Matilda's Lab Newsletter #49
Happy Birthday newsletter. 1 this week! So we eat chocolate and redecorate. We have black holes in photos and the lab, parrots playing video games and how being among nature gives you more time.
It’s the 1 year anniversary of the newsletter! So why aren’t we on number 52? Because, like last week, I can’t always get a newsletter completed. So missing 3 in the first year I’m going to say isn’t so bad.
What we’ve been up to
Over the last two weeks we’ve had the Easter holidays. Whilst both Cat and I took the first week off work, we banished the kids to holiday club whilst we worked our way through a list of long overdue house jobs. Bedroom painting, skirting board repairs, plant stands, additional storage. It was a productive week, but it left no time to write a newsletter.
And then there was Easter, where we did get to spend a nice long weekend with the children. Matilda lost another tooth on the Saturday, so the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy must have been rubbing shoulders in our house that evening. Unusually, the Easter bunny left some presents as well as eggs this year. Mainly, because we won a hoard of chocolate eggs at the school Easter bingo. So the last thing that we needed were even more chocolate eggs in the house.
One thing that Matilda received was a book on how to draw manga characters. She promptly used it to create this picture of Taylor Swift (she’s becoming something of a Swiftie).
Nathaniel has had his own adventures this week. This week he had his pre-school vaccinations. The nurse was preparing me for a potential wrestling match with him but I explained that he’s been good with vaccinations in the past. “But he was 1 when he had them last”, she replied. I hadn’t appreciated that it had been that long, but both him and Matilda have always been good with jabs. I said that I though that he would be okay and the nurse said “Well, there’s a first time for everything.”
And so there was. Not only did Nathaniel not scream of fight; when he was told it would tickle, he started giggling and saying “Tickle!, Tickle!”. Apparently, the second one in his other arm was going to be the tough one. Not for Nathaniel, more giggling and the job was done. Well done, little man!
New Blog content
Normal service hasn’t quite resumed yet. I came back to work this week will a bulging inbox to work through and 3 of my colleagues away on annual leave, so I’ve been catching up and manning the fort at the same time, whilst also being a bit under the weather (no, I haven’t eaten too many Easter eggs!).
One job that I did get crossed off my to-do list with the other was set up the Matilda’s Lab store! That’s right, you can now get hold of Matilda’s Lab merch. Regular readers of the newsletter may have seen that I’ve printed a few piece of clothing for the family. They appear to be going down well with people who see them, so I’ve set up an online store in case anyone wants a species specific piece of clothing. I’m sure I’ll branch out into other things over time. In the meantime, if you’ve ever wanted a particular organism featuring of a piece of clothing, let me know what that is an I can add it to the range. Here is Cat, rather beautifully, modelling her Matilda’s Lab hoodie. It's currently the only product available (but in various colours and as a t-shirt). More will be coming soon. You can find the store here.
There is also the most recent Matilda’s lab track out of the streaming platform. Immortality contains a haunting mini-lecture on why eternal life is so hard to find in nature.
From the Archive
This week has been to full on that I’ve not even shared any archive content. Fingers crossed for next week.
Science News
Thankfully, I don’t have to do all the science, so that’s still been going on.
Black holes are so interesting because they push the laws of physics to breaking point. Creating conditions that cannot be replicated elsewhere. Although a new techniques has managed to mimic black hole behaviour in a lab setting.
Auto immune diseases come in various forms and usually devastating, which is to be expected when your own body starts fighting against itself. A potentially huge step has been made in try to treat these conditions as a ‘switch’ that stops the immune system from attacking health cells has been discovered.
For the first time, electrons have been seen moving through 4 dimensional space!
Apparently, humans in cities are slowly losing the ability to digest plant material. Which is somewhat ironic as this is the place where I assume that you are most likely to find vegans living; in this country, at least.
Allergies are on the rise. This has frequently been blamed on people living in more sanitised environments. This has never been demonstrated and now a new study in mice shows that rates of allergy can rise independently of the cleanliness of your surroundings.
The best ever image of a black hole has now been taken. It’s so good that it even shows magnetic fields!
Parrots have been taught how to play computer games. There’s even a video of them doing it.
I like this last one, it’s another scientific validation of something that many of us feel instinctively anyway. That spending time in nature affects our perception on time and makes us feel like we have more of it.
Kicking back
So get out into nature to give yourself time to look at the fun bits.…
Apparently about 5% of Americans could take a grizzly bear in fist fight
A weed is just a plant that’s in the wrong place
I’m sure it’ll be fine. What’s the worst that could happen…
Unfortunately, some people actually appear to think this way
They said that it would happen. Genetic engineering has gone too far!
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.
Congrats on year #1!