Traffic Hawk | Red Eyes | CRISPR Spider

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Traffic Hawk

Even hawks wait for crosswalk signals. A Cooper’s hawk in New Jersey regularly uses traffic signals in hunting strategy.

• Pedestrian crossing sound triggers the hunt

• Stopped cars hide low approach to a target yard

• Hunts only follow 1 family’s outdoor dinner days

Leftovers and food scraps attracted smaller birds, unknowingly dining by stoplight. Highlighting the impact of urban infrastructure and the adaptability of hungry hawks. Aka the “Doordash Effect”.

Crosswalk Carnivore

Red Eyes

Contact lenses are getting the nano-tech treatment. Researchers developed lenses that can see near-infrared light.

• Near-infrared light = just beyond visible spectrum’s red end

• No interference with normal vision

• Function better with eyes closed

Infrared light’s ability to penetrate skin enables closed-eye-sight, though vision is clearer with glasses due to retina-proximity. Potential uses include night vision, rescue operations, and encrypted communication. Infra-REM sleep must be wild.

Eye eye eye

CRISPR Spider

We’re one step closer to creating Spiderman in a lab. Scientists used CRISPR to edit the genome of the common house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum).

• CRISPR = Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats

• Injected red fluorescent protein into unfertilized eggs

• Resulting in offspring spinning fluorescent silk

Modified silk retained its natural strength and elasticity. Opening the door for future biomedical and industrial applications such as bio-based textiles and medical imaging; aaand superheroes!

Friendly neighborhood GMO spider

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Unnatural Selection

Last week: “Which bite-caused super powers are cooler?”

Hard to beat that satisfaction from web-slinging’s “thwip”.

st3v on site

Infragreen

Natural infragreen-visibility grants st3v the ability to sort recycling without double-checking what the little numbers mean.

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