Wonder Words

CURATED CURIOSITIES

After hours of extra tropics coverage for Debby, I couldn’t wait to see what she stirred up on the beach. You never know what curiosities will surface after the turbulence. This time, Jordan and I found a slew of baby sea turtles buried in a sand bank. They were struggling to surface so they could swim out to sea. Over the years we’ve also discovered unique animal bones, refugee rafts, jewelry, shells, and bottles.

We even a hauled in a ship ladder a couple years ago. The teak wood and rope poised a heavy challenge to maneuver. But determination won. We turned part of it into a shelf for our home. Our old neighbor, who worked in the shipping industry, told us it came from a tanker made in the 1970s. Awesome!

Something ultra-rare just washed up on the beaches off New Zealand’s South Island. The spade-toothed whale has never been seen alive. But a carcass of the elusive species surfaced in July on a village beach. Spade-toothed whales are a part of the beaked whale group that are the deepest diving mammals on earth. They can hold their breath for hours at a time. Only two full carcasses have been found in the last 150 years. Scientists are excited to study the specimen after DNA analysis. Indigenous New Zealanders consider whales a sacred treasure. https://www.livescience.com/animals/whales/ultra-rare-whale-never-seen-alive-washes-up-on-on-new-zealand-beach-and-scientists-could-now-dissect-it-for-the-1st-time

Shrinivas Kulkarni searches for the ultra-rare in the night skies. The Caltech professor runs an operation that scans the entire northern sky every two nights. The goal is to record anomalous stars and unusual interstellar changes. The discoveries run through automated software that communicates the findings to astronomers around the world. Kulkarni was just awarded “THE SHAW PRIZE.”