National Geographic

EMBARK | BREAKTHROUGHSDISPATCHESFROM THE FRONT LINESOF SCIENCEAND INNOVATION``````PHOTOS, FROM TOP: CRISTIAN MARIANCIUC; CHRISTIAN ZIEGLER FOR MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE; MATT BERTONE``````ENVIRONMENTBugs:They’re inthe HouseFreeloaders comein all sizes. A studyof 50 houses inthe Raleigh, NorthCarolina, area,reported in thejournal Peer J,found hundreds ofspecies of arthro-pods living withunwitting home-owners. Most (73percent) were flies,spiders, wasps,ants, and beetles,like the variedcarpet beetlebelow. Also found:moths, earwigs,cockroaches,and millipedes.—LORI CUTHBERT``````TECHNOLOGYWINGED PREDICTIONSCAN TAGGED BIRDS DETECT COMING EARTHQUAKES?``````Scientists are betting on a new system to alert us to impendingearthquakes: birds wearing tiny backpacks.Though no one knows precisely why, animals often act atypicallybefore an earthquake or other disaster. Flocks of birds might migrateof course or be active at unusual times, says Martin Wikelski, anecologist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and afellow of the National Geographic Society. He directs a satellite track-ing project called International Cooperation for Animal ResearchUsing Space. ICARUS will use lightweight electronic tags—aixed asbackpack harnesses, leg bands, or even hats—to monitor the activitypatterns of tens of thousands of birds, bats, and other creatures forirregularities that suggest an earthquake is imminent.A global network of volunteers has started to tag animals withthe devices—Wikelski calls them “wearables for wildlife”—whichwill track and beam their movements and other data to the Inter-national Space Station. There Russian astronauts will install theICARUS data-gathering hardware during an upcoming space walk.The result, Wikelski hopes, will be a disaster-prediction networkakin to an “internet of wings.” —LINDSAY GELLMAN``````Origami ChallengeWhat started in 2015 as anambitious project for paperartist Cristian Marianciuc—to fold an origami cranea day for 100 days—becamea personal quest. He endedup making 1,000 gorgeouscranes over as many con-secutive days.