Friday Bits

Here are a couple of stories that appeared today, one semi-technical, the other not technical at all.

Ed Yong, "Thanks to one gene, this fly needs a cactus to escape Neverland"
Without feeding on the Senita cactus, a Sonoran desert fly can't transform from larva to adult.
Story teaser:
In North America’s Sonoran desert, there’s a fly that depends on a cactus. Thanks to a handful of changes in a gene called Neverland, Drosophila pachea can no longer make chemicals that it needs to grow and reproduce. These genetic changes represent the evolution of subservience – they inextricably bound the fly to the senita cactus, the only species with the substances the fly needs.

Robert Krulwich, "The Best College Prank Of The 1790s (With Bats, Poop & Grass)"
A simple story of a bit of eco-terrorism (ok, my anachronism, not his) over 200 years ago carefully designed to help introduce British gardeners to the wonders of guano. (With illustrations by Benjamin Arthur.)
Story teaser:
When William Buckland was a kid, an undergraduate at Oxford in the late 1790s — around the time George Washington had just finished being President — he pulled a prank that was so rude, so smart, and so biologically sophisticated for his day, I think he deserves a second crown, this one for Best Use of Grass Ever.