✨🌈🪐 Videos & News Today • August 14, 2025

Author

Michael Cosentino
August 14th, 2025

Daily knowledge and wonder. Share it with a kid.

From the editor: We've got two videos for you today that show off nature's engineering – both biological and cosmic. First, you'll see how the village weaver bird builds its hanging nests using impressive architectural techniques 🪺. Then, learn how the Gaia space observatory tracks the movements of 2 billion stars from our spot inside something called the Local Bubble – a region of space cleared by ancient supernovas that gives us an unusually clear view of the cosmos 🌌.

In today's science news: The unknown origin of dog 🐶, tiny robots that talk to each other 🤖, and a "deceptively cute" ancient killer whale 🐳. More headlines after today's videos 👇

Thanks for reading. If you enjoy our daily newsletter, please tell a friend. –MC

 

Male village weaver birds build hanging nests to attract mates, but mastering the intricate weaving takes years of practice. This BBC footage from Ethiopia shows the reality—some struggle with basic techniques while experienced builders craft perfect structures with practiced knots.

 

The star patterns that have guided humans for thousands of years won't stay the same forever. Astrophysicist Jackie Faherty explains how the Gaia space observatory has mapped nearly 2 billion stars and can project how familiar constellations will transform over millions of years.

 

🪐🧬🧠 Things We Learned Today

ELSEWHERE

📜 A 327-year-old letter from a Spanish friar helped archaeologists find a lost Mayan city / Popular Mechanics

🌋 Also found: evidence of a 13-year drought that helped collapse Maya civilization / The Art Newspaper

📖 A single 104 cm hair strand just upended our understanding of literacy in the Inca Empire / Science News

🥔 New research finds potatoes exist because of a 9-million-year-old genetic accident / NPR

🖼️ Seven Renaissance masterpieces offer insight into how people's worldviews changed during the era / The Collector

 

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