Tag: biology
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How do birds hear the calls of species of bird other than their own? Is it like background noise that they can talk (sing) over, filtering out everything but the calls of their own kind, like how you can talk over the murmur of a cocktail party until the second somebody says your name? Or is it more like something they consciously observe and work around, like waiting for your turn to speak in a group conversation flitting between several different topics?
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Early springtime view of bare trees over green-brown fields under a sky dappled with clouds.
Either way: is such communication strategy an instinctive or a learned behaviour? It seems likely that at least part of birdsong communication is gained after hatching because birds from noisy cities are louder than their country cousins (although you wouldn't know it, to listen out of the bedroom window of my rural home, this morning!).
Just a moment's curiosity for the morning.
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Coronavirus: what the hell do we do now?!
Andrew Steele's produced another COVID-19-related video, this time focussing on the endgame of the crisis, and you should go watch it.
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Kiwi flowers look exactly like you'd think they would. #woah -
Long-forgotten virus could help solve antibiotics crisis
Alexander Belcredi (TED)
Fantastic lightweight introduction to bacteriophages and how they can potentially be our next best weapon against infection as we approach the post-antibiotic age. Plus an interesting look at the history and the discovery of bacteriophages! -
The Scrotum Is Nuts
Why are testicles kept in a vulnerable dangling sac? It’s not why you think.
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Some of you may be thinking that there is a simple answer: temperature. This arrangement evolved to keep them cool. I thought so, too, and assumed that a quick glimpse at the scientific literature would reveal the biological reasons and I’d move … -
Rise Of The Mesopredator
Rise Of The Mesopredator (youtu.be)
MinuteEarth (ft. ScienceWithTom) -
The Bad Hair, Incorrect Feathering, and Missing Skin Flaps of Dinosaur Art
llustrating long-extinct creatures is difficult, but important work. With no living specimens to observe, it’s up to “paleoartists” who draw, paint, or otherwise illustrate the creatures of prehistory as we think they might’ve been. Their work is the reason that when we talk about velociraptors, stegosaurs, or even woolly mammoths, we have some idea … -
Would You Edit Your Child's Genome?
Idea Channel -
Into the Lair of the Bladder Monster
Following his recent illness, Dan undergoes a variety of investigative procedures, including having a fibreoptic bundle inserted into bladder... via his penis!
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The Bladder Monster
Complications associated with a series of urinary tract infections cause Dan a stay in the hospital and a long battle with the bladder monster. Eww.
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Content Freeze
After a significant blow to the head, Dan loses the ability to write to his long-term memory for several hours. Hilarity ensues.