For those celebrating Daylight Saving this Sunday, congrats on your 25 hour day! Here are some ideas for how to spend it:

• Rank local orchards by apple-cider donut quality

• Build st3v in Minecraft

• Stay up 'til 2am to experience time travel

-Steve

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Caffeinated Algae

“Don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.” - algae, probably

Scientists generated biodiesel by feeding algae spent coffee grounds.

• Chlorella vulgaris algae used for testing

• Grown in the same grounds they fed on

• 20 hours of sunlight + 4 hours of darkness = best biofuel

Algae was already capable of producing biofuel, but this method is more scalable due to its simplicity. Plus, there is something poetic about squeezing every ounce of energy out of coffee beans. Also explains why algae only need 4 hours of sleep.

Al G’s Coffee

Thunder Swarms

What if I told you buzzing from bees is actually electricity? It’s not…but swarms can generate thunderstorm levels of charge.

• Swarms of fluttering insect wings jumble electrons

• Enough jumbled electrons create chained electricity

• Lightning is created similarly within thunder clouds

Using this knowledge, experts successfully predicted voltage levels of small bee swarms. Opening up a new realm to investigate how insects may affect certain weather phenomena. Unfortunately, I'm told there's no such thing as honey-lightning.

Always knew Zeus was a honeybee

Jiggly Retinas

To focus, fruit flies shift their retinas instead of using microsaccades. The way our eyes can see what time it is before hitting snooze.

• Microsaccades = mini involuntary eye movements to help focus our vision

• Fruit fly eyes are fixed in place, which could affect their focus

• Shifting their retina behind the eye enables "movement"

These small shifts effectively increase visual resolution. Learning how flies are able to harness this surprising workaround opens up a world of possibilities for hidden functions. Anecdotally, it may also explain why they’re so jittery.

Pretty spry for a fly eye

Clickables

• New seafloor creatures just dropped

• Be as happy as our smiling sun

• From sassy penguins to winking foxes, wildlife comedy pics 

• Watch - 2 rockets park themselves

• Literally a flying car with propellers

st3v on site

Circulatory Coffee

Beezness is booming now that st3v learned to generate a self-sustaining energy loop.

Thank you for reading!

Missed last week’s Convo?

Catch-up here: Necrobotics | Necrorgans | Necrogenomics - The Convo Kit #72

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