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Speedy bacteria
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Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium that attacks other bacteria. It can charge its prey at speeds of up to 100 micrometers per second, comparable to a human running 600 kilometers per hour. It then bores into its hapless victim by spinning at 100 revolutions per second. Most bacteria aren't quite that fast, but they can move by whipping flagella or by spiraling through their environment. ...
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14254 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
You've only ever seen one side of the moon
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Did you know that the Moon's rotation is locked to its orbit around Earth by a bulge of material under the Moon's surface? This material is denser than the rest of the Moon's surface material, and Earth's gravity pulls on it especially strongly. The side of the Moon containing the bulge always faces Earth. We call it the near side and we call the other side, which we never see from Earth, the far side. People often mistakenly use the term "dark side" when referring to the far side of the Moon, forgetting that the far side is fully illuminated by the Sun whenever we see a new moon from Earth. If we were to look from high above the Earth-Moon system, we would see the Moon rotate once per month with respect to the stars. This is its sidereal ro ...
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13941 |
bio_man |
A year ago |
A lake above an ocean in the Faroe Islands
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The lake Leitisvatn/Sørvágsvatn sits about 30 metres above sea level. The Faroe Islands are an archipelago between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, approximately halfway between Norway and Iceland, 320 kilometres (200 mi) north-northwest of mainland Scotland. The area is approximately 1,400 km 2 with a 2010 population of 50,000. Here's another look. ...
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13857 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Craving a Big Mac? I don't blame you
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Did you know that McDonald's famous burger, the Big Mac, contains addictive ingredients inside its bun? Yes, it's true, the bun isn't as harmless as your probably thought. The Big Mac bun contains high levels of high-fructose corn syrup and sodium. Both ingredients are addictive, and therefore make your body crave more of them. These ingredients are also harmful and can cause obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, BUT not directly. Remember, the higher sweetness of high-fructose corn syrup increases craving and consequently the amount consumed. Obesity isn't caused by diet alone - when combined with decreased physical activity, that is when it contributes to the weight gain epidemic and personal health problems. It's no wonder homemade burger ...
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13832 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Tiniest of the penguin species
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The little penguin ( Eudyptula minor) is the smallest species of penguin. They grow to an average of 33 cm (13 in) in height and 43 cm (17 in) in length and usually weighs about 1.5 kilogram on average (3.3 pounds). They are mainly found on the coastlines of southern Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, they are often called fairy penguins. In New Zealand, they are more commonly known as little blue penguins or blue penguins owing to their slate-blue plumage. ...
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13616 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Being afraid of the dark is totally normal
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Even though being afraid of the dark sounds childish, our fear of the dark is an evolutionary trait that we picked up to survive real-life predators stalking the night. Researchers have hypothesised that this innate fear stems from a point of human history when we were nowhere near the top predators we are today. Humans only really became super predators with the advent of technology, which wasn’t that long ago. Before technology, our ancestors were constantly on the look-out for predators that wanted nothing more than to chow down on human sandwiches. To make that even scarier, most of these predators hunted at night - a time of day when we are especially vulnerable to attack because of our relatively poor eyesight. This means that it was ...
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13159 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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12948 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Highest average IQ is found within this ethnic group
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It doesn't take a genius to recognize the vast number of contributions the people of Jewish ancestry have made in modern history. According to a 2005 scientific paper, "Natural History of Jewish Intelligence", Jews as a group inherit higher verbal and mathematical intelligence than other ethnic groups, on the basis of inherited diseases and the peculiar economic situation of Jews in the Middle Ages. Specifically, the Ashkenazi Jews - those who originated in Eastern Europe, such as Albert Einstein (left) and Carl Sagan (right) - tend to have higher intelligence than other ethnic groups; in fact, about 80% of modern Jews have Ashkenazi ancestry. One observational basis for inferring that Jews have high intelligence is their prevalence in occup ...
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12642 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
Wombats have cube-shaped poop
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Wombat droppings are cube-shaped. This prevents them from rolling away when marking their territory. These cube-shaped poop looks like, but doesn't taste like chocolate brownies.
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12070 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Most mammals take 21 seconds to pee, regardless of their size
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An elephant takes the same amount of time to empty its huge bladder as a cat - despite holding 3,600 times more urine. That's a whole lot of pressure. The controlling factor of urination duration is the length of the urethra, which gets longer at a predictable ratio as an animal gets bigger. All animals have urethras of the same aspect ratio: a length-to-width ratio of 18. This is rare among animals. Usually, body parts change in relative size, such as the eyes and brain. As the urethra gets longer, the effects of gravity increase and there's more pressure pushing out the urine. Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/most-mammals-take-21-seconds-to-pee-regardless-of-their-size ...
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11762 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
Do fish ever get thirsty?
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A student in my class once asked, do fish ever get thirsty? I was 15 at the time, and I remember my science teacher struggling to answer the question. Here's the best possible answer I can give you -- it all depends whether the fish is a saltwater fish or a freshwater fish. Click the image for more details Notice how the fresh water fish actually obtains H 2O via the food it consumes, not through drinking. Whereas the saltwater fish actually drinks the water can hence has highly concentrated urine. ...
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11179 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Fruity pebble colored rocks
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Opals (shown above) are is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO 2·nH2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Because of its amorphous character, it is classed as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline forms of silica, which are classed as minerals. It is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl, and basalt. Opal is the national gemstone of Australia. The internal structure of precious opal makes it diffract light. Depending on the conditions in which it formed, it can take on many colors. The one pictured on the left is called the "Virgin Rainbow" opal, being the finest ...
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11162 |
duddy |
7 years ago |
How do you weigh an extinct animal?
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Researchers have a new way to estimate the weight of creatures that no longer exist using just its bones and a digital model. With no flesh to fill in the gaps, researchers "shrink wrap" the skeleton to come up with an estimated volume-to-mass conversion based on 14 modern-day mammals. Scientists hope that this weight-estimating technique can eventually be used on other extinct creatures... like dinosaurs!
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11044 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
Some animals prefer to marry their cousins
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If you find yourself looking around the table over the holiday and thinking, “I can’t believe I’m related to these people,” just be glad you’re not a mongoose. If you were, you might be thinking, “I can’t believe I’ve mated with all of these people.” Why? For mongooses, it's actually safer to have sex with a close relative than risk death by venturing out into the world to find a mate.
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11036 |
duddy |
9 years ago |
These giant looking mosquitoes aren't really mosquitoes after all
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The crane fly is the world's most misunderstood insect that looks like a mosquito, but is actually a fly. Although it might look like the daddy longlegs of mosquitos, it is actually harmless and doesn't suck your blood. In fact, some sources suggest that this insect eats other bugs and mosquitoes larvae, acting as natural form of pest control.
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10629 |
duddy |
8 years ago |
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