Baby Anteater

Taken from here.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way!

Original post here.

Collection of Science Photos

Below are several examples from this interesting collection of science photos:

Human tongue:
A high energy beam scanner, called a scanning electron micrograph, was used to capture this image, which shows the surface of a human tongue. The protruding objects, called filiform papillae, can sense pressure. The flaky appearance of the papillae results from the fact that they are constantly shedding their skin to increase sensitivity.



Blood clot:
This electron micrograph of a blood clot shows an exceptional level of detail, part of the Wellcome Images collection. For this image, the photograph was enhanced to show detail and color, but in the center of the image, there is a clearly identifiable white blood cell surrounded by a blood clot.



Green Sea Slug:
This green sea slug – found on the East coast of the US and Canada -- has an interesting ability: It can synthesize the green pigment chemical chlorophyll like a plant.



Pond Scum:
Researchers are discovering some amazing creatures in the pond scum. In this photo, the single-celled Plagiopyla looks like a smiling face or Easter Island statues.



Weaver Ants:
Weaver ants (Oecophylla sp.) put the finishing touches on their nests in Buton Island, off the southeast peninsula of Sulawesi, Indonesia. As their name implies, they use living plants to "weave" leaves together to construct their nests, which they vigorously protect. Silk produced only by the larvae helps hold the nest together.



To see and read more, see the original article here.

10 animals with the longest life spans

The creatures featured below are from a list of the 10 longest living animals:

10. Geoducks

First on the list are these large saltwater clams that are native to the Puget Sound and have been known to live for at least 160 years. They are characterized by their long 'necks', or siphons, which can grow to over 1 meter long.



9. Tuataras

The word "dinosaur" is commonly used to describe an old person, but when it refers to a tuataras, the term is as literal as it is metaphorical. The two species of tuatara alive today are the only surviving members of an order which flourished about 200 million years ago — they are living dinosaurs. They are also among the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth, with some individuals living for anywhere between 100 and 200 years.



8. Lamellibrachia tube worms

These colorful deep sea creatures are tube worms (L. luymesi) that live along hydrocarbon vents on the ocean floor. They have been known to live 170 years, but many scientists believe there may be some that have lived for more than 250 years.



7. Red sea urchins

The red sea urchin or Strongylocentrotus franciscanus is found only in the Pacific Ocean, primarily along the West Coast of North America. It lives in shallow, sometimes rocky, waters from the low-tide line down to to 90 meters, but they stay out of extremely wavy areas. They crawl along the ocean floor using their spines as stilts. If you discover one, remember to respect your elders — some specimens are more than 200 years old.



6. Bowhead whales

Also known as the Arctic whale, the bowhead is by far the longest living mammal on Earth. Some bowhead whales have been found with the tips of ivory spears still lodged in their flesh from failed attempts by whalers 200 years ago. The oldest known bowhead whale was at least 211 years old.



5. Koi

Koi are an ornamental, domesticated variety of the common carp. The are common in artificial rock pools and decorative ponds. Amazingly, some varieties are capable of living more than 200 years. The oldest known koi was Hanako, a fish that died at the age of 226 on July 7, 1977.



4. Tortoises

Tortoises are considered the longest living vertebrates on Earth. One of their oldest known representatives was Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise that died of heart failure at the age of 175 years in June 2006 at a zoo owned by the late Steve Irwin. Harriet was considered the last living representative of Darwin's epic voyage on the HMS Beagle. An Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita died at the rumored age of 250 in March 2006.



3. Ocean quahog

The ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) is a species of clam that is exploited commercially. Researchers have interpreted the dark concentric rings or bands on the shell as annual marks, much like a tree has rings. Some collected specimens have been calculated to be more than 400 years old.



2. Antarctic sponge

Perhaps due to the extremely low temperatures of the Antarctic Ocean, this immobile creature has an extremely slow growth rate. Some estimate the oldest known specimens are 1,550 years old.



1. Turritopsis nutricula jellyfish

This species of jellyfish might be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Because they are able to bypass death, the number of individuals is spiking. "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion," says Dr. Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute.



Original article here.

Monkeying Around

Below are several pictures from this article depicting the "graceful dance" of primates. In order, the species are Hanuman Langurs, Verreaux's Sifakas, and Geladas.

How deep is the Mariana Trench?

Click the image on the right to see a very interesting representation of the depths of the Mariana Trench (if your browser shrinks the image to fit on the screen, be sure to click on it to expand it to full size).

The Mariana Trench is the deepest known part of the world's oceans, and the lowest elevation of the surface of the Earth's crust.

It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, to the east of the Mariana Islands.

The trench is about 1,580 miles long and reaches a maximum depth of about 36,200 ft (6.9 miles) at the Challenger Deep, a small slot-shaped valley in its floor, at its southern end.

If Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth at 29,030 ft, were set in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, there would still be 6,810 ft (over 1 mile) of water left above it.

Preserved 165-million Year Old Spider Fossible Found

Scientists have unearthed an almost perfectly preserved spider fossil in China dating back to the middle Jurassic era, 165 million years ago.

The fossils were found at a site called Daohugou in Northern China that is filled with fossilized salamanders, small primitive mammals, insects, and water crustaceans. During the Jurassic era, the fossil bed was part of a lake in a volcanic region.

Spider fossils from this period are rare, because the arachnids’ soft bodies don’t preserve well. The pristine fossil pictured in these photos was probably created when the spider was trapped in volcanic ash. The ultra-fine clay particles squashed the spider without breaking up the animals’ delicate cuticle as more coarse sediment would.

Original article here.

1950s Cells Still Alive and Helping Science

In 1951, woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to be treated for cervical cancer. Unbeknownst to her, cells from her biopsy were made available to biological researchers.

Lacks died later that year, but her cell line — known as HeLa — lives on. A new book titled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks examines the extraordinary impact of HeLa on science and the effects of that unchosen legacy on Lacks’ family.

Click to enlarge the picture below, which includes a detailed timeline of HeLa's impact on science. Click here to see the original Wired article.