The dowry includes fish, an igloo, and a honeymoon in New Zealand

We love science. Amylynn is fascinated by Astrophysics – not that she understands any of it, but she’s awed by it just the same. We’ve long had crushes on Neil deGrasse Tyson and we’d take Bill Nye to lunch and share a dessert with him if he’d only answer our emails. Linda can barely contain herself with neuroscience factoids, and if Sam Harris wants to join us, we’d buy him his own dessert.

Why won’t you come play with me?

So imagine how fascinated we were when we read that researchers are building robots they can use to sneak up on penguins. Apparently, penguins are very shy. We understand that. Researchers can be intimidating. As can the FBI. Oh, wait, that’s a different blog.

The first robot they built didn’t work out. It scared the birds, and obviously that’s not what the researchers were going for. After 5 different scary attempts the perfect one was found. It’s covered in gray fur, has black arms, and black and white-painted face and a black beak. This one is so adorable it doesn’t make the penguins scamper away. In fact, it’s so realistic, at least to them, that the momma and daddy birds sing to it. The researchers are thinking they’re actually trying to arrange marriages between the robots and their chicks.

How sad that they never get an answer. I hope the penguins don’t become litigious and sue the researchers for breach of contract or something.