All Work And No Play Makes A Dull Bumblebee (Cool Weird Awesome 893)
This is maybe the most adorable scientific study of the year: researchers have been testing whether bumblebees like to play with toys… and they do!
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11, 2022
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10, 2022
The United Nations Is Home To The World’s Countries, And Bees (Cool Weird Awesome 872)
It's United Nations Day, and UN headquarters in New York City is a pretty interesting place if you like geopolitics, world history or beekeeping. Here's a closer look at the UN's own beehives.
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10, 2022
The Inventor Of Fettuccine Alfredo Was – No Surprise – A Guy Named Alfredo (Cool Weird Awesome 867)
It's National Pasta Day, and here’s a pasta fact that you might have guessed: Fettucine Alfredo comes from an actual guy named Alfredo.
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09, 2021
Fruit Flies Make Up Customized Songs To Impress Potential Mates (Cool Weird Awesome 603)
Research from 2018 at Princeton University found that male fruit flies use their wings to improvise musical sounds to win the attention of females. I just wish they didn't try to do all of it in my house. Plus: a teen in the UK makes friends with a bee!
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08, 2021
The Guy Who Climbed Mount Hood To Drop Off A Morning Paper For His Friends (Cool Weird Awesome 592)
Today in 1947, two men who had climbed Oregon's Mount Hood and stayed overnight woke up to find a surprise: a quart of milk and the morning newspaper. Who would climb a mountain just to leave those items? Plus: a study out of the University of Greenwich finds that bees get an actual buzz out of naturally-occurring caffeine.
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03, 2021
Smart Tech Can Help Beekeepers Protect Their Hives (Cool Weird Awesome 504)
An engineer and beekeeper in New England has developed a system using radar and vibrational sensors to detect when a hive is being robbed by a rival colony, or when some of the bees are about to leave and start their own colony. That should create a buzz among beekepers! Plus: IKEA has just published a digital "scrapsbook" intended to help people turn leftovers into new meals and not into food waste.
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06, 2020
Robots And Soap Bubbles Might Help Pollinate Crops (Cool Weird Awesome 326)
Bees are running into a lot of challenges lately, and while there are efforts to help the bees get their buzz back, scientists are testing out systems that might give us other ways to pollinate. One, at the Washington State University, involves cameras and robot hands - while another, in Japan, involves soap bubbles.
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05, 2020
Bees Doing It For Themselves (Cool Weird Awesome 307)
There are lots of human efforts to help bees out, but there’s also some new research out that says bees help themselves by taking steps to get plants to flower earlier than usual. Plus: a man in Canada ordered hair cream in 2012, and it just arrived this month. Patience is a virtue!
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05, 2020
The Hubble Telescope’s First Space Photo Was Kind Of Blurry (Cool Weird Awesome 302)
It was on this day in 1990 that the Hubble Space Telescope took its first photo from space. Unfortunately the telescope had a problem with one of its mirrors that required astronauts to go up and fix. Plus: for World Bee Day, the story of an Irish bee enthusiast who built a hive out of LEGO.
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03, 2020
The Moths That Absorb Sound To Hide From Bats (Cool Weird Awesome 251)
Some moths are built to essentially cancel sound - and it's a pretty effective defense mechanism against bats and echolocation. Plus: a heart-shaped work of art made by bees!