Knowledge Capsule

The streaking flash of the meteor came during part of the morning rush-hour commute in the city of Chelyabinsk and other populated areas. Disbelieving motorists who caught the footage on their dashboard cameras quickly uploaded it on YouTube.

Capturing cosmic events on video,however,is not the primary purpose of dashboard cameras in Russia,where they have become almost standard equipment in order to prove innocence in traffic accidents. They have also spawned a mini industry in voyeuristic Internet entertainment for chronicling the dangers of driving in Russia.

Google Russian traffic violence to find a litany of motorist chutzpah,ranging from deadly hit-and-runs to crowbar assaults between angry drivers. Insurance is costly and judges prefer to see visual proof of a motorists damage claims.

A moles nose knows,with stereo sniffing

humans and many other mammals see and hear in stereo. But what about smell?

People have wondered whether smell has this component as well, said Kenneth C Catania,a biologist at Vanderbilt University. Now he and colleagues report in the journal Nature Communications that common moles,which are blind,have the ability and use it to swiftly locate prey.

Catania created a chamber with food wells spaced around a semi-circle and watched as moles detected the food. The chamber was sealed,so changes in air pressure would indicate that the animals were sniffing.

Moving their noses back and forth,the moles zeroed in on the food in less than five seconds.

Catania then blocked one of the moles nostrils with a plastic tube. When the left nostril was blocked,the moles veered off to the right,and when the right was blocked,they veered to left. To confirm that the moles use stereo sniffing,Catania put plastic tubes in both nostrils and then crossed them.

Previous research indicates that rats can smell in stereo,and there are suggestions that sharks and ants can too.