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Have a Happy Thought: It’s that time of year again! Where we get to celebrate science that seems… ridiculous. But then it makes you go “hmm” : The Ig Nobel awards!! Let’s start with interior design. Those of you who actually have green fingers might always be able to tell the difference, but I often struggle to figure out whether a plant is real or fake. Turns out, it’s not just me - some plants are starting to mimic non-plant shapes around them! The leaf on the left is the ‘natural’ shape for this plant. The leaf on the right was grown by an actual living plant when it was grown near to an artificial plant with a simple oval shape to its leaves. Image: White & Yamashita, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15592324.2021.1977530   Let’s stick with things inside our houses for now… we all know that the direction our toilets flush isn’t impacted by whether we’re north or south of the Equator, right? Well, the persistence of that myth got some researchers to wondering w...

Have a Happy Thought: In my so-close-to-13 years at Auckland Council, I have sent over 52,000 emails (yes, that is a LOT). The most important series of these started on July 6th, 2018, when I sent this out to about 10 people:         That's the origin of these friday missives, and hopefully the subject line of these emails makes a little more sense now On to this week's mind-blowing fact: Coal, that black substance that kicked off the modern industrial age and is also somehow still a threat as a dud-stocking-gift for bad boys and girls, almost didn't exist. At least, not in anywhere near the abundance we found it. See, coal is basically super-compressed peat, which is less-compressed-but-not- decomposed trees and other vegetal matter. Peat bogs today exist because of the lack of oxygen within these local watery environs, and this lack of oxygen slows down or prevents the decay of any plants that fall in. (And sometimes, even preserves animals !) But most of the coal in th...

Have a Happy Thought:     People can be funny about money, especially in Canada.   For one, the common name for the $1 coin is a “ looney ”, named so because of the image of a Common Loon (bird) on that coin: Image: the reverse side of a Canadian dollar coin minted in 2013. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie#/media/File:Canadian_Dollar_-_reverse.png     For two, or rather for the $5 bills, “Spocking” bills used to be a thing in Canada. The image of Sir Wilfrid Laurier (the 7 th Prime Minister of Canada, for those of you, like me, who need brushing up on your Canadian political history) lends itself nicely to this use. It’s a bit less common now with polymer (plastic-based) notes, although some people still find a way. Image: three instances of Sir Wilfrid Laurier on the Canadian $5 note, edited by pen to appear like Leonard Nemoy’s Spock from the Original Star Trek. Source: https://mastodon.social/@MeanwhileinCanada@ohai.social/112797697246289965...

Have a Happy Thought:   Clay is… amazing. Humans have been making things out of clay for at least 30,000 years . And it’s super useful – it lets us boil water and other substances , carry and store drinks and food .   And also lets us make art.   Sometimes, the art is painted on the pottery, like classic red-figure pottery of ancient Greece: The wedding of Thetis , pyxis by the Wedding Painter, circa 470/460 BCE. Paris: Louvre. Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen     Sometimes whole peoples and historic migrations are named after the type of pottery, because that is the most consistent, or hard-wearing and long-lasting, evidence of their culture. Remnants of Lapita pottery, dated 1000 BCE. Image: University of Auckland , Department of Anthropology, Anthropology Photographic Archive     Sometimes the way the pottery is made in itself is the art, like this example of the coil and scrape method: Mogollon (US Southwest) Brownware, Corruga...

Have a Happy Thought:   Apparently, a lot of you really like maps! (I knew you were my people 😃 )   So here are some map-adjacent things that I’ve been waiting to share with you all.  1.  How many planets outside of our solar system have we discovered? When I was in high school, the answer to that was: Zero. Now, the answer to that is: literally thousands . You can read all about how we found these and when, and what is so exciting about them… or you can look at these amazing artworks that help us to see them all. If you visit the artist’s website, you can buy prints, wall posters, and I think I saw a jigsaw puzzle in there, too…. Oh, and he also makes fun maps . Image: The Exoplanet Zoo by Martin Vargic   Image: Icy and Rocky Worlds by Martin Vargic   2. Have you ever thought about just how many cows there must be on this planet? What about the fish in the sea? What about viruses? This artist has put together a visu...

Have a Happy Thought: Maps are a perfect example of the phrase “All models are wrong but some are useful", said by the statistician George Box . A good (useful) map might help get you where you want to go – this includes dynamic and electronic maps like Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Open Street Maps . Some maps can give you a new perspective on the world.   And then there are the maps that are printed on meant to be useful in more than one way. Take this Map-kin for example (I just really liked the word ‘map-kin’ and basically found a whole bunch of other maps to make up an entire email just to share this one word with you all). Image: A Map-kin of best stops. Map of western Nevada with best stops and points of interest for tourists, dated sometime between 1930 and 1960. From the Library of Congress   Some maps, though, seem to be less about getting you physically to a place, and more about making a point. Take this political-cartoon-turned-map from 1870: Image:...

Have a Happy Thought: Last week we talked about the country uniforms for this year’s Summer Olympics. As the competitions draw to a close, this week let’s look at the medals that the athletes are being given. You may have noticed that the medals look a little bit different from previous years, with a big grey hexagon in the middle. This is actually iron, a metal that normally does not feature amongst the gold, silver and bronze. This iron comes from a special source – it is scrap iron from the Eiffel Tower! It is a mixture of bits left over during the original construction, as well as pieces that have been removed (and replaced, don’t worry) from the tower during various maintenance and renovations. The Monnaie de Paris, which is the national Mint (i.e. the place that literally makes physical money) crafted the iron scraps along with the gold, silver and bronze, into these beautiful medals. Image: https://www.compoundchem.com/2024/07/30/paris2024medals/   This isn’t th...

Have a Happy Thought:     Hopefully you’ve been able to catch some of this year’s Summer Olympics, and marvel over the awesomeness that these athletes are showcasing for us.   One thing that can often go overlooked though is the time and effort that goes into designing the country uniforms for the opening and closing ceremonies. Often, these are somewhat utilitarian outfits, but every once in a while, a country really takes this opportunity to shine. For me, this year, Mongolia really brought their A-game. Just LOOK at these works of art! Image: https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/mongolian-olympic-uniforms-2024-paris-photos-1236493019/     These were designed and made by a Mongolian label, Michel & Amazonka, and each uniform took up to 20 hours to make. The DETAIL Image: Michel & Amazonka https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/mongolian-olympic-uniforms-2024-paris-photos-1236493019/     A...

Have a Happy Thought:     Many of us (I’m assuming – I definitely did) wanted to be a fossil-hunter (or maybe just fossil-finder) at some point in our lives. Why are fossils important? Well, other than being really cool to find, and other than the fact that they stick to your tongue when you lick them… they give us a sense of history, a way to understand how the current plants and animals we share the earth with came to be. In other words, fossils are “the whakapapa of our celebrated flora and fauna.” 1   If you live in the US, you can get these amazing books “Roadside Geology of…” that help you “interpret the rocks and landscapes visible outside your car window… [and will] guide you to outcrops and roadcuts where you can stretch your legs and expand your minds.”   Some of this geology information is very useful to fossil-hunters, who want to know where to look for rock layers of a certain age. https://mountain-press.com/collections/roadside-geology/pro...