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An alien-looking dolphin species
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Meet the Irrawaddy dolphin ( Orcaella brevirostris), a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in discontinuous subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. Genetically, the Irrawaddy dolphin is closely related to the killer whale (orca). As evident in the collage, its forehead is high and rounded, and unlike most dolphins, the beak is lacking, giving it a you know what appearance - don't get any funny ideas now! ...
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5839 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Can our brain run out of space?
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We've all struggled trying to shove magnanimous amounts of information for exams, be it vocabulary, geometry theorems, biology notes, chemistry reactions, physics equations or even just names of acquaintances we meet at weddings or the likes. You might question whether after many years of non-stop learning, be it in a classroom setting, or just basic interactions and do's and don'ts, may we run out of space to absorb all the memories, events and information we encounter. Our brain, unlike the brains of animals and lower ancestors, is not hardwired by instincts. In fact, we have very little in the field of instincts by comparison. Our brain is a learning brain. It is designed to absorb and interconnect information. Now, which of this inform ...
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5060 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
This plant will solve all your termite problems
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The pitcher plant, much like the Venus flytrap, is a carnivorous plant that survives by digesting insects. It's sweet nectar entices insects to feed off it, though this may come at a cost as they risk falling into a deadly pool of acid at the bottom of the pitcher plant's bucket-shaped leaf.
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3101 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Our ancestors never really noticed the color blue
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Our perception has heavily depended on how well we can accurately describe our surroundings. And this description relies on our language. Our ancestors apparently were not capable of perceiving the color blue. If they did, they were not capable of noticing it, simply because there was no term in language for blue. The first civilization to document and affirm the color blue was the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. In fact, the Ancient Egyptians were the only ancestors that were able to produce blue dyes! Moreover, philologists have compared Hindu, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and many more languages only to find no mention of the color blue. However, just because the term for blue did not exist, does not mean our ancestors did not perceive blue. T ...
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2887 |
ehd123 |
9 years ago |
Saharan silver ants are cool, literally
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Saharan silver ants live in sands that get as hot as 70°C, but the ants themselves can't get any hotter than 53.6°C. To survive, they've developed a hairy and silvery coating that reflects most of the light that hits them - and keeps them from getting cooked!
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3256 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
What's it like to float on thin air?
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Apparently, walking across this glass pedestrian bridge in Zhangjiajie’s Grand Canyon, China is meant to make you feel like you're floating in thin air. The bridge seems to float 1,300 feet above the ground, almost as though it were part of the clouds. The bridge will be open later on this year!
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2842 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
A jellyfish wannabe
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The Portuguese man o' war is not a jellyfish! Despite its outward appearance, they are a colony of specialized minute individuals called zooids. These zooids are attached to one another and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival.
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2457 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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6773 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
The world's tallest tree
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Hyperion, ranked as the world's tallest known living tree, has not had its location revealed publicly for fear that human traffic would upset the ecosystem the tree inhabits. This fabulous tree is a coast redwood ( Sequoia sempervirens) found in Northern California that was measured at 115.61 m (379.3 ft).
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2815 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Ant-mimicking spiders
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Myrmarachne is a genus of jumping spiders which imitate an ant by waving their front legs in the air to simulate antennae. Some species also look strikingly like ants to avoid being attacked by them!
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2741 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Want to know what it's like to read while dyslexic?
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A UK designer has created a new font that aims to help people understand what it feels like to read and write when you have dyslexia. It was accomplished by erasing around 40 percent of the lines from classic typeface Helvetica. Try to read the following: The poster above says: THIS TYPOGRAPHY IS NOT DESIGNED TO RECREATE WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO READ TO READ. IF YOU WERE DYSLEXIC, IT IS DESIGNED TO STIMULATE THE FEELING OF READING WITH DYSLEXIA BY SLOWING THE READING TIME OF THE VIEWER DOWN TO A SPEED OF WHICH SOMEONE WHO HAS DYSLEXIA WOULD READ. ...
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2142 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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4789 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Another beautiful bird
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This species of bird, known as the Plum-coloured Starling or Amethyst Starling, is the smallest of the Southern African starlings, reaching only about 18 cm in length. The sexes are strongly sexually dimorphic, meaning that there is a distinct difference in the appearance of the male and female. The breeding male is brilliantly coloured, with feathers an iridescent shining plum violet colour along the length of is back, wings, face and throat, contrasting with bright white on the rest of the body. Females (and juveniles) are a streaky brown and buff colour, and can easily be mistaken for a thrush. ...
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1912 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
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1845 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
NASA Spacecraft is 4 weeks and 32 million km away from Pluto
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After a journey spanning nine years and almost 5 billion kilometres, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is closer than ever to everyone’s favourite former planet, Pluto. On 14 July 2015, New Horizons is expected to fly within 12,000 km of the lonely cosmic body - about the distance between Seattle and Sydney - zooming through the orbits of its five tiny moons.
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1308 |
duddy |
9 years ago |