A long-term natural experiment hints at how species disperse
The aftermath of a tsunami spreads species across an ocean
THAT SPECIES might spread overseas by hitching lifts on floating vegetation is an idea going back to Charles Darwin. It is a plausible thought, but hard to test. A test of sorts has, however, been made possible by the tsunami that struck the Pacific coast of Japan in 2011, in the wake of a submarine earthquake.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The hitch-hiker’s guide to the Pacific”
From the February 23rd 2019 edition
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The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else