Monday, January 31, 2011

Seasick Fish?

There's got to be a story seed in here somewhere, seriously. :) I'm reading Packing for Mars by Mary Roach, who's a wonderfully funny science writer. The book is about the space program (American, Russian, Japanese, whatever) and she's talking about space sickness, which it seems most astronauts do suffer from at least sometimes, whether or not they're willing to admit it to the media or even each other. She's looking at motion sickness in general, what causes it and what kinds of animals can get it, etc.

One Canadian researcher recalls a story told to him by the owner of a codfish hatchery. The fishmonger had call to transport some of his tank-raised charges by sea. "After the boat had been under way for some time, all the feed they had eaten was seen to be on the bottom of the tank."

If even fish can get seasick, the rest of us are doomed! LOL!

This is a great book, with a lot of information, data, anecdotes, experiments and experiences Mary had while researching it, told in her usual smooth-flowing style salted with lots of funny bits. (The footnotes are usually good for a snicker.) I'm almost a third of the way through and I know already this one's going to get a high rating on Goodreads. :)

Angie

2 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

hum, I think I can definitely see some ideas

Angie said...

Charles -- coolness, that's why I posted. Let me know how it goes. :)

Angie