Curio Cabinet

Not everyone can be a Nobel Prize winner, so why not aim your ambitions just a tad lower? For those conducting scientific research that “makes people laugh…then think” there’s the Ig Nobel Awards, which just selected ten winners for 2023. The prize has been used since 1991 as a way to honor scientists who make quirky or humorous discoveries. One of this year’s winners was chosen for their research on why scientists like to lick rock samples, while a team of international engineers was selected for trying to reanimate dead spiders.
 
According to the journal Nature, “The Ig Nobel awards are arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.” While the “Igs,” as they’re also called, might seem like a mocking jab at frivolous research, they’re actually just the opposite. The award recognizes the value of oddball endeavors. The rock-licking study, for instance, was actually about the effectiveness of a real technique used in the field by paleontologists. Jan Zalasiewicz, who won the chemistry and geology prize, expounded in the study, “Wetting the surface allows fossil and mineral textures to stand out sharply, rather than being lost in the blur of intersecting micro-reflections and micro-refractions that come out of a dry surface.” In the case of the dead spiders, the engineers were taking inspiration from the arachnid’s anatomy to develop better mechanical grippers. They found that when spiders die and curl up, their legs are returning to their default “gripping” state. Based on this principle, the gripper they designed opens when pressure is applied instead of the other way around and is better at holding irregularly-sized objects.
 
Overall, the award is a tongue-in-cheek way for the scientific community to recognize the ostensibly absurd nature of their shared work while rewarding legitimate research. The awards are largely presented by Nobel Laureates and at least one Ig Nobel winner went on to win a Nobel Prize later. So it’s safe to say that the Igs are all in good fun. Even the prize money is absurd: each winner is given a “cash reward” of a $10 trillion dollar bill. Of course, that’s in Zimbabwe dollars, which haven’t been recognized as legal tender since 2009. Who said that scientists have no sense of humor?

 
[Image description: Two arms, each holding a large, gold trophy, reach in front of a yellow background.] Credit & copyright: Anna Shvets, Pexels

Who’s that rarefied, long-legged beauty in pink? No, it’s not Barbie—it’s the flamingo. Some of these fine, feathered flyers were recently blown astray by Hurricane Idalia and found themselves scattered across the U.S. There have been sightings of them from Texas to Ohio, but even without the storm, these plucky proprietors of pink plumage have been spotted in places beyond their usual hangouts due to a number of factors.
 
Most flamingos in the U.S. reside in Florida, where they are a native species. There aren’t that many of them left in the Sunshine State, though, since overhunting nearly drove them to extinction in the early 1900s. When Hurricane Idalia struck the Southeastern U.S. this year, some Florida flamingos fled outside of their natural range to avoid the storm, while others got caught in it and were knocked off their usual flight paths by force. Luckily, the birds should be able to get back home. Flamingos may look like fussy fashionistas, but they’re actually hardened survivors that have conquered some of the harshest environments on Earth.
 
Flamingos have been around for about 30 million years, making them quite a bit older than humans, and they’ve survived so long via some impressive adaptations. While no one knows why they’re pink, we do know how they become pink. A flamingo’s diet consists mostly of plants and brine shrimp. The pigments or carotenoids in these foods are absorbed by the flamingos’ feathers. Flamingos aren’t born pink, but rather a dull gray. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for flamingo chicks to grow their adult feathers, and they retain their pink hues as long as they have a decent source of food. Flamingos have very attentive parents who feed them something called “crop milk,” a high protein liquid produced in the crop, a muscular pouch near their throats. Besides these adaptations, flamingos have unusual beaks that almost appear to be attached upside-down. These are used for filter feeding. While standing in shallow water, flamingos dip their heads down and take in whatever plant matter, insects, or shrimp they can, using their beaks like scoops. They then expel the water through thin, comb-like plates inside their beaks. Flamingos’ legs also look as if they’re pointing the wrong way because they seem to bend backwards at the knee. However, the bending joint that’s visible is actually their ankle. Their knees are hidden under their feathers, much closer to their bodies. Flamingos can stand on just one of these long, sturdy legs for hours at a time—even sleeping in that position. They do this because their unique anatomy lets them use less energy to stand on one leg than on two. Some scientists believe that this also allows them to conserve heat when it’s cold. Their legs have thick, durable skin, which is particularly useful for flamingos living near alkaline lakes. These bodies of water have high concentrations of highly corrosive carbonate salts that would be deadly to most other animals, yet adult flamingos are practically immune to them.
 
Despite these incredible adaptations, flamingo populations around the world are only tenuously safe. Per the The International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, American flamingos and greater flamingos are considered species of “least concern.” Meanwhile the Andean flamingo is considered “vulnerable” and the Chilean flamingo is considered “near threatened.” The greatest threats facing the latter are hunting, habitat loss, and pollution, but all species can be affected by storms or flooding, which are increasing in severity and frequency with climate change. Then again, maybe flamingos will surprise us—they’re so weird, you never know what surprises they’re hiding under their gorgeous getups.

 
[Image description: A pair of deep pink flamingos stands in front of a flock of lighter-pink flamingos.] Credit & copyright: Alexas_Fotos, Pixabay

Progress can sometimes mean making compromises, but further progress can negate them entirely. The tomatoes we find in modern grocery stores are a bit tougher than they were a few decades ago. In fact, they had to undergo selective breeding to make them strong enough for mechanical harvesting. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of flavor (which is why softer, garden-variety tomatoes always seem yummier than the ones at the store.) Now, a team of plant geneticists at Shandong Agricultural University claim to have found a way to bring the flavor back to tomatoes while making them as strong as ever, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Plants. Most modern store-variety tomatoes available in the U.S. today are the result of a breeding program led by agronomist Gordie C. Hanna in the mid-1960s. After decades of experimenting, he created a cultivar known as the "square tomato,” which was capable of withstanding the rigors of mechanical harvesting. The veggies revolutionized California’s agricultural industry and made tomatoes more accessible, but whatever made them firm also made them slightly less flavorful. The Shandong Agricultural University team believes that the key to solving this problem lies in roma tomatoes, which are oblong and durable, yet delicious. They found the gene responsible for the variety’s shape, Solyc08g061910, and introduced it to two other cultivars, TB0249 and Ailsa Craig. With genetic editing, the cultivars took on the oblong shape of roma tomatoes and became more resistant to crushing while retaining their flavor. However, there is yet another problem: many restaurants prefer large, round tomatoes to get large, round slices for sandwiches and other dishes. The next step, then, is to figure out how to make the tomatoes larger too. Bigger, tastier tomatoes certainly sound good, no idea no matter how you slice it.

[Image description: A tomato plant with a vine of red tomatoes covered in drops of water.] Credit & copyright: kie-ker, Pixabay