Soft Things

Spring is a soft and fluffy time of year, what with all the baby chicks and bunnies bopping around, so we here at Tangents are seizing the opportunity to talk about the softest, cutest, most huggable science there is!

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[Trivia Question]

MLB baseball yarn yardage

https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-wool

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1676509-the-evolution-of-the-baseball-from-the-dead-ball-era-through-today

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/04/09/83408264.html?pageNumber=43

[Fact Off]

Saturn moon Methone and fluffy ice

https://gizmodo.com/the-weird-ways-nasa-thought-moon-dust-might-kill-apollo-1836459545

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/overview/?page=0&per_page=40&order=name+asc&search=&placeholder=Enter+moon+name&condition_1=38%3Aparent_id&condition_2=moon%3Abody_type%3Ailike

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23560-astrophile-saturns-egg-moon-methone-is-made-of-fluff/

Milk fiber (made from casein)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyLnKz7uNMQ

https://ecoworldonline.com/what-is-milk-fiber-yarn/

http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ajee.20190902.02.html

https://www.milkgenomics.org/?splash=back-to-the-future-milk-fibers-in-the-21st-century

https://www.ijcmas.com/abstractview.php?ID=7406&vol=7-4-2018&SNo=140

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/lanital-milk-dress-qmilch

[Ask the Science Couch]

Cat fur vs dog fur

https://cdn.citl.illinois.edu/courses/ANSC207/week2/hair_coat/web_data/slides_and_notes.htm

https://animaldiversity.org/collections/mammal_anatomy/hair/

https://www.uakron.edu/im/news/how-biomechanics-research-led-to-a-hairbrush-inspired-by-a-cat-tongue

https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1809544115

https://texaswolfdogproject.org/resources/phenotyping/what-is-phenotyping/coat-and-color

[Butt One More Thing]

Moth coremata butt feathers

https://www.wired.com/2013/12/this-is-not-a-penis/

https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/beneficial/leps/bella_moth.htm

Picture:

 https://www.mothidentification.com/creatonotos-gangis.htm