What I've read:
WORLD OF WONDERS: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Milkweed Books, 2020.
Here's the NYT review of this wonderful book. A quotation from the review:
Jan sent me this link to the "ology" podcast website.
There you will find interviews with all sorts of -ologists, probably including some you never heard of. Definitely worth exploring.
Evolution doesn't work the way you think it does. Or maybe it does?
These Hairworms Eat a Cricket Alive and Control Its Mind! (This is from Deep Look, KQED. You'll have to skip a couple of ads to get to the actual video.
Here's the NYT review of this wonderful book. A quotation from the review:
My first impression was a slightly jaded sigh. I thought this was going to be another earnest tome of nature writing. This genre is starting to resemble its subject matter: It is everywhere, often quite boring and repetitive, and not as good as it used to be. But within a few lines of the first essay in this book it is clear that Aimee Nezhukumatathil is giving us more than that, much more.
The author is a poet who teaches at the University of Mississippi.
Jan sent me this link to the "ology" podcast website.
There you will find interviews with all sorts of -ologists, probably including some you never heard of. Definitely worth exploring.
Evolution doesn't work the way you think it does. Or maybe it does?
These Hairworms Eat a Cricket Alive and Control Its Mind! (This is from Deep Look, KQED. You'll have to skip a couple of ads to get to the actual video.
Another tip of the hat to Jan, who ferreted out this article about smell-o-copters. They are miniature helicopters guided by antennae clipped from real moths.
Here's an optical illusion that will blow your mind.
I've been providing links to articles from Hakai magazine since I started this FINE Things series. Here is a list of the twelve best long-read stories from 2020.
See you next week!
