L’Arctique verdit : il se couvre de plantes à un rythme inattendu. On ne peut pas dire que l’Arctique ne nous ait jamais habitués à une végétation luxuriante.
Les étendues de glace, les plaines balayées par le blizzard, forment un environnement peu propice aux plantes. Les seuls végétaux capables de résister à ces froids extrêmes sont en général des arbustes de très faible hauteur. L’Arctique verdit : il se couvre de plantes à un rythme inattendu. - The Washington Post. Ratel. Ever wonder why there are so many hexagons in nature? If you have ever wandered around in nature you may have noticed how many geometric shapes there are in the world that have absolutely no design from humans.
Take snail shell spirals or starfishes' bodies or the symmetry of a flower's petals; all those nature-y things are out there on their own existing in near mathematical perfection! New model backs controversial idea of how evolution works. In 1972 the eminent palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould and his colleague Niles Eldredge proposed an idea about the way evolution worked and, in so doing, sparked a fight of almighty proportions.
New modelling revealed by Michael Landis and Joshua Schraiber of Temple University in Pennsylvania, US, however, adds considerable extra weight to their case. Gould and Eldredge sought to explain so-called gaps in the palaeontological record – missing fossils assumed to represent transitional phases between ancient species and the modern ones into which they evolved – by suggesting they were an illusion. OneZoom Tree of Life Explorer: euryarchaeotes. Search the tree.
Pourra-t-on bénéficier des super-pouvoirs des tardigrades ? « Ce qui est incroyable, c'est que la protéine qui prodigue au tardigrade cette résistance peut être transférée à d'autres cellules animales », a expliqué à l'AFP Takekazu Kunieda, de l'université de Kyoto et coauteur de l'étude publiée le 20 septembre 2016 dans la revue Nature Communications.
Parfois surnommés « oursons d'eau » en raison de leur corps dodu, les tardigrades, représentés par un millier d'espèces, vivent un peu partout sur la Terre. Mesurant au maximum un demi-millimètre de longueur pour les espèces les plus grandes, ces arthropodes se déplacent très lentement, de façon pataude, sur leurs huit pattes griffues. Mais ce n'est pas leur physique de sac d'aspirateur qui fascine les scientifiques. L'atout du tardigrade, c'est son exceptionnelle capacité d'adaptation, son incroyable résistance aux conditions extrêmes qui tueraient n'importe quel autre être vivant. Un tardigrade, ou ourson d’eau, se promenant sur de la mousse. © NPG Press, Kunieda, Youtube. Some Dogs and Primates Can Sense Magnetic FieldsTrending. What if we told you dogs and even come primates have the ability to see, yes see, magnetic fields?
New research having been published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that dogs and even some primates, such as orangutans, have special proteins in their eyes capable of seeing magnetic fields, which help them in their sense of direction. For example, this ‘sixth sense’ is relatively useful for helping certain animals in figuring their altitude, direction, and even their location. It’s known more commonly as magnetoreception. Many other animals are also known to have this sense, such as dogs and sharks among other animals.
It’s used in migration and other forms of perception of change in the Earth’s ever-changing environment. The "Tree Of Death" Is As Terrifying As It Sounds. Although it resides on chilled-out, tourist-friendly beaches, the manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella) seems hell-bent on its vendetta against humanity.
This tree can found in the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, parts of northern South America, The Galápagos Islands and even in the U.S. state of Florida. When the Spanish first found the tree during their conquest of the Americas, they named it “arbol de la muerte,” which translates to "tree of death. " Even touching its bark can leave you with chemical burns, although its notoriety and toxicity mainly lies in its fruit. Ingesting the sweet-smelling fruit can cause severe vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures. Nicola Strickland, a consultant radiologist, wrote about her run-in with the “death apple” on her Caribbean holiday in Tobago. Sur cet insecte, le premier engrenage biologique- 18 septembre 2013.
PATTE.
C'est une découverte étonnante que publiait le journal Science le 13 septembre dernier. A Map Of The Loneliest Places On Earth. If you really feel like escaping from the world, and that quiet spot you used to run away to as a kid just won’t cut it, then you might want to use this map as a guide.
This cartogram-- world maps in which territories are resized according to a particular variable-- was created by geographer Benjamin Hennig, the creator of the website Views Of The World which has tons more awesome data visualizations like this one. Paul Stamets: 6 ways mushrooms can save the world. Harrowing Drone Footage Shows Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Back in 1986, a flawed reactor design married with serious mistakes made by plant workers led to one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents: the Chernobyl disaster.
The explosion and fires caused some 5% of the radioactive reactor core to seep into the environment and downwind, leading to a 30 kilometer (18.5 mile) exclusion zone around the plant that is still in effect today. 49,360 people residing in the nearby city of Pripyat had to be evacuated within 36 hours of the accident, followed by an additional 70,000 people from surrounding areas over the next few weeks. Des champignons au secours de la planète. Les étonnants pouvoirs du champignon Le champignon n'est que la partie immergée de la structure. Sous terre, il développe un réseau de fibres extrêmement solides : le mycelium. Les filaments de ce réseau peuvent s’étendre sur des centaines de mètres et sont capables de retenir 30 000 fois leur masse. La membrane des cellules qui le composent contient de la chitine, tout comme celle des insectes, ce qui le rend très résistant. Grâce aux enzymes produits par son mycelium, le délicieux pleurote aux parfums de sous bois a la capacité de briser les liaisons carbone-hydrogène dans les cellules des hydrocarbures et de reconstituer des hydrates de carbone, c’est à dire des glucides.
C’est ce qu’a prouvé le biologiste américain Paul Stamets dans l’expérience de Belligham, dans l'Etat de Washington aux Etats-Unis. Une découverte qui fait son chemin La découverte de Paul Stamets a fait l’objet de procédés d’adaptation aux différentes conditions de terrain. Sur les sols metallifères. What Happens When Wildlife Reclaims Chernobyl? Microbes Caused The Extinction Of 90% Of Species 250 Million Years Ago. New evidence has emerged for one of the theories competing to explain the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth, an event so terrible it is known as The Great Dying.
A team from MIT have sheeted the blame home to the methane producing single-celled organisms, Methanosarcina. Any effort to explain the vanishing of 70% of terrestrial vertebrates during the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event has plenty of competition. Probably the most favored theory is the clathrate gun hypothesis, where a sharp rise in sea temperature or fall in sea level caused melting of methane clathrates that would in turn trigger much greater warming. Other proposals include gasses from a supervolcano, a nearby supernova or an asteroid strike. Professor Daniel Rothman and colleagues agree that methane was responsible, but they pin the blame on a different source. It's Alive! 30,000 Year Old Virus Revived.
A virus frozen in the Siberian permafrost since the Ice Age has been revived. The virus itself is harmless, but the researchers responsible warn that Global Warming could release more malign lifeforms from the frozen ground The virus was found at the bottom of a 30m sample collected in Chukotka, East Siberia, and named Pithovirus sibericum. It follows from the discovery that the seeds of plants buried at the same time could be brought to flower. P sibericum infects amoeba, not humans, and is huge by viral standards. It has 500 genes, while the influenza virus has just eight – proving that when it comes to making you sick, size doesn't matter. 5 parasites qui feraient frémir un Alien. Are You Smarter Than A Crow? Crows are the intellectual badasses of the avian world. They have been regarded throughout history for their intelligence and new research continues to show how remarkable they really are. 10 Best Plants to Grow Indoors for Air Purification.
Most are naturally drawn to the outdoors for a period of quiet contemplation and/or a restful area to relax in. But often snowy weather, lack of time, or location can inhibit one’s time in the wilderness. Thankfully, it is easier than ever to introduce flora into one’s home. Plants grown indoors have a variety of benefits.