 | The Salmon Canon and the Levitating Frog: And Other Serious Discoveries of Silly Science is as fun to read as the title suggests. The book is full of fascinating information, including the novel experiments curious scientists set up to discover intriguing aspects of our natural world. The focus is on basic science, which is “driven by curiosity and the observations of nature, not by immediate demands for application.” The author says, “every question, no matter how seemingly silly, is fueled by a profound sense of wonder and a hunger to understand. It’s not just about idle musing; it’s about piecing together the colossal jigsaw puzzle that is the universe, one tiny piece at a time.” Here are some highlights of the research findings~ |
Jake Socha and his team discovered how some snakes in Southeast Asia fly:
“By contorting their body into a concave shape, they were essentially turning their entire body into a wing. . . . Not only were the snakes performing a behavior that seemed impossible, but they were also doing it in a completely different way than had been documented in any other flier or glider.”
“By contorting their body into a concave shape, they were essentially turning their entire body into a wing. . . . Not only were the snakes performing a behavior that seemed impossible, but they were also doing it in a completely different way than had been documented in any other flier or glider.”
One of the most intriguing stories in the book is that of Patty Brennan, who studies duck reproduction.
Ninety-seven percent of male birds don’t have penises. Brennan suggests that over millions of years of evolution, “female birds have chosen less coercive males with smaller penises to the point where penises disappeared. Without a penis, it is practically impossible for a male to copulate without the female’s consent.”
Ninety-seven percent of male birds don’t have penises. Brennan suggests that over millions of years of evolution, “female birds have chosen less coercive males with smaller penises to the point where penises disappeared. Without a penis, it is practically impossible for a male to copulate without the female’s consent.”
 | Male ducks, however, are notorious for forcing copulation on females. In fact, they have a “lengthy, corkscrew-shaped phallus.” The vaginas of female ducks are “filled with labyrinthine elaborations.” What’s interesting is that “when the female is penetrated by a male she didn’t choose, she maintains her inner maze to thwart reproduction. But when she finds the right guy, she’s able to open a clear pathway for fertilization.” |
For 300 million years, cockroaches have been “marvels of evolution.” Scientist Kaushik Jayaram was interested in how they “can get into just about any tiny space—a roach is typically over half an inch tall but can squeeze into gaps just a tenth of an inch wide.”
He learned that the shiny plates of the cockroach exoskeleton “are like overlapping shingles—they can slide over each other, allowing for extraordinary body contortions. This clever design enables cockroaches to flatten and wooden out under pressure, a nifty trick when you need to fit into the narrowest of escape routes or . . . withstand being squashed.” Cockroaches also have fascinating sex lives.
He learned that the shiny plates of the cockroach exoskeleton “are like overlapping shingles—they can slide over each other, allowing for extraordinary body contortions. This clever design enables cockroaches to flatten and wooden out under pressure, a nifty trick when you need to fit into the narrowest of escape routes or . . . withstand being squashed.” Cockroaches also have fascinating sex lives.
A physicist named Andre Konstantin Geim at the High Field Magnetic Laboratory provided the levitating frog of the title. “In a move he would later describe as ‘somewhat unprofessional,’ he cranked up the electromagnet [in his lab] to its maximum power and poured a bottle of water into the core of the very expensive apparatus."
 | "That’s when it happened—droplets of water began to levitate inside the machine. [They tested other objects like a piece of pizza.] Next, the team decided to experiment with a living being. They quietly borrowed a small frog from the biology department, cranked up the magnets, and placed the frog inside the machine. And there it was: the first ever levitating frog. Not only was the experiment a success, but the frog appeared quite comfortable floating in midair.” |
The author has a wonderful storytelling style:
“It was a late night alone in the lab for Peter Fong of Gettysburg College when he accidentally knocked a bottle of Prozac into an aquarium of clams. As the pills sank to the bottom of the tank, along with his heart, he noticed something strange: the clams started spawning, releasing eggs and sperm into the water at startling rates.”
Now, in commercial clam farming, using Prozac helps the farmers create synchronous spawning, thus “farmers can increase their yield and raise a uniform crop.”
Because many clams and other bivalves are endangered, “Fong’s good (mis)fortune [may give] us the key to preventing their extinction.”
“It was a late night alone in the lab for Peter Fong of Gettysburg College when he accidentally knocked a bottle of Prozac into an aquarium of clams. As the pills sank to the bottom of the tank, along with his heart, he noticed something strange: the clams started spawning, releasing eggs and sperm into the water at startling rates.”
Now, in commercial clam farming, using Prozac helps the farmers create synchronous spawning, thus “farmers can increase their yield and raise a uniform crop.”
Because many clams and other bivalves are endangered, “Fong’s good (mis)fortune [may give] us the key to preventing their extinction.”
The author is also quick to point out the ethical dilemmas of using animals in basic research.
 | Several scientists contributed to the discovery of incredible clotting factors in horseshoe crab blood, leading to a test that can “rapidly indicate the presence of contaminants in medical solutions by forming distinctive clots within just a few hours. . . . About 450,000 horseshoe crabs are harvested for this purpose each year [presenting] a complex ethical and environmental dilemma. Thankfully, scientists have been hard at work to find an animal-friendly alternative to horseshoe crab blood, and the research looks very promising.” |
There are a lot of other fun stories in the book, including:
- The salmon cannon developed by Whoosh Innovations, a pneumatic tube the helps salmon bypass dams and other barriers to spawning upstream (hilariously spoofed by John Oliver).
- The punching power of mantis shrimp: 200+ pounds of force delivered at speeds of up to 68 miles per hour, “accelerating at the same order of magnitude as a bullet fired from a gun.”
- The unusually long and bumpy fins of humpback whales (which makes them super-efficient swimmers, and helped develop exceptionally aerodynamic wind turbine blades).
- Blob balls of fifty-thousand blackworms that “can unravel in just a fraction of a second” and may provide clues to recycling medical masks.
Many of the studies have profound impacts on human lives. Basic research on the extraordinary abilities of rats to detect specific scents has translated into many life-saving applications.
 | APOPO, a Belgian nonprofit, trains African giant pouch rats to detect tuberculosis in blood samples and unexploded mines underground. “According to their 2022 annual report, 534,230 patients were screened for TB, and an additional 27,059 cases were found after failing to be detected in a [false negative] lab test. . . . The same APOPO report claims the rats have been instrumental in detecting 1,544,744 land mines and other explosives, liberating an estimated 2,193,278m people from the constant threat posed by these hidden dangers.” |
The book concludes with a chapter on exploring political attacks on basic science. Patty Brennan, the scientist studying duck penises came under intense negative scrutiny.
“Critics labeled her as sick and a deviant for her focus on animal genitalia. Brennan’s own reflection of this time tells of the profound psychological toll these criticisms can take. Mortified, she feared being perceived as a fraud even by her professional community. In her words, she wanted to crawl under her desk and never come out again. Her experience is evidence of how vulnerable one becomes when publicly pushing the boundaries of knowledge.”
Brennan bravely advocated for herself by writing an op-ed that was published by Slate. She and some colleagues also crafted tips on handling similar attacks.
The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog is a serious look at “silly” science, which is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
“Critics labeled her as sick and a deviant for her focus on animal genitalia. Brennan’s own reflection of this time tells of the profound psychological toll these criticisms can take. Mortified, she feared being perceived as a fraud even by her professional community. In her words, she wanted to crawl under her desk and never come out again. Her experience is evidence of how vulnerable one becomes when publicly pushing the boundaries of knowledge.”
Brennan bravely advocated for herself by writing an op-ed that was published by Slate. She and some colleagues also crafted tips on handling similar attacks.
The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog is a serious look at “silly” science, which is both entertaining and thought-provoking. Highly recommended.
Read more books about our natural world: Sounds Wild and Broken, If Nietzsche were a Narwhal,
The Forest Unseen, The Underworld, The Light Eaters, An Immense World, The Hidden Life of Trees
Read more on specific natural wonders: Plant-Animal Hybrids, Cockroach Sex, Lesbian Lizards,
Moss Piglets, Universes (of Microbes) within Us, Glutinous Cicadas, Whacky Weeds,
Serving Plants, Human Hunters, Being a Bird, Night Creatures, Animal Emotions
The Forest Unseen, The Underworld, The Light Eaters, An Immense World, The Hidden Life of Trees
Read more on specific natural wonders: Plant-Animal Hybrids, Cockroach Sex, Lesbian Lizards,
Moss Piglets, Universes (of Microbes) within Us, Glutinous Cicadas, Whacky Weeds,
Serving Plants, Human Hunters, Being a Bird, Night Creatures, Animal Emotions
