil sample for a biology class. Instead of taking the easy route, she crawled into a cave and scraped a sample from its back. And as a result, she discovered a previously unknown bacteriophage, now named Czyszczon1.

Captive chimpanzees use a less rich repertoire of gestures than those living free. Researchers studying film footage of wild chimpanzees have identified 66 gestures. I wonder, though, if they are accounting adequately for differences between different groups?

Deep Sea News has an fun article looking at the real parasites whose practices are woven into the aliens fought by Ripley and crew, in the movie series. The photo shows Sigourney Weaver playing Dian Fossey.

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