tallship on Nostr: Big news in bug #math. This is the first year since 1803 when both 13-year cicadas ...
Big news in bug #math. This is the first year since 1803 when both 13-year cicadas and 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground simultaneously in the US!
13 and 17 are both #prime. It's believed cicadas evolved to have prime-number life cycles to avoid predators that emerge more frequently, like once every 4 years or 5 years or... whatever. By showing up infrequently, with a #prime_number life cycle, they can starve out those predators.
And since 13 and 17 are both prime and 13 × 17 = 221, both kinds of #cicadas emerge simultaneously only once every 221 years. And
1803 + 221 = 2024
so now they'll both emerge simultaneously and we'll have 𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑠 of cicadas!
Also, this year the two kinds can interbreed! Maybe they'll be fruitful and multiply... and we'll get 221-year cicadas. 😆
The last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year cycle, #Thomas_Jefferson was president.
#tallship #biology h/t to:
npub1knzsux7p6lzwzdedp3m8c3c92z0swzc0xyy5glvse58txj5e9ztqpac73p (npub1knz…c73p) for his original post above - this posted copy sanitized to protect the viewer from tracking systems and walled gardens (NYT). For that link, pls visit his original post, but the phenomenal news item deserved boosting... so this is it w/o the link.
Published at
2024-01-20 03:39:43Event JSON
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"content": "Big news in bug #math. This is the first year since 1803 when both 13-year cicadas and 17-year cicadas will emerge from the ground simultaneously in the US!\n\n13 and 17 are both #prime. It's believed cicadas evolved to have prime-number life cycles to avoid predators that emerge more frequently, like once every 4 years or 5 years or... whatever. By showing up infrequently, with a #prime_number life cycle, they can starve out those predators.\n\nAnd since 13 and 17 are both prime and 13 × 17 = 221, both kinds of #cicadas emerge simultaneously only once every 221 years. And\n\n1803 + 221 = 2024\n\nso now they'll both emerge simultaneously and we'll have 𝑙𝑜𝑡𝑠 of cicadas!\n\nAlso, this year the two kinds can interbreed! Maybe they'll be fruitful and multiply... and we'll get 221-year cicadas. 😆\n\nThe last time the Northern Illinois Brood’s 17-year cycle aligned with the Great Southern Brood’s 13-year cycle, #Thomas_Jefferson was president.\n\n#tallship #biology h/t to: nostr:npub1knzsux7p6lzwzdedp3m8c3c92z0swzc0xyy5glvse58txj5e9ztqpac73p for his original post above - this posted copy sanitized to protect the viewer from tracking systems and walled gardens (NYT). For that link, pls visit his original post, but the phenomenal news item deserved boosting... so this is it w/o the link.\n\nhttps://public.mitra.social/media/76cb9f5f916ff9d8e60b5997894e2cf5523de692ad907016e4b182d8679c881a.jpg",
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