Well done, Google.
Jim looks so astonished and betrayed.
The Coconut Crab has the World’s Strongest Grip
Researchers in Okinawa measured the gripping force of 29 coconut crabs, and found that strength corresponded with size. The biggest recorded crab should then have a strength of 3,300 Newtons–stronger than the bite force of any animal except alligators.
One of the researchers was pinched twice by the animals while studying them, which, until the crab decided to let go, was a very painful experience. “While it was only a few minutes, I felt eternal hell,” the researcher said.
(Read more in my PBS Newshour article)
Anonymous asked:
Why is AB- blood rare? I try looking it up but there not much and when there is I can't comprehend it?
the-environmentalologist answered:
So lets start off with the population break down (roughly) for the ABO-Rehsis blood typing (but you can ignore the rehsis typing for this):
- O-positive: 37.4 percent
- O-negative: 6.6 percent
- A-positive: 35.7 percent
- A-negative: 6.3 percent
- B-positive: 8.5 percent
- B-negative: 1.5 percent
- AB-positive: 3.4 percent
- AB-negative: 0.6 percent
To have AB blood you need an A from one parent and a B from the other parent because there are two genes controlling the ABO typing (O is just having neither an A in the A gene, or an B in the B gene).
So if ~42% of people have an A allele to give, and theres only a 50% chance they will give it. Only 10% of people have a B to give (again only a 50-50 shot). which makes the likelihood of the AB blood type quite slim. Mostly because the likelihood of having a B to give is pretty rare.
In short: AB is rare because not many people have a B to give to the AB genotype.
Somebody give me creative reigns for a TV show. Picture this - Elvira and Dolly Parton starring side-by-side as twin sisters, both witches from humble roots. They’ve each lived wild lives independently and with a little huffy hostility towards each other, following different paths to become powerful enchantresses. As they reach old age, they realize the only thing they can’t replace with magic…. is family.
The 62 species of sea snakes are all wonderfully adapted to life in the oceans, but they almost always come ashore to lay eggs. But not the yellow-bellied one; it is the only member of the group that lives full-time in the open ocean. It eats at sea, mates at sea, and gives birth to live young at sea. It has special valves in its nose to stop water from getting in, and can even partially breathe through its skin. It hunts by sitting amid flotsam and picking off small fish that gather beneath it. And it swims by propelling itself with a flattened, paddle-like tail.
And yet, in some ways, it is so ill-suited to life in the ocean that its existence borders on poetic tragedy. For example, a few years ago, Brischoux and his colleague Harvey Lillywhite from the University of Florida showed that the yellow-bellied sea snake is almost constantly thirsty and dehydrated.
If you tried to swallow water in the ocean, your kidneys would remove the extra salt by diluting it in urine. In doing so, you’d actually get rid of more water than you ingested. This is why, when humans drink seawater, they get dehydrated. Some marine animals cope with this problem using special salt-removing glands, but Lillywhite showed that—contrary to what scientists previously believed—sea snakes do not. They live most of their lives in the oceans, but they never swallow seawater. Instead, they try quench their thirst with fresh water.
Some species stick close to coastal sites with nearby sources of fresh water, like springs or streams that empty into the sea. But the yellow-bellied sea snake has no such option. Instead, it drinks from the thin layers of freshwater that briefly form on the surface of the ocean when it rains. That seems precarious, and it is. For much of the year, from November to May, these snakes are almost constantly dehydrated.
The yellow-bellied sea snake isn’t a great swimmer either. “It is really small,” says Brischoux. “It can move in the water, but not for a very long period of time and not against really strong currents—unlike, say, a seal.” So how could it possibly occupy such a large range? The only other tetrapods that are so widespread are either powerful swimmers like the giant whales or strong fliers like seabirds. The yellow-bellied sea snake is neither, and yet it has spread over two-thirds of the Earth’s surface.
I support this small, weak-swimming, constantly dehydrated snake.
finally found my patronus: an animal as poorly adapted to life as I am.
alright who’s willing to swim out and give them gatorades we need volunteers
deepintheshadyglen