April 25th

 

In the library

a sunny child explorer

is picked by a book

Rainy days are book days. I’m not a kindle person, I feel traitorous to that smell of new books, or the feel and smell of the battered lived in books that adorn my collection. A new purchase of mine is the Magic Of Reality by Richard Dawkins, illustrated by one of my favourite artists Dave McKean. That’s not to say I wouldn’t own the App which goes with it, it sounds fab, but alas I do not own an iPad, otherwise I’d be right there in that interactive world! But it would be to complement the book, not to replace it.

The Magic of Reality has that quality to inform and entertain, to keep you captivated. It covers the science of grand concepts beautifully and of course it is furnished with absolutely lovely art. It fired neurones in my brain which released happiness associated with childhood. Those wide eyed times when a trip to the library was a proper day out. Wandering through the shelves, being drawn to an evocative title, a story of true adventure or books where you could peel away the layers of skin for a subject and understand what makes things tick (literally so in the case of anatomy books).

Those were times where it felt books were precious. When the book chose you.

March 23rd

Firing a warning

Shock absorbing skull rattles

Eager drummer boy

 

Woodpeckers, specifically the Greater Spotted are getting right into their woodpecking at this time of year. I went for a run and I could hear one clearly. The biology of a woodpeckers skull is quite incredible. The cushioning of their brain casing is a miracle of evolution (if I’m allowed to use the words “miracle” and “evolution” in the same sentence).

This article from the Independent gives some indication as to how Woodpeckers avoid serious brain damage from their incessant head banging.

I quote:

“Brain injuries may be caused by an impact or a sudden change in the velocity of the head.

However, woodpeckers experience no ill effects even though their beaks hit tree trunks at six to seven metres a second, with deceleration producing enormous forces of up to 1,000G.”

Yes, 1,000G.

Now, your average human, according to my sources – i.e the internet :) usually gets knocked out when G-force suddenly reaches between 7G and 9G, so this is an incredible feat. I shudder to think what would happen to a person if they were suddenly  subjected to 1,000G, the least of our worries would be our eyes popping out cartoon style (or retracting to pea sized shrivelled raisins), considering what would be happening to our brains.

So here is a vid of a test subject being subjected to extreme G-force through a wind blast test. Purely for scientific purposes and not in any way comedic.

 

And finally a pic of a male Greater Spotted Woodpecker, the UK’s most common woodpecker. (from RSPB website).