What can we learn from a tiny seahorse that might help us make stronger robotics or armor in the future? UCSD Materials Science Ph.D. student Michael Porter explains what his team has learned about the flexible structure of a seahorse’s prehensile tail.

There are more fish swimming, including these sea dragons and other syngnathidae, in the archives.

via Gizmodo.

In this beautifully illustrated lesson from TED Ed, science writer and educator Carl Zimmer explains some answers to the question, How did feathers evolve? 

From his article in National Geographic: 

Most of us will never get to see nature’s greatest marvels in person. We won’t get a glimpse of a colossal squid’s eye, as big as a basketball. The closest we’ll get to a narwhal’s unicornlike tusk is a photograph. But there is one natural wonder that just about all of us can see, simply by stepping outside: dinosaurs using their feathers to fly.

With animation by Armella Leung, see how today’s birds are related to the dinosaurs of the past, and how fossils with feathers have helped us understand that connection.

Related viewing: evolution, dinosaurs, birds, flying, and a robot that flies like a bird.

This human eye video close-up, via io9’s Incredible Photographs of Fractals Found in the Natural World, was filmed by AJ Korkidakis. The one below, which isn’t as crisp but goes into more detail about the eye’s different parts, is from a series on Extreme Detail: 

Evolutionary Biologist and Ornithologist Kim Bostwick describes the dance moves and unique sounds of the forest-dwelling Red-capped Manakin. This Central and South America-based bird makes a snapping sound with its wings, and has a unique courtship move that has been compared to The Moonwalk. 

Kim launched the Manakin-focused Singingwings.org, and is the Curator of Birds and Mammals in the Museum of Vertebrates at Cornell University, from where we’ve seen some amazing must-watch bird videos.

h/t Next Draft, which got me googling after it linked to 6 animals that science has discovered can dance, which also features the dance of the peacock spider.

Watch more videos about dance and sound.

How Mendel’s pea plants helped us understand genetics. Also explained in a single vintage illustration. Complement with why we are all related.

From TED-Ed.

via explore-blog.