The Ed's Up #76
Sorry for the missing newsletter last week, folks. I was on a reporting trip in Chicago and all atomic motion in my hands had ceased. Anyway, I'm back and regular service has resumed. On with the show:
How the Penguin Got its Waddle
My first piece for the New Yorker's Elements blog! "The first penguin approached. With an agility that belied its bumbling demeanor, it leaped straight over the smaller force plates. The second penguin seemed more circumspect, pausing at length to examine the unfamiliar terrain. Matyasova lured it on with sprat, but a third penguin blundered forward, joining it on the large force plate—a four-footed, two-penguin chimera. Matyasova then tried putting a penguin directly on the plate: it stood still and pecked at the duct tape holding the corridor together. Fortunately, this was just a dry run, though it was clear that Hutchinson’s patience was being tested as much as his equipment. “It almost always takes a while for the animals to get used to what you want them to do,” he said. “They’ll get progressively more coöperative.”
Water Automatically Leaps Off Lizard’s Self-Cleaning Skin
"The microscope revealed the answer. Through its lens, Watson saw that droplets would condense on the gecko’s skin, roll into each other, and jump off under their own power. That’s why the slide was wet. The box-patterned gecko’s skin can actively repel water even if it’s dead and immobile. And when it’s alive, it can use this phenomenon, which Watson calls “geckovescence”, to clean itself with no effort." (Image: Jolanta Watson)
Why Killer Whales Go Through Menopause But Elephants Don’t
"Seeing her, I felt an intense and solemn respect. She is the oldest member of the group, perhaps the oldest orca on the planet. Her true age is unknown, but a commonly quoted estimate puts her at 103, which would make her a year older than the Titanic, and far more durable. Imagine all that she has seen in that time: the generations of her children and grandchildren; the countless pursuits of fleeing salmon; the increasingly noisy presence of fishermen, scientists and gawking tourists. Decades of knowledge and wisdom live in her brain. Ad that knowledge might explain one of the most unusual features of killer whale biology—their menopause."Good reads
- One of the very best writers, Kathryn Schulz, reviews my favourite book of last year, Helen Macdonald's H IS FOR HAWK. This is just multi-layered bliss. And Macdonald’s nature column at the NYT Magazine gets off to a flying start: "We have all been reminded that a day can be cut in two by three seconds of a hunting peregrine".
- Is Most of Our DNA Garbage? Carl Zimmer covers a fascinating but controversial topic, cuts himself, and merges with an onion.
- RIP Lisa Adams, an incredible woman who showed the world what cancer is really like, and how to live with it in grace, dignity, and courage. “Find a bit of beauty in the world today. Share it. If you can’t find it, create it. Some days this may be hard to do. Persevere.”
- "To actually understand who the Pigeon King was... it may help to put common sense aside." Quirky. Animals. Brilliant told. This is a quintessential Jon Mooallem piece.
- "To be a coral scientist is to buy front-row tickets to a tragedy." Veronique Greenwood on a possible blink of hope.
- Much to love in Alom Shaha’s latest piece on school science practicals, whether they matter, and why the “science community” might like to actually ask some teachers about them.
- Women go for prenatal genetic test, find out they have cancer. Big story, broken by Virginia Hughes
- How New Zealand ended up at the forefront of the legal psychoactive drug business, thanks to a rock musician-cum-drug lord with a social mission. By Maia Szalavitz.
- If you wrapped a cylinder around the Eiffel Tower, the air in the tube would outweigh the iron in the tower. Aatish Bhatia compares the tower to a bone.
- Rose Eveleth offers a reality check on the hype around 3D printed hands
- “One scientist compared the feeling to walking down a street in California and seeing a giraffe.” Carl Zimmer on a whale on the wrong side of the world.
- Apple's new ResearchKit: 'Ethics quagmire' or medical research aid? By Arielle Duhaime-Ross; a great look at what ethics in medical research actually involves.
- We can find buried oceans under the surface of one of Jupiter's moons, by studying its auroras. Wonderful piece by Nadia Drake.
- The origin of the anus—a story about the extraordinary evolution of our most embarrassing organ, after our brains and mouths. By Matt Walker.
More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science.
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And that's it! Thanks for reading.
-Ed
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