Matilda's Lab Newsletter #41
This week we get sporty and bricky. We have baby giants, a regenerating shark, the moon is shrinking, why moths fly into lights, an acrobatic squirrel, and otter ecowarriors.
What we’ve been up to
The highlight of last weekend was a trip to meet up with family in Birmingham. We visited the Legoland Discovery Centre. This featured a couple of Lego themed rides and some wonderful recreations of the city in Lego. You ended up in an area with lots of different Lego building activities and a soft play. It’s quite a remarkable achievement of Lego to put alongside the only product that it sells an alternative option of play that is evidently more popular with children. Hence, the scene in that this area is largely full of parents building things out of Lego whilst their children are enveloped within the bowels of an expansive soft play. Personally, I have no problem with this. It’s a much better arrangement than most other soft plays which provide nothing as interesting for grown ups to do.
In other news, we’ve joined the gym: as a family. I’m not getting any younger and I could probably do with doing a bit more exercise than I currently do. I’m looking forward to getting back into playing tennis (which I love but haven’t done for years), and I’m already starting to remember how much I enjoy swimming. Both Matilda and Nathaniel aren’t part of any sports clubs so this a great opportunity to get them doing age appropriate sports groups.
For Nathaniel in particular, access to a child friendly swimming pool is essential. He is very nervous around water (Matilda used to be as well) so being able to take him somewhere where he can control his own access into the water and with toys for distraction will be great for him. We’ve received some great advice too, so he already has a pair of swimming goggles which he is currently wearing in the bath at home, where he and Matilda are blowing bubbles in the water, to get him use to putting his face into the water, in a safe space.
New Blog content
The map of life has developed this week. Here is where we are up to:
And I’ve done my first new notorious namesake for quiet some time:
From the Archive
We revisited the speed demon that is the short fin mako shark:
Science News
I lot of biology new this week:
Sharks are hard to study. If they want privacy then they have all the oceans of the world to find it in. Breeding in particular has remained largely a mystery. Hence, it is only now that the first recorded sighting of a new born great white shark has been logged.
Sticking with sharks. If you’re aren’t a fan of them (firstly, you may be in the wrong place) then you may not be thrilled to hear that missing sections of sharks fins can be regenerated! Dr. Who? Dr. Shark to you!
Moths flying into lights has long been a mystery. New evidence suggests that Moths flying into lights is due to disorientation, not attraction. Their navigation systems did not evolve to cope with such intense light so close to them at night time and it is messing with them.
People are returning to moon and the plans for that are having to be revised for safety on account of the moon shrinking. So I’m actually going to completely by-pass the main focus of this story and focus on the element that was the biggest news to me, which is that the moon is shrinking!!
A few weeks ago we looked at how the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone brought all manner of ecosystem recovery along with it. Now, otters are restoring the biodiversity of a californian estuary by controlling the crab populations.
Kicking back
What do you mean, you’ve never heard of Coldberewstain? Beautiful beaches.
Squirrel dreams of the day when she can run away and join the circus.
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.