Flower Spider | Eyeball Energy | Bug Blood

I was nervous when one of my favorite books was turned into a Netflix series. But I’ll probably watch Three Body Problem at least one more time!

Have you read the books? Seen the show? Let me know what you think!

-Steve

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Flower Spider

Check again, there are two spiders in the photo above. Masked crab spider (Thomisus guangxicus) couples may be the first co-op camo arachnids ever found.

• Native to Chinese rainforests

• Web-less spiders, relying on hiding to catch prey

• Females = “petals”, males = “pistil” (center)

This could explain the evolutionary advantage of such different appearances between genders. Though more research is needed to rule out lucky coincidence. *Double checks flowers in vase

Flower power

Eyeball Energy

Self-charging contact lenses coming to a cyborg near you. Researchers developed a way to harvest energy from blinking and light.

• Flexible solar cell captures real and artificial light

• Tear-powered device converts electrolytes into energy

• Special super-capacitor provides stable power

Smart contact lenses offer potential health benefits such as monitoring and drug delivery. Developing those features will be challenging due to eye-sensitivity, but now we know how to power them. Blink twice for supercharging.

Do you see what eye see?

Bug Blood

Insects are really good at stopping bleeding. Their hemolymph clots rapidly thanks to its viscoelastic properties.

• Hemolymph = invertebrate blood

• Viscoelastic = sharing properties of liquids and solids

• Clots in 60-90 seconds, scabs in 3 minutes

Instead of human blood's red blood cells and platelets, hemolymph has hemocytes, acting similar to white blood cells. Though we aren’t bugs, further studies could lead to human wound healing improvements. Just don’t tell the San-Ti.

So THAT’S why I never see bugs wearing band-aids

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Unnatural Selection

Last week: “Favorite eclipse?”

Much closer than our last eclipse vote!

Next time we may even see a “casual eclipse”…aka an Unnatural Selection tie!

st3v on site

Solar Eyez

Ever since installing solar panels for eyes, st3v’s vision has been 2020…watts.

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