Zeros

Remember that scene in every superhero movie where someone walks into a glowing chamber and comes out looking completely different ? That's basically a caterpillar's daily planner. It disappears into a chrysalis looking like a fuzzy little leaf-munching machine and emerges as a butterfly ready for its close-up. If Hollywood pitched that script, we'd probably roll our eyes and say , "That's a bit much." Then along comes 10-year-old Japanese student Jo Nagai . Jo noticed that butterflies he had raised as caterpillars seemed to recognize him after their transformation. Scientists are still studying exactly how memory survives metamorphosis, but the idea alone is enough to make your brain do a double take . How does something that changes so dramatically still seem... well... like itself? Science has a solid answer . The caterpillar and the butterfly are the same organism, even though the body changes in extraordinary ways. ...