Green darners never attack people, but they have been seen bringing down hummingbirds. They are the Bengal tigers of the microworld. Richard Preston attackbengalbring Change image and share on social
I don't believe in a biological apocalypse, but I think there is stormy biological weather ahead as the human population continues to grow. Richard Preston aheadapocalypsebiological Change image and share on social
It turns out, from what I hear, that roasted fruit bats are delicious. Richard Preston batdeliciousfruit Change image and share on social
What the experts are telling me is that there's very little chance that Ebola is going to mutate into something that could spread directly through the air. The real concern is not whether Ebola could go airborne, but whether it could spread faster. Richard Preston airairbornechance share on social
An Ebola particle is only around eighty nanometres wide and a thousand nanometres long. If it were the size of a piece of spaghetti, then a human hair would be about twelve feet in diameter and would resemble the trunk of a giant redwood tree. Richard Preston diameterebolaeighty share on social
The annual flight of the dragonflies goes mostly unnoticed, though it is one of the great migrations of flying creatures that occur across North America. Richard Preston americaannualcreature Change image and share on social
Redwoods flourish in fog, but they don't like salt air. They tend to appear in valleys that are just out of sight of the sea. In their relationship with the sea, redwoods are like cats that long to be stroked but are shy to the touch. Richard Preston aircatflourish share on social
The crown of a supertall redwood has a towering, cloudy, irregular form, and the crowns of the tallest redwoods can sometimes look like the plume of exhaust from a rocket taking off. Richard Preston cloudycrownexhaust Change image and share on social
Though the redwoods in Muir Woods are hauntingly beautiful trees, they are relatively small and not very tall, at least for redwoods. Richard Preston beautifulhauntinglymuir Change image and share on social
The genome could be thought of as a kind of piano with twenty-five thousand keys. In some cases, a few keys may be out of tune, which can cause the music to sound wrong. In others, if one key goes dead the music turns into a cacophony, or the whole piano self-destructs. Richard Preston cacophonycasedead share on social
