|
|
| Subject |
Comments  |
Views |
Author |
Date Written |
|
Picking your way into a lady's heart
|
view preview
The velvety ladybird spider is a fascinating arachnid found in northern and central Europe. They live in burrows with silk trip-wires that help them catch large-sized prey. The males have bright red backs with four black spots and emerge only for a couple of weeks in May to breed. The male will only mate if he manages to avoid all trip wires—if he falls, he may become the meal.
|
|
|
0 |
3212 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Will the Big Bang be a thing of the past?
|
view preview
Cosmologists have formulated a new theory that suggest the universe didn’t start with the Big Bang. They believe the birth of the universe happened after a 4D star collapsed into a black hole and ejected debris, which helps explain why the universe has an almost uniform temperature.
|
|
|
0 |
3071 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Liver genes play a role in sleeping
|
view preview
New research has shown that liver genes play a key role in regulating our body clock, and could be the target for treatments that help shift workers and international travellers 'reset' their internal rhythm and reduce their risk of obesity and diabetes.
|
|
|
0 |
2616 |
savio |
10 years ago |
|
Tube-nosed reptile
|
view preview
The Spiny Softshell ( Apalone spinifera spinifera) is also known as the "pancake turtle" because of its rather flat, round, leathery upper shell, or carapace. The long neck and elongated, tubular snout allow this turtle to breathe while almost fully submerged and virtually unseen. Softshells ambush prey by lying concealed in bottom mud.
|
|
|
0 |
3911 |
savio |
10 years ago |
|
Self-exploding ants
|
view preview
 Carpenter ants ( Camponotus cylindricus) are found in Borneo and expel the lethal sticky substance to defend their colony. Both ant and invader are killed in these attacks; they fall from the canopy as a pair into the leaf litter below, to eventually be eaten by something. Most of the bodies of the south-east Asian Camponotus cylindricus ants are for storage of the deadly secretion. The insects react quickly - when researchers lightly touched them with forceps their abdomen walls ruptured. ...
|
|
|
0 |
2509 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Why does water bridge form in the presense of electricity?
|
view preview
If you fill two beakers with water, apply an electric voltage across them, and then separate them, you will form a water bridge. This phenomena was discover some 120 years ago and researchers believe it occurs because the voltage makes the water molecules line up, generating a dielectric tension that defies gravity, stopping the bridge from falling. Understanding how water bridges form could help engineers develop better electrowetting displays. ...
|
|
|
0 |
2712 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Long middle finger
|
view preview
The aye-aye lives in the forests of Madagascar. Despite looking like a very scared rodent, the aye-aye is a kind of lemur with a bushy tail and super-thin, elongated middle fingers that they use to dig grubs out of hollow branches. Aye-ayes also have huge lower incisors to chew through wood and bamboo—and in captivity they’ve been known to chew through concrete cinder blocks ...
|
|
|
0 |
5392 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Brain defects go a long way
|
view preview
This is a human brain without grooves and folds, a condition known as lissencephaly. It belonged to a patient who died in a mental health facility in 1970, and almost a year ago a photographer found the jar containing the brain in a collection at the University of Texas, Austin. People with this rare condition suffer from seizures, muscle spasms, a range of learning difficulties, and usually die before the age of ten. ...
|
|
|
0 |
5185 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
|
Cool shiny metal
|
view preview
This is bismuth, a brittle metal with a white or silver-pink hue and an iridescent oxide tarnish that produces a rainbow of colours from yellow to blue. It is the most naturally diamagnetic metal in the world, which means it can create a magnetic field in opposition to an externally applied magnetic field. ...
|
|
|
0 |
3618 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
