Matilda's Lab Newsletter #32
This week we have drama at the zoo, indoor solar panels, peanut toothpaste, dark elements, the fastest spinner in the galaxy, a hands-free 5 course meal and evolution in fast forward.
The rest of the year is about to get a bit crazy. This week we’re making the most of a bit of piece an normality before everything kicks off.
What we’ve been up to
Saturday was a bit of a Daddy day as Mummy was away at a crafting event. So what do I do when I’m alone with the kids? Zoo trip of course!
I was keen to be extra nice to Matilda as she had just had her first tooth extractionthe day before. A baby tooth was blocking anew one from coming through. The tooth fairy (ours is called Isabelle) visited that night, which led Nathaniel to come out with the wonderful phrase “I’m going to get big and get money!” I hope so, son. I really hope so.
This was our first visit to the zoo since Nathaniel turned 3. This meant that I had to get him added a full signed up member. Easy, job done. All set for a good time, what could possibly go wrong?…. let me tell you.
Regular readers may recall that the las time that we went to the zoo we went to a new exhibit which was all about sharks. A massive hit with Matilda. As soon as we were in Matilda was asking, “Can we go to the sharks? Can we go to the sharks?” Nathaniel’s response was, “No, I don’t like sharks!”. Mercifully, by the time we had seen the monkeys and bats, Nathaniel was now on board with the shark idea. Problem solved…
…no. It turns out that the shark exhibit was only a temporary exhibit and is no longer there. Whilst Nathaniel could be placated by pointing out the shark on the outside of the building, that was not going to cut it with Matilda. “I want to go home!” was the new cry. Strop alert! Strop alert!
“Never mind," I said “the penguins are just up there. Let’s go and see them.” “No,” spoke the strop, “I want to go home"!”.
You can’t go wrong with a penguin, and to the rescue they came. A man was using a long leaf to get the attention of one of the penguins. As he left he handed it to Matilda, much to her delight. Strop averted, phew. Problems over…
…you would think. We then went to lemur enclosure that you enter with the animals. On the way, there is a little lemur video game that you can play. Matilda was over there like a shot and had fun. Nathaniel didn’t want to be left out, so we let him have a go. Whilst the game is simple, it was a bit much for him to get his 3 year old head around in the short time that we had. The imposing strop had only been briefly repelled. It now sought a new target and hit home. A grumpy 3 year old now refused to even look at the red ruff lemurs that were pass less than a social distance from him. “I want to go home”, I had been expecting that. It was about time to head back now, although on the way back to the car Nathaniel asked “Where are we going?”. “Home” I said. “Ohhh, why?” was the reply. Because, of course it was. But we were done at the zoo now, so it’s not like anything else could go wrong…
…until, the traffic slows on the dual carriageway on the route home. It’s slow, but we’re moving. Then the emergency vehicles come past. Then the road gets closed. Then we sit and wait. For nearly 2 hours, but the traffic turns around and we exit the road backwards. Once we got home, I didn’t really feel like going out again.
A highlight of the last week though was recording with the family. I’m still working on the new science songs, and having great fun with them. In the most recent recording I wanted the whole family on it. Matilda is dab-hand at this now having featured on every track so far. Nathaniel was thrilled to be involved. The joy in his voice is so clear that I’ve included just that, by itself, at the end of the song. I can’t wait to share these new songs with everyone.
New Blog content
I’ve added the Komodo dragon to the map of life.
From the Archive
This week revisited Dara and all of his now axed shows:
And a saw shark:
Science News
Let’s see what science has served up for us this week:
It’s known that allergies can be treated through exposing sufferers to very small amounts of what they react to. Toothpaste with peanut in, which aims treat allergies, has just be shown as safe in a trial.
Dark matter remains a mystery. Doing it’s thing but with no other trace of being there. One idea is that dark matter may not be just one thing, but could be a group of things with their own dark periodic table of dark elements.
Indoor solar. Solar panels are being developed that can produce power from the LED light produced by other powered devices indoors.
Evolution is a slow process which makes it hard to see. Unless you set up a lab and contain a bacteria with a virus that are in competition with each other. Then you get to see evolution in fast forward. This is what has just been done.
Water dries up quicker in the warm, we all know that. But it now seems that light energy, as well as heat, makes water evaporate quicker.
Our milky way galaxy has a super massive black hole at its centre. Our black hole is spinning almost as fast as it is possible for anything to spin and it’s having an effect on the spacetime around it.
Kicking back
Fun time…
You know you’ve had a long week when you’re climbing the walls
Resolution for next year: Be as efficient as a dragonfly
Given the right motivation we can all be engineers
If you’ve ever wondered about birds flying inside a plane, click here.
That’s it for this week.
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 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 breath-taking, no matter how many people have seen it before you.