This is Mallory, letting you all know that Nicole is away in Canada for the week and will not be doing link roundup!
“Wow, sounds like she’s already pretty checked out.”
HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ME, NICOLE IS THE BEST ONE OF ALL OF US
Trees are gently moving while we sleep, we already know that, but are they doing it on purpose?
For the first time, trees have been shown to undergo physical changes at night that can be likened to sleep, or at least to day-night cycles that have been observed experimentally in smaller plants.
Branches of birch trees have now been seen drooping by as much as 10 centimetres at the tips towards the end of the night.
“It was a very clear effect, and applied to the whole tree,” says András Zlinszky of the Centre for Ecological Research in Tihany, Hungary. “No one has observed this effect before at the scale of whole trees, and I was surprised by the extent of the changes.”
So is the drooping deliberate, dictated by an active sleep-night cycle, or passive, dictated by differences in the availability of water and light? “This remains to be decided,” says Zlinszky.
Cave news, I will click on anything with the word cave in the title:
The show focuses on the Mogao Grottoes, China’s greatest cache of Buddhist wall paintings and sculptures. Carved into the face of a cliff near the city of Dunhuang between the 4th and 14th centuries, the art-filled caves reside on the southwest edge of the Gobi Desert. But remote and isolated as it may be, Dunhuang grew up as an oasis on the web of ancient trade routes known collectively as the Silk Road, evolving into a political, military and economic center, as well as a gateway to the West.
I will never understand the Google News algorithm, but okay
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My magical week at a massive bikini-clad festival for queer women of color
(image via)
