(Submitted by friend of the blog, Ross Blocher)
Sometime in 2005 I was reading The Ancestor’s Tale, by Richard Dawkins, and there was a particular chapter about the star nosed mole. It was the first time I’d heard of this creature, and in the account Dawkins mentioned there is still much we don’t know about the movements of its feelers because they move so quickly. After finishing that chapter, I forced myself to stop reading so I could get to the Laundromat in time to get a few loads washed.
The moment I got in the truck, the radio was tuned to the local NPR affiliate, and there was an interview with a researcher talking about the star nosed mole, and how recent high-speed photography had revealed how it uses its feelers.
That’s nuts! I suppose people have been talking about star-nosed moles all the time around you, but you never noticed until you read about it in the book.