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“The museum cafe is that way.” Photo by Jean Carlo Emer on Unsplash
As read by the author is always cool. Especially when J.R.R. Tolkien narrates the Ride of the Rohirrim
Bees don’t like flying over mirrors. Who does, really? But it is especially bad luck for a bee: There's a Really Weird Effect When Honeybees Fly Over a Mirror
In 1963, an Austrian entomologist named Herbert Heran and the German behavioral scientist, Martin Lindauer, noticed something peculiar in the way honeybees zoom through the air.
When a selection of bees was trained to fly over a lake, they could only make it to the other side if there were waves and ripples on the surface of the water.
If the lake was mirror-smooth, on the other hand, the insects would suddenly lose altitude until they crashed headlong into the liquid-looking glass.
Ok, whoa, back up! I think the real headline here is that Herr Doktor Heran trained bees to fly over a lake. What? How do you even do that? Did he have an army of trained bees at his command? This sounds like a great setup for a B-movie horror flick. The Fiendish Bee Mirror of Doktor Heran.
But back to the science. Why did the bees crash in the lake?
In short, it seems as though bees use visual cues on the ground to maintain their altitude, as opposed to visual cues from above them in the sky.
When the ground is no longer giving the insects a proper baseline, researchers think they drop lower in altitude to see if they can regain that 'ventral optic flow'.
Thinking it is farther away than it is, they ultimately crash into the ground.
Fascinating. So if you’re ever being chased by bees, run across a mirror and they won’t be able to catch. Or jump in the lake. Don’t say Thursday Things never gives you useful tips!
“Oh, good. The mirror is gone.” Photo by Jenna Lee on Unsplash
Unless you’re Rachel Weisz. Museums are safest indoor activity, study finds. Actually this story did not live up to the headline, at least for me. I thought they had perhaps compared visiting a museum to other typical indoor activities like starting a fight in a biker bar, going to an indoor axe-throwing venue, training bees, spending the night in a haunted house, or using a tanning bed. But no. Nothing that interesting. It’s really about the virus:
According to the Berlin Institute of Technology (TU Berlin) in Germany, the risk of COVID-19 infection via aerosol particles is far lower in museums than in supermarkets, restaurants, offices and on public transportation.
… The study said food shopping, dining indoors or exercising in a gym are at least twice as risky as visiting a museum to view art.
Ok, wow, thanks, study guys. Because there are usually far fewer people in completely optional locations like museums, versus people doing things most people have to do, like buy or eat food. I’m sure museums are safer in that regard. But this study could have been so much more interesting!
“Haven’t you heard? Museums are the safest place to be. Come play with us!” Doll Heads in Suomenlinna Toy Museum. Photo by Tapio Haaja on Unsplash
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