Hungry Caterpillar | ChemoSound | Robo-Bugs

Since Monday, I got vaxes, threw axes, and hung things on thumbtacks…es. I don’t know what this means, but wanted to share with you since it’s fun to say out loud.

-Steve

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Hungry Caterpillar

Every 17 years, cicadas indirectly slow oak tree growth. As birds feasted on Brood X in 2021, their usual prey, caterpillars, munched freely on oak leaves.

• Brood X = largest cicada brood, emerging every 17 yrs.

• Before X: 25% of clay test caterpillars were pecked

• During X: only 10% were pecked

Ecologists also found oak caterpillars reaching larger growth stages 50x more often during the cicada feast versus today. This likely explains why oak tree rings show slower growth in years featuring cicada emergence. Like the McRib of insects.

Birds = distracted boyfriend meme

ChemoSound

Soundwaves are helping fight cancer. Scientists developed a treatment that pinpoints chemotherapy to minimize side effects.

• Cyaninplatin, a small-molecule prodrug, gathers at tumors

• Converted into carboplatin by targeted ultrasound waves

• Kills tumors by damaging cancer cell mitochondria

Mice tumors were completely eliminated after 6 days of treatment. More testing is needed before use on humans, but this offers a promising alternative to traditional chemotherapies. For now, cancer-free mice is nice.

Chill ultra sounds to beat cancer to

Robo-Bugs

For some insects, flying is brainless. Researchers are applying bugs' asynchronous flight skills to robo-bugs.

• Asynchronous flight = wings flapping at different speeds

• Once triggered, flight muscles stretch and rebound automatically

• Enabling a mosquito to flap its wings >800 per second

Researchers believe asynchronous flight may be selectively triggered by individual bug species. So they created robo-bugs to study improvements in maneuverability of larger flying robots. Ok, but I’m never getting on a mosquito plane.

Itchy science

Unnatural Selection

Last week: “Favorite eclipse?”

Fun fact: Solar eclipses occur when the moon emoji covers part of the sun emoji.

st3v on site

Flying Sync Types

Bug flight researchers called st3v for help in testing a third flight type rarely seen since the early 2000s, N’SYNChronous flight.

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