To protect the eggs of endangered birds from their natural prey, biologists have long come out and swiped eggs from the nests and replaced them with fake ones. The mother birds do not take to this kindly. But, not to worry. When the egg is ready to hatch, it's slipped back underneath the mother.
Recently the fake eggs have been given double duty. They have become electronic devices capable of sending all kinds of information back to the biologists in the lab. This information is used to help create more natural environments for the eggs, thus ensuring a better success rate for the survival of so many endangered species, like the Caribbean flamingo.
They have found out, for instance, that the mother birds turn the eggs often. They have found out that the mothers move on and off the eggs, and the temperature around the eggs can drop twenty degrees. They've found the nests are both cooler and dryer than they thought--
(I always liked to keep my babies rooms cool and dry. I'm feeling at one with the birds....)
The work of scientists and biologists has always astounded me. Will continue to amaze, and indeed, awe me.
But oh, were you annoying in school. Those unbelievable science projects, those test grades, that gleam in your eye during chemistry labs--
It didn't matter you weren't good in sports, now did it.
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