The worst thing about feeding hundreds of mosquitoes on your own blood is not the itching – if you do it enough times, your body gets used to the bites. It’s not even the pain, although it is always painful since the mosquitoes will use their snouts to root about your flesh in search of a blood vessel.
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If you’ve been stressing out or if you’re getting swamped at work or if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, here’s how you fix it: by watching this lovely time lapse of fireflies by Vincent Brady. Just put it on full screen, zone out and watch fireflies (or lightning bugs if that’s what you call them) paint the world with light and create mesmerizing art.
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Swedish and American researchers have successfully engineered plants to produce chemical attractants like those released by insects to find mates. They say their plant factories could be used to lure and trap nuisance bugs as an environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides and synthetically produced attractants.
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Brains are the most powerful computers known. Now microchips built to mimic insects’ nervous systems have been shown to successfully tackle technical computing problems like object recognition and data mining, researchers say.
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Like a silent bionic army, the era of the cyborg has crept upon us. Or so a group of reviewers said recently when they evaluated where the science of cyborgs has led.
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I can’t do it. These photographs by photographer Jimmy Kong are absolutely fantastic in capturing the venomous detail of spiders in their habitat. They look positively alien and almost peaceful. But don’t you dare think that. Not for a second. Because once you think these fur ball mini aliens come in peace, the spiders are going to leap off the screen and rip your freaking head off.
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Like in Game of Thrones, where the Iron Throne was forged from the swords of all the enemies Aegon the Conqueror defeated, this Cyclosa spider uses its dead enemies’ bodies to build a big fake spider decoy design to sit on. Seriously, the spider uses its victim’s insect corpses to construct a larger spider-shaped design on its web to scare off potential predators. That’s so badass.
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What a weird week for weather, huh? On earth, it was so cold that Canada got frostquakes
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For an insect trying to avoid becoming dinner, the consequences of bad camouflage are clear. What’s less obvious is how the effects then ripple like an aftershock through an entire ecosystem, subtly changing which shrubs are eaten and which critters thrive. For example, the consequences of a single species of badly camouflaged walking stick insect can cascade throughout the California hills.
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Be careful when you go around smelling flowers now, you never know when that pretty pink thing is actually a mantis looking to strangle your nostrils to death. Like this Orchid Mantis. It looks like a perfect pink orchid but is actually a mantis in disguise that strangles the hell out of its prey.
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