A few months ago, I noticed a tweet from John Hutchinson, saying that he was going to London Zoo to study their penguins, and how they move. I’ve covered Hutchinson’s work before; it frequently involves ushering animals over force-plates. And since the animals in this case would be penguins, it was practically guaranteed that something amusing would happen. Because penguins. So, I tagged along, and then wrote about it for the New Yorker’s Elements blog. It’s my first piece for them. Here’s a taster:

The first penguin approached. With an agility that belied its bumbling demeanor, it leaped straight over the smaller force plates. The second penguin seemed more circumspect, pausing at length to examine the unfamiliar terrain. Matyasova lured