This week’s science news came from a broad range of topics, with news of a newly confirmed planet 600 light years away to a better understanding of the climate here on Earth. But biology seemed to rule the roost: rats showed empathy, bees made collective decisions, and a 500 million year old fossil revealed more about the largest predator of its era.
It’s got 16,000 eyes on you—the vision of a Cambrian-era predator: Spectacular fossils show that a strange beast from the Cambrian had two large compound eyes, each with about 16,000 lenses.
Bees reach consensus by headbutting dissenters: Swarms of bees seeking new nests make decisions using a system that’s very similar to the neurons in the human brain, with a key difference: instead of sending chemical inhibitors to their peers, the bees give them a good headbutting.
Rats show empathy, will come to the aid of other rats: Rats will deliberately free trapped companions and may even share food with them, indicating that these rodents are capable of empathy.
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