About the book
Why do dogs slurp from their drinking bowls while cats lap up water with a delicate flick of the tongue? How does a tiny turtle hatchling from Florida circle the entire northern Atlantic before returning to the very beach where it was born? And how can a Komodo dragon kill a water buffalo with a bite only as strong as a domestic cat's?
These puzzles — and many more besides — are all explained by physics. From heat and light to electricity and magnetism, Furry Logic unveils the ways that animals exploit physics to eat, drink, mate and dodge death in their daily battle for survival.
About the authors
Liz Kalaugher
is a science and
environment writer
based in Bristol,
UK. Fascinated
by animals since a
childhood encounter
with a squashed frog, she is a particular fan
of bats, bees and badgers. After winning
journalism fellowships from the World
Federation of Science Journalists and the
European Geosciences Union, Liz has
also reported on beluga whales in the
Canadian Arctic and Finnish reindeer. She
has a materials science degree from Oxford
University and a PhD in thin-film diamond. She blogs at lizkalaugher.net.
Matin Durrani
is editor of the
international
magazine Physics
World, where he enjoys
telling the stories that
underpin physics and
showing how it impacts so much of everyday
life. Based in Bristol, UK, he first became
intrigued by how animals use physics after
publishing a special issue of Physics World on
the subject in 2012. Matin has a degree in
chemical physics and did a PhD and postdoc
squashing food gels at Cambridge University
before moving into publishing. He blogs at matindurrani.net.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE
Heat: The Warm-up Chapter
Gender-swapping snakes •
Floppy-skinned dogs •
Mosquitoes that wee blood •
Killer bees •
Hot-tailed
squirrels •
Vipers that "see" heat •
Beetles that "hear"
infrared
CHAPTER TWO
Forces: The Big Push
A light-headed dragon •
Raindrop-dodging mosquitoes
•
A shrimp that punches above its weight •
The world's
fastest animals •
A snappy ant •
The lizard that thinks
it's Spiderman
CHAPTER THREE
Fluids: When Things Get Stickier
Pond skaters that walk on water •
Cats defying
gravity •
Stealth seahorses •
Convention-defying
bees •
Pterosaurs on the edge
CHAPTER FOUR
Sound: Good Vibrations
Seductive peacocks •
The battle of the bats •
Snakes
with killer hearing •
Triangulating elephants •
Lobster violins
CHAPTER FIVE
Electricity and Magnetism: Let the Sparks Fly
Taser eels •
The case of the charged bees •
Turtles
that loop the Atlantic •
Hornets skilled in quantum
mechanics
CHAPTER SIX
Light: A Final Physics Fandango
Ants and bees that use a trick of the light •
Flashy
cuckoos •
Deadly spitting fish •
Underwater
chameleons •
The squid with the giant eyes