desiccated bones by parched watering hole caressed by the trunk of a daughter clinging to mother’s memories
by Douglas J. Lanzo
This scitanka underscores the tragic deaths of elephants due to increased instances of extreme drought caused or exacerbated by climate change.
One unfortunate byproduct of climate change is that the warmer air holds more water vapor, as warmer air has the ability to absorb more moisture before reaching its saturation point. This leads to extreme precipitation and storms in some areas, but in desert and other dry areas it results in the warmer air acting like a sponge. As such, the warmer air absorbs a larger percentage of the scarce desert / drier area moisture that is present there, exacerbating drought.
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 587 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
pavement ants hoist bacon bits and sauerkraut along sidewalk cracks as we savor hot dogs overloaded with flavor
by Douglas J. Lanzo
Pavement ants are perhaps the most successfully adapted animal species of modern times to New York City. As the most populous ant species, they outnumber humans in the Big Apple by the ratio of 2,000:1, representing over 50% of the billion plus ants in each of its 5 boroughs. Just how these aptly named insects thrive through all seasons in NYC is a marvel to behold.
Enamored of greasy foods like hotdogs, pavement ants send scouts out on initially randomized foraging walks to cover as much territory as possible. With extremely sensitive olfactory receptors on their antennae, they can detect the fat and protein molecules in a hot dog in concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion. Following windblown hotdog odor plumes, these ants follow “scent gradients”, tracking rising concentrations of scent until they locate the food source.
If you’ve ever been to Manhattan and grabbed a hotdog, chili dog or street taco, you’ll readily appreciate how easy it is for a portion of these overloaded toppings to end up “fragrancing” the city’s streets. Not only are pavement ants masters of locating NYC’s offloaded fast food treats, they are masters at breaking them down into pieces and hoisting them on their waterproof, triple-segmented exoskeleton, weathering wind and rain, back to their queen and larvae for high-energy feeding. Foraging in groups of hundreds, the scouts leave a trail of pheromones for their worker ants to follow. Once at the hot dog, worker ants sample the food to determine its quality, and if satisfactory, break it down with their mandibles, digest some of it in their social stomachs and carry the remainder in bits back to their nests, cleverly utilizing sidewalk cracks to avoid being stomped in the process.
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 560 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
This ku was inspired by a photograph. There seems to be an endless renewing energy and light source at the core. Something like a window eternally open to the Sun. When we think of renewing energy what comes to mind is the human gene that has evolved generation after generation!
Thus far from the Stone Age the world has seen amazing changes, the centre of it being the gene getting better and brighter with time, igniting a hope that the world will witness the same kind of progress technologically, scientifically and spiritually.
Further reading:
These poem was originally submitted as part of The Haiku Foundation’s ‘Energy of Motion – Movement in Stillness’ Haiku Dialogue prompt, inspired by a photograph presented by the guest editor Vidya Shankar.
perfect synchrony of two soulmates the mating dance of grebes
by Douglas J. Lanzo
Grebes embody soulful love, beauty and grace with their elaborate courtship dances. Endowed with striking eyes, chestnut-colored ruffs, regal black crests, and slender flowing necks, great-crested grebes take your breath away with an enchanting courtship dance.
As synchronized as a scene from the Nutcracker Suite ballet, they dip their heads underwater in synchronous movement before shaking them side to side as soon as they resurface as a pair. Their theatrical paired head-bobs, dips and weaves culminate in a spectacular, coordinated twenty-step-per-second dash across the surface of the lake with upright necks, arched backs and wings spread, dignified and adorable at the same time.
Their larger cousins, Western and Clark grebes, are the largest vertebrates on earth with the capability to walk, or shall we say, run, on water!
Further information: To learn more about this remarkable and entrancing behavior, check out Boyd Huppert’s Land of 10,000 Stories video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMT9ym3Ug3I&t=153s or enjoy numerous BBC nature videos, including BBC Life (Birds) featuring Clark’s Grebes performing rushing dances on Oregon lakes, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and Iolo’s Secret Life of Birds (BBC One) starring Great Crested Grebes in full courtship displays.
For online reading enjoy ‘All About Birds’ by Cornell Lab of Ornithology at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Grebe/lifehistory#behavior which features an informative “Life History” page describing the awe-spiring rushing ceremony and touchingly humorous weeds ceremony of the Western Grebe.
Author bio: Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 560 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
Entangled worm blob Seeking connection with mates Much like a mosh pit
by Kathy Gillen
In laboratory culture conditions California blackworms huddle together, but why? California blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) are widely distributed freshwater annelids that are easy to care for in the lab (1). In the wild these detritivores stick their heads into the muck at the edges of ponds and rivers while their tails extend through the water column for gas exchange. In lab culture consisting of worms in bowls of artificial freshwater, the worms form tangled masses that with a touch from a pipette wriggle apart. This behavior fascinates students and students frequently ask why the worms form knotted blobs.
One explanation for the worm blobs is that lacking a substrate such as mud to stick their heads into, the worms instead burrow into each other. Whether or not this is correct, in worms, as in other animals, aggregating provides benefits. Researchers manipulated blob sizes and found that larger blobs help more worms survive thermal stress in a temperature gradient experiment. And blobs of worms better withstand desiccation stress (2). Additionally the physics of the entangled masses themselves are being examined, research that may pave the way for bioinspired materials with useful new properties (3,4). Long used as model organisms in whole body regeneration and in environmental toxicology studies, the California blackworm continues to provide new research avenues.
Further reading:
‘It Cuts Both Ways: An Annelid Model System for the Study of Regeneration in the Laboratory and in the Classroom’, 2021, Martinez Acosta, V.G., Arellano-Carbajal, F., Gillen, K., Tweeten, K.A., Zattara, E.E. Front Cell Dev Biol 9, 780422. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2021.780422
‘Collective dynamics in entangled worm and robot blobs’, 2021, Ozkan-Aydin, Y., Goldman, D.I., Bhamla, M.S. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, e2010542118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010542118
Scott is a father of five who finds peace in long desert hikes, wildflowers in mountain meadows, and the occasional perfectly shaped rock. He’s a self-published poet with three books out, including a collection of haiku, and a fourth on the way, the host of The Poet (delayed) podcast (available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts here: https://blessed-pine-5317.fireside.fm ), and the co-founder of “Torchlight,” a monthly arts and open mic event in Bountiful, Utah. He also practices law in solo practice, balancing the legal world with a steady pull toward creative life. You can follow Scott on Instagram @poetdelayed.
Menstrual health research Uterus as sentinel Tampon-based study.
by Debbie Lee
Leveraging power in the menstrualome, NextGenJane (NGJ) is unlocking the data of monthly cycles.
* As a hyper-responsive organ that responds to external and internal stimuli, from stress to disease, the uterus is a data trove.
* Menstrual blood contains early indicators of health and disease that’s difficult to get any other way.
* Members of the NGJ community mail their tampons using a patented, specially-designed collection kit.
* A survey is the beginning of this anonymised conversation with NGJ.
* The menstrual cycle is a convenient way to sample the uterus and advance the science of uterine biology.
* As a longitudinal study of women’s menstruation, a more sophisticated, molecular understanding of gynecological health will inprove medical diagnostics.
* More precise options for treatment is expected to deliver genomic insights and improved outcomes for endometriosis, fibroids, and other gynecological conditions.
Debbie Lee (@lee_debbie): Writing from places light and dark, awkward data nerd, elegant word nerd, dreaming in colour, clumsily balancing love, hope, kindness with pragmatic realism.
“Most of the year, these leaves are green because of the chlorophyll they use to absorb energy from sunlight during photosynthesis. The leaves convert the energy into sugars to feed the tree.
As the season changes, temperatures drop and days get shorter. Trees get less direct sunlight, and the chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down.
The lack of chlorophyll reveals yellow and orange pigments that were already in the leaves but masked during the warmer months. Darker red leaves are the result of a chemical change: Sugars that can get trapped in the leaves produce new pigments (called anthocyanins) that weren’t part of the leaf in the growing season. Some trees, like oaks and dogwoods, are likely to produce red leaves.
How much and how fast leaves transform varies by location on the globe. The best colors are produced when the weather is dry, sunny and cool. Places that are cloudy, damp or warm won’t see the same degree of changing color.”
‘Autumn Views: Art That Captures the Mood, Color, and Light of the Fall Season’, autumnal art from across the Smithsonian, available: https://www.si.edu/spotlight/autumn
Author bio:
Nancie Zivetz-Gertler, a poet and visual artist, studies Haiku in a community of poets with Clark Strand. Her work has been published in Haiku Pause, Tricycle Haiku Challenge, Asahi Haikuist Network, Folk ku, Haiku Avenue and Cold Moon Journal. A recently retired psychotherapist, she lives in Bend. Oregon.
red-billed quelea millions of birds mirroring shifting sands
by Douglas J. Lanzo
Highly social, fast-breeding, migratory birds, red-billed quelea swarm for protection while feeding on a huge volume of grass seeds. Red quelea also avail themselves of grain-based farmer crops, leading them to refer derogatorily to the quelea as feathery locusts.
Intensive cereal crop farming in Africa in recent years has augmented the already mind-numbing sizes of these swarms, which often number in the millions. Some swarms have been estimated to surpass 40 million quelea.
Further reading:
To learn more about this incredible swarming behavior, check out the BBC One Planet Earth Plains documentary from 2009 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00381fg, which captured what is claimed to be the largest flock of birds ever caught on camera, which represents only a small fraction of the 1.5 billion quelea that swarm over Africa’s savannah during their breeding season. Additional information on red-billed quelea can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_quelea.
Author bio:
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 530 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
desert drongo mimicking meerkat sentries to draw them off guard
by Douglas J. Lanzo
Fork-tailed desert drongo first win the trust of meerkats by sounding an alarm when a threatening hawk circles above their burrows. Having won their trust, a wily drongo then betrays it by sounding a false alarm. This sends meerkats into a tailspin, inducing them to flee to their burrows. In the process , the duped meerkats abandon captured insects, lizards and scorpions, leaving the tasty critters behind for grateful drongo to claim.
Once the meerkats catch onto this trick, fork-tailed drongo elevate their deception to the next level. From their desert perches, they imitate the warning bark or high-pitched squeal of the meerkat sentry itself, sending the clan into a panic. The burrowing meerkats leave behind insects, scorpions and lizards for the breakfasting drongo, who swiftly swoop down from trees and shrubs to retrieve the coveted prey.
Further reading:
To learn more about this fascinating opportunistic behavior, called kleptoparasitism, check out the BBC series Wild Africa to witness these amazing interactions among Kalahari desert meerkats and fork-tailed drongo, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYCjJqr21A
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 530 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
Blue ringed octopi are small (they can fit in the palm of your hand), beautiful and extremely deadly – a venomous bite from the octopus nestled in your hand can kill you. Female octopi are larger than the males and will readily devour their smaller male partners during mating. The male solves this problem by biting into the female’s aorta, injecting a large dose of venom that paralyzes the female for long enough for the male to complete mating and escape (1, 2).
A previously published SciKu by Debbie Lee describes application of a similar principle in insect biocontrol (3).
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .
Too much water drowns. Yet, windstorms force trees to grow. We must ache to rise.
by Maryam Imogen Ghouth
Plant physiology research shows that while water is essential for growth, excessive water can drown a plant by suffocating its roots. Conversely, mechanical stress from wind and storms can actually stimulate stronger, deeper root systems and sturdier trunks. This paradox mirrors human adversity—it can foster growth, while overprotection can hinder it.
Further reading:
‘Waterlogging stress in plants: Unraveling the mechanisms and impacts on growth, development, and productivity’, 2024, Manghwar, H., et al., Environmental and Experimental Botany, available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2024.105824
‘Mechanosensing and Plant Growth Regulators Elicited During the Thigmomorphogenetic Response’, 2021, Telewski, F.W., Frontiers in Forests and Global Change, available: https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2020.574096
Author bio:
Maryam Imogen Ghouth is a literary artist working across written, audio, and visual poetry. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including Sky Island and Last Leaves, and in award-winning films, such as Under the Sun. Her films, including Not Alone, have been awarded at over 30 film festivals.
Emily Jo Scalzo holds an MFA in fiction from California State University-Fresno. Their work has appeared in various magazines including Midwestern Gothic, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, and others. Their first chapbook, The Politics of Division (2017), was awarded honorable mention in the 2018 Eric Hoffer Book Awards.
Friction gives us lift. Foot meets ground and body moves— resistance births flight.
by Maryam Imogen Ghouth
This haiku focuses on biomechanical motion. It draws on the principle that friction—between the foot and the earth—is what enables locomotion. According to Newton’s Third Law, movement arises from force met with equal and opposite reaction. This haiku serves as a reminder: when we encounter opposition, it isn’t always a sign to stop—it may be the very friction that lifts us forward.
Maryam Imogen Ghouth is a literary artist working across written, audio, and visual poetry. Her work has appeared in several literary journals, including Sky Island and Last Leaves, and in award-winning films, such as Under the Sun. Her films, including Not Alone, have been awarded at over 30 film festivals.
Author bio: Barbara Anna Gaiardoni is among the winners of the 7th Basho – international English Haiku Competition (Tokyo). During her activities has obtained national and international prizes and distinguished awards. Her Japanese-style poetry has been published in 255 international magazines and translated into 12 languages. Find out more about Barbara on her website and follow her on Twitter/X here.
Koalas eat leaves of the eucalyptus famous in the land of kangaroos but strangers in Spanish forests
by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:
Eucalypteae
Popular names:
Gum tree, eucalypts, stringybarks
Family:
Myrtaceae
Origin:
Australia
Habitat:
Full sun and well-drained soil
There are 700 species of the Eucalyptus, an aromatic tree native to Australia. The leaves are a bluish-green; the bark is often coloured and peeling. The tree is generally hardy in temperate zones. It can be pruned and cultivated in pots.
The Eucalyptus thrives in full sun and well-drained soil. It needs six hours of direct sunlight a day in spring and summer.
The roots can spread laterally up to one hundred feet and damage plumbing and pipes. Some species can grow up to 25 metres.
The Eucalyptus can have a negative effect on other trees. Its high transpiration rates lead to a decline in soil fertility. It is a host to the Eucalyptus gall wasp. The Honey-fungus feeds on the roots.
The tree does not add to bio-diversity and is allopathic in impact. It has been introduced into pine forests in Galicia, Northern Spain, to the detriment of other trees. Visiting the area earlier in the year, it was noticeable that the eucalyptus looked out of place in the pine woods both from a botanical and an aesthetic point of view. It is very flammable which is dangerous at a time of serious wild fires. There is some evidence that they are developing an ability to recover from the effects of fire. New varieties are being bred reaching only 3 to 5 metres.
Eucalyptus essential oil has a number of uses. It is a sinus-decongestant when inhaled in diluted form. It can relieve asthma either inhaled or using a diffuser. The oil can also be used for massage. Livestock often stand under Eucalyptus trees as it acts as an insect repellent. It can be a component in jet fuel, medical solvents, and dental hygiene. Undiluted, the oil is very strong. It should not be ingested and is toxic for dogs, cats and horses.
Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.
thirst for survival drenched fledging great dusky swift pierces waterfall
by Douglas J. Lanzo
This sciku was inspired by watching the “South America” episode of the BBC series Seven Worlds, One Planet narrated by David Attenborough.
It shows how great dusky swifts build nests protected by the waterfalls from hawks and other birds of prey, which nests get flooded from dam releases upriver of the spectacular Iguazu Falls (on the Iguaçu River). The torrential dam releases sometimes force the parent great dusky swifts to have to abandon their fledglings, who unless they can escape from the torrents and fly through a massive cascading curtain of water into the sunlight, will either starve or plummet to their deaths. The poem recognizes the courage and tenacity of the fledglings who attempt to breach this waterfall curtain and succeed in doing so.
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
false beacon of light flashing forest firefly caught in spider web
by Douglas J. Lanzo
The orb-weaver spider is a master at weaving elaborate wheel-shaped webs that span across forest trees, capturing fireflies absorbed in mating rituals. Unfortunately for fireflies, the first firefly caught is not immediately killed, but rather just immobilized. That causes it to continue to flash, attracting more and more fireflies into the deadly spider web. And so the orb-weaver’s tale is woven…
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
Visions of exotic eastern haunts of elegant Japanese gardens a refugee in temperate regions
by Sarah Das Gupta
Botanical name:
Bambusoideae
Popular names:
Teddy Bear Bamboo, Sweet Dragon Bamboo, Zigzag Bamboo, etc.
Family:
Poaceae (grass)
Origin:
Asia-Pacific Region
Habitat:
Sheltered, sunny position
Bamboo belongs to the sub-species Bambusoideae which is a member of the grass family. It has hollow, evergreen stems or culms. There are two types of root systems, ‘clumping’ or ‘running’. Bamboo needs a sheltered, sunny spot, with six to eight hours of indirect sunlight in spring and summer and consistent moisture. At least one of the many species is native to all regions of the world, except Europe and Canada. The word ‘bamboo’ is thought to originate in Malay or Kannada and passed on through Dutch or Portuguese colonists.
Currently, there are no laws restricting the cultivation of bamboo in the UK, other than that of not causing a ‘nuisance’ to neighbours.
Undoubtedly, this plant, in its many varieties, has something to offer to the gardener. It can create a micro climate while forming a windbreak or a privacy screen. In parts of Asia and southern Africa, it provides animal fodder. Farmers use it as a mulch and, in many areas, it is a wildlife habitat. Fresh, new shoots are edible.
There are also drawbacks to the cultivation of bamboo. An individual bamboo culm lives up to ten years and is difficult to control or eradicate. Only the use of chemical herbicides or the physical removal of rhizomes will destroy unwanted plants. Some varieties can be aggressive and spread quickly. Buildings, pipes and drainage can be damaged. Bamboo can also be lethal to dogs.
Some species can grow to 46 meters in height and 36 centimetres in width. Species like the Japanese Giant Timber bamboo can grow 120 centimetres in 24 hours. The speed of growth and the fact that the plant thrives on marginal land means it is useful during this time of climate change. In southern Africa bamboo is used for building and food.
Many bamboo species have a life cycle of 40 to 80 years, with some blossoming at long intervals of 65 to 120 years. Fruit is produced, sometimes called ‘bamboo rice’. After this the plants die out.
Bamboo is also increasingly used for the manufacture of many and diverse artifacts including: paper, clothing, flooring, drinking straws, bowls and other containers, furniture
Sarah Das Gupta is a young 81 year old. Loves writing haiku and most forms of poetry. Is learning to walk after an accident. Main outside interests include equine sports. Lives near Cambridge, UK. Read other sciku by Sarah here.
bobbing for apples polar bear on off-shore rock jaw-clamps belugas
by Douglas J. Lanzo
Deprived of seal hunting grounds due to melting ice, polar bears swim out to rocks and await high tide. These apex predators then pounce on unsuspecting belugas as they pass by their rocks, clamping down on their heads with skull-crushing jaws. But for this brutal improvization in hunting technique, some polar bears might otherwise starve. Receding Arctic ice greatly diminishes their ability to stalk seals surfacing through, or basking on, the ice.
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel ‘The Year of the Bear’ won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book ‘I Have Lived’ was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.
Parkinson’s disease has no cure, but in 2025 some clinical trials are showing positive early signs from transplantation. To confirm lasting benefits on dopamine production and improved motor control, more research is needed. Lab-grown neuron trials are reaping benefits from earlier fetal / foetal tissue proof-of-concept studies.
‘Patterning effects of FGF17 and cAMP on generation of dopaminergic progenitors for cell replacement therapy in Parkinson’s disease’, 2025, Holm Nygaard, A., et al., Stem Cells, available: https://doi.org/10.1093/stmcls/sxaf004
Author bio:
Debbie Lee (@lee_debbie): Writing from places light and dark, awkward data nerd, elegant word nerd, dreaming in colour, clumsily balancing love, hope, kindness with pragmatic realism.
A threatened species, the Maugean Skate is tracked, what price farmed salmon?
by Debbie Lee
In a report to the National Environmental Science Program, the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), of the University of Tasmania, highlights Marine and Coastal Hub research which uses eDNA to survey the endangered Maugean Skate in Bathurst Harbour on the south-western coast of Tasmania.
Despite extensive sampling, only minute traces of Maugean Skate DNA were detected. This is considered remnant traces of biological material, such as egg cases in sediment, or a few live individuals maximum. Thus it confirms that the vast majority, if not all, of the remaining Maugean Skate are in Macquarie Harbour.
This finding illustrates Maugean Skate vulnerability. It supports the need for continued research on the endangered Macquarie Harbour population, plus conservation action to ensure the persistence of a unique species of ray (Zearaja Maugeana).
Debbie Lee (@lee_debbie): Writing from places light and dark, awkward data nerd, elegant word nerd, dreaming in colour, clumsily balancing love, hope, kindness with pragmatic realism.
if you’re keen enough to get the shingles vaccine— you may stay that way
by James Penha
Shingles is a nasty inflammation that can strike those of us who had chicken pox. After suffering a bout of shingles, I decided last year to get vaccinated against it because the condition can recur. Apparently, this was a good decision in more ways than one since, according to a report in Science Daily, “A new analysis of a vaccination program in Wales found that the shingles vaccine appeared to lower new dementia diagnoses by 20%—more than any other known intervention.”
Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him ?) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on BlueSky @jamespenha.bsky.social
basic training the sleepless nights of a dolphin mother
by Mike Fainzilber
This haiku deals with unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation and relates to a study that showed that newborn dolphins and their mothers do not sleep at all for the first month of the newborn’s life.
The newborns require constant support and vigilance during this period, otherwise they may sink in the water and drown, hence no sleep at all for the dolphin mother! Human mothers with offspring in basic training in the military can probably relate to this…
This haiku is the second in a pair of poems on unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation, the first being inspired by nesting penguins: ‘To sleep…’
Further reading:
‘Continuous activity in cetaceans after birth’, 2005, Lyamin, O., Pryaslova, J., Lance, V. & Siegel, J., Nature, available: https://doi.org/10.1038/4351177a
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .
This haiku deals with unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation and relates to a study on nesting penguins in the wild, where the authors used remote monitoring techniques to determine sleep patterns. They found that wild chinstrap penguins sleep over 10,000 times a day, for an average of 4 seconds each time – totaling ~11 hours sleep per 24. This is an extreme case of microsleeps, interspersed by brief awake periods, and may help the penguins to guard their eggs during breeding season in the penguin colony. The parallels with the fitful short sleeps of a human soldier are highlighted in the haiku.
This haiku is the first in a pair of poems on unique modes of sleep and sleep deprivation, the second being inspired by dolphin mothers: ‘…no time to dream’.
Further reading:
‘Nesting chinstrap penguins accrue large quantities of sleep through seconds-long microsleeps’, 2023, Libourel, P-A., et al., Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adh0771
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social .
Language of fungi Mycelium colony Neuronal spiking
by Debbie Lee
The mycelium of a fungal colony may use electrical impulses to communicate, which could be considered a “language”. The impulses vary in amplitude, frequency, and duration, and can be grouped into “words”. Mycelium acts as an organic network of telephone lines, sending signals to different parts of the fungus. The impulses can be modified in response to different stimuli, similar to how neurons operate in a brain. The patterns of electrical impulses could be the basis of a fungal language. Different fungal species may have distinct electrical signaling patterns, suggesting a unique “language” for each species. The average word length in the fungal language may be similar to the average word length in some human languages.
In his paper “Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity”, Andrew Adamatzky applies quantitative analysis of voltage fluctuations in fungal mycelia. The report concludes that the patterns of electrical fluctuations can be grouped into “words” analogous to those found in human languages. Adamatzky’s 2022 study groups spikes into words, thereby providing a linguistic and information complexity analysis of the fungal spiking activity. This confirms a secret language of mushrooms: How fungi use electricity to speak.
Further reading:
‘Language of fungi derived from their electrical spiking activity’, 2022, Adamatzky, A., Royal Society Open Science, available: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211926
Author bio:
Debbie Lee (@lee_debbie): Writing from places light and dark, awkward data nerd, elegant word nerd, dreaming in colour, clumsily balancing love, hope, kindness with pragmatic realism.
when my dog vomits he’ll eat the barf but not so one primeval fish
by James Penha
An amateur fossil-hunter in Denmark found vomit, embedded in chalk, composed of undigestible sea-lilies likely thrown up by a fish some 66 million years ago.
Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him ?) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on BlueSky @jamespenha.bsky.social
when earth spun faster Luca settled in the sea and begat us all
by James Penha
Last July, researchers at Bristol University concluded that Luca (last universal common ancestor from which all life on Earth stems) lived 4.2 billion years ago—early enough in the planet’s existence to suggest that life might be an inevitability rather than an accident.
‘The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system’, 2024, Moody, E.R.R., et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution, available: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02461-1
Author bio:
Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him ?) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. Penha edits TheNewVerse.News, an online journal of current-events poetry. You can find out more about James’ poetry on his website https://jamespenha.com and catch up with him on BlueSky @jamespenha.bsky.social
‘Recombinant venom proteins in insect seminal fluid reduce female lifespan’, 2025, Beach, S.J. & Maselko, M., Nature Communications, available: https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54863-1
Author bio:
Debbie Lee (@lee_debbie): Writing from places light and dark, awkward data nerd, elegant word nerd, dreaming in colour, clumsily balancing love, hope, kindness with pragmatic realism.
This is a haiku about the stuff of nightmares – vampire bats. As we know, vampire bats feed on blood, and blood is low in carbohydrates and lipids that are the typical fuel for activities that require high energy. Flight is highly costly in energy, so how can it be fueled by blood alone? Certain blood-sucking insects can fuel their flight by direct metabolism of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) in their blood meals, but this metabolic specialization was known only in very few insect species.
A team of biologists traveled from the University of Toronto to Belize to find out if vampire bats can do the same. The researchers took advantage of the fact that vampire bats are exceptionally good runners, and they use this to approach their prey along the ground. Bats were fed cow blood with labeled amino acids and the researchers then placed them on treadmills, monitoring tracer release in the bat’s breath as they ran on the treadmill.
The experiments clearly showed that vampire bats use amino acids as their main fuel source while running. Since running is a major hunting mode for this species, they literally bleed prey to run, and run to bleed…
Further reading:
‘Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal’, 2024, Rossi, G.S. & Welch, K.C., Biology Letters, available: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0453
Mike Fainzilber’s day job is a biologist. He began writing haiku and senryu during the pandemic, and this side effect of COVID-19 has not worn off yet. Editors in his two spheres of activity have been known to suggest that he should best restrict his efforts to the other sphere. Find out more about Mike’s research via his lab’s website and connect with him on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/mfainzilber.bsky.social