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This week has been a bit heavy for me, sooo we’re looking back at some of my recent favorite stories!
-Steve
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Sky Island
A sky island in Hyrule Mozambique is home to countless undiscovered species. Southern Africa’s largest rainforest sits atop a mountain surrounded by lowlands.
Roughly 29 square miles
Isolation = unique evolution
New species: birds, chameleons, butterflies, and more
A 2023 expedition set up the first research center inside the forest with the help of 60+ porters. Their work is aiding Mozambique to turn the sky island into a protected area by 2030. Good thing Zelda gave Link a camera.
Quick! (vote)How would you traverse sky islands? |
Check out last week’s results in “Unnatural Selection” below
Dr. Ant
Sometimes 5 legs are better than 6. Florida carpenter ants treat and/or amputate bacteria-infected legs in the first-known, non-human amputation practice.
Colonial colleagues lick clean any infections
Tibia injuries are cleaned, w/ 75% survival rate
Femur injuries are amputated w/ 90-95% survival rate
Untreated survival rates were 15% (tibia) and 40% (femur), while amputees continued to contribute to the colony without restriction. Indicating the ants understand helping others ultimately helps themselves, an inspiring lesson! … still not invited to the picnic.
Space Trees
Trees will soon be orbiting Earth. LignoSat, a satellite built primarily from wood, will test sustainable alternatives to traditional satellites that often leave metallic particles in our atmosphere.
Size: 4” per side
Made of magnolia wood
September launch to ISS
LignoSat will then launch into a ~6 month orbit before burning to biodegradable ash upon reentry. Understanding wood’s durability in space could lead to more sustainable space exploration. Now hiring: Space Carpenter!
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Unnatural Selection
Last week: “Better cat sound?”
Most people don’t know that rearranging the letters in “purr” spells “happiness”….just kitten 😸
Make sure you vote up top for next week’s “Unnatural Selection”!
st3v on site
Magnolia Luna
created with ChatGPT 4o, edited by Steve Burgess
Launching wood into orbit would be a lot cheaper from the moon. Now we just need a space botanist…paging Dr. Watney!
Where’s st3v? We’re looking back at some fun with AI art, but he’ll be back next week!
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