Science
Science
In an Octopus’ Garden
The boat is bobbing up and down and up and down, slamming against frothy waves, as I ready myself to disembark. I’m painfully aware of the near 30-kilograms of gear—air tank, BCD, regulator, weight belt, mask, snorkel, wet suit and flippers—that make out-of-water movements exceedingly difficult for my 170-centimetre, 54-kilogram frame.
By Sarah Comber5 years ago in FYI
Many Things About Earth and Our Solar System You May Not Know
Planet Earth is the best place in the universe to live – so far. Unlike mythical gods of both today and of past ages, the earth is not mean-spirited, capricious, or spiteful. It just is. The fact that earth sustains us with a perfect atmosphere; oceans that support an incredible variety of life, a biosphere that does the same for birds and land animals and us humans along with a moon that provides us with the wonder of tidal seas is remarkable. And, all the more so when you consider the following:
By Michael Trigg5 years ago in FYI
Planet's Got WEIRD FROGS!
LIVE from around the globe, it's the hottest new reality-talent show on the planet! Four amphibians, ready to showcase their oddness! Four croakings and croaqueens, ready to astound and confuse! Four living proofs that PLANET'S GOT WEIRD FROGS!
By Olivier Savard5 years ago in FYI
Statistical Mechanics and The Probability of the Universe
Act I: A Tragic Hero In my third year of college I took a class called Kinetics and BioTransport. We learned about how medication interacts with our bodies, both physically and chemically. On the third day of class, our professor drew two large circles on the whiteboard.
By Lakshmi Iyengar5 years ago in FYI
Sharks Had a Sixth Sense Before It Was Cool
Many myths and misconceptions surrounding sharks have been perpetuated throughout the last several decades. It seems something about their awe-inspiring and fascinating nature triggers the imagination, which then leads to stories, which eventually leads to fiction being intermingled with facts.
By Rochelle Gordon5 years ago in FYI
Did You Know?
A seahorse seems impossible. It seems unlikely to really be real. Like a unicorn, fairy or dragon, the seahorse has been so legendary, and throughout time in cultures across the globe, have inspired so many incredible medical remedies, art, literature and myths, that it seems too hard to believe that a seahorse lives, day in and day out, right alongside every other normal thing on the planet. Yet, although the seahorse seems like the embodiment of obscurity, magical and mysterious in its underwater existence, it is as real as you and I.
By Tess Celinalaha 5 years ago in FYI
Murder
The sky is covered with black specks flying in circles. Crows! Lots of them. Normally a large group of certain animals are named differently. A herd of cattle, a flock of sheep, but in this case, it is called a “murder of crows” or an “unkindness of crows”. Media, different cultures, and literature sometimes paint these creatures to symbolize death.
By Vinnie Quan5 years ago in FYI
Is color in the eye of the beholder?
If a tree falls in the forest and no one sees it, is it still brown and green? In principle, color is primarily determined by a property of light, wavelength, that has little to do with hikers passing by… Or has it? On the one hand, it is true that physical properties of light are independent of beholders (as long as we don’t go into the weird world of quantum physics) but, on the other, a wavelength is not a color. A wavelength only becomes a color once a creature with the right kit to detect it puts it in a mental box different from the mental box for some other detectable wavelength. That’s where things get interesting.
By Ines Anton-Mendez5 years ago in FYI
Polar Bears hunt and kill whales?!
Polar Bears are fascinating animals, more so than other bears because of their large size, unique colour, and arctic environment where they live. They are the largest land carnivores in the world, and live in some of the coldest and inhospitable places on Earth. People who are interested in and learn about these tough and rugged bears know they normally hunt seals. Hunting seals takes patience and strength, as the seals polar bears routinely hunt can weigh up to 150 pounds and must be hauled out of the water after being caught. If you have tried to lift anything out of the water, you know how hard that is. It doesn’t hurt that male bears can weigh as much as 1400 pounds, which is nearly 10 times as heavy as a keg full of beer. They massively outweigh their regular prey.
By Desmond James5 years ago in FYI
