Tuesday, 10 January 2017

FUNGI & SWARMS.. OH, THANK YOU BBC4!

We do have oblong eyes now. Last night we watched a documentary on Swarms. They covered all manner of animals and insects: locusts, crabs, ants, birds, mice, rats, you name it, it swarms! BBC4 does brilliant documentaries on wild life and we have watched a lot of them over the past two weeks.

Another fascinating programme, also on BBC4, that was shown two nights ago was on Fungi. One part of the programme was on the Honey Fungi in Oregon which is the largest living organism in the world.

But the most fascinating part of this programme was an interview with the young scientist who has developed, I kid you not, LIVING POLYSTYRENE!

Of course, it is not polystyrene but it's a living organism made by mixing a fungi with something that it likes to eat. And.. it degrades naturally.

Over to the mighty Mississippi River where, due to a break-out from a fish farm, Silver Carp which are not native to the area were shown leaping out of the water to the height of three feet! What causes them to behave in such a strange fashion? The movement of water from a propeller being a classic example and if one does it, then all of them start leaping about, it was an extraordinary sight.

So that's another two wonderful programmes for you to find on-line.. now we are off to do mysterious things in YumYum HQ. I'll be back tomorrow with the result of her today's visit to Margaret, her optician, as her consultant at Moorfields had told her that her prescription has changed 'quite significantly'.

PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 10th, 2017.

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