September 15, 2016 at 02:31AM

Today I Learned: 1) Gough Island, a South Pacific island known for being the sole breeding site of the Tristan albatross, has a surprising invasive species -- the house mouse. Mice were introduced to the island by ships *relatively* recently, though I don't know whether that's a few decades ago or a few hundred years ago. The mice have no predators on the island... and the albatross has absolutely no defenses against them. That's right, defenses. Against the house mouse. See, Gouhg Island mice have evolved to be much bigger than normal house mice, and have switched from an herbivorous diet to a diet of albatross chicks. The albatrosses are much, much bigger than the mice, but predatory mice can squeak in, nip off a little bit of flesh, and leave before the chick can do anything about it. Over the course of a night, a swarm of mice will nibble the bird to death. This is a serious problem for the albatrosses of the island, and has set their numbers in decline. Time will tell whether they can evolve a defense quickly enough to survive. 2) You can break a zip tie with a shoestring. Citation: http://ift.tt/2d0PeJ1 Ripped from Kitty Mayor's facebook post a couple hours ago. 3) ...about an art project called Forms in Nature*. It's basically a really, really beautiful series of ceiling light covers shaped like a mad, zero-G circulatory system, designed to cast shadows that make the room look like a dimly-lit forest. The pieces are each unique and algorithm-designed, then custom 3D-printed out of a nicely heat-resistant plastic and hand-assembled. Every one of the forms is a an exclusive experience... and they're priced accordingly, at something like $3,500/piece. You know what, though? That description really doesn't do it justice. Just go check out their webpage: formsinnature.dk *though to be honest, it's almost certainly not the only art project with that name....