teaching science

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By Ernesto Llamas from Journal of Sketching Science

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Soft, squishy caterpillars might seem like easy prey to a hungry predator, but one species doesn’t give up without a fight. Fully developed caterpillars of the hornworm moth (Langia zenzeroides) use a mix of squeaks, strikes, and vomit to defend themselves from predators, researchers report this month in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 

The evolution of a weak active region on the Sun. Region 2700 is a simple beta (bipolar) magnetic group. 

This is for all y’all who don’t understand how terrifying these suckers are. 

Incidentally, that scene led to the English idiom “tilting at windmills,” meaning a person who has not only disproportionate reactions of anger, but disproportionate reactions of anger to nonexistent challenges.

tilting at windmills.

natgeo  Photo by @cristinamittermeier // Can you guess what is wrong with this penguin? We spent a month in Antarctica on assignment for @natgeo and it was not until the second week that I realized we had not seen snow once. Every day, however, we experienced several hours of incessant rain. As temperatures warm in Antarctica, the weather regime is changing from snow to rain. In the past, the penguin colony would be covered in snow but now, it is a large, muddy mess. Baby penguins are covered in fluffy down and they can easily preen themselves when it snows. When they get muddy and wet, their down loses its insulation ability and as temperatures drop at night, they become hypothermic and die. As the debate on weather or not to protect the Antarctic Peninsula starts to play out, I hope that the members of the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), who will be voting on this issue are inspired to protect it for all humanity. #Followme at @cristinamittermeier and follow the conversation at @Sea_legacy

FACT: Vaccinations save lives. We debunk anti-vaxxers’ biggest claims in our NEW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/b03U6BYF9L0

Bacterium on a diatom on an amphipod.

Copper isn’t magnetic but creates resistance in the presence of a strong magnetic field

When it comes to echoing human speech, parrots are the superstars of the animal world—but a killer whale named Wikie may not be far behind. The 14-year-old orca showed off her vocal skills by imitating her trainer’s words, saying things like “Amy” and “bye-bye.” Researchers got her to do this by first training her to obey a hand signal that meant “copy this,” which, for instance, was used to instruct her to copy another orca squirting water into the air. Then, they presented her with sounds she had never heard before—five sounds from other orcas and six phrases spoken by trainers—and asked her to repeat them. In all trials, Wikie responded to the command by uttering something that roughly matched the sound that she was asked to copy, the team reports today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Sometimes it took as many as 17 tries to get it right, but she got four of them on her first try, including the human phrases “hello” and “one, two, three.” Orcas form tight-knit groups in the wild, each with their own dialect, so scientists think that their ability to learn new sounds may be key to how they communicate and interact with one other.

This is how I imagine my ancestors feel when they look down on me.

A chimera (also spelled chimaera) (from the creature Chimera in Greek mythology) is a single organism composed of cells from different zygotes. This can result in male and female organs, two blood types, or subtle variations in form. Animal chimeras are produced by the merger of multiple fertilized eggs.  If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells (two fertilised eggs or early embryos fused together). Each population of cells keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Chimeras can often breed, but the fertility and type of offspring depends on which cell line gave rise to the ovaries or testes; varying degrees of intersex differences may result if one set of cells is genetically female and another genetically male. A gynandromorph is an organism that contains both male and female characteristics, authorities say. The term gynandromorph, from Greek “gyne” female and “andro” male, is mainly used in the field of entomology, though it has also been observed in arthropods and birds as well. Another way that chimærism can occur in animals is by organ transplantation, giving one individual tissues that developed from two genomes. For example, a bone marrow transplant can change someone’s blood type. Normally, chimærism is not visible on casual inspection; however, it has been detected in the course of proving parentage and may be more common than was believed before the advent of DNA testing.

Sea turtles are already threatened by humans- we eat them, hit them with boats, poison/choke them with plastic bags and other pollution… and now we can add “unintentionally screwing up sex rations via anthropogenic climate change” to the list of charges against us. 

You may have seen my penguin evolution infographic. That one was done for funsies, but it was modeled after a series that I made originally for my Patreonthat I’ll be uploading on here! If you’re interested in stuff like this though, consider supporting me there; there’s a lot of other cool exclusive stuff to see.