Strange science

We’ve known for some time that certain animals can navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field, but how they did it was a mystery.

Well, a little bit of that mystery may now be solved via a rather interesting experiment conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo.

You can find a detailed description of the experiment here but basically what it showed was that waving a magnet over a bunch of cells every 4 seconds caused the fluorescence [light emitting] of those cells to dim, proof positive that it was the magnet – ie magnetism – causing the effect. The scientists think this dimming was caused by the ‘radical pair mechanism’ at work in the cells:

“Essentially, if certain molecules are excited by light, electrons can jump between them to their neighbors. That can create pairs of molecules with a single electron each, known as a radical pair. If the electrons in those molecules have matching spin states, they will undergo chemical reactions slowly, and if they’re opposites the reactions occur faster.” [Emphasis is mine]

https://newatlas.com/biology/live-cells-respond-magnetic-fields/

So why does this rather obscure discovery excite me so much? Because of that old quote from Hamlet:

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
– Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quickquotes/quickquotehamletdreamt.html

Change the word ‘philosophy’ to ‘science’, and Shakespeare could have been describing how new discoveries are always expanding the boundaries of what we know about the real world.

For a science fiction writer like myself, this is manna from heaven because in one hundred years time, some bright spark may discover that telepathy is not so much supernatural as supranatural! [Don’t hit me! I’m using supranatural as a description of something that doesn’t fit into the physics of the normal world…like quantum mechanics. As I’m no physicist, however, I’ll submit to those who know better.]

Okay, I’ll stop there before I get too carried away, but you can see why I find these kinds of discoveries so exciting.

Take care and stay well,
-hugs-
Meeks

Jang the Careful (Cat Propaganda) — Storiform.com

“Oh, I’m such a stinky little cat. Stinky, stinky, stinky!”

Jang the Careful (Cat Propaganda) — Storiform.com

Just had to reblog this graphic story because it made me laugh OUT LOUD! It also cheered me up immensely. I defy you to read this and keep a straight face. You’re welcome. 🙂

Rats, rats and more rats! Nice ones. :)

Disclaimer: I don’t like rats, but these ones could make me change my mind. I was blown away by how smart they are. The video is about their tricks. Seriously amazing:

But what got me onto rats in the first place? This photo:

At first I thought they were toys, staged to look like little musicians. Then I followed the link to its home and discovered that they were real!

Please visit this amazing site to see all the photos:

Discover The Photographs Of Artists Rats By Ellen van Deellen

Have a great weekend!

Meeks

Just for fun…a robot kangaroo!

No, not kidding. I’ve been doing some research on bats today and stumbled across a youtube site about robot bats. Then..I found another site that had all sorts of robot animals, including that kangaroo I mentioned. 😉

The video clip is broken up into segments, indicated by the small yellow square as shown below:

The first segment is about ants, the second [circled in red above] is about the kangaroo. If you don’t want to watch through the ants, just let the video buffer for a bit then fast forward to that first yellow segment.

And here’s the actual video. 🙂

Enjoy,

Meeks