A 22-year-old researcher in Australia just discovered 12 new species of spider, seven of which are colorful peacock spiders. Not only are peacock spiders beautiful (their name reflects their colorfully patterned abdomens), but they are also exceptional dancers. Males wave
Zap! Newly discovered electric eel generates some serious current
Scientists recently discovered that there are not one (as they had thought), not two, but three different species of electric eel. And one of the new discoveries packs the biggest punch of all. These eels send out pulses of electricity
Listen to millions of monarchs
What sound does a butterfly make? With it’s delicate wings, not a whole lot–until you get millions of them together in one place. Most monarchs migrate to Mexico for the winter. There, they huddle in trees at night and flit
Slingshot spider
You thought cheetahs were fast? Meet the slingshot spider. This resident of the Peruvian rainforest nabs a meal in its web like most spiders. But instead of waiting for the food to come to it, this spider takes its web
Ninja kangaroo rats!
Nature is awesome, and so are the scientists who study it. Researchers studying rattlesnakes and kangaroo rats (common predator and prey) needed to be able to see what happened during those lightning-quick interactions. To do so, they used high-speed video,
I have a book in the Scholastic Book Fair!
Today, one of my dreams was realized: one of my books can be found on the shelves of the Scholastic Book Fair (both elementary and middle school fairs have it). I help run the fair at my son’s school, and
Local Author Signing
I had a blast at the Bookworm in Omaha today, signing books alongside other great children’s authors, including N.L. Sharp and Dan Kenney (both of whom are in my writing group). Oh my goodness. Look at all these books!
Mighty microbots
Robotics researchers have come up with some remarkable things, like this self-steering drone. Now a group from Stanford University has created 1-inch microbots, called μTugs (pronounced “micro-Tugs”) that can move some really big things. The researchers started by creating a
Alison’s Adventures: Close encounters of the reptilian kind
I had a close encounter with (captive) wildlife not long ago, when my family visited the Wild Discovery Room at the Crane Festival in Kearney, NE. There were all kinds of great critters there, including eight or nine raptors (owls,
Drones to the rescue
Researchers in Switzerland have created a “smart” drone (unmanned aircraft) that can follow a forest trail–all by itself. The drones use a camera to “see” what lies ahead. The scientists used a deep neural network to program the flying bot.