“We have four-headed worms, six-legged frogs, and many other unusual creatures here as part of our work on bioelectricity and organ regeneration.” Biologist Michael Levin said that. Charles Choi explains, in an article in LiveScience under the headline “Mutant tadpoles sprout eyeballs on their tails“. BONUS: “What the Frog’s Eye Tells the Frog’s Brain” BONUS: “Two legs, […]
Tag: biology
Octopus goes twice as fast, with a wheel
How fast does an octopus typically run in an exercise wheel? That has yet to be determined. But one value is reported in the study: “Cutaneous Respiration in Octopus Vulgaris,” J.J. Madan and M.J. Wells, Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 199, pp. 2477–2483 (1996). The authors, at the University of Cambridge, UK, explain, citing two […]
Hank says that’s why carbon is a tramp
Hank Green is pretty good at explaining things, with clear language, lots of metaphors, quick talk with varied pacing, hints of naughtiness, and bits of this and that. Here he talks about carbon, and how and why it matters to living things, then zips through other chemical gossip: (HT metafilter)
Effect of zebra stripes on horseflies
In a relative sense, zebra stripes repel horseflies. That’s the latest discovery reported by Gábor Horváth [pictured here], who discovered that white horses attract fewer flies, and that Vikings knew a thing or two about how to use light for ship navigation. For details, see the study: “Polarotactic tabanids find striped patterns with brightness and/or polarization modulation least […]