Creepy Snake Robot

According to Wikipedia, Biomimcry or biomimetics is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems. The brainy students at MIT have created a robot that mimics the movement of a snake not only on the ground but also climbing a tree. It's vaguely unnerving to see a machine act like an animal as it falls outside of what we typically expect based on our experience of typical gears and wheels.

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The Lifestyles of the Rich and Liverliving

The Oatmeal is the type of comic that Mr. Spanky can really laugh at. Often with liquids streaming out his nostrils if he's drinking and reading it at the same time. It can be somewhat irreverent: consume with caution kidz. Today the Oatmeal brings us the lifestyle of the parasitic flatworm known as Dicrocoelium dendriticum which is depicted nattily in all its gruesome hilarity!

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Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear

The pholks over at Learn.Genetics, a website from the University of Utah, have a great interactive graphic on the size of things. It starts out with a coffee bean and ends up with a carbon atom. It's a very effective look at relative size and allows you to get an idea of scale. Who knew that our antibodies were so small relative to the bacteria they beat up? Go team! Check it out.

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A real unicorn

Most of you kidz should be familiar with the "mythical" unicorn. That fantasy creature that looks like a horse but has a single ivory horn growing from the middle of its forehead. Often seen in the company of elves and other woodland sprites it is said that only a human that is young female virgin can approach or even ride the beast. Mr. Spanky says "Bull!" Sure, scientists and other xenobiologists have searched far and wide for such a creature. Mr. Spanky says "Meh." They're just looking in the wrong place. Horse-like, hah!

Alert reader GO has brought to my attention an article from the Economist where they talk about Dr. W.F. Dove who has fashioned his own unicorn. Horns are not embedded in the skull, rather they start out as buds on the flesh. Dr. Dove understood this and in 1933 created his own unicorn. The lesson here, kidz, is to experiment on animals for phun and profit!*

What did Dr. Dove's unicorn look like? Click the link below to find out.

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*Mr. Spanky really doesn't endorse animal experiments so please do not perform chemical tests, transplants, DNA-alteration, substance abuse, or junk food binges with any animals. Just think, you wouldn't want any of those things to happen to you, right? Ok, except for the junk food binging.

Excavating an Ant Colony

Mr. Spanky has a heart for nature and the wonder that it holds. He also has a soft spot for insects mostly because they are otherworldly, inspiring, and gross a lot of people out which is just the sort of sadistic motivator that fills his life with joy.

Witness this short clip from the Science channel where a group of scientists attempt to map out an ant colony. Would they do this with a small camera attached to the head of an ant? Would they use modified endoscopic cameras on the end of a bionic arm? Would they carefully dig and expose the colony bit by bit, take measurements and construct a 3D computer model?

Don't be silly. That's too much work. They simply poured 10 tons of concrete down the holes, left it to dry for a month, and then dug it up. I'm sure the ants didn't mind.

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P.S. DAY, no worries, there are no millipedes in this post.