At the time of its sinking, Rio de Janeiro was carrying a contingent of German soldiers meant for the invasion of Norway, which occurred on the following day, 9 April 1940. Of the 380 onboard, 50 were crew, the rest were soldiers. Of these numbers, almost 200 lost their lives, but 183 survived and were helped by the locals. Survivors told officials they were heading to Bergen, and even though they were wearing military uniforms, the Norwegian government failed to realize that a German invasion was imminent.

Animals are endowed with the capacity to repair injuries. Some animals simply heal the wound, whereas others are able to regenerate lost parts.

A new study now documents yet another and previously unidentified strategy of self-repair, where moon jellyfish respond to injuries by reorganizing existing parts, and rebuilding essential body symmetry, important for them to stay balanced as they travel around the ocean, without regenerating what is lost.

To track the sharks over a long period of time, researchers fitted 20 males and 4 females with satellite tags. These tags sent information about an individual’s position when it came to the water surface.

The basic role of Mx genes is to make proteins that fight viral infections such as HIV, measles and flu.

'We compared the whole-genome sequence of four toothed whales, a baleen whale and dozens of related mammals like cows and humans,' said Gill Bejerano, Ph.D., associate professor of developmental biology. 'When we looked carefully at the genome sequences, it was very clear that the Mx genes are completely messed up only in the toothed whales.'