I learned this today. Different species of extremophiles have evolved different ways to survive the extreme environments that they live in. The word extremophile comes from the Greek “extremus”, which means love and “philia”, which means love. They are organisms that not only survive in extreme environments they flourish in them. I learned about tardigrades […]
#237 How do extremophiles survive? Read More »
I learned this today. Tardigrades are incredibly strong and incredibly small micro-animals. Tardigrades are generally about 0.5mm long. Some of the big ones grow up to 1.5mm in size but they are usually much smaller. There are about 1,300 different species of them and they live all over the world. They are short and plump
#236 Why are tardigrades so tough? Read More »
I learned this today. Skunks smell so bad because they spray an organic compound that has sulfur in it. Skunks are mostly native to north and south America, although there is also a species of skunk that lives in Indonesia. This is called the Sunda stink badger. There are generally ten different species of skunk.
#234 Why do skunks smell so bad? Read More »
I learned this today. Porcupines don’t actually shoot their quills. The quills just detach very easily and stick in the predator. Porcupines are members of the rodent family. Males can grow to be almost a meter long and weigh up to 16 kg. They are not very fast, but they don’t need to be because
#233 How does a porcupine shoot its quills? Read More »
I learned this today. Sloths move so slowly because they have an extremely low metabolic rate. There are six species of sloth that are divided into two different types of sloth: three-toed sloths and two-toed sloths. Both of these groups of sloths are from different families that are very distantly related. They have both evolved
#231 Why do sloths move so slowly? Read More »
I learned this today. Many animals can run quickly because they have four legs, run on their toes, and have bodies designed for speed. There are three types of animals when it comes to the shape of feet. There are plantigrades, digitigrades, and unguligrades. We are plantigrades. Along with rodents, rabbits, hedgehogs, kangaroos,
#224 Why can animals run so fast? Read More »
I learned this today. Deep sea fish can survive because they don’t breathe in the same way that we do. However, even they cannot survive at the very bottom of the ocean. Pressure at sea level is 14.7 psi (pounds per square inch). If someone weighing 14.7 pounds stood on you, you would
#219 Why don’t deep sea fish get crushed by the pressure? Read More »
I learned this today. Cows combine nutrients from their blood, sugar, fat, and water in their udders to produce milk. All mammals, except for monotremes (like the duck billed platypus) produce milk. In all but one case the milk is produced by the female mammal. The only male mammal that produces milk is the Dayak
#208 How do cows produce milk? Read More »
I learned this today. Fish that live in saltwater have evolved to draw in large amounts of water through osmosis to replace the water that they lose because of the salt. We cannot do this. Salt draws water out of cells by the process of osmosis. Osmosis is the process by which a liquid moves
#201 Why can fish drink saltwater but we can’t? Read More »
I learned this today. A pearl forms in the shell of a mollusk when an irritant becomes trapped there and the mollusk covers it with a fluid that hardens. There are three different types of pearl. There are natural pearls, cultured pearls, and imitation pearls. I am not going to look at imitation pearls. Natural
#192 How does a pearl form? Read More »
