Known as black earth tongues (Trichoglossum hirsutum) for their unique shape, this club-shaped fungus measures 3 to 8 cm high, and can be in the woodlands of North America, Europe, and Africa.
These brightly colored crayfish are found in Indonesia. While colored crayfish have been sold commercially in Asia since the early 2000s, this recently-discovered sub-species has a distinctive body shape and color from others in the Cherax family.
Found in the deserts of Morocco, the cartwheeling spider (cebrennus rechenbergi) uses all eight of its legs to cartwheel and roll away from predators. Using forward or backward flips, this movement effectively doubles its normal walking speed similar to acrobatic flic-flac movements used by gymnasts. Interestingly, C. rechenbergi is the only spider known to use this unique form of rolling locomotion!
In July 2011, a 52-year-old woman presented at a psychiatric clinic in the Netherlands reported that for her entire life she’d seen multiple peoples’ faces change into dragon-like faces. She was suffering from what is known as prosopometamorphopsia; a psychiatric disorder in which faces appear distorted. What made matters worse, researchers couldn’t work out what was causing this to occur. Various brain scans including MRI, electroencephalogram, and neurological examinations, as well as blood tests were all normal. One area of the brain that might be the cause is the fusiform gyrus, which is the part of our face recognition circuitry. The fusiform gyrus is located in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex, and damage to it can make people ha ...
Barry from Bee Movie has taught us that without bees, we won't survive. These pollinators may terrify us when they are swarming around out at the park, but they are more terrifying if they were not around.
What is happening to our bees with domestication? What have we lost? What are we trying to restore?
The answers to these questions are in this video. Check it out
When you turn on your TV, it is the definition of ironic to watch the news channels for information about planet mass destruction. Whilst when you step outside your door, it is quite alarming and obvious that our earth is suffering. When every person around you, from toddlers to elderly, own some for of technology, with no means of recycling old items. When students, each with their own copies of pages. When potable water has not yet reached the most needy of nations. When human greed is apparent with every innovative idea claiming to "revolutionize "a domain brought up to make a quick buck. Drilling, mining, industrialization, politics, scavenging for resources, suffocating our environment... This may all seem negative, but coming from a ...
A star-shaped mushroom, called the Devil’s Cigar (Chorioactis geaster) is one of the world’s rarest fungi. These fungi had been detected only in central Texas, two remote locations in Japan, and most recently in the mountains of Nara. The Devil’s Cigar is a dark brown cigar-shaped capsule that transforms into a tan-coloured star when it splits open to release its spores. It is also one of only a few known fungi that produce a distinct whistle sound when releasing its spores. ...
This lion, named Will, spent his life with a traveling circus in Brazil. "For 13 long years, the lion had been confined to a cramped cage and denied any semblance of a normal existence," the Sao Paulo sanctuary wrote.
Have you ever wondered what may be among the loudest sounds? Or possibly what may happen being exposed to such sounds other than bursting your eardrums? Take a look at this informative video
Researchers from the University of Leicester in the UK have identified nearly 80 genes that are linked to a preference for either 'morningness' or 'eveningness' in flies (Drosophila melanogaster) - most of these genes can also be found in mammals, too.
You'd think that these genes are directly related to the species "biological clock", but instead they are involved in a range of molecular pathways. These molecular processes aren't just delayed in the 'night owl' flies - they were entirely different.
One research referred to this behaviour as the 'pinball theory' in the sense that "Once a gene expression is delayed, a completely different cascade of molecular events is carried, similar to the ball in a pinball machine that takes a different r ...
Everything is easily explained with cartoons or a childrens book. That is why we do it for children, but apparently adults need it too, that is why we have comics and video games. I found the analogy portrayed above perfect in explaining how voltage and current relate.
A crystal known as the watermelon tourmaline! Tourmalines are the most colorful of all gemstones. They occurs in all colors, but pink, red, green, blue and multicolored are its most well-known gem colors. Scientifically, tourmaline is not a single mineral, but a group of minerals related in their physical and chemical properties. The mineral Elbaite is the member of the Tourmaline group that is responsible for almost all the gem varieties. Three other members of the group - Schorl, Dravite and Liddicoatite, are seldom used as gemstones. ...
A possible vaccine for lung cancer! In a country known for cigars, lung cancer is one of the major killers in Cuba. So for the past 25 years, they’ve been developing Cimamax, which is now available freely to Cubans. According to a Phase II trial conducted in Cuba in 2008, lung cancer patients who received the vaccine lived an average of four to six months longer than those who didn’t. This led Japan and some European countries to trial the drug as well.
The drug itself is far from flawless and, by attacking a cell’s protein rather than the tumour directly, can have severe side effects, including – of all things - causing a higher risk of cancer. It might not be a "cure" in the traditional sense, but it's a way of managing the disease. What t ...
The shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus) is probably the champion speedster among sharks. Its speed has been recorded at 40 km/h (25 mph) with bursts of up to 74 km/h (46 mph). What's more, this high-leaping fish can leap approximately 9 m (30 ft) high or higher in the air. With its highly streamlined body, a lunate tail supported by keels, a sharply pointed snout, large eyes and some of the wickedest-looking teeth in its class, the mako shark is a highly sought-after game fish worldwide. ...
According to a recent editorial by three researchers specializing in human biology, while physical activity can stave off the effects of several common and debilitating diseases, when it comes to weight loss, the devil is in the diet.
"A recent report from the UK's Academy of Medical Royal Colleges described 'the miracle cure' of performing 30 min of moderate exercise, five times a week, as more powerful than many drugs administered for chronic disease prevention and management," they write. "Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least 30 percent. However, physical activity does not promote weight loss."
The importance of adequate, non-distracted, deep sleep could not be emphasized enough. Recent research has put the brain yet again under the spotlight, this time only to shed some light on one more reason we should be getting our sleep and why. Make sure to watch the video above. It is hands down, one of the best TED talks I have listened to. As for now, I'mma go make my CSF flush my amyloid betas Nighty, night!
This is the sky blue mushroom (Entoloma hochstetteri), a species of mushroom found in New Zealand and India. The small mushroom is a distinctive all-blue colour, while the gills have a slight reddish tint from the spores. The blue colouring of the fruit body is due to three azulene pigments. Entoloma hochstetteri is not edible, but whether or not it is poisonous is unknown. This species was one of six native fungi featured in a set of fungal stamps issued in New Zealand in 2002. It is also seen on the reverse side of the $50 bank note, issued by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in 1990.
Lost Lake, located in central Oregon, is known for rapidly draining every year through a six-foot (two-meter) wide hole in the lake's bottom (as shown in the video). Early in the following spring, however, the lake fills up again, as snowmelt from the surrounding mountains accumulates faster than water can drain out through the hole. That hole is really a lava tube - a geologic feature made when lava cools around the edges of a river of molten rock. After the hot lava drains away, it can leave an empty space. ...
The Eshima Ohashi bridge in Japan has a 6.1% grade ramp up! The bridge is also the third largest ridge bridge in the world and stretches about a mile long with a height of about 144 feet.
