Matilda's Lab Newsletter #39
This week Christmas has come late as we now have SNOW and an official theme tune! Plus, polar bear inspired clothing, skin older than the dinosaurs and a guide to telling if you're brainwashed.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
What we’ve been up to
Just when you think that you’re finally done with Christmas, and all the decorations are packed away. The garage has now been put back in order (my phone survived yet another fall from the loft space of our garage!), everything is back to normal. Then you wake up one morning to see…snow!
This was a great delight to the children. Even Casini likes to do playful dog scoots when there’s a fresh dusting on the ground. So our walk to school that morning was great fun. But the snow didn’t last until the next day. Nathaniel didn’t seem to appreciate that we couldn’t just put it back. “But I like the snow!” was his statement. Of course he does, but it is well beyond my parenting capabilities to provide that for him. But if there are greater powers out there, maybe they were listening because the following day, BOOM! Snow again.
During our discussions about the presence or absence of snow, a well known phrase came up. “It may be too cold to snow.” Is that really possible? Antarctica is the coldest on place on Earth and it’s covered in the stuff!
The reality is that it can’t be too cold for snow to form. But it may be so cold and dry that there is very little humidity in the air, making it too dry to snow. Extreme cold can do this, but it’s not specifically the cold preventing it from snowing.
It didn’t snow when we met up with friends to walk around Delamere forest. It did rain though. It was that very worst kind of weather. Not cold enough for things to be frozen, but just warm enough to be wet enough to feel colder than it would had it actually been that bit colder where things could freeze. And then there was the rain. Plus, some running event was on where people were getting medals so it was super busy. And Nate was hungry, which made him grumpy. We had a wonderful time! But you do things like this if you can spend time with friends, and then afterwards you can look back and laugh. It’s the kind of experience that friendships are built on. Not forgetting, they have a Gruffalo, so there were smiles in the end.
New Blog content
My concerted effort to upload map of life content isn’t going well. It’s only writing this that has reminded me to share another one this week. I added the Zebra Bullhead Shark.
I have got a bit of an excuse though. Today I have uploaded the first Matilda’s Lab song into the great wide world. I don’t know exactly when it will hit the various streaming services but keep an eye out for it. It should be in most places by this time next week (possibly a little earlier on Apple Music). The choice of what to release first was easy; it’s the Matilda’s Lab Theme tune. It will be released under my artist name Chris MacAlister.
From the Archive
This week, we’ve revisited one of my favourite lessons on what brainwashing is and how to tell whether you have been brainwashed or not. Truth is, we’re all a bit brainwashed about some things. That’s why self awareness is so important:
And I got out one of my favourite early animal illustrations
Science News
It keeps breaking, so I’ll keep covering:
In the most recent chapter of looking to animals to try and solve human problems, it’s been noted that fruit bats can eat massive amounts of sugar without ever developing diabetes.
Do you remember learning that it’s only bones that get preserved from long dead animals? If so, forget that rubbish. Mummified skin has just been discovered that is older than any dinosaur, 290 million years old.
Bat inspiration may be for the future. Right now, polar bear fur has inspired a new man-made insulating fibre.
As security seems to be moving away from the humble fingerprint, in preference to fancier things like retina scanners, the fingerprint is making a fight back. Forensic investigations could be about to benefit from 3D fingerprints and the improvements that come with them, because we don’t have 2D fingers.
Two things have changed in the last couple of decades for our species: Our mental health is now recognised as something important and suffers if we don’t look after it, making it one of the leading causes of ill health in the 1st world. We are also now aware that the microbes in our gut are of fundamental importance to our health. I suppose it then inevitable that eventually we would discover a link between your gut microbes, moods and mental health. The evidence of that is growing.
Kicking back
Fun time…click the links to brighten your day with fun things that I’ve found elsewhere.
First day? Just look like you know what you’re doing. No one will notice.
They don’t make shop window displays like that these days
It’s a dangerous old world for a mannequin
Whatever you do, don’t let go of the handles!
Keep safe out in the snow. You never know what’s below the surface.
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.