Matilda's Lab Newsletter #46
This week I get a bandmate, we have a shark that walks on land, a shark vs whale deathmatch, good news for alien hunters, a feathery sea worm and how to get microplastics out of your tap water.
What we’ve been up to
The big development this week was a new first. Matilda joined me on stage for a performance at an open mic event. Usually these events are in the evening so we don’t get to go as a family, but I found one on a Saturday afternoon. Matilda and I hadn’t rehearsed doing this together and it was her suggestion that we do it. She was remarkably calm about getting up in front of a room of people, I was a very proud Dad.
Two things have emerged from this. Number one, I’m probably going to have to rehearse with Matilda now, for the next time that she wants to do it. That’s not to say that she wasn’t good, but she was slightly unsure about exactly what to do.
The second thing was more problematic. Nathaniel felt left out and wanted a go at singing too. I have no problem with getting him involved, but given how he was singing along to some of the songs in the car the other day, he is a little on the shouty side. But if I need to rehearse with one, why not with two? What could go wrong…? To be fair to him, he now sits in a very narrow Venn diagram crossover between 3 year olds and people who know Pi to 5 decimal places.
New Blog content
It’s been a bit of weird week. I think the whole family is feeling a bit run down. But I’m not using that as an excuse, I’ve even added an entire phylum to the map of life: it’s the tardigrades (which happen to be the subject of a song that I’ve been working on).
I took a little break from recording last week. It’s hard because I feel like I should always be working on things, but sometimes it’s really important to give yourself some space. Especially when you’re being creative. It’s too easy to get too lost in the details of a project and not see the bigger picture, which is what everyone else will see when they encounter your work.
Remarkably, I think I’m due to release another new song next week. That’s gone quickly! I guess that’s February for you. So let’s enjoy the artwork for Pi in the newsletter one last time.
From the Archive
I panicked for a moment there, but I did share an archive post this week:
Science News
Who would win in fight between a Great White Shark and a Killer Whale? Now we know. For the first time, footage has been taken of a one on one clash between the two. The victor? They don’t call them killer whales for nothing!
Microplastics are everywhere, even in your drinking water. A new study has shown that boiling water, then filtering it, removes 90% of microplastics from your water.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has measured the Oxygen being produced on Jupiter’s moon Europa. This is already one of the leading candidates for supporting alien life in our solar system. These results are doing not but reinforcing that excitement.
New Species Alert! A new feathery worm has been discovered in the deep ocean near Costa Rica.
We know that microbes in our gut a really important to our overall health. But it’s now been found that some of the enzymes that we depend on aren’t coded into our DNA, which means that we are entirely dependent on microbes to provide them for us if we want to avoid jaundice, at least.
Coming soon (I hope): A freely available database of CT scanned animals. This thing looks like it’s going to be serious cool for any zoology nerds, like me!
Kicking back
Tie for smiles…
Office blocks or office supplies?
Can I be your best friend? Can I? Can I?
Presumably providing the closest shaves in town…
I hope that someone got an advertising award for this
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.