Ostriches sleep like platypuses (and look wide awake when they do)
How does an ostrich sleep? Almost imperceptibly, it seems. Even though an ostrich might be sound asleep, it can look wide awake or, at most, a little drowsy. John Lesku from the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology discovered this by fitting six ostrichers with “Neurologgers”, electrode-laden helmets that measures their temperature, brain activity, eye movements…
Meet Indonesia’s H.R. Giger-like warrior wasp
If someone had made a horror movie about alien wasps and hired H. R. Giger to do the designs, the resulting monsters might have looked something like this. But this “warrior wasp” is real: it lives on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and it is 4 centimetres long. Its mandibles are so large that they…
21 Scientific Research Projects Starting This Fall That Could Change The World
Every year, governments and other institutions give scientists grants to continue valuable research in their fields. In the fall, we’ll see thousands of such research projects get started — projects that will cure disease, improve agriculture, create more efficient energy, and take us into space — all thanks to funding from taxpayers and philanthropists. Here…