The arctic fox is an incredibly hardy animal that can survive frigid Arctic temperatures as low as –58°F (-50°C) in the treeless lands where it makes its home. It has furry soles, short ears, and a short muzzle - all-important adaptations to the chilly clime. Arctic foxes live in burrows, and in a blizzard they may tunnel into the snow to create shelter.

Arctic foxes have beautiful white (sometimes blue-gray) coats that act as very effective winter camouflage. The natural hues allow the animal to blend into the tundra's ubiquitous snow and ice. When the seasons change, the fox's coat turns as well, adopting a brown or gray appearance that provides cover among the summer tundra's rocks and plants.

Source: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/ ...

Diphylleia grayi, also known as the skeleton flower, has white petals that turn transparent with rain. When dry, they revert to white. This plant is native to the eastern United States and eastern Asia.

With a rare genetic condition called erythrism some insects, like this fluorescent pink katydid, develop an unusual reddish pigmentation. It's not enhanced in any way. The coloration (erythrism) is an adaptation sometimes found among katydids exposed to red or pink foliage, although this one was in the woods off the Appalachian Trail near Mount Peter, N.Y. ...

At only eights years-old, Zion Harvey is the youngest person with a double hand transplant ever. Four teams of surgeons worked over 11 hours to complete the complicated operation. Zion lost both of his hands and feet when he contracted sepsis at age two and experienced multiple organ failures. When he was four, he received a kidney transplant from his mother, and leg prosthetics have enabled him to engage in many activities.

...And so do a lot of other things!

According to a new study conducted out of Italy, staring into another individuals eyes could induce hallucinogenic effects. The experiment is simple: get two individuals to look into each other's eyes for 10 minutes while they are sitting in a dimly lit room. The sensations that ensue resemble mild "dissociation" - a rather vague psychological term for when people lose their normal connection with reality. It can include feeling like the world is unreal, memory loss and odd perceptual experiences, such as seeing the world in black and white

Healthy participants said they'd had "... a compelling experience unlike anything they'd felt before", they scored higher on a dissociative states questionnaire than control participants, and 75 per cent ...

These tropical arachnids known as selenopid spiders (pictured above) possess the rare ability to steer themselves in the air and jump between trees - an unexpected talent for spiders, which have no history of flight.


Researchers theorize that this behavior may have evolved because tree trunks are a far better place for a tree-dwelling spider than the forest floor, an unfamiliar territory crawling with creatures looking for a meal. ...