Canaries Do Not Hate These Spicy Treats. In Fact, They Would Be More Than Willing To Eat Jalapeno Peppers.

This picture looks just like another dead fish washed up on shore - until you realize that it’s actually a whale, and those are grizzly bears standing on it.

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Vaterite … from fish ears to crystal lattices

Deep within the ear of a fish you will find a little bone, an otolith. This bone acts as part of the sensory system of the ear, part accelerometer, part gravity sensor, part sound sensor. Otoliths are formed from calcium carbonate minerals, and different species of fish exploit different types of CaCO3 mineral. These CaCO3 “polymorphs” all have the same chemistry, but the arrangements of atoms within the crystal lattice of each are different, just as diamond and graphite are two polymorphs of carbon. Usually, a fish otolith grows as aragonite, sometimes as calcite, a different polymorph of calcium carbonate, and sometime as the third CaCO3 polymorph, vaterite.

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Come and take a “bite” out of nature & science, attending Explorers Society Members Event. #northmuseum #stemsisters #sharks (at North Museum of Nature & Science)

“I’m on Lord Howe Island, a tiny speck of land 300 miles off the east coast of Australia. Humans beings only got here a little over 200 years ago, and it seems the birds that nest here are still quite curious to see what’s going on.“ (Life of Birds 1998)

This is it. This is my favourite Attenborough moment.

The name “hippopotamus” comes from a Greek word meaning “water horse” or “river horse.” But hippos are not related to horses at all—in fact, their closest living relatives may be pigs or whales and dolphins! (photo: Peter Csanadi)

One million full length movies are stored in this vial using DNA as storage media. We’re through the looking glass people. The future is now.

Episode 46 of the In Defense of Plants Podcast has arrived!

This week its all about the flora of the Ozarks!

The Ozark Mountains have long been a mystery to me. This ancient mountain range is home to a bewildering diversity of plant life, some of which is found nowhere else in the world. From glades to woodlands and everything in between, the Ozarks have it all. Join me for a discussion with Justin Thomas, director of the Institute of Botanical Training. Justin and his wife have devoted their lives to studying and protecting the plants of this region. I learned a lot from talking with Justin and I know you will too.

Photos by Justin Thomas

For the first time, a giant 20″ red leech was filmed slurping down a blue earthworm which was 27″ in length. The footage was captured by BBC filmmakers for the series ‘Wonders of the Monsoon.’

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The intricacies involved in launching a shuttle off the ground and successfully completing its mission is no doubt a meticulous task. Every move made during a launch is calculated and deliberate, nothing is left for chance.

On that note, having watched a couple of historic shuttle launches, this peculiar behavior caught my eye: the orbiter always faced the earth! ( The orbiter is the plane part of the shuttle)

Why do shuttles orient belly up ?

Protection against space debris

Upon entering the atmosphere, most space debris burn up. But out in space, without the protective blanket of our atmosphere, the space shuttle is exposed to all sizes and shapes of space debris ( also man-made ).

The space shuttle’s belly is designed to take up intense heat and pressure so that the shuttle doesn’t fall apart when it re-enters the atmosphere, and therefore best suited for taking hits from flying space junk

The Sun

Do you remember the heat-resistant space shuttle tiles that I posted about a couple of weeks back?

Putting the spacecraft with it’s bottom to the Sun it is these heat-resistant tiles on the bottom that are most exposed to the full power of the Sun.

This keeps the astronauts safer and cooler than they would be otherwise.

To maneuver

Wait, space shuttles maneuver in flight ? Yup ! For each mission the shuttle must be launched at a certain angle in order to accomplish the prescribed task.

Since the launch pad is fixed i.e you cannot change its angular orientation, the shuttle must perform the maneuver during the ascent in order to orient itself with the trajectory.

This maneuver is known as the Roll maneuver and is performed at a point about one minute or so after the launch.

The Atlantis performing a roll maneuver

Communication

Well, I think this thought might have already crossed your mind.

The belly down position assists in communication with the ground and allows instruments within the cargo bay to be pointed back towards Earth, which is required for many of the experiments carried within the bay.

Home, Sweet Home !

The reason why the shuttle’s cargo bay faces towards the earth has some psychological benefit as well.

The crew of the crew are given the spectacular views of our home planet glorifying the magnificence of its existence, rather than staring at the cold, dark void of space that lies afar.

Green burial practices could help the environment

Traditional caskets are hundreds of pounds of wood, metal and whatever cushioning goes inside.. Burial vaults, the enclosures that barricade each casket from the elements, can be around 3,000 pounds of cement, sometimes steel. One gallon of toxic embalming fluid  is used per 50 pounds of body. Add it all up and you’ve got around two tons of material per body chilling in the earth forever.

Despite the downsides of burial, not everyone wants to be cremated. Plus, there’s plenty of evidence suggesting the energy it takes to burn a body down wreaks significant damage on the environment.

Green burial could be the solution. The idea is to make as little an impact on the natural environment of the burial site as possible.

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