The impact of Jaws, another big fish, and iffy appetisers

Hello, friends!

Hope you’re all good. Let’s get to it.

Coming up:

😰 why it’s probably not worth testing your blood for microplastics

🎣 what not to do if you catch a 10-foot sturgeon in British waters

🐶 how many dinner party guests would notice if you switched pâté for dog food.

Let’s go!

read all about it

New dwarf planet just dropped? A tiny world, about 700km across, has been found at the far reaches of the solar system. It travels around the Sun on an extremely elliptical orbit that takes it more than 240 billion km away. How did researchers find it? (New York Times – gift link)

Meet the teeny tiny fossils that let us predict the fate of the oceans: Foraminifera fossils are tiny, beautiful structures that carry clues about our oceans’ past and future. Tim Vernimmen meets the scientists who piece together the history they contain. (Knowable Magazine)

Garden hummingbird feeders have changed the shape of the birds’ beaks: In the western US, the beaks of Anna’s hummingbirds have got longer and more slender – better for getting to the sugar water in garden hummingbird feeders. Making this discovery involved sifting through newspaper archives and census data, Kat Lonsdorf finds. (NPR)

What you can expect when you test your blood for microplastics: Elyse Hauser uses a $150 home kit to check her blood for microplastics, before reckoning with the results. “One of the things that we’ve all learned in medicine is you don’t test for stuff that you can’t fix,” says paediatrician and public health physician Philip Landrigan. (Slate)

The impact of Jaws, 50 years on: “The idea that Jaws led to bad public relations is too simple a story,” writes Chris Pepin-Neff, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Sydney. “Our reading of the movie and understanding of real-life sharks, the public and our beaches is evolving.” (Scientific American)

📼 Tune into this livestream of fledgling bald eagles Sunny and Gizmo, and their folks Jackie and Shadow, as they prepare for their first flight.

that time when…

…a 120kg sturgeon was caught in Swansea Bay… before going missing. (3 June 2004)

The 2.75m-long fish, named Stanley by the press, was sold at auction before being seized by police. It vanished not long after.

“They’ve lost the fish,” said Robert Davies, who originally caught the sturgeon, a rare and protected species in British waters. “They called to ask if I had it but I haven’t got it.”

Nick Henry of Plymouth’s Moby Nicks fish sellers said: “They [Davies] must have thought that they won the jackpot. But they’ll end up with nothing.” David Pessell of the Plymouth Trawler Agents also weighed in: “We’re all looking rather foolish, to be honest.”

Stanley turned up a few days later, and was donated to the Natural History Museum’s collection.

what’s happening this week?

Your agenda for Monday 2 – Sunday 8 June.

All times are BST, and all sky views are from London.

🔭 in a sky near you: Venus will be bright in the early morning sky all week – if you happen to be up around 4, so about an hour before sunrise, look for it in the east.

👀 closer to Earth: Elderflower season has begun. Seek out the sprays of fragrant white flowers on elder trees, which grow in woodlands and hedgerows. If you’re foraging, pick freshly opened buds on a dry, warm, sunny day, and remember to shake off any bugs before steeping them. The Woodland Trust has a simple recipe – bottoms up.

online talks and events

🎨 How mathematicians are helping art historians and art conservators with Professor Ingrid Daubechies, hybrid lecture by the Royal Society, Monday 2 June, 18.30, free

🤔 Why isn’t there a philosophy of neurology? with Professor Vaughan Bell, hybrid lecture by the University of Exeter, Tuesday 3 June, 15.30, free (register by Monday 23.30!)

🪞 We see in a mirror: from inverse problems to AI with Professor Silvia Cirstea, online lecture by Anglia Ruskin University, Wednesday 4 June, 18.00, free

🧮 Sum stories: equations and their origins with Professor Robin Wilson, hybrid lecture by Gresham College, Wednesday 4 June, 18.00, free

📐 Measure for measure: a history of measurement, hybrid day-long event by St Cross College, University of Oxford, Saturday 7 June, 10.30 to 17.00, free

we finally know…

…that in a taste test, most people couldn’t identity dog food among pâté, spam, and liverwurst.

Eighteen volunteers were presented five unlabelled samples of different foods, each puréed to give the appearance of a “liver mousse”. Just three out of the 18 (17%) correctly identified the dog food.

Two (11%) ranked the dog food highest in terms of taste.

Source: Can People Distinguish Pâté from Dog Food? (Chance)

we need answers

Last week I asked:

The answer is… Antarctica.

until next week…

What vehicle, unveiled in 1976, would have been named “Constitution” if it weren’t for a campaign by Star Trek fans?

Answer comes next week. See you then! x