Gentle Giant’ Cat Has Gotten So Big He Now Measures Over 4-Feet and Gets Mistaken for Dog

By Good News Network

Feb 12, 2023 – A giant cat has gotten so big it is now 4.27 feet long, the average height of a nine year old (1.3 meters).

The enormous Maine Coon has often been mistaken for a dog, leaving many people stunned.

Owner Natalie Bowman adopted Finn in 2017, when he was just three and half months old.

The cat’s stupendous size makes him an expensive pet to maintain.

Finn gets fed three or four times a day and Natalie spends $150 a month on his food.

The 32-year-old often walks Finn through their neighborhood on a leash, and he has now become a local celebrity.

“It’s really funny, they think he’s a dog, and then when they get closer they say oh my god it’s a cat and they love him.”

When Natalie has visitors to her home in San Carlos, California, they are often spooked by the enormous feline whenever he appears.

“I’ve had service people come around to fix things, it’s always fun to see grown men get shocked by my cat,” says Natalie. “They say he looks like a bobcat or a wildcat.”

Despite his size, Finn is a gentle giant, which is typical for Maine Coons, and he gets along splendidly with Natalie’s other cat.

“Finn is really docile and curious, he is so funny and affectionate. He loves cuddles and to be spooned.

He is also quite needy, and Natalie sometimes brings him to the office when he’s exhibiting separation anxiety. It’s not the best option because, although the tabby Coon is sociable and loves to talk, he’s “very loud”.

The Maine Coon is a large domesticated cat breed—one of the oldest natural breeds in North America, and one that originated in the U.S. state of Maine.

Predominantly known for its size and dense coat of fur which helps the large feline to survive in the harsh climate of Maine, the Coon is often cited as having “dog-like” characteristics.

Get a better sense of his size in the video from SWNS…

AND, Don’t Forget to Share With Cat Lovers on Social Media… [link is at:  ‘Gentle Giant’ Cat Has Gotten So Big He Now Measures Over 4-Feet and Gets Mistaken for Dog (goodnewsnetwork.org) 

Leonardo da Vinci's Forgotten Experiments Explored Gravity as a Form of Acceleration

A new look at da Vinci's papers reveals his insightful attempts to probe the nature of gravity 500 years ago.

From:  California Institute of Technology

February 13, 2023 -- Engineers from Caltech have discovered that Leonardo da Vinci's understanding of gravity -- though not wholly accurate -- was centuries ahead of his time.

In an article published in the journal Leonardo, the researchers draw upon a fresh look at one of da Vinci's notebooks to show that the famed polymath had devised experiments to demonstrate that gravity is a form of acceleration -- and that he further modeled the gravitational constant to around 97 percent accuracy.

Da Vinci, who lived from 1452 to 1519, was well ahead of the curve in exploring these concepts. It wasn't until 1604 that Galileo Galilei would theorize that the distance covered by a falling object was proportional to the square of time elapsed and not until the late 17th century that Sir Isaac Newton would expand on that to develop a law of universal gravitation, describing how objects are attracted to one another. Da Vinci's primary hurdle was being limited by the tools at his disposal. For example, he lacked a means of precisely measuring time as objects fell.

Da Vinci's experiments were first spotted by Mory Gharib, the Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Medical Engineering, in the Codex Arundel, a collection of papers written by da Vinci that cover science, art, and personal topics. In early 2017, Gharib was exploring da Vinci's techniques of flow visualization to discuss with students he was teaching in a graduate course when he noticed a series of sketches showing triangles generated by sand-like particles pouring out from a jar in the newly released Codex Arundel, which can be viewed online courtesy of the British Library.

"What caught my eye was when he wrote 'Equatione di Moti' on the hypotenuse of one of his sketched triangles -- the one that was an isosceles right triangle," says Gharib, lead author of the Leonardo paper. "I became interested to see what Leonardo meant by that phrase."

To analyze the notes, Gharib worked with colleagues Chris Roh, at the time a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech and now an assistant professor at Cornell University, as well as Flavio Noca of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland in Geneva. Noca provided translations of da Vinci's Italian notes (written in his famous left-handed mirror writing that reads from right to left) as the trio pored over the manuscript's diagrams.

In the papers, da Vinci describes an experiment in which a water pitcher would be moved along a straight path parallel to the ground, dumping out either water or a granular material (most likely sand) along the way. His notes make it clear that he was aware that the water or sand would not fall at a constant velocity but rather would accelerate -- also that the material stops accelerating horizontally, as it is no longer influenced by the pitcher, and that its acceleration is purely downward due to gravity.

If the pitcher moves at a constant speed, the line created by falling material is vertical, so no triangle forms. If the pitcher accelerates at a constant rate, the line created by the collection of falling material makes a straight but slanted line, which then forms a triangle. And, as da Vinci pointed out in a key diagram, if the pitcher's motion is accelerated at the same rate that gravity accelerates the falling material, it creates an equilateral triangle -- which is what Gharib originally noticed that da Vinci had highlighted with the note "Equatione di Moti," or "equalization (equivalence) of motions."

Da Vinci sought to mathematically describe that acceleration. It is here, according to the study's authors, that he didn't quite hit the mark. To explore da Vinci's process, the team used computer modeling to run his water vase experiment. Doing so yielded da Vinci's error.

"What we saw is that Leonardo wrestled with this, but he modeled it as the falling object's distance was proportional to 2 to the t power [with t representing time] instead proportional to t squared," Roh says. "It's wrong, but we later found out that he used this sort of wrong equation in the correct way." In his notes, da Vinci illustrated an object falling for up to four intervals of time -- a period through which graphs of both types of equations line up closely.

"We don't know if da Vinci did further experiments or probed this question more deeply," Gharib says. "But the fact that he was grappling with this problem in this way -- in the early 1500s -- demonstrates just how far ahead his thinking was."

The paper is titled "Leonardo da Vinci's Visualization of Gravity as a Form of Acceleration."

Leonardo da Vinci's forgotten experiments explored gravity as a form of acceleration -- ScienceDaily

  

Four Classes of Planetary Systems

Astronomers have long been aware that planetary systems are not necessarily structured like our solar system. Researchers have now shown that there are in fact four types of planetary systems.

 From:  University of Bern

February 14, 2023 -- In our solar system, everything seems to be in order: The smaller rocky planets, such as Venus, Earth or Mars, orbit relatively close to our star. The large gas and ice giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn or Neptune, on the other hand, move in wide orbits around the sun. In two studies published in the scientific journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, researchers from the Universities of Bern and Geneva and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS show that our planetary system is quite unique in this respect.

Like peas in a pod

"More than a decade ago, astronomers noticed, based on observations with the then groundbreaking Kepler telescope, that planets in other systems usually resemble their respective neighbours in size and mass – like peas in a pod," says study lead author Lokesh Mishra, researcher at the University of Bern and Geneva, as well as the NCCR PlanetS. But for a long time it was unclear whether this finding was due to limitations of observational methods. "It was not possible to determine whether the planets in any individual system were similar enough to fall into the class of the ‘peas in a pod’ systems, or whether they were rather different – just like in our solar system," says Mishra.

Therefore, the researcher developed a framework to determine the differences and similarities between planets of the same systems. And in doing so, he discovered that there are not two, but four such system architectures.

Four classes of planetary systems

"We call these four classes 'similar', 'ordered', 'anti-ordered' and 'mixed'," says Mishra. Planetary systems in which the masses of neighbouring planets are similar to each other, have similar architecture. Ordered planetary systems are those, in which the mass of the planets tends to increase with distance from the star – just as in our solar system. If, on the other hand, the mass of the planets roughly decreases with distance from the star, researchers speak of an anti-ordered architecture of the system. And mixed architectures occur, when the planetary masses in a system vary greatly from planet to planet.

"This framework can also be applied to any other measurements, such as radius, density or water fractions," says study co-author Yann Alibert, Professor of Planetary Science at the University of Bern and the NCCR PlanetS. "Now, for the first time, we have a tool to study planetary systems as a whole and compare them with other systems."

The findings also raise questions: Which architecture is the most common? Which factors control the emergence of an architecture type? Which factors do not play a role? Some of these, the researchers can answer.

A bridge spanning billions of years

"Our results show that 'similar' planetary systems are the most common type of architecture. About eight out of ten planetary systems around stars visible in the night sky have a 'similar' architecture," says Mishra. "This also explains why evidence of this architecture was found in the first few months of the Kepler mission." What surprised the team was that the "ordered" architecture – the one that also includes the solar system – seems to be the rarest class.

According to Mishra, there are indications that both the mass of the gas and dust disk from which the planets emerge, as well as the abundance of heavy elements in the respective star play a role. "From rather small, low-mass disks and stars with few heavy elements, 'similar' planetary systems emerge. Large, massive disks with many heavy elements in the star give rise to more ordered and anti-ordered systems. Mixed systems emerge from medium-sized disks. Dynamic interactions between planets – such as collisions or ejections – influence the final architecture," Mishra explains.

"A remarkable aspect of these results is that it links the initial conditions of planetary and stellar formation to a measurable property: the system architecture. Billions of years of evolution lie in between them. For the first time, we have succeeded in bridging this huge temporal gap and making testable predictions. It will be exciting to see if they will hold up," Alibert concludes.

          https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230214154018.htm 

Cockatoos Use Multi-Tool Fishing for Cashews

Goffin’s cockatoos have been added to the short list of non-human animals that use and transport toolsets. In a study publishing in the journal Current Biology on February 10, researchers show that the cockatoos carry multiple tools to their worksite when the job calls for it. This behavior has only been previously reported in chimpanzees, our closest relatives.

From:  Cell Press

February 11, 2023 -- Goffin’s cockatoos are small white parrots that hail from the Tanimbar Islands archipelago in Indonesia. Captive Goffin’s cockatoos use and manufacture tools, and a recent study of wild-caught cockatoos reported that they can use up to three different tools to extract seeds from a particular fruit. Up until now, though, it wasn’t clear whether the cockatoos considered these tools as a “set”; it’s possible that what may look like a toolset is instead nothing more than a chain of single tool uses, with the need for each new tool appearing to the animal as the task evolves.

Now, a team of researchers have used controlled experiments to clarify that the cockatoos do indeed recognize when a job requires more than one tool. “With this experiment we can say that, like chimpanzees, Goffin’s cockatoos not only appear to be to using toolsets, but they know that they are using toolsets,” says first author Antonio Osuna-Mascaró, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. “Their flexibility of behavior is stunning.”

Osuna-Mascaró was inspired by the termite-fishing Goualougo Triangle chimpanzees of northern Congo, the only other known non-human animal to use toolsets. These chimpanzees fish for termites via a two-step process: first, they use a blunt stick to break holes in the termite mound, and then they insert a long, flexible probe to “fish” the termites out of the holes. In this study, Osuna-Mascaró’s team tasked the cockatoos with fishing for cashews instead of termites.

To mimic the termite-fishing set-up, the researchers presented the cockatoos with a box containing a cashew behind a transparent paper membrane. To reach the cashew, the cockatoos had to punch through the membrane and then “fish” the cashew out. They were provided with a short, pointy stick for punching holes and a vertically halved plastic straw for fishing.

Seven of the ten cockatoos tested taught themselves to extract cashews successfully by punching through the membrane, and two of the cockatoos (Figaro and Fini) completed the task within 35 seconds on their first attempt. The cockatoos don’t have an equivalent foraging behavior in the wild, so there was no chance that their tool use was based on innate behaviors, and each cockatoo used a slightly different technique.

Next, the team tested the cockatoos’ ability to change their tool use in a flexible manner depending on the situation. To do this, they presented each cockatoo with two different types of box: one with a membrane and one without. The cockatoos were given the same two tools, but they only needed the pointy stick when a membrane was in the way. “The cockatoos had to act according to the problem; sometimes the toolset was needed, and sometimes only one tool was enough,” says Osuna-Mascaró.

All of the cockatoos mastered the test in a very short period of time and were able to recognize when a single tool was sufficient. However, the birds engaged in an interesting behavior during this choosing phase. “When making the choice between which tool to use first, they were picking one up, releasing it, then picking up the other one, releasing it, returning to the first one, and so on,” says Osuna-Mascaró. The researchers found that when cockatoos did this switching, they performed better on the tests.

Next, the team tested the cockatoos’ ability to transport the tools as a set on an as-needed basis. They put the cockatoos through a series of increasingly challenging trials to reach the boxes: first they had to climb a short ladder while carrying their tools; then they had to fly horizontally with them; and in the final test, they had to carry the tools while flying vertically. As before, the birds were only sometimes presented with a box with a membrane barrier, so they had to decide whether the problem required one or both tools.

Some cockatoos learned to carry the two tools together—by inserting the short punching stick into the groove of the halved straw—when they were presented with a box that required both. This meant they only had to make one trip, albeit while carrying a heavier toolset. Most of the cockatoos transported the toolset on an as-needed basis, further indicating that they knew ahead of time when two tools were required, though some made two trips when necessary. One cockatoo, Figaro, decided not to waste time thinking and instead carried both tools in almost every trial.

“We really did not know whether the cockatoos would transport two objects together,” says Alice Auersperg, senior author on the study and a cognitive biologist at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. “It was a little bit of a gamble because I have seen birds combining objects playfully, but they very rarely transport more than one object together in their normal behavior.”

There’s a lot more to be learned about cockatoo tool use, the researchers say. “We feel that, in terms of technical cognition and tool use, parrots have been underestimated and understudied,” says Auersperg.

“We’ve learned how dexterous the cockatoos are when using a toolset, and we have a lot of things to follow-up on,” says Osuna-Mascaro.  “The switching behavior is very interesting to us, and we are definitely going to use it to explore their decision making and their metacognition—their ability to recognize their own knowledge.”

          Cockatoos Use Multi-Tool Fishing for Cashews | Mirage News 

Beyond Lithium: A Promising Cathode Material for Magnesium Rechargeable Batteries

Scientists discover the optimal composition for a magnesium secondary battery cathode to achieve better cyclability and high battery capacity

Tokyo University of Science

February 9, 2023 -- Magnesium is a promising candidate as an energy carrier for next-generation batteries. However, the cycling performance and capacity of magnesium batteries need to improve if they are to replace lithium-ion batteries. To this end, a research team focused on a novel cathode material with a spinel structure, Mg_1.33V_1.67−xMn_xO₄. Following extensive characterization and electrochemical performance experiments, they have found a specific composition that could open doors to high-performance magnesium rechargeable batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries have remained unrivaled in terms of overall performance for several applications, as evidenced by their widespread use in everything from portable electronics to cellular base stations. However, they suffer from few important disadvantages that are difficult to ignore. For one, lithium is rather expensive, and the fact that it is being mined at an extreme pace does not help. Moreover, the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is not enough to grant autonomy to electric vehicles and heavy machinery. These concerns, coupled with the fact that the batteries are highly unsafe when punctured or at high temperatures, have caused scientists to look for alternative technologies.

Among the various elements being tested as efficient energy carriers for rechargeable batteries, magnesium (Mg) is a promising candidate. Apart from its safety and abundance, Mg has the potential to realize higher battery capacities. However, some problems need to be solved first. These include the low voltage window that Mg ions provide, as well as the unreliable cycling performance observed in Mg battery materials.

To tackle these issues, a research team led by Vice President and Professor Yasushi Idemoto from Tokyo University of Science, Japan has been on the lookout for new cathode materials for Mg batteries. In particular, they have been searching for ways to improve the performance of cathode materials based on the MgV (V: vanadium) system. Fortunately, as reported in a recent study made available online on 8 December 2022 and published in Volume 928 of the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry on 1 January 2023, they have now found the right track to success.

The researchers focused on the Mg1.33V1.67O4 system but substituted some amount of vanadium with manganese (Mn), obtaining materials with the formula Mg1.33V1.67−xMnxO4, where x goes from 0.1 to 0.4. While this system offered high theoretical capacity, more details about its structure, cyclability, and cathode performance needed to be analyzed to understand its practical utility. Accordingly, the researchers characterized the synthesized cathode materials using a wide variety of standard techniques.

First, they studied the composition, crystal structure, electron distribution, and particle morphologies of Mg1.33V1.67−xMnxO4 compounds using X-ray diffraction and absorption, as well as transmission electron microscopy. The analyses showed that Mg1.33V1.67−xMnxO4 has a spinel structure with a remarkably uniform composition. Next, the researchers conducted a series of electrochemical measurements to evaluate the battery performance of Mg1.33V1.67−xMnxO4, using different electrolytes and testing the resulting charge/discharge properties at various temperatures.

The team observed a high discharge capacity for these cathode materials－especially Mg1.33V1.57Mn0.1O4－but it also varied significantly depending on the cycle number. To understand why, they analyzed the local structure near the vanadium atoms in the material. "It appears that the particularly stable crystal structure along with a large amount of charge compensation by vanadium leads to the superior charge-discharge properties we observed for Mg1.33V1.57Mn0.1O4," remarks Prof. Idemoto. "Taken together, our results indicate that Mg1.33V1.57Mn0.1O4 could be a good candidate cathode material for magnesium rechargeable batteries."

Satisfied with the present findings and hopeful about what is to come, Prof. Idemoto concludes: "Through future research and development, magnesium batteries could surpass lithium-ion batteries thanks to the former's higher energy density."

Indeed, substituted MgV systems could eventually lead to the much awaited next-generation batteries. Let us hope the highly anticipated alternative to lithium for our rechargeable battery needs will be realized soon!

          https://www.tus.ac.jp/en/mediarelations/archive/20230206_7710.html

 

Codebreakers Crack Secrets of Mary Queen of Scots' Lost Letters

From: Taylor & Francis Group

February 7, 2023 – Secret, coded letters penned by Mary Queen of Scots while she was imprisoned in England by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I have been uncovered by a multidisciplinary team of international codebreakers. Launched on the anniversary of Mary's execution, study reveals 50 new letters in cipher -- with some still believed missing -- shedding new light on her captivity.

The contents of the letters were believed for centuries to have been lost. That was until George Lasry, a computer scientist and cryptographer, Norbert Biermann, a pianist and music professor, and Satoshi Tomokiyo who is a physicist and patents expert, stumbled upon them while searching the national library of France's -- Bibliothèque nationale de France's (BnF) -- online archives for enciphered documents.

The trio only discovered Mary was the author after solving her sophisticated cipher system. Their decipherment work of 57 letters, which is presented in the peer-reviewed journal Cryptologia, reveals approximately 50 new scripts previously unknown to historians.

These date from 1578 to 1584, a few years before her beheading on this very day 436 years ago -- 8th February, 1587.

Mary's correspondences expose fascinating insights into her captivity. Most are addressed to Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissière, the French ambassador to England. He was a supporter of Catholic Mary who was under the Earl of Shrewsbury's custody when she wrote them.

"Upon deciphering the letters, I was very, very puzzled and it kind of felt surreal," says lead author Lasry, who is also part of the multi-disciplinary DECRYPT Project -- involving several universities in Europe, with the goal of mapping, digitizing, transcribing, and deciphering historical ciphers.

"We have broken secret codes from kings and queens previously, and they're very interesting but with Mary Queen of Scots it was remarkable as we had so many unpublished letters deciphered and because she is so famous.

"This is a truly exciting discovery."

He added: "Together, the letters constitute a voluminous body of new primary material on Mary Stuart -- about 50,000 words in total, shedding new light on some of her years of captivity in England.

"Mary, Queen of Scots, has left an extensive corpus of letters held in various archives. There was prior evidence, however, that other letters from Mary Stuart were missing from those collections, such as those referenced in other sources but not found elsewhere.

"The letters we have deciphered … are most likely part of this lost secret correspondence."

One of the 16th century's most famous historical figures, Mary was first in line of succession to the English throne after her cousin Elizabeth.

Catholics considered Mary to be the legitimate sovereign and Elizabeth had her imprisoned for 19 years because she was seen as a threat. Mary was eventually executed aged 44 for her alleged part in a plot to kill Elizabeth.

During her time in captivity, Mary communicated with her associates and allies through extensive efforts to recruit messengers and to maintain secrecy.

The existence of a confidential communication channel between Mary and Castelnau is well-known to historians, and even to the English government at the time.

But Lasry and his fellow codebreakers provide new evidence that this exchange was already in place as early as May 1578 and active until at least mid-1584.

Using computerized and manual techniques, the study authors decoded the letters which show the challenges Mary faced maintaining links with the outside world, how the letters were carried and by whom.

Key themes referred to in Mary's correspondence include complaints about her poor health and captivity conditions, and her negotiations with Queen Elizabeth I for her release, which she believes are not conducted in good faith.

Her mistrust of Elizabeth's spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham is also apparent, as well as her animosity for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and a favourite of Elizabeth. She also expresses her distress when her son James (future King James I of England) is abducted in August 1582, and her feeling they have been abandoned by France.

Writing in this Special Issue version of Cryptologia, Lasry and hisco-authors describe how they first came across the letters. Some were in a large set of unmarked documents in cipher and using the same set of graphical symbols.

The BnF catalogue listed them as from the first half of the 16th century, and related to Italian matters. However, the study authors say they 'quickly realised' -- after starting to crack the code -- they were written in French and 'had nothing to do with Italy'.

Their detective work revealed verbs and adverbs often in the feminine form, several mentions of captivity, and the name 'Walsingham' which arose the suspicion that they might be from Mary, Queen of Scots.

This fact was confirmed by comparing them with the plaintext of letters in Walsingham's papers in the British Library and through other methods. A search for similar letters in BnF collections uncovered 57 letters with the same cipher.

Commenting on the new paper, Mary Queen of Scots expert, John Guy, who wrote the 2004 biography of Mary Queen of Scots which led to a major Hollywood film, says this is the most significant find about Mary for a century.

"This discovery is a literary and historical sensation. Fabulous! This is the most important new find on Mary Queen of Scots for 100 years. I'd always wondered if de Castelnau's originals could turn up one day, buried in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France or perhaps somewhere else, unidentified because of the ciphering.

"And now they have."

Lasry and his co-authors suggest, too, that other enciphered letters from Mary which are known to have existed may still be missing. A physical inspection of documents, as well as online searches, are needed to uncover these, they add.

It is hoped, now too, that the study will lead to future research.

"In our paper, we only provide an initial interpretation and summaries of the letters. A deeper analysis by historians could result in a better understanding of Mary's years in captivity," adds Lasry. "It would also be great, potentially, to work with historians to produce an edited book of her letters deciphered, annotated, and translated."

Codebreakers crack secrets of Mary Queen of Scots' lost letters -- ScienceDaily

 

Caribou Have Been Using Same Arctic Calving Grounds for 3,000 Years

Epic migration leads caribou to same areas to give birth every spring

From:  University of Cincinnati

February 8, 2023 -- Caribou have been using the same Arctic calving grounds for more than 3,000 years. Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada's Yukon that persists on the cold tundra for hundreds or even thousands of years. Researchers recovered antlers that have sat undisturbed on the arctic tundra since the Bronze Age.

Female caribou shed their antlers within days of giving birth, leaving behind a record of their annual travels across Alaska and Canada's Yukon that persists on the cold tundra for hundreds or even thousands of years. Researchers recovered antlers that have sat undisturbed on the arctic tundra since the Bronze Age.

"To walk around the landscape and pick up something that's 3,000 years old is truly amazing," said Joshua Miller, an assistant professor of geosciences at the University of Cincinnati.

He has been leading summer expeditions to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge since 2010, using rafts to navigate remote rivers to search for caribou antlers exposed on the tundra.

"We think about having to dig down into the soil to find that kind of ecological history, but on the Coastal Plain, the vegetation grows extremely slowly," Miller said. "Bones dropped by animals that lived dozens or even hundreds of generations in the past can provide really meaningful information."

The study demonstrates how important the area is for an animal that native Alaskans and Candians still depend on for sustenance, even as energy companies seek to exploit oil and gas resources in this protected area.

The Biden Administration in 2021 suspended drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the largest tract of undeveloped wilderness in the United States.

"We know this region of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been an important area for caribou for millennia," Miller said. "That should give us pause on how we think about those landscapes."

The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

Barren ground caribou undertake nature's longest overland migration, traveling as far as 800 miles each year to reach their spring calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Canada's Ivvavik National Park. The largest herd in this area, named for the Porcupine River, numbers in the hundreds of thousands of animals.

Scientists think caribou use these areas because they have fewer predators and offer seasonal vegetation near places where they can avoid the worst of the mosquitoes.

"The mosquitoes are horrible," Miller said. "You get swarmed -- literally covered in them. They can do significant damage to a young calf."

Whatever the reason, the antlers they leave behind provide a physical record of their epic yearly travels that researchers can unlock through isotopic analysis.

Caribou antlers, like those of elk, deer and moose, are made of fast-growing bone that the animals shed each year and regrow the following year.

"It is amazing to think that the oldest of the antlers found in our study were growing approximately the same time Homer was penning 'the Iliad' and 'the Odyssey,'" study co-author Patrick Druckenmiller said.

He is director of the University of Alaska Museum and professor of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Eric Wald from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also co-authored the study.

The antler surveys in the vast expanse of the Arctic refuge require meticulous logistical planning, Miller said. Small planes deposit researchers and their gear deep in the interior, where they have to be watchful for grizzly and polar bears. They pilot rafts to the Beaufort Sea, conducting a grid search of suitable caribou habitat identified in advance using aerial photography.

"We search for antlers along old river terraces, walking back and forth, covering every inch of habitat to find those ancient treasures," Miller said.

While male caribou antlers span four feet and weigh more than 20 pounds, female caribou antlers are much smaller. The antlers contain nutrients such as phosphorus and calcium that are important to plants and animals.

The dropped antlers create "nutrient sinks," which could have a profound effect on the area's vegetation. Miller said the caribou's migration serves as a nutrient "conveyor belt" that might even draw caribou back to reap the benefits of this fertilizer in a reinforcement loop.

Caribou and other mammals are known to chew on dropped antlers for their valuable minerals. This could be an important dietary supplement for new caribou moms.

"We'd like to know to what degree this conveyor belt influences why caribou are going there in the first place," Miller said. The study was supported by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the Wildlife Society and the UC Office of Research.

Miller said the Arctic is warming faster than other parts of the globe. Parts of the Arctic that were once barren tundra are sprouting new spruce forests.

"We were in Arctic Village this summer, just south of the calving grounds, talking to elders about the changes they have seen," Miller said. "Where once it was open tundra, large stretches of this barren ground are now full of trees everywhere. What will happen to the barren ground caribou as this habitat gets converted into forest?"

Caribou have been using same Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years: Epic migration leads caribou to same areas to give birth every spring -- ScienceDaily