I’m Scott Hershberger, with Scientific American as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow.And here’s a short piece from the November 2020 issue of the magazine, in the section called Advances: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Science, Technology and Medicine.The article is titled “Quick Hits,” and it’s a rundown of some stories from around the globe.From Panama: Vampire bats monitored at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have fewer interactions with family and friends when ill, biologists say.But they do not seem to stay apart intentionally―instead sick bats are simply too lethargic to call out to or groom one another.From Canada: The last fully intact ice shelf in Canada collapsed into the Arctic Ocean this summer.Located in the territory of Nunavut, the Milne Ice Shelf lost 80 square kilometers of ice―40 percent of its area―in just two days.From Chile: Living 6,700 meters above sea level, a yellow-rumped leafeared mouse found at the summit of the dormant volcano Llullaillaco is the highest-dwelling mammal ever documented.It remains unclear how the animal survives the oxygen scarcity and freezing temperatures at this elevation.From Russia: An analysis of ancient woolly rhino DNA from Siberia revealed that the population size was stable for thousands of years before the mammal's extinction 14,000 years ago, suggesting that a warming climate―not hunting by humans―most likely triggered its demise.
