Eye Again | Digital Pollen | Pollen Heist

In partnership with

What happens when you combine nursery rhymes with science?

Find out in Unnatural Selection!

—Steve 🔬

Get the weekly email that explains science in sweatpants. Stay smart for free.

Eye Again

“Eye for an eye” may not cause snail blindness. Researchers learned how apple snails fully regenerate lost eyes.

• Full regeneration: 28 days from amputation

• No stem cell dependency

• Relies solely on retinal and optic nerve tissue systems

Full regeneration occurs in juveniles and adults with no lingering effects after multiple eye replacements. Further research could offer insight into neural and tissue regeneration treatments in humans. No slimy side effects, please.

Eye eye eyeeee

Digital Pollen

Brace your seasonal allergies, the Smithsonian just digitized over 18,000 pollen samples in PollenGEO.

• PollenGEO: free online pollen database

• Samples span 200 years of collection

• Enables high-res image search for specific traits

PollenGEO is being used to train machine-learning models that will shortcut hundreds of hours in identifying new pollen grains. The fully digitized database will also aid in tracking climate change impact. And my seasonal shifts in breathing efficiency.

Achoooo

Pollen Heist

Some bees chomp down to get more pollen. Researchers observed bumble bees violently shaking after selectively biting buzz-pollinated flowers.

• ~9% of plants are buzz-pollinated

• Buzz-pollinated = pollen is concealed unless shaken loose

• Biting + shaking releases more pollen than just shaking

Not all buzz-eligible landings were shaken, though researchers aren’t sure how bees decide. Future studies will help us better understand this behavior to track environmental impacts on pollination. Fine, I’ll stop biting the flowers.

To buzz, or not to buzz?

Can’t think clearly?

Struggling to stay focused? Crashing before the day ends?

You can change what happens next.

Take our free 3 minute questionnaire
Track hidden causes of brain fog
Go further with our clinical team

You can finally get clear steps to bring back mental clarity.

With Superpower.

Take our free quiz

So I personally review all ads for potential value to you. Plus, checking them out helps support the cost of running casualSTEM 🤓 

_*ad

Unnatural Selection

Last week: “Which nursery rhyme is better?”

According to itsy bitsy spider lore, the smol arachnid needs the little star to twinkle twinkle and dry up all the rain. Lest it resort to a life absent crawling up spouts again.

Spiderverse graphic credit: Spider Gwen | Miles Morales

st3v on site

Snail Vision

Apple snails inspired st3v to try regrowing his own eye. It regenerated almost immediately, he just asked me to draw it smaller for “dramatic affect”.

Myth: Pet insurance isn’t worth the money

Did you know that one pet health emergency can cost up to $10,000? That could put a huge strain on your savings or even force you to max out your credit cards. Protect your budget and your pet by thinking ahead and choosing a plan that works for both of you.

Protect your pet

_*ad

New to the casualSTEM?

Get the weekly email that explains science in sweatpants. Stay smart for free.

Missed last week’s science in sweatpants?

Catch-up here: 🔬Singing Seals | Robo Rock | Tomato Potato

I'd love to hear from you!

Reply to this email, I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!