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Curvy trees
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This is a remote forest in Western Poland, where 400 pine trees have grown with a curvature in their trunk structure and it turns out that no one really knows exactly what caused it. There are, however, a few theories: 1) The main theory seems to suggest that this is the result of human interference. It is believed that this is a tree farm and the trees were forced to grow horizontally in their youth to make a carpenters life easier. The curved shape can be induced by laying a heavy object over a young tree stem. Phototropism will cause the stem beyond the heavy object to grow toward the sky, while the growing stem beneath and behind the heavy object will develop what is called morphogenetic compression wood - which ultimately makes the curv ...
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3285 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
How giraffes sleep at night
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This is how baby giraffes sleep. Adult giraffes are even stranger. They sleep very little -- it's estimated that they sleep just half an hour to an hour every day, in short five minute naps through the night. During sleep they rest their neck on their hind legs but usually remain standing.
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3284 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Go home nature. You are drunk!
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This is the Wilson's bird-of-paradise, found exclusively on the tiny islands of Waigeo and Batanta in the Raja Ampat archipelago of West Papua. That turquoise cap isn't made of feathers - it's actually a patch of very brightly coloured bald skin.
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3283 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Fewest feathers of all birds
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Hummingbirds, like this little golden rufous hummingbird, have up to 1,500 feathers, which is the fewest number of feathers of any bird species in the world.
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3229 |
savio |
10 years ago |
Picking your way into a lady's heart
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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.
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3219 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Arizona's Antelope Canyon
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Slot canyons are much deeper than they are wide, and are most commonly sandstone or limestone. This is Antelope Canyon, located in Northern Arizona. There is enough room to move around comfortably at the bottom, but the opening on top is only 2-3 feet wide.
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3210 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The end of baldness
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In a world’s first researchers have converted adult cells into stem cells that regenerated into different cell types of human skin and hair follicles. The follicles produced hair shaft and could be used for hair regeneration. Is this the end of baldness?
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3193 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Surviving nuclear war
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This Bonsai tree was planted in 1626, and survived the atomic bomb at Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, 68 years ago today. It was given to the people of the United States as a Bicentennial Gift in 1976.
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3119 |
savio |
10 years ago |
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3046 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
World’s oldest flamingo
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Did you know Australia was home to the world’s oldest flamingo? Unfortunately 'Greater' has died at the grand old age of 83 at Adelaide Zoo in South Australia. Greater was almost blind, and quite an enigma - its sex and origin was a complete mystery.
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2992 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
This will make you appreciate pill bugs way more
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This bizarre little beetle is a species of pill bug from the Monteverde cloud forest of Costa Rica. Just 5 mm long, it can shrink itself even smaller when threatened by curling itself up into a perfect ball.
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2909 |
duddy |
10 years ago |
Why do some people sneeze after staring into bright light?
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18% to 35% of people are "sun sneezers" who have genetically inherited the photic sneeze reflex. The photic sneeze reflex (also known as photoptarmosis) is a condition of uncontrollable sneezing in response to numerous stimuli, such as looking at bright lights or periocular (surrounding the eyeball) injection. Unfortunately, its exact mechanism of action and evolutionary purpose is not well understood. ...
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2896 |
bio_man |
11 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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2853 |
ehd123 |
8 years ago |
Gastric brooding frogs
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Gastric brooding frogs went extinct thirty years ago - but today, scientists announced that they have taken a massive step forward in bringing this extinct creature back to life. A team of Australian scientists succeeded in cloning one of these frogs and taking it to the stage of an embryo, and they have now announced that they plan to go all the way and resurrect the gastric brooding frog using cloning technology.
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2838 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Great Blue Hole of Belize
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This is the Great Blue Hole of Belize in Central America, and at 300 metres across and 124 m deep, it's thought to be the largest submarine cave on Earth. It was first discovered by French explorer Jacques Cousteau, and was formed over a period of around 140,000 years when the sea levels were much lower than they are now. As the sea levels rose, a number of limestone caves were flooded over time to create this almost perfect circle. It's now home to several species of fish and reef shark. ...
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2806 |
duddy |
10 years ago |