|
Subject |
Comments |
Views |
Author |
Date Written |
|
2 |
6738 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
An alien-looking dolphin species
|
view preview
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! ...
|
|
|
1 |
5801 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Fake it till you BECOME it
|
view preview
Perhaps one of my favourite TEDtalks. Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can change other people’s perceptions - and even our own body chemistry - simply by changing body positions. Her take-home message is simple, instead of faking it till you make it and living a life as an impostor, you must fake it till you become it.
|
|
|
0 |
5186 |
bio_man |
8 years ago |
Can our brain run out of space?
|
view preview
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 ...
|
|
|
0 |
5005 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
The Ozark cavefish has no eyes
|
view preview
The Ozark cavefish ( Amblyopsis rosae) is a small subterranean freshwater fish native to the United States. The fish has no pelvic fin; the dorsal and anal fins are farther back than on most fish. It has only rudimentary eyes and no optic nerve.
|
|
|
0 |
4731 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
|
0 |
4710 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
|
0 |
4406 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
|
1 |
4168 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Saharan silver ants are cool, literally
|
view preview
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!
|
|
|
0 |
3219 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
This plant will solve all your termite problems
|
view preview
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.
|
|
|
2 |
3056 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Our ancestors never really noticed the color blue
|
view preview
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 ...
|
|
|
0 |
2842 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
What's it like to float on thin air?
|
view preview
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!
|
|
|
1 |
2798 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
The world's tallest tree
|
view preview
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).
|
|
|
0 |
2770 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Ant-mimicking spiders
|
view preview
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!
|
|
|
2 |
2700 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Mind-blowing dragon illusion
|
view preview
This type of optical illusion plays with our brain’s sense of perspective: the dragon’s face looks like it’s sticking out toward us because, after all, we know from a life time of experience that faces stick out instead of cave in. But the exact opposite is actually the case here. Regardless of what you perceive, the entire face of this dragon is inverted making everything backwards: For example, the right eye is actually farther away from us than the left eye, and it’s this inversion that confuses our brains and makes us think the dragon is staring at us. ...
|
|
|
0 |
2642 |
duddy |
8 years ago |