Articles

Have you ever heard the song of the lyrebird? These strange birds take the sounds of dogs, cameras, chainsaws, and other birds to create their mating calls!

Public libraries are finding novel and wonderful new roles in our communities despite the evolving digital world. Here is one that has it all: it makes the best of elements that were in plain sight and the model can apply to all kinds of problem-solving.

What is creativity? Is our modern way of thinking about it wong? It’s hard to put a finger on inspiration, but author Elizabeth Gilbert thinks that the answer to our creative woes might require turning to the past for answers. Check out her incredible TED Talk!

We’ve written about his before, but let’s start with an important statement: NOT ALL MICROBES ARE BAD! There are good microbes out there that keep us healthy, that do nothing and just hang out in our environment and are a part of the ecosystems we call home. There are even great microbes in and on our bodies that keep us alive! (Thanks, microbiome!) Now, with that out of the way, we can get back to the cheese. Cheese is fascinating not just because it’s delicious. It’s also fascinating because, even though we’ve been making it for thousands of years, we still don’t know exactly how it works. In order to get closer to figuring out how we have been able to turn milk into delicious cheesy goodness with the help of our bacterial friends, researchers at Rockefeller University started investigating the DNA of cheese. Well, at least the DNA of the microbes living in and on the cheese. What they found was incredible! Here’s more on this fascinating study with a video from Verge Science! Via: Verge Science 1 So there you have it, a little more knowledge to appreciate your next bite of cheese a little more! Beyond Cheese! This story isn’t just about how cool cheese is. It’s also a great story about how powerful the technology we have today is. We are able to sequence DNA efficiently enough to investigate the science of cheese! Something made even cooler by the fact that we only discovered that DNA even existed in the 1950s. DNA sequencing is being used in other remarkable ways. For instance, did you know we can use the blood found in leeches to help us track species populations in remote habitats!

If you’re looking for a remarkably moving story of kindness and friendship, then you’re in the right place.

In our hopeful search for new lifeforms in outer space, it seems we often forget the most extraordinary and promising frontier for our species’ survival. Take a look!

What if we could fly along with the snowy owl as it made its migration? An NPR team decided to follow the remarkable journey of Baltimore, the most studied snowy owl in history, to get a glimpse at what the lives of these mysterious creatures looks like!