As far as I know, Ogden Nash never wrote a verse about bats, but if he had it might have gone like this: Nobody likes a bat And that’s that.
Articles from June 2020
Desmodus rotundus • Photo by Uwe Schmidt (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Bust of George Boole at University College Cork • Photo by William Murphy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The boy who wouldn’t stay ‘in his place’
Inside the entrance of the Boole Library, at Ireland’s University College in Cork, the watchful eyes of George Boole gaze down on visitors from the stern but kindly portrait that hangs in a place of honor.
A swarm of micro-robots • Image by Farshadarvin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Robognats and roborobins
A cartoon in a recent issue of the journal Science shows a woman standing aghast in her kitchen as the man from Ace Exterminators releases a box full of mice onto the floor.
Photo by Oscar Guinane on Unsplash
The demise of the hedgerow
Much has been written lately about the rampant destruction of tropical rain forests. Another well-known natural habitat is disappearing at an equally alarming rate: the hedgerows of Europe. Although not as significant as rain forests on the global scale, hedgerows are nearer and dearer to the hearts of many Americans because of our cultural heritage.
Photo by Jaime Spaniol on Unsplash
Going against the grain
Independence Day. The sand-castle season begins.
The American Midwest at night from space • NASA (Public Domain)
Lighting up the world
Long before humans actually set foot on the moon they visited that place in their imaginations. One of the earliest lunar travelers was Francis Godwin, who in 1638 published a book called The Man in the Moone about a Spaniard named Domingo Gonsales who travels to the moon and back by attaching himself to a flock of wild swans.
Photo by Oxford University Museum of Natural History (CC BY 2.0)
Summer bugs, summer pleasures
Summer memories. Of firefly evenings long ago in Tennessee. Lingering twilight, dark pines, crickets singing, stars just coming into the sky. Running on the long, sloping lawn catching up “lightnin’ bugs” in our hands. We squeezed them gently between our fingers to set their tiny fires alight, or dumped them by the dozens into a jar to make a lantern.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Get rich quick with an NTU
Any scientist who finds himself even marginally in the public eye becomes the recipient of assorted new theories of the universe from earnest natural philosophers who work outside of the mainstream of science.
35 xenon atoms arranged by microscope • Image courtesy IBM
Looking at the small print
We don’t know who first imagined that the world was made of atoms.
Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash
Mr. Toad doesn’t live there anymore
Water Rat and Mole were sitting on the River Bank listening to the sound of the wind in the willows. “Whatever became of old Mr. Badger?” asked the Rat.