Meet Japan’s hitchhiking fish
Medaka catch rides on obliging birds, confirming one of Darwin’s hunches
THE JAPANESE picture book “Soratobu medaka” tells the extraordinary tale of tiny stream-dwelling fish called medaka hitching a ride on an obliging bird to a far-off freshwater pool. The story has delighted children in the country since 1999, when it was first published, but now comes an even more delightful twist: it is true.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Flying fish”
From the October 12th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions
Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier
Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques
They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes
Scientists are learning why ultra-processed foods are bad for you
A mystery is finally being solved
Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever
Concerns about some of their business models are building
The two types of human laugh
One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else
Scientists are building a catalogue of every type of cell in our bodies
It has thus far shed light on everything from organ formation to the causes of inflammation