It is one of the most controversial substances nowadays. It has been filling the pages of the major media around the world for some time now. While it is true that it has many uses and is very profitable, marketing often hides its darkest secrets. It is when they have been revealed that society has … Read more
The Common Dwarf Mongoose (Helogale parvula) is the smallest viverrid of the Afican continent. Viverrids are a family of carnivorous mammals that includes civets, ginets, mongooses and alike. Its small body barely reaches 30 cm in length, with a weight that usually does not reach 300 g. The tail can measure between 12-20 cm. Its … Read more
It’s probably one of the most common table talk conversations of the summer. When a watermelon is cut and the seeds are not perceived, a suspicion, a worry, a distrust, even a fear emanates from us. It seems unnatural, scientific witchcraft. The term “transgenic” will come out disdainfully and quickly from the person who has … Read more
More than one has been shocked after seen these alleged mosquitoes. They look like imposing and huge mosquitoes, but in fact they are Diptera of the Tipulidae family, also known as crain flies. True mosquitoes are also Diptera but they belong to the Culicidae family. They are thin, delicate-looking insects with long and thin legs, … Read more
This is the sea wasp or box jellyfish, Chironex fleckeri, a kind of jellyfish of the Cubozoa class: It inhabits shallow, turbid oceanic waters of Australia and Southeast Asia (although during the breeding season and polyp phase they can be found in rivers). The bell (“body”) is cube-shaped and translucid (Φ15-24cm). From each of the … Read more
Machines have become an indispensable tool for humans, to the point that some of them have become practically another extremity of our organisms, both literally and metaphorically if we refer to our indispensable mobile phone. Some of them already reproduce our anatomy, physiognomy and behaviour with a sinister realism, perhaps to make them more familiar … Read more
Only worker bees sting when they are in a desperate situation, but not all bee species sting. The stinger is a hollow tube through which the poison passes and that is attached to some internal organs. Apart from the poison, it is important to remove the stinger immediately because when the bee stings, it releases … Read more
It is the patas monkey: Erythrocebus patas. This Old World Monkey is the fastest primate, since it can reach 56 km/h running. Males of this species weigh about 10 kg and females about 6 kg. Their legs and tails are long. They have a reddish-brown hair with lighter and darker areas. This species lives in … Read more
This smell, called petrichor, which pleases many people, is perceived after the rain. The responsible is a substance called geosmin (aroma of the earth in Greek). Geosmin is produced by Streptomyces coelicolor or Albert’s bacteria, although it is also produced by some cyanobacteria and filamentous fungi. This bacterium is found in most soils, and apart … Read more
It is the capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), also known as chigüire, chigüiro or carpincho. It can measure 50-60 cm high and 1.3 m long and can weigh… more than 50 kg! This species lives exclusively in South America. It lives in more or less numerous groups in the vicinity of watercourses. A curious feature is that … Read more
Bradypus tridactylus, the pale-throated sloth, belongs to the supraorder Edentata, just like the armadillo and the anteater. Ground speed: 2.44m/min (0.105km/h), although it increases slightly when climbing trees using its 3 long claws, reaching 4.57m/min (0.272km/h). Its neck has a great mobility, it can turn it almost 360º. It almost never descends to the ground, … Read more
General Sherman (Sequoiadendron giganteum) This is how this sequoia is known, considered to be the living being with the most biomass on Earth, since it is the tree with the greatest net volume: 1620 m3. It weighs more than 2000 tons and the perimeter of the trunk is about 31m. But it is not the … Read more
Hummingbirds are a family of birds (Trochilidae) composed by many species. The size of the hummingbirds varies depending on the species: the smallest weighs about 2.2 grams and the largest about 20 g. They feed on flowers’ nectar (they are important pollinators) and small insects. They have a very large heart beating at more than … Read more
This type of displacement basically consists of “floating” in the air through silk threads. That is, the air pushes the silk thread and the spider will hang from it in the air. The spider is usually placed in an elevated area, aims the opisthosoma (“abdomen”) upward and expels the thread… A timely blast of air … Read more
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was a secret Pentagon program that lasted 5 years, from 2007 to 2012. With a budget of 22 million dollars, its objective was to identify unidentified aircraft that could be a threat to U.S. National Security. We know about it because his director, Luis Elizondo, leaked information in … Read more
Females can be fertilized by several males because the sperm share space once inside the female. As a result, different types of adaptations have appeared to ensure the reproductive success of males. Two types of adaptations can be distinguished: 1. TO ACHIEVE A PREFERENTIAL USE OF SPERM. The best known case is that of some … Read more
Courtship is defined as specific behavioural patterns that induce sexual receptivity, i.e. it facilitates recognition between species and also serves as a mechanism to prevent mating between different species. It can be done by visual, tactile and/or chemical stimulation. A curious mechanism is that of some species of butterflies, called “puddling“, which consists of the … Read more
Asian hornet, raccoon, water hyacinth, red swamp crayfish, red-eared slider, monk parakeet, fountain grass, red palm weevil, wels catfish, Xyllela fastidiosa… They are all names of organisms that increasingly dominate the headlines of the major media in various countries. They are a real problem in many ways. The environment, the economy and the health system … Read more
They do not present sexual dirmorphism (differences between males and females) in size neither in dentition, only in coloration in the first two genera of the 4 existing ones: Nomascus, Hoolock, Hylobates and Symphalangus. The intermembral index (length of upper extremities/lower ext*100) is the highest of all primates: 127-147. They are the only apes with … Read more
Dr. Thomas A. Sebeok, of the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies at Indiana University, never imagined the request the Ohio Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation would make to him: to build a language system to warn people of 10000 years in the future of the places where potentially hazardous nuclear waste is buried. The … Read more