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Wild Things:
Life as We Know It
Whale of a comeback, dancing cockatoos, sticky bees, and waltzing pond scum
By Amanda Bensen, Joseph Caputo, T.A. Frail, Laura Helmuth and Abigail Tucker
Smithsonian magazine, July 2009
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(Knut Drescher and Raymond E. Goldstein, University of Cambridge)
Volvox are single-celled algae that live in spherical colonies containing thousands of cells. When the cells twirl their flagella, the whole colony spins. Now biophysicists in England and Japan say Volvox colonies interact in unexpected ways. In a "waltz", they revolve around each other. In a "minuet," they hover farther apart. The scientists speculate that the coordinated movements increase the chances of cross-colony fertilization.
Learn more about Volvox algae at the Encyclopedia of Life.
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Volvox Dancing the "Minuet" and the "Waltz"
Single-celled algae colonies cross-fertilize in two different types of movement
Bobbing to the Backstreet Boys
Snowball the cockatoo bobs his head and lifts his leg to the beats of the Backstreet Boys' "Everbody"
Comments
Everyone in our flock LOVES SNOWBALL!!
Posted by Chris on July 8,2009 | 02:47PM
How can something be single-celled and made out of a colony of cells(multi-cellular)?
Posted by Ben on July 13,2009 | 07:14AM
I've sent Snowball dancing to my 2 greatgranddaughters and they loved him.
Posted by Elaine B on August 12,2009 | 08:32PM