From Linda: Stickiness is a weapon some plants use to fend off hungry insects. (link)
How plants influence the honeybee caste system: workers and queens. (link)
It could be controversial, so I hesitated to post this link. "Plantwatch: weeds - appreciating the wild things on our streets. Lockdown may have given us more respect for the wild plants, and the work they do, in our urban areas." (link)
"Absolutely Barking"; Nearly everything you need to know about bark. (link)
If you've ever been hiking in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Nevadas you may have heard a high-pitched whistle. The sound was produced by a Pika, a fluffy ball of fur about the size of a hamster, but related to a rabbit. Pikas are adapting to climate change remarkably well, contrary to many predictions. (link)
Catherine Chastain submitted this one: Ice pancakes swirl on river. (link)
Both Linda and I recommend this: Milkweed Pollination: A Series of Fortunate Events. (link)
Jan Coyne recommended this one: Beetle parents manipulate information broadcast from bacteria in a rotting corpse. (link)
These Mites Rain Down To Save Your Strawberries | Deep Look (link)
These Face Mites Really Grow on You | Deep Look (link)
It’s not nature, except in the sense that it exploits the laws of physics. I think you’ll enjoy it. (link)
The Contradictory Plant Known as Beefsteak Plant, Shiso, and Perilla Mint, Perilla frutescens. (link)
Emily recommended the next two:
We’ve waited for years on this news from down under and the nerds of Georgia Tech shaped the solution. Warning! Pun alert! “Box seat: scientists solve the mystery of why wombats have cube-shaped poo. Unique physiology allows the Australian marsupial to produce square-shaped feces that may aid communication.” (link)
Moths to monkeys: 503 new species identified by UK scientists. (link)Coastal job: sand artist. Must see sand sculptures. (link)
A new study finds global ice loss is now in line with the worst-case
scenarios of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, with ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melting the fastest. (link)At least 14 new North Atlantic Right whale calves have been seen
off south-eastern US this season. (link)The Ocean's Mysterious Vitamin Deficiency.
A puzzling lack of thiamine is disrupting some marine ecosystems. (link)
