Matilda's Lab Newsletter #66
This week we get homey. We have high-flying microbes, mind-bending pregnancy, a new earthly planetary force, atomic black holes, the rings of Earth and a Houdini eel.
What we’ve been up to
After the very busy last few weeks, last week was kept rather sedate. Cat was away all weekend doing her first big event with Frog Dog so it was just me, and the kids, and the dogs.
The dogs unquestionably need walking every day, so it’s always fun single-handedly refereeing a nearly-4-year-old human and a 7-month-old puppy on a walk. Thankfully, the 7-year-old dog and 10-year-old human are more of an asset than a hindrance (unless we see a cat or a squirrel; and yes, that can apply to both of them). To make the whole situation even easier, I decide to let the humans ride bikes. The dogs are free to ride bikes, but if they could, I definitely wouldn’t be sat here writing this newsletter!
Nathaniel’s favourite destination is to go and see the horses that live a short walk from our house, so that’s what we did.
One thing that I used to do a lot with Matilda when she was younger was bug hunting in our garden. I’m now getting Nathaniel involved with our garden safaris, and he is fantastically good at spotting things. The main features of interest are the garden cross spiders (Araneus diadematus) which start web building like crazy at this time of year.
Matilda has had an eventful week too. She and I often do a parent and child HIT (High Intensity Training) session at our gym. It’s great fun as you get to wear a heart rate monitor and you try ton control how hard you are working. The gym call these parent child sessions “Rebels” classes and Matilda became their Rebel of the month last month, which means that she gets her name on a board, a goody bag and a hefty dose of personal pride.
We also attended an open day to one of her provisional high schools, as she’s due to move next year. Obviously, we headed to the science classrooms, where there were activities a-plenty. We built circuits with light bulbs and switches (I think Nathaniel enjoyed that more than Matilda), lifted hair with a Van De Graaff generator, set fire to alcohol soaked (fake) money and set fire to methane bubbles that were being held by a very brave teacher (Nathaniel absolutely loved this bit, even though he didn’t get to play). Apparently the highlight for her was sticking her fingers through the different section of a pig heart, as they had the majority of a pig’s internal organs available for interaction. I did point out to her that there will only be a limited number of occasions in life where she can say something like that and have it be socially acceptable.
Our first stop was to the art department. Matilda is turning into quite the artist, so this was of great interest to her. She showed me some of her new creations this week and I was taken aback by how good she is getting.
New Blog content
This week, I added to the map of life again, by adding the African Hunting Dog. I love these animals. We’re lucky enough to have some at Chester Zoo. Both kids have a plush version of one. When we were expecting Matilda, I bought her a monkey that she could have from day 1. She never really liked it. For Nathaniel, it was the dog. To this day, he won’t go to bed without it. It’s even needed its tail sewing back on. We love these dogs.
We also saw that naming species after your nation’s leader is not a new thing:
And the NEW Matilda’s lab single has dropped! Lunar Light was a personal favourite song of mine before Matilda’s Lab started. The song lacked any real narrative, with the lyrics painting an ambience in line with the gentle glow of moonlight. I’ve tried to maintain that mood in this reworking, whilst also acknowledging the origins of our unusual moon and the vital role it has played in the development of life on this planet and the influence that it continues to have.
From the Archive
We celebrated the rostrum again, with the long nosed sawfish (actually a shark).
Science News
Holy Flying Microbes, Batman! A team of Spanish and Japanese scientists has discovered hundreds of fungi and bacteria living over 1000 meters high in the air above Japan.
Pregnancy has a profound effect on the body. Now we know that it does on the mind too. Thanks to a neuroscientist who was planning on becoming a parent, a series of scans, before, during and after shows just how much pregnancy alters the structure of the brain.
A brand new planetary energy has been discovered in the Earth’s atmosphere (with all those microbes). This magnetic field is only about as strong as a watch battery, but it seems to interact with solar radiation and influences which elements stay on the planet and which are lost into space.
We know that Saturn’s rings are temporary, Uranus has some, we believe that Jupiter has had some in the past, and now it’s believe that Earth once used to have rings too. If this keeps up, it simply won’t be cool any more.
Another week passes by and another theory of dark mass appears. This time, it’s theorised that dark matter could be the result of a legion of primordial black holes. Tiny singularities, the size of an atom, with the mass of asteroids, that formed at the birth of the universe, whizzing around creating unexpected sources of gravity.
In nature, the struggle between predator and prey is usually considered over when one of the parties has been eaten. But not always. Young Japanese eels have been found to slither backwards, out of a predator’s stomach, and then swim to freedom, exiting via the gill slits. Steve McQueen would be proud!
Kicking back
Fun time!
Do androids dream of electric babies?
Can you please make my printer more dog
My glass is half… [insert point of view here]
Please feel free to get in contact with any questions, suggestions or comments either via Substack or at matildaslab@gmail.com.
Please share this with anyone who you think will appreciate it. And remember to share with me any cool sciencey stuff that you find, to make sure that I can pack this newsletter with the best new science content each week.
Until next time, remember that one person’s old news is another’s revelation; so explore. Sometimes it’s not about being the first up the hill. The view’s still going to be breathtaking, no matter how many people have seen it before you.