The other amazing thing is that billytea's spidey sense did not alert him to this discussion.

What makes you think it didn't?

The part I find most remarkable is that they release the bacteria when they're done. There are many deep sea creatures (including squid) that have formed a more permanent symbiotic relationship with bioluminescent bacteria. (There's one squid which has adapted the ink-squirting trick - when threatened, it'll shoot a cloud of glowing bacteria at the threat and flee during the confusion.)

I can't figure out why squid haven't yet taken over the world, because they damn well could. Maybe they figure it isn't worth the effort.

There's a program I watched a few years ago, The Future is Wild, which contained highly speculative suggestions on the future courses evolution might take in the absence of humans. 200 million years in the future, you had a fight for dominance on land between two creatures, one a predatory behemoth and the other a small, intelligent tree-dweller. And they're both squid.

OMG this just in: I am home alone! With a glass of wine relaxing after my stretch class. That is like a Christmas miracle right there.

Of course, should perhaps call DH and remind him that the kids' bedtime was an hour ago, but it's not like I'm really worried about it.

The part I find most remarkable is that they release the bacteria when they're done.

IIRC, the bacteria go bananas with the making of more bacteria, and dying off, creating a toxic environment for the squid if they are not released. It's beneficial for the bacteria in that it makes MOAR bacteria happen. I think. I wrote it all down in a notebook at the time. I need to email Bassler to fact-check me on the essay for Sidelines, because my biology understanding is so much weaker than my physics understanding, and my physics understanding is pretty much, "Entropy. It makes a fucking mess."

Jesus. I used to be brainier. I swear.

I'd like to contribute something thoughtful, but my level of braininess at the moment is right around "Squid r wicked cool!"

I also read an amazing theory on why humans and some primates menstruate monthly, when a shitload of other animals only build up the uterine lining when an egg gets fertilized.

Our fetuses are especially bananas at the eating us alive, so we preemptively build the lining before fertilization as a buffer between us and the hangry fertilized egg. Otherwise it would suck us dry and leave us nothing but an empty husk.

This is helpful at answering the question as to why humans would do this thing that puts us at risk (leaking stinky messy bodily fluids that require sanitary schtuff to avoid infection, for one example). It's actually increasing chances for surviving a pregnancy.

That's the theory I read today, and my understanding of it may be suspect.

I will return with more weird shit I've read about science, like, "why is our blood red?" tomorrow.

I love learning new stuff, even if I don't really get it

I was trying to help a girl find a book - and I was asking her about it as we walked to the shelves I said something about being curious about the series. a regular over heard, picked up the word and said Curious?

and I said yes, that is why I am here. '

I love learning new stuff, even if I don't really get it

Yeah. Me too. I was editing a proposal about a tsunami alert system which uses buoys to measure earthquakes on the ocean floor, transmits the data to our GPS satellites, makes crazy calculations, and then alerts countries as to how big/small a tsunami will be, and when/where it will hit, with balls-on accuracy. So people can at least have a shot at getting to higher ground.

This was a few months back, and I'm still like, "this is fucking AWESOME."

IIRC, the bacteria go bananas with the making of more bacteria, and dying off, creating a toxic environment for the squid if they are not released. It's beneficial for the bacteria in that it makes MOAR bacteria happen. I think.

That's what I love about the way things evolve. There's always a reason. There are all these interrelationships that evolved and changed and became more involved and fraught, and it's just so cool.

Take a fairly simple and well-known example, the milkweed and the monarch butterfly. The monarch needs the milkweed for its caterpillars to live on; the milkweed defends itself by producing latex in such quantities that the caterpillars either drown, or have their jaws gummed up and starve. Maybe a third of the caterpillars survive their first day. But when they've grown and pupated, it's the adult monarch that pollinates the milkweed. The two species need each other, but their equilibrium is driven by them each trying to kill each other.

I love this kind of stuff.

Now tell me how to make my petunias eat tobacco bud worms.