Of all the animals of prey, man is the only sociable one.
Every one of us preys upon his neighbour, and yet we herd together.
The Beggar's Opera: John Gay

Saturday 27 October 2012

Hey, little goldfish....

...Where you goin' to?
Little goldfish, let me swim along with you.'

Every now and then, a news story comes along that makes me instantly and inexplicably happy. 

In the midst of all the gloom and doom, this week was brightened by news of the safe arrival at the International Space Station of one astronaut, two cosmonauts and 32 fish.

The guppy-sized medaka fish will be living in a state-of-the-art habitat, specially delivered by a Japanese robotic cargo freighter, where they will be studied to observe how they are affected by the zero-g environment.

Fish in space - how cool is that?

In fact, it's even better than the anti-gravity machine for mice.

(And, even more pleasingly, the vocalist lip-synching in this clip of the truly excruciating title song is one Richard Dreyfuss, later to acquire fame in quite another piscine context.)


2 comments:

  1. As long as the fishies are Ok, that's all that matters, Macheath.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, it rather depends on exactly how the scientists intend to study their bone density - from the outside, or the inside, so to speak.

    Meanwhile, fans of Red Dwarf may be thinking along these lines...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcezLXUifvk

    ReplyDelete

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