As krill fishing in the Southern Ocean increases due to the demand for Omega-3 oil used in supplements, scientists worry the removal could impact the higher trophic levels that include penguins, seals, and whales. The impact of the krill fishery is under close watch by scientists and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which was established in 1982 to regulate krill harvesting in the Southern Ocean. An illustration of two extinct great auks. The great auk was the first bird to be called a penguin, but the bird is in no way related to modern penguins, instead claiming membership in the Alcidae family, same as puffins, other auks, and murres. Coming from an industry driven by disruption, it’s refreshing to read Brad Smith’s call for the tech sector to assume more responsibility. In Tools and Weapons, Brad and Carol Ann Browne wrestle with some of the world’s toughest technology challenges with common sense and valuable insight reflecting their inside experience. The ideas in Tools and Weaponswon’t solve all our problems, but they’re a very good place to start.” —Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix

King penguins forage for fish at the Antarctic Polar Front – a region rich in tasty lanternfish, the kings’ preferred food. They will dive up to 100 times per day, reaching speeds of 12km/h in pursuit of a meal. King penguins have been observed diving to depths greater than 300m, and in excess of nine minutes. Gilbert the penguin has always wanted to fly. But with only small, fluffy wings as his aid, learning to fly is a bigger challenge than he ever thought it would be. The other penguins tell Gilbert there’s no use, and that he’ll never be able to fly, but Gilbert is determined and won’t let any obstacle stand in his way. Yellow-Eyed ( Megadyptes antipodes)- Yellow-eyed penguins are the most private of all penguins, preferring to nest out of sight from other penguins. They often forgo parental duties if they are within eyesight of other nesting couples. For this reason they often nest among the tree trunks of the dwarf rata forests on the islands off of New Zealand where they are native. The breeding season is particularly long, lasting from August to February. Egg incubation alone can take up to two months. They weigh between 5 and 5.5 pounds (2.3-2.5 kg) and reach heights of 65 cm (25 inches). Blue Penguin is just like the other penguins, except he’s blue, and the other penguins don’t think he’s the same as them. Blue Penguin is left all alone. Can he think of a way to convince the other penguins that he’s like them, after all? A penguin’s feathers serve to regulate body temperature, increase aerodynamic efficiency underwater, and defend against the elements. Beyond providing insulation, feathers can also minimize drag by trapping bubbles against their body and then releasing them during a dive. A diving penguin emits a visible trail of bubbles as it moves through the water. Penguins take great care of their feathers, often preening three hours a day. An oil secreting gland, the uropygial gland, lies at the base of a penguin’s tail and dispenses water-repelling and microbial deterring oil that a penguin then physically spreads over its body.

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Tools and Weaponsreads like a techno-legal thriller, yet offers a thorough and eye-opening account of the major tech controversies of the last decade, from NSA spying through AI ethics and the US-China standoff. Brad Smith, a believer that ‘great power brings great responsibility’ makes it evident that the future of humanity may depend on ethical and responsive leadership in the tech industries, and in this book he sets a high bar for his peers.”— Tim Wu, author of The Curse of Bigness The king penguin’s eyes are unique even among penguins. When fully constricted the pupil appears as a pin-sized square but in low light conditions it will expand an amazing 300 fold—the greatest change in pupil size of any bird—to increase light reception. This is especially important when king penguins dive to their greatest depths, around 984 feet (300 meters). The contrast in light is equivalent to bright sunlight and starlight. Because maximum foraging depths can be reached in five minutes, there isn’t enough time for the retina to adapt to the changing light. By constricting the pupil to a pinhole in sunlight the retina is pre-exposed to the lower ambient light levels found at maximum dive depths where the pupil then fully expands. Scientists of the early twentieth century believed penguins were a living link between birds and dinosaurs. This belief spurred the famous Worst Journey in the World, a scientific expedition led by Dr. Edward Wilson in 1911 that aimed to retrieve emperor penguin eggs for the purpose of studying the embryos. At the time it was still believed that early developmental stages directly reflected attributes of previous ancestral stages; in the case of penguins, reptilian scales in the embryo could be evidence of dinosaur lineages. This connection has since been disproven, although all birds are indeed now recognized as having evolved from dinosaurs.

Penguins thrived as flightless birds, in part because in the Southern Hemisphere there are few terrestrial predators like the foxes and badgers of the Northern Hemisphere. Human introduced animals, like dogs, cats and foxes are problems since the animals often eat penguin eggs, harass breeding pairs, or outright kill penguins. Around the same time period—but farther north—the Peruvian giant, Icadyptes salasi, stood at a slightly shorter 5 feet. This giant supported a unique 7 inch beak that is theorized to have been helpful in spearing fish. The discovery of this fossil upended previous conceptions about the equatorial migration of penguins. It was thought that penguins migrated north towards the equator after periods of Earth cooling like that which occurred during the Eocene-Oligocene (around 34 million years ago) and a later cooling period 15 million years ago. But the earlier migration of Icadyptes indicates penguins actually migrated during a time of significant warming. On average, penguins dive to depths between 30 and 60 feet (9 and 18 m). The smaller species of penguin tend to feed at the surface of the water, but larger penguins like the king penguin frequently dive to 300 feet (91 m), and emperor penguins can reach depths around 1,700 feet (518 m). A 2018 study measured an emperor penguin diving for over 32 minutes—the longest recorded avian dive to date. Feather color is another indicator of male health. Birds in general display the health of their immune systems in what is called an honest signal. Color for feathers is costly since the yellow orange pigments, carotenoids, are also used within the immune system to fight infection. Bright plumage means a healthy bird. However, historically this principle was found in sexually dimorphic birds, where males and females are physically different. Penguins are monomorphic, it’s even difficult for experts to tell the sexes apart. Even so, experiments where king penguin plumage was altered showed that the altered feather colors significantly reduced the ability of males to pair with a mate but not females.Adélie ( Pygoscelis adeliae)- The Adélie penguin is one of two penguins to nest exclusively on Antarctic shores, the only other penguin to do so is the formidable emperor penguin. An ice-dependent species, they rely on the ice for foraging, often trapping prey under ice floes (sheets of ice that jigsaw the ocean surface) and resting on top of them to avoid predators. Populations are on the decline on the northern Antarctic Peninsula, where air temperatures significantly increased in the latter half of the 20th century due to climate change. Breeding season begins in October, with eggs hatching after 35 days of incubation. They rely heavily on Antarctic krill but also eat fish, crustaceans, and other krill species. The birds stand at 27 inches (70 cm) and weigh up to 12 pounds (6.5 kg). Penguins need to see clearly both on land and underwater. Terrestrial animals, including humans, rely on the cornea—the clear outer layer of the eye—to focus images using a property called refraction, a bending of light as it crosses through different materials. As light travels through the air and enters the eye, it bends to the appropriate angle and creates a focused image on the retina. Underwater, terrestrial animals become far-sighted because the fluid of the eye and the water are too similar, so the light doesn’t bend enough and the image doesn’t focus effectively. Penguins solve this problem with a flattened cornea and highly modified lens. Their flattened corneas have less refractive power than those of terrestrial animals, enabling them to see clearly underwater. Their spherical lenses can compensate for the flatter cornea by also bending the light. Macaroni ( Eudyptes chrysolophus)- Macaroni penguins are the most abundant of all the penguins. The most southerly distributed crested penguin, they live along the coasts of sub-Antarctic islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. The lifespan of a Macaroni penguin spans from 8 to 15 years. Macaroni prefer krill but will also eat small fish and squid. They are roughly 27.5 inches (70 cm) in height and between 8 to 14 pounds (3.7-6.4 kg) in weight. Casual readers who know Microsoft primarily for Windows, Office and maybe Xbox will be surprised by the level of insight Smith brings to some of the biggest issues facing not just the industry but humanity. [ Tools and Weapons] is written for a mass market, not just tech and policy wonks. It offers a framework for everyday readers to understand and think about the implications of powerful new forms of technology. . . . It’s full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes, from internal Microsoft meetings to high-level sessions at the Obama and Trump White Houses. It makes ample use of historical references to put modern trends and technologies in context.”— GeekWire