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Why the hyperbole? Science has known multiple plant movement mechanisms. They will follow sunlight, mineral content and even their equivalent of pheromones. Lo

Why the hyperbole? Science has known multiple plant movement mechanisms. They will follow sunlight, mineral content and even their equivalent of pheromones. Looks freaky though. :)

larkeith 6y ago
It's not really hyperbolic - quote from the article: > "We still don't know," he says. "I'm still kind of baffled." Science doesn't yet know which motive mechanism these use (they might even use something novel), and that's really cool.
weare138 6y ago
What interesting about these 'glacier mice' is the moss forms into a ball that somehow roll around which is why the moss on the bottom of the ball doesn't die. So far they can't figure out what makes them roll. >The researchers considered several possible explanations. The first, and most obvious one, is that they just rolled downhill. But measurements showed that the moss balls weren't going down a slope. "We next thought maybe the wind is sort of blowing them in consistent directions," says Bartholomaus, "and so we measured the dominant direction of the wind." That didn't explain it either, nor did the pattern of the sunlight. "We still don't know," he says. "I'm still kind of baffled." "It's always kind of exciting, though, when things don't comply with your hypothesis, with the way you think things work," says Gilbert. The work has charmed other glacier scientists who dote on the adorable moss balls. "I think that probably the explanation is somewhere in the physics of the energy and the heat around the surface of the glacier, but we haven't quite got there yet," says Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.
- catalogia 6y ago
  Their center of mass shifts as they grow. Besides growth, their center of mass may also shift when one side becomes damper or dryer faster than the rest, due to sunlight, wind, or the wet ground.
  - dmckeon 6y ago
    The curved upper/exposed surface could act as an airfoil, allowing gusts of wind to lift the moss-mouse, and move it a bit, and/or rotate it around it’s vertical axis.
- wiml 6y ago
  If I had to read a clickbait headline, I think "Antarctic Scientists Charmed By Adorable Moss Balls" would be even more effective at getting me to read the article!
masonic 6y ago
Dennis, to King Arthur: "Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?"

Why the hyperbole? Science has known multiple plant movement mechanisms. They will follow sunlight, mineral content and even their equivalent of pheromones. Looks freaky though. :)

larkeith 6y ago

It's not really hyperbolic - quote from the article: > "We still don't know," he says. "I'm still kind of baffled." Science doesn't yet know which motive mechanism these use (they might even use something novel), and that's really cool.

weare138 6y ago

What interesting about these 'glacier mice' is the moss forms into a ball that somehow roll around which is why the moss on the bottom of the ball doesn't die. So far they can't figure out what makes them roll. >The researchers considered several possible explanations. The first, and most obvious one, is that they just rolled downhill. But measurements showed that the moss balls weren't going down a slope. "We next thought maybe the wind is sort of blowing them in consistent directions," says Bartholomaus, "and so we measured the dominant direction of the wind." That didn't explain it either, nor did the pattern of the sunlight. "We still don't know," he says. "I'm still kind of baffled." "It's always kind of exciting, though, when things don't comply with your hypothesis, with the way you think things work," says Gilbert. The work has charmed other glacier scientists who dote on the adorable moss balls. "I think that probably the explanation is somewhere in the physics of the energy and the heat around the surface of the glacier, but we haven't quite got there yet," says Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.

catalogia 6y ago
Their center of mass shifts as they grow. Besides growth, their center of mass may also shift when one side becomes damper or dryer faster than the rest, due to sunlight, wind, or the wet ground.
- dmckeon 6y ago
  The curved upper/exposed surface could act as an airfoil, allowing gusts of wind to lift the moss-mouse, and move it a bit, and/or rotate it around it’s vertical axis.
wiml 6y ago
If I had to read a clickbait headline, I think "Antarctic Scientists Charmed By Adorable Moss Balls" would be even more effective at getting me to read the article!

masonic 6y ago

Dennis, to King Arthur: "Are you suggesting that coconuts migrate?"