Word: insectes
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...William Blake's illustrations from The Song of Los. It comes out as a yearning apotheosis of the Jewish-American princess, in a semitranslucent nightie from some celestial boutique, languidly holding a bouquet and wafted aloft. Above her is the sun, looking like an expensive Christmas ornament. An insect-winged, bifurcated, slender-is flying toward it, helplessly attracted. It is Florine's eager soul, rising to the em pyrean. Bendel's she loved; and next to Bendel...
Bats' built-in echolocation system is so finely tuned that it can detect insects' footsteps, changes in air currents caused by vibrating insect wings, even the ripple in a pond as a minnow's fin breaks the surface...
...factors could be involved as well, including homeobox genes that are not Hox genes (that is, they do not affect the overall structure of an animal). Last year Sean Carroll, a developmental biologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, showed that a homeobox gene involved in insect-limb formation also controls the genetic signals that paint spots on butterfly wings. In essence, says Carroll, butterflies use an old gene to perform a new trick. "Evolution did not have to invent new genes," he observes. "One basic toolbox gives nature enormous potential for diversity...
Structurally, observes McGinnis, insect eyes are very different from the eyes of humans and other vertebrates. For instance, fruit-fly eyes are compound, meaning they are composed of many (in this case 800) individual units, each with its own miniature lens. The difference between a mouse eye, say, and a fruit-fly eye is so enormous that many scientists have argued that the genetic programs responsible for creating different kinds of eyes must have evolved independently...
Goldblum yet again puts his pensive, puzzled face and the arching eyebrows to work. (Remember his tortured scientist-turned-insect role in "The Fly" and the prophesizing scientist in "Jurassic Park"?) His newest movie might well be renamed "A Study of Goldblum" or "Goldblum: Closeup and Personal" based on how often the camera decides to dwell reverently...