Weird And Wonderful Science

[Graeme]

There are often weird and/or wonderful stories about science, and I thought I'd start a thread for them.

 

Two that have cropped up this week:

 

Do Australian bearded dragons dream?

 

How peacocks shake their tail feathers

 

[Bill W]

Very interesting Graeme.  Thanks for sharing.  

 

In the peacock video at the bottom, the peacock seemed to be desperately trying to gain the attention of one particular peahen, but she wanted nothing to do with him so he did his dance for the other peahen.  If at first you don't succeed, move on to the next available option.  

[Graeme]

Large Hadron Collider shutdown by a weasel

[rustle]

 

How peacocks shake their tail feathers

 

The lead-in to the article states,

 

Male peacocks fan their colourful rear feathers and shake them, but somehow keep their plumes' iridescent circles, or eyespots, nearly still, like a fixed stare.

 

Since this is an author's website, I'll point out that writing "male peacock" is as redundant as writing "male cock" when referring to a rooster. The gender-neutral name for the species is peafowl.

Edited April 30, 2016 by rustle

[Graeme]

True, but how many people would recognize that term? I'll be honest and admit that I wouldn't have.

[Graeme]

Scientists make good ants go bad

[Graeme]

Pint of Science Festival takes science to the pubs

 

Fighting cancer with Australian sea snails

Edited May 17, 2016 by Graeme