A Formica ant suspends a drop of aphid honeydew between her mandibles (which bristle with 7 or more teeth), as she drinks it. 
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Question for readers to answer:

Macaque monkey,  Crab-eating macaque (Macaca fascicularis) in Lopburi, Thailand.  Photo courtesy of 'Chris huh' and Wikipedia.

If a human yawns in front of a monkey, will the monkey yawn?

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Interacting with nature by K:

How to Offer Wild Birds Shelter in the Winter

Not all birds migrate south for the winter.  Winter is a hard season for birds, and many risk freezing to death at night. It doesn't take much effort or money to provide shelter for them, and it can make a huge difference to the little feathered guys!

More Articles >>

 

 

The fastest object in the Universe (probably)

What is the fastest moving thing in the universe, other than light or other types of electromagnetic radiation?  I've always supposed that it would be the surface of some fast spinning Quasar, but I'm not sure. Richard, Dayton, Ohio

Pulsars are certainly the fastest spinning star. Some spin so fast that a spot on their equator goes about 50 000 km/s, which is about 20% of light speed.

Probably the fastest moving thing known in the Universe is a neutrino (a fundamental particle akin to an electron).  We're not sure a neutrino has mass, but recent observations of neutrinos from Supernova 1987A indicate they do.  Likewise, new findings from the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector in Japan also argue the neutrino's mass is non-zero.

Based on the supernova observations, we can estimate a neutrino's speed.  Ten neutrinos arrived within 15 seconds of each other after traveling 180,000 light years, and they differed by a up to factor of three in energy. This limits the neutrino rest mass energy to less than about 30 eV, which means their rest speed is about 99.999999999999 percent of light speed.  No object can achieve light speed, but a neutrino's rest speed is close.

Further Reading:

Does a neutrino have mass?  HyperPhysics

Neutrino physics, Science @ Berkeley Labs

(Answered May 19, 2008)

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