Author Archives: The Green Room

Millipedes, honeyeaters, and smelly glands. This week we whip out our scanning electron microscopes for some full-frontal footage of millipedes doing the dirty. Tune in to learn how a leg can also be a penis, why honeyeaters perform ritualistic dances, and in Liz’s own words, “where else has cool glands for good smelling stuff”.

Crystals, sharks, and devil grass. Something is lurking in the deep in this week’s episode. Join us as we dive past the sharks having rough coitus, delve through your inner ears and the crystals they possess, and dig into the past, present and future of the devil disguised as your lawn.

Condoms, cannibalism, and brain-control. This week things get hot and heavy in The Green Room. The innocent spinifex grass is not only interesting for its doughnut shape, but its ability to make super-slim condoms. Speaking of safe sex, fungus has developed brain-control mechanisms to increase libido of infected organisms. How romantic. But do you wantContinue reading “Condoms, cannibalism, and brain-control.”

Spiders, spinifex, and subterranean beetles. You know what’s a cool experiment? Looking at 5 million years of evolution in a beetle, as it adapts to life underground. Life below the earth’s surface is rooted with evolutionary mysteries… like why does spinifex grow in the shape of a donut? Is this the work of harmful soilContinue reading “Spiders, spinifex, and subterranean beetles.”

Sand, simulations, and sticky spiders. Why don’t spiders stick to their own webs? The answer may surprise you, along with the myriad of unexpected (and sometimes sexual) functions of a spider’s web. We uncover a 1970s computer simulation that suggests that even selfish organisms can work together to sustain life on our planet. And overContinue reading “Sand, simulations, and sticky spiders.”

This week, we take a sneak peek inside the brain of a grieving crow and a coma patient. They teach us things about how and why we study brains, and the nature of the ego. A wacky team of scientists stick 3D goggles onto some cuttlefish and make them watch TV… for science. And a pregnant aphid is pregnant with pregnant aphids. Wait, what?