It may be antiquated now, but the old pearl of wisdom: “Don’t sit too close to the TV” was good advice in the 1960s.
Tag: Science
Why Bird Poop Is White?
From BirdNote:Birds brighten our lives. We find joy in their songs, inspiration in their soaring flight. They connect us with nature. But sometimes birds connect us a bit too directly with nature. Park under the wrong tree – one where a flock of starlings or grackles comes to roost – and nature may be painted in white on your car so thickly that it takes a trip or two through the carwash just to see through the windshield again. Aside from helping you decide where not to park next time, this messy event raises a scientific question: Why is most of the bird poop we see white? The answer lies in the fact that birds, unlike mammals, don’t produce urine. Instead they excrete nitrogenous wastes in the form of uric acid, which emerges as a white paste. And uric acid doesn’t dissolve in water easily. Hence its ability to stick to your windshield like blobs of white plaster. It appears that drivers of some cars might be asking for trouble. A study in England found that red cars are most likely to be the target of bird droppings, followed by blue and black. Green was the least likely. So be careful where you park. And give that red Mustang a wide berth. Download Transcript
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The Skeleton Flower
Skeleton flowers – turn transparent with few drops of water
The Diphylleia grayi is an extraordinary flower with white petals that turn beautifully transparent upon contact with water. During light rain showers, the delicate blooms transform into blossoms as clear as glass, fitting its common moniker “skeleton flower.”
The plant can be found growing on moist, wooded mountainsides in the colder regions of Japan and China come late spring. The Diphylleia grayi is recognizable by its large, distinctly umbrella-like leaves topped with small clusters of pearly white blossoms that undergo a magical transformation in the rain.
What Causes A Foreign Accent?
Linguist Arika Okrent expalins while an artist illustrates on a whiteboard.
The human vocal tract can produce thousands of different sounds but languages use only a tiny subset of them. What happens when you try to speak a language that uses a different subset from your own?
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