Wonders of Nature [ PART-I ]
1.Acacia trees can warn each other of danger.
Arcadia trees, which grow all over the African savannah, have a unique defense system. When animals like antelopes start to gobble up its leaves, the tree increases tannin production to levels that are toxic to animals.
But that's not all. The tree then emits a cloud of ethylene gas that travels through the air, reaching other trees so they too can begin producing more tannins.
2.Owls don't have eyeballs.
What they have instead are better described as eye tubes. Since they can't move these tubes back and forth, owls have developed incredible neck flexibility to be able to see the world around them. They can turn their heads a whopping 270 degrees, whereas humans can only manage about 180.
As a result, owls have a special blood vessel system in their heads to keep fresh blood circulating to the brain when a quick head turn cuts off circulation.
3.In space, metal can weld on its own.
On Earth, you need heat to fuse metal, but in space, two pieces of the same kind of metal will fuse together with only a little pressure. The process is called cold welding, and it happens because of the lack of atmosphere.
4.There are 28 kinds of "corpse flowers."
You might not know about the plant genus Rafflesia, but you may have heard about the "corpse flower," a rare type of jungle plant that attracts pollinating insects to its huge flowers by smelling like death and rot.
In fact, there are 28 distinct species of this rootless, leafless plant, with flowers varying in size from about 5 inches to 40 inches. Most of these flowers take six to nine months to grow and will begin to decay within a few days.
5.Baby giraffes use their butts as pillows.
6.Heat is the deadliest weather condition.
Tornadoes, hurricanes, and flooding can devastate entire towns at once, but the weather condition that proves deadliest to humans is actually heat.
Looking at the numbers from the past 30 years, tornadoes caused an average of 70 deaths a year and flooding an average of 81, but heat caused an average of 130 deaths a year. If you don't have access to air conditioning or sufficient water, excessive heat can be deadly.
7.Cows kill more people than sharks.
Turns out, Jaws really blew things out of proportion for sharks. According to the Center for Disease Control, sharks kill an average of four people per year, while cows kill an average of 22 annually. Though some are due to road accidents, 75 percent were premeditated attacks.
"What's really chilling is that, in five cases, people were killed by multiple cows in group attacks," one Gizmodo reporter wrote. "Group attacks can be surprisingly well-coordinated. When they're feeling defensive, cows will gather in a circle, all facing outwards, lowering their heads and stamping the ground. When they're feeling offensive, certain cows lead the charge."
8.An extinct species of penguins was nearly 7-feet tall!
The biggest penguins around nowadays are emperor penguins, measuring a respectable 4 feet in height.
However, 37 million years ago, a species known as Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, or colossus penguins, roamed Antarctica. They weighed about 250 pounds and stood about 6 feet, 6 inches tall, which is the height of the average NBA player. Unfortunately, like modern penguins, these colossus penguins could neither fly nor, presumably, dunk. But it's still fun to imagine a penguin going one-on-one with LeBron James.
9.Goats have accents.
Researchers at Queen Mary University of London found that though goats don't have their own language, they do seem able to pick up accents from one another. You can listen to some of them here.
10.There's a fungus that bleeds.
Hydnellum ferrugineum, or Rusty Bleeding Tooth Fungus, with red liquid droplets, growing among pine branches and needles
Found all across the United States, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, the mushroom Hydnellum peckii has a pretty unmistakable appearance, particularly when it's young.
This fungus exudes a thick, dark red sap across a white cap, earning it numerous nicknames, from "strawberries and cream," to "devil's tooth," to "bleeding tooth fungus." Fortunately, neither the fungus nor the sap are poisonous, but they're both said to be inedibly bitter. So we suggest staying away.
11.African buffalo herds make decisions by voting.
Apparently, democracy isn't limited to humanity. For example, African buffalo herds are known to select the direction they'll travel by voting.
One by one, the adult females of the herd will stand up, look in a particular direction, and then lay back down. Whichever direction gets the most looks is almost always where the herd travels. If voting is strongly divided, the herd will often split up temporarily.
12.The Low's pitcher-plant is a toilet and food source all in one.
You've probably heard of carnivorous plants like the Venus flytrap, but the Nepenthes lowii (or the Low's pitcher-plant) has moved away from eating animals, to instead feasting on what they leave behind.
The plant secretes a white, sugary nectar that both birds and shrews love. But in order to access it, they must perch their rear ends over the mouth of the Low's pitcher-plant. "Basically it's a toilet complete with a feeding station," said one researcher at Royal Roads University in British Columbia.
13.Bats save us billions of dollars a year.
Bats tend to get a bad rap. The truth is, they gobble up lots of troublesome insects. In fact, they're so good at keeping pests away from our food crops that they save U.S. farmers alone at least $3.7 billion on pesticides every year. So bats are actually a significant factor in our agricultural economy.
14.Our brains are shrinking.
Fossil evidence shows us that, over the past 10,000 years, the average human brain has shrunk about the size of a tennis ball. But that doesn't mean we're any less intelligent. Our smaller brains are probably more efficient, particularly since most of us live in settled societies and don't need to constantly be on the lookout for predators. So don't worry too much; your own brain is probably just fine.
15.More male giraffes are gay than straight.
Scientists say that homosexual activity among male giraffes is more common than heterosexual activity. In one study from Tanzania published in Biological Exuberance, 94 percent of all observed mounting activity was same-sex.
16.Our galaxy is set to collide with the Andromeda galaxy.
Our galactic home, the Milky Way, is on an inevitable collision course with our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy.
Stars, including our Sun, will smash into one another and orbits will fly out of whack. The chaos will go on for some time, but eventually, everything will settle down and the two galaxies will merge into one huge elliptical galaxy.
Don't lose any sleep over this eventuality, though—it won't happen for another 3.75 billion years.
17.You'll grow nearly 600 miles of hair in your lifetime.
The average person will grow 590 miles of hair in their lifetime, according to The Express. Presumably this is cumulative of each hair on your body laid end to end. Nose hairs alone contribute 6.5 feet of the total.
18. Dementors exist in nature.
Well, sort of. In 2015, scientists in Thailand discovered a new species of wasp with a horrifying method of killing their prey.
The wasps inject venom into cockroaches to paralyze them, so that they can drag the roach back to their lair and begin to feast while the roach is still alive. To find a name for this wasp, the scientists looked to the Harry Potter universe, in which dementors punish their victims by sucking the souls out of their still-living bodies. And thus, the dementor wasp was born.
19.The King's holly plant reproduces by cloning.
Most plants reproduce by mixing the genetic matter of two or more plants. But that's not true of a lomatia plant called King's holly.
To reproduce, the plant simply drops its own branch, which will form its own root system and become its own plant, but with identical DNA to the parent plant. Unfortunately, it's difficult for these plants to form defenses against diseases and predators without mixing genetic material. So, as a result, King's holly, which exists only in Tasmania, is critically endangered.
20.Saturn could float on water.
Size has nothing to do with buoyancy. Take a giant iceberg, for example. It's less dense than what's underneath it, so it's able to sit on top of the water.
Gas, too, has a substantially lower density than liquid, including water. So, even though Saturn is the second biggest planet in our solar system, because it's made up almost entirely of gas and ice, the planet could actually float in water. Good luck finding a bathtub big enough to test this out though.
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