New microchip sensors inspired by spider webs, for example, have recently been designed with applications to quantum computers, astronomical research, and more.

Sensors run into trouble, however, the more sensitive they become, due to ambient “noise”.

Interactive technologies only work as well as the sensors that inform them.

This is because when physical vibrations encounter a change in material, some energy gets transmitted while some is reflected backward.

While the web hardly moves from the breeze and bending plants, the vibrations conducted through the web from a hapless fly reach the orb weaving spider in milliseconds, her eight legs triangulating the trapped fly’s exact position.

Learning how to manipulate light could help develop better computer monitors or advanced camouflage technologies.

This way of manipulating light results in brilliant iridescent colors, which butterflies rely upon for camouflage, thermoregulation, and signaling.

Rather than absorb and reflect certain light wavelengths as pigments and dyes do, these multi scale structures cause light that hits the surface of the wing to diffract and interfere.

. Scientists have found that a centrifugal force of 10–70 times the force of gravity can remove 70% of the water in far less time than evaporation would take.

Tiny mice rotate their heads and shoulders an incredible 27 times per second, while big bears do so only around 4 times per second.

Drying off quickly is important for mammals because water mats their fur, dramatically reducing its insulating value.

In cool weather, removing the water and regaining the insulation value of the coat can be literally a matter of life and death.

Take your dog to play in the water, and what’s the first thing she’ll do when she gets out? Likely shake her head and shoulders in a semicircular motion, flinging fat water droplets onto everything in the vicinity.

We’re putting pride and egos aside, and the reward is intelligence only many millions of years of trial and error can provide. We’re learning that primitive can be synonymous with progress.

We’re facing climate damages over $600 trillion

We are in the Anthropocene–an epoch defined by humans and the scars that have disfigured and imbalanced Earth.

These masters of efficiency spread delight, wonder, shock, and humility across the globe with the same ease they ooze across a petri dish.

Not only that, they get tripped up about what intelligence even means if something without a brain can do things like calculate risks over rewards, remember dinnertime like clockwork and trace parts of the cosmos we can’t.

We tidily classify it as a primitive, no-brained, unicellular organism that gives us a glimpse of our past, and yet the most respected thinkers and institutions turn to it for innovations for our future.

Additionally, the camel’s red blood cells are capable of expanding up to 240% of their original volume without rupturing; most animals’ cells can expand only 150%

The dromedary camel is incredibly well-adapted to hot, arid climates. The camel can go days without drinking water, surviving extreme dehydration and safely losing 40% of its body weight in water.

Vampire bats often share food with reciprocal non-kin members of their species, evidencing a complex social exchange where altruistic acts extend beyond genetic ties

These findings enhance our understanding of social dynamics and suggest that the inclination to reciprocate generous behavior may have deeper biological and psychological underpinnings than previously understood.

Capuchins could choose between a grape (a high-value item) and spinach (a lower-value item)

and help recover some of the 85% of oyster reefs that have disappeared globally over the past century due to human activity.

Wilker says that oyster cement is unique because—in addition to a small amount of mostly-protein organic matter—it contains a high quantity of inorganic calcium carbonate.

Oysters grab on to one another, stacking themselves like stalagmites that grow from the ocean floor.

If this form of inter-species calculation is correct, then by significantly altering many environments, and now suffering from the loss of resources due to the destruction of those environments, humans are merely paying the appropriate cost for the behaviors that we have adopted,

it’s clear that animals have life, can experience liberty or captivity, and do pursue happiness (and avoid displeasure).

If we simply want to try to force better behavior by writing laws, we can do that. But if we want people to change their behavior and decision making towards other species, they need to understand the rights of other species as an expression of a fuller understanding of the underlying principles behind the concepts of human rights.

Studies show that this simple step of identifying the current holes in your knowledge naturally sparks more curiosity, and subsequent engagement, in the relevant material.

These participants were then asked to describe how they thought Houdini had hidden Jennie. Whatever their answer, they were told that they were “close but not completely right”,

When the participants were highly curious about a fact, they were 30% more likely to recall it.

various studies have shown that people’s curiosity can predict their academic success, independently of IQ.

I’ll tell you what that is before the end of the article, but you might want to avoid the temptation of skipping straight to that section – since a wealth of scientific research shows that allowing your curiosity to be piqued in this way can be incredibly good for your mind.