The Ed's Up #83

Chinese Dinosaur Had Bat-Like Wings and Feathers

"In full, it is Yi qi, which comes from the Mandarin for “strange wing” and can be roughly butchered as “ee chee”. The name hints at this pigeon-sized animal’s most remarkable feature. Each of its hands had a long bony rod extending from the wrist. This rod seemed to support a membrane, much like that of a flying squirrel or bat. Yi was a dinosaur with bat-like wings! What an astonishing find!" (Image:Dinostar Co. Ltd) 
 

How This Beetle Creates 500 Explosions Per Second In Its Bum

"There are few defences more extreme than that of the bombardier beetles. These insects deliberately engineer explosive chemical reactions inside their own bodies, so they can spray burning, caustic liquid from their backsides. The liquid can reach up to 22 miles per hour, at temperatures of around 100 degrees Celsius. It’s painful to humans and potentially lethal to smaller predators like ants. The beetle mixes its chemical weapons within glands in its abdomen, each of which consist of two chambers..." (Image: Charles Hedgcock, Wendy Moore.)
 

More good reads

• I highly recommend Ben Garrod’s new show, Secrets of Bones. A great wildlife documentary by a great presenter. Informative, intelligent, and a lot of fun.
• Breaking the communication barrier between dolphins and humans. Joshua Foer on dolphin intelligence, for National Geographic
• “In Australia, public opposition is growing toward programs that seek to kill sharks, even after fatal bites on humans.” Ceridwen Dovey on sharing the world with sharks.
• Great story: On the unexpected brewing war between astronomers and robot lawnmowers.
• How camera film was optimised for white skin colour. A great piece on insidious influences on our technology.
• If Dr Doolittle was a surgeon, he’d be Peter Emily. Alex Halperin profiles “The Lion Dentist”. 
• Sophie Scott’s TED talk on the science of laughter is up, and hilarious. Meanwhile, Sarah Larson talks about how we write laughter.
• The remarkable story of how Syrians saved an ancient seedbank from civil war. By Lizzie Wade
• The mystery of the Crazy Tentacled Caterpillar! By Nadia Drake
• Magnificent Aerial Footage of Antarctica by Kalle Ljung
• "The skin did not come off like a sweater, as I’d been told it would." Thoughtful piece by Amanda Giracca on the fading art of butchery.

 

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