I鈥檓 wearing big spots
Bush brown butterflies change their dress code to suit the season. Small spots help them avoid hungry birds in the dry season. But larger, brighter spots help them evade praying mantises in the wet season (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, ).
E-cigarettes on TV
鈥淵ou know that feeling you get when something鈥檚 great?鈥� So purred the sultry women in one of the first 鈥渟moking鈥� adverts shown on UK TV for half a century this week. The vaping ad 鈥� the first to show e-cigarette use 鈥� has been criticised for glamorising smoking. In two years, a European Union ruling will make such adverts illegal.
Robot takeover
One in three UK jobs will be lost to computers and robots within the next 20 years, according to a study by Deloitte and the University of Oxford. Jobs most at risk were in admin and offices where people earn less than 拢30,000. Individuals in these roles have five times the risk of being replaced than those earning 拢100,000.
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Drat, where am I?
Homing pigeons may be using gravity to help them navigate. Experiments with 26 trained birds in Ukraine showed pigeons got disoriented when flying over an old crater, where gravity was lower (Journal of Experimental Biology, ).
L鈥橝quila acquittal
Six geologists sentenced in 2012 to six years in prison for allegedly downplaying the risk of an earthquake that struck the Italian town of L鈥橝quila have been acquitted. The 2009 quake killed 309 people. Stefano Gresta, head of Italy鈥檚 National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, said the ruling restores credibility to Italy鈥檚 scientific community.