Torpedo Bats, Magnetic Animals, and Challenging Physics
A New Kind of Stick (NPR)
by Bill Chappell
It might not seem like there’s much chance of improving on a piece of technology that’s basically a stick of wood. But torpedo bats, designed by a physicist, are changing how baseball is played. Why didn’t anyone think of this before?
The Weird Search for Animal Magnetism (Vox)
by Benji Jones
How do certain animals find their way thousands of miles from home and back again? It might involve quantum mechanics—or possibly magnetism-sensing bacteria found in the tears of turtles.
Cancer’s Terrible Tricks (Knowable Magazine)
by Amber Dance
Cancer is most dangerous when it’s metastasized, traveling to a new part of the body. But how does a type of cell that’s emerged in one environment even survive in a totally different one? The answers could help save lives.
Worlds Beyond Physics (Aeon)
by Adrien De Sutter
Physics is the way humans try to understand the most fundamental aspects of reality. Or is it? As increasingly ambitious experiments fail to uncover the keys to concepts like dark matter, maybe physicists should rethink their approach.
Artists’ Late Periods (Literary Hub)
by Douglas J. Penick
In the last years of his life, Beethoven composed music unlike any he’d written earlier in his career. Aspects of his experience can be found in the work of many artists who discover new ways of seeing the world in old age and illness.
Got a hot tip about a well-researched story that belongs on this list? Email us here.
The post Torpedo Bats, Magnetic Animals, and Challenging Physics appeared first on JSTOR Daily.