Matilda's Lab Newsletter #85
This week we have new zoo to explore. Hippie spiders have no personality, insects have no consistency, middle-aged spread now does have an explanation, and robot vacuum cleaners are slacking!
What we’ve been up to
Last weekend was another Daddy flying solo affair. The kids were great, in that they allowed me time to do some recording. Whilst things have gone quiet on that front, I haven’t stopped working on new material. I’m getting more familiar with the new software and, hot exclusive for you, I will be uploading a new Matilda’s Lab song to the great wide world today!
Since the kids had been so good, I treated them to a trip to the zoo, because we hadn’t been there in way too long. What I hadn’t realised was that they had opened a whole new area over the Easter break. The “Heart of Africa” has developed, an area of the zoo which I feel has been somewhat overlooked for as long as I have been going there (which is well over 20 years). A lot of animals have had their habitats upgraded (such as the meerkats and African hunting dogs) and others have been entirely relocated (like the giraffes). What is wonderful is that there is a huge, open habitat that allows the giraffes, zebra and ostriches to share the same space, giving a proper safari feel.
Another point of excitement for me was the new species that have arrived. Matilda adores the bat-eared foxes, and I am thrilled that we now have some naked mole rats. Naked mole rats are so fantastic that I wrote an entire lesson about them.
The Easter trail was still in operation, so the kids had great fun completing that and winning their packet of jelly meerkats.
The unexpected revelation for me, aside from new zoo, was remembering just how captivating a game of snooker can be. I haven’t watched it in years, but the world championships are taking place, and I’ve ended up getting hooked. Matilda came in whilst I was watching, asked me what I was watching, and then revealed to me that she didn’t know what snooker was. ?!?!?!?! I felt like I had committed something of a parenting failure. I’ve allowed my daughter to live the first decade of her life not knowing what snooker is. Clearly, I’m not a big follower of the game, but I remember being very aware of it in my youth. As a parent, it can be hard to appreciate just how much of a different experience of childhood your kids are getting from the one that you had.
New Blog content
Pretty much the only thing that you can rely on me for at the moment is that I will a) get a newsletter out at least every other week and b) I will update the map of life.
Once again, I am proud to deliver you with the bare minimum! Although I did add an entirely new kingdom to the map this week; fungi. Brewers yeast is responsible for alcohol and bread, so it’s probably the most underappreciated species on the map. I suspect that it will remain so for quite some time.
From the Archive
The featured lesson this week was a quest to find the closest thing that biology can provide to the dragons of mythology.
And we had another example of how becoming the president of the USA is an excellent strategy for getting a species named after you.
Science News
‘Hippie’ spiders are providing a warning about interpreting personality in animals. It turns out that these ‘personalities’ a far too easily changeable.
Sticking with arthropods, one of the continuing problems that human psychology is being able to repeat test results. Human don’t always act in the same way. Independence of mind is not just a human effect, studies of insect also have a problem with repeatability in their behaviours.
As time goes by, the list of common everyday things that we don’t understand gets a little bit shorter. The most recent common phenomenon that now has an explanation is middle-aged spread.
Not only is Minecraft used to teach concepts such as coding, Minecraft is also teaching us about how people learn. Specifically, how we combine strategies of self discovery and learning from others.
Roombas have been having it all too easy, why stop at vacuuming? A list of additional jobs that robot vacuum cleaners can be programmed to do has been drawn up. They include things like watering plants and, my personal favourite, playing with the cat.
Kicking back
(links to fun things that I’ve seen online)
Yes, detective; it looks like this was a professional hit.
Nathaniel does this. Is my son a secret otter?
If catching butterflies isn’t your gig, what about snowflakes?
Oh no, the newsletter’s just been Rickrolled
Some people just want to see the world burn…
Please feel free to get in contact with any questions, suggestions or comments either via Substack or at matildaslab@gmail.com.
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Until next time, treat every day like a school day and find those lessons to learn.