Fairy wasps, SLURM, and "Iran"

Today I Learned:
1) I’ve written before about the the fairy wasp, which as far as I know is the smallest insect known to mankind (for reference, it’s a couple hundred micrometers long — about the size of an amoeba). It’s so small that its neurons (yes, it has a brain) are renucleated to save space. Today I learned that the lack of nuclei isn’t the only strange thing about fairy wasp neurons — they also shouldn’t work according to our understanding of physics and biology. I don’t actually know the physics involved, but basically at the scale of those neurons, conductance of electrical signals shouldn’t… work. Some scientists think that they may use mechanical linkages and physical movement in lieu of chemical linkages and electrical movement — which would mean they essentially have clockwork brains.

As a side note, I also learned that we have a much clearer picture of a fairy wasp than the standard photo I always find. The following link has three plates; the second one is the one I always find, the third is the one I learned about today.

http://ift.tt/1im7k6c

2) Possibly my favorite acronym ever: the Simple Linux Utility for Resource Manager, or SLURM (it’s a program that handles job allocations on Linux closers). Interestingly, I believe the use of the word “slurm” in Futurama predates SLURM by about four years… was the acronym a happy coincidence? Perhaps, perhaps.

3) The correct pronunciation of “Iran” is like “ear-ahn”, not like “eye-ran”.