The Loudest Bird Ever, Suffering Coral Reefs and Pureed Potatoes!

(Inside Science) -- On this monthly roundup, Alistair Jennings from Inside Science sums up some of October’s most interesting science: the loudest birdcall ever measured, louder than an ambulance siren, will have your ears ringing; a toad camouflages itself as the head of the venomous Gaboon viper; global biodiversity is shifting between different regions -- in some places decreasing, in others increasing -- as humanity alters the earth; and research finds that reefs in areas protected from humans have more fish. And if you buy energy gel to give you peak performance during your workout, save yourself some money: Pureed potato has been found to work just as well at sustaining blood glucose and boosting performance.

References:

1. Extremely loud mating songs at close range in white bellbirds
2. A remarkable example of suspected Batesian mimicry of Gaboon Vipers by Congolese Giant Toads
3. A novel form of wasp mimicry in a new species of praying mantis from the Amazon rainforest
4. High-speed locomotion in the Saharan silver ant
5. The geography of biodiversity change in marine and terrestrial assemblages
6. Variable effects of local management on coral defenses against a thermally regulated bleaching pathogen
7. Measuring light scattering and absorption in corals with Inverse Spectroscopic Optical Coherence Tomography (ISOCT): a new tool for non-invasive monitoring
8. Three Share Medicine Nobel for How Cells Sense Oxygen
9. Potato ingestion is as effective as carbohydrate gels to support prolonged cycling performance
10. Muscle tissue engineering in fibrous gelatin: implications for meat analogs