Geckos have amazingly sticky feet. Their stickability comes from billions of dry microscopic hairs that coat the soles of their feet. However, when humidity increases, gecko feet stick even tighter to smooth surfaces, so ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 15, 2010
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Climbing is possibly one of the riskiest things an adult tarantula can do. Weighing in at anything up to 50gm, the dry attachment systems that keep daintier spiders firmly anchored are on the verge of failure in these colossal ...
Plants & Animals
May 16, 2011
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The female common market squid –– AKA Doryteuthis opalescens –– may not be so common after all. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that this glamorous cephalopod possesses a pair of stripes that can sparkle ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 18, 2013
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It is well known that large mammals living in temperate climates lower their metabolism in winter. But does this represent a mechanism for coping with less food or is it merely a consequence of having less to eat? For the ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 16, 2011
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Hammerhead sharks are some of the Ocean's most distinctive residents. 'Everyone wants to understand why they have this strange head shape,' says Michelle McComb from Florida Atlantic University. One possible reason is the ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 27, 2009
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Few fish are famed for their parenting skills. Most species leave their freshly hatched fry to fend for themselves, but not discus fish. Jonathan Buckley from the University of Plymouth, UK, explains that discus fish young ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 29, 2010
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(Phys.org)—Did dinosaurs lactate? It's a question physiology expert Professor Paul Else has been pondering for years –15 years in fact.
Archaeology
Feb 11, 2013
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Shark skin has long been known to improve the fish's swimming performance by reducing drag, but now George Lauder and Johannes Oeffner from Harvard University show that in addition, the skin generates thrust, giving the fish ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 9, 2012
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Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that a small dose of a commonly used crop pesticide turns honey bees into "picky eaters" and affects their ability to recruit their nestmates to otherwise good sources of food.
Plants & Animals
May 24, 2012
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Immediately after emerging from their underground nests on the lush beaches of eastern Florida, loggerhead sea turtles scramble into the sea and embark alone on a migration that takes them around the entire North Atlantic ...
Plants & Animals
May 15, 2012
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