Science
Science
The Overlooked Pollinators. Top Story - March 2021.
While bees get most of the attention when it comes to pollinating our crops, there is an integral nighttime pollinator that shouldn’t be overlooked: bats. Bats are responsible for pollinating over 500 types of tropical plants and flowers across the globe, including dates, bananas, agave, cashews, eucalyptus, avocados, cacao, and durian. They are important in the medicinal world as well, with several remedies—such as treatments for epilepsy and night blindness—originating from plants that rely on bats for survival.
By M.R. Cameo5 years ago in FYI
Blue Giants
When I was in second grade, I wanted to become a Paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs, how they looked and the fact they were HUGE. So it came as no surprise that when we finished learning about these incredible (but extinct) creatures and moved on to learn about whales, that I fell in love with these gentle giants too. Not only were these mammals also huge but they had been in existence since the time of the dinosaurs. I remember that when it came time to choose a type of whale for a class project, I chose the Humpback, which is definitely not one of the biggest, but I liked the cool bumps it had around its mouth.
By Verity Greene5 years ago in FYI
Mermaids
It was 2015, and I used to chill with my friends. Most of them were boys. I was one of the guys. At that time, I had more male friends than female friends. I still don’t really know why. I guess I was different from most females that I knew. Girls can be quite competitive, dress to impress each other, gossip, and whatnot. Those types of behavior didn’t fancy me much. I felt confident in my body and my being. Such social dogmas in relation to body image didn’t have an impact on me.
By Marzi Banilohi5 years ago in FYI
Murder, He Wrote
It was when someone told me about a crash of rhinos that I hit the wall. It was one of those things that come up in casual conversation, when going down the road the of fact-finding factoids inevitably brings you to the weird and wacky anomalies of the English language, and how there’s a word for everything — even when there isn’t.
By Hamish Alexander5 years ago in FYI
The Slippery Issue of Palm Oil
Forget the adage that you never more than 6ft away from a rat. In all likelihood, you are never more than 6ft away from palm oil in some shape or form, which may in fact be a scarier thought than those rodent residents. Palm oil is the most popular edible oil in the world. Check the back of the nearest packet of biscuits, your tube of shampoo or your daily makeup and in all likelihood you’ll see it there - PKO or Palm Kernel Oil. It may even sneak in under disguise, with around 500 different processed forms, or ‘derivatives’, that make up about 60% of global palm oil use.
By Georgia Melodie Hole5 years ago in FYI
Navigating the Pain Game
“Candidate One-Zero-Eight, out of the van,” the unseen driver barked. I disembarked hastily from the back of a blacked-out moving van and hustled towards the silhouette in the adjacent clearing. The tacticool ball cap rattled off two series of numbers before dismissing himself. On bended knee I raced through a few calculations and scratched a few figures on my laminated map.
By Nom de Guerre5 years ago in FYI
Golden Blood
Blood. A substance that carries oxygen and nutrients to the cells and carries away carbon dioxide and other waste products. A transport liquid that is pumped by the heart to all corners of your body, before returning to the heart to repeat the process.
By Kayleigh Taylor5 years ago in FYI
Spring 2021 starts on March 20th, unless it started on March 1st.
“Happy first day of Spring!” A coworker said to me, and she wasn’t the first one to say it. I looked outside, it was snowing. It had snowed almost everyday since November. What were these people thinking? This was not Spring.
By Buck Hardcastle5 years ago in FYI
