Matilda's Lab Newsletter #45
This week we look forward to longer, warmer, days. We find an ADHD superpower, a small fish as loud as a jet plane, trees than act as their own park rangers and MORE new moons in our solar system.
What we’ve been up to
We’ve had a lovely time catching up with friends and we’re starting to look forward to brighter days to come. I even got the first lawn mow of the season completed!
We’ve retrieved Clover the Rover from her winter hibernation so that she can be serviced for another season of caravanning. She’s showing signs of her quarter of a century age and needs a bit of TLC (not least a clean), but she’s not been on been her final tour quite yet.
I continue to learn more about working with my sourdough starter. For Valentine’s day I received a proper bread proving basket, which I used for the first time this week. I thought that I had prepared everything correctly, with everything well floured, however when it came to getting my dough out again, ready to bake, it was not forthcoming. After a lot of poking a scraping I finally liberated most of it onto a baking sheet; but the resulting loaf was, let’s say, rocking the rustic look…
…tastes good though
And we must not forget that this newsletter is going out on St. David’s day. So it’s been wear red at our Welsh school today, with their own little Eisteddfod (Welsh song competition). Daffodils (or cennin pedr) for everyone!
New Blog content
The map of life continues to grow. I usually have the next couple of addition up my sleeve ready to drop when I need them. I’ve not made new ones this week, but I’ve been doing a lot of foundation work that will hopefully make the builds quicker going forwards. If it works then this will be able to row at a much quicker pace.
The most recent addition wa the Blue Shark.
Streams of the Pi song have dropped off a little this week, which is to be expected; but it is still there and still a brilliant as ever. I’ve recently been working of the track which is currently due for release in July. It’s very different from what’s gone before it. I’ve always had an eclectic taste in music and I think that this is particularly important for this project. There are enough ways that people can be alienated from learning. I don’t what a narrow choice of music genre to add to that. However, I am also restricted by my own limitations as a music technician and producer. Hopefully, the more I record, the better I will get.
From the Archive
As a great dog lover, I love it when this lesson crops up. It’s one of those things that humanity gets credited with achieving, but we have to consider that it’s possible that we didn’t have much of a hand in this and dogs kind of domesticated themselves.
Science News
When regular news coverage can be so negative and depressing, it gives me so much more appreciation for the many science stories that can provide us with hope and optimism for the future:
A new study suggests that people with ADHD have better foraging techniques then those without. If you every wondered why we need terms like neurodiverse rather than ones that refer to illness or disorders (like ADHD), this is why. Context is so important to understanding.
Some folk may remember that supernova occurred back in 1987 (I must admit I don’t), but the James Webb Space Telescope - JWST has taken a picture of the neutron star that remains from the recent supernova.
Appreciation of trees and their abilities have been on the rise lately, and we’re still learning more about their remarkable behaviour. Ancient trees selectively sacrifice parts of their system and in doing so create habitats for other species that would otherwise not be available.
New moon alert! We missed some. 2 new moons have been discovered around Neptune and 1 around Uranus (no jokes).
There have been many arguments over many years about exactly how and why humans lost most of our tails (there is a tiny bit left). A new theory is that a genetic parasite may be to blame for the disappearance of tails in our ancestors.
I love this one. Even though the solution is new story, it’s the phenomenon that caught my attention, because we now understand how a fish that is less than half an inch long can make a 140 decibel sound. That’s as loud as a jet engine! The answer? Internal drums.
Kicking back
Dogs have mainly been making me smile this week…
We can mock, but this is how professional magicians see all of us
On the subject of illusions. How long will it take our brain to decode this one?
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.