A Cicada Sings With Its Belly, Not Its Throat
The summer sound everyone hears but no one quite understands: a cicada makes its call not with vocal cords, but with a ‘drum’ on its… Read More »A Cicada Sings With Its Belly, Not Its Throat
Nature
About the nature we face
Why a Whole City’s Cherry Blossoms Open in the Same Week — The Temperature Math Hidden in Bloom
Every spring a whole city’s cherry trees burst into bloom within days and fall together about a week later. This synchrony is no accident —… Read More »Why a Whole City’s Cherry Blossoms Open in the Same Week — The Temperature Math Hidden in Bloom
Cherry Blossoms and Their Look-Alikes — Telling Apart Five Spring Blossoms of the Genus Prunus
In spring, whole neighborhoods turn pink — but the Japanese apricot, apricot, peach, and plum are all different trees, not cherries. They look alike because… Read More »Cherry Blossoms and Their Look-Alikes — Telling Apart Five Spring Blossoms of the Genus Prunus
A Cloud Weighs as Much as 100 Elephants, Yet It Doesn’t Fall — The Physics Hidden in a Single Droplet
A single fair-weather cumulus cloud weighs about 500 tonnes — as much as 100 elephants. So why doesn’t it fall? We look at the terminal… Read More »A Cloud Weighs as Much as 100 Elephants, Yet It Doesn’t Fall — The Physics Hidden in a Single Droplet
The Naked Mole-Rat: Barely Knowing Cancer, Living 30 Years
A palm-sized pink rodent overturns our assumptions about mammals again and again – a eusocial colony ruled by a single queen, a body in which… Read More »The Naked Mole-Rat: Barely Knowing Cancer, Living 30 Years
A Fist That Boils Water and 12 Color Receptors — Two Beliefs the Mantis Shrimp Overturns
Its name says ‘shrimp’ but it is not a true shrimp; its fist flies through water like a bullet and boils it; and its famously… Read More »A Fist That Boils Water and 12 Color Receptors — Two Beliefs the Mantis Shrimp Overturns