Welcome to my weekly letter, where I share a few noteworthy articles and my own commentary. Without further ado…
Weekly Read
- Nature at its craziest: Trillions of cicadas about to emerge (AP News) – trillions of cicadas crawling out of the earth, climbing the trees (… social ladder…), shed (… aged and matured…) and try to start a family while struggling not to be eaten by the predators. Sounds like an epic growing up and survival story, potentially mixing in a bit of Jane Austen?? 😀
- The Cicadas Are Coming. Let’s Eat Them! (Wired) – More on this wave of cicadas that’s called ‘Brood X’, but in the perspective of the predators! :p Well, it just so happens that we humans are looking for high protein, low carbon footprint food sources, and these cicadas match the criteria, perfectly! Also good to know that there’s another wave, ‘Brood II’, emerging in 2030.
- What’s the Point of Wasps, Anyway? (Wired) – and yet there are 100k known species of them! Being the ancestor of bees, the wasps’ venom, saliva, and larval all possess medicinal properties. And, their larvae are another source of high protein, low carbon footprint food… (your menu also includes another one from the January episode… mealworms!)
- The US wood shortage can be traced to a decades-old beetle infestation in Canada (Quartz) – can we eat those beetles too? lol. well, I guess the more reason to go with 3D-printed cement houses (see another item from last week’s episode)
- What Octopus Dreams Tell Us About the Evolution of Sleep (Wired) – I must confess that I kinda assume all living creatures dream (I’ll give the credit to Disney cartoons on that education). Other interesting things learned from this article: 1) octopuses have a highly distributed central nervous system. Instead of concentrating control of their nervous system in one brain, they have eight ganglia in their arms that often act independently (must take a committee to just swim with all 8 legs…; 2) the methodology of sourcing an animal’s ability to dream via its evolutionary ancestry (thank you my parents!)
Have a nice weekend!
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