Y’all my focus is somewhere in the neighborhood of “nope” today. Probably because I made the mistake of reading the news about *gestures at everything*.
Anyway. In the spirit of not being able to squirrel, here are random tidbits of science that keep me awake at night.
Today’s Moment of Science… Hey, did you know?
We still don’t have widespread agreement on if a virus, something that can be dead, is technically alive in the first place. Prions, infectious proteins that can cause neurological disorders, are simultaneously not alive and damn near impossible to kill.
The largest living organism is a mushroom that makes a blue whale look like a minnow. Genetic tests conducted on samples from all over the 35,000 ton fungus covering 2,400 acres of forest in Oregon confirmed that it was indeed one shroom. It is considered delicious if not “mildly” poisonous when cooked incorrectly.
We don’t know what color the dinosaurs were. Do with that information what you will, but I’m imagining a fuchsia triceratops.
The unfairly maligned blobfish looks pretty fish-like when it’s about 3,000 feet below sea level. Bring it to the surface where it has no business hanging out and it looks, well, the way you think a blobfish looks.
The letter ‘J’ does not appear on the periodic table of elements.
The movie An Inconvenient Truth has an inconvenient myth about frogs in it. A frog put into lukewarm water that’s slowly heated up won’t meet its doom, but will actually hop out when it gets too hot. On the other hand, the idea that a frog dropped into boiling water will escape unharmed? It will likely croak. Immediately.
Human females are covered in stripes that we can’t see. All humans are faintly bioluminescent, but the intensity is a few orders of magnitude below what our naked eyes can detect.
Hawaii moves about 7.5cm closer to Alaska every year, which seems like the long-game to work out those interstate highways.
Rats love being tickled and it makes them audibly giggle and jump for joy.
We use a hundred percent of our brains. If you know someone who really only uses ten percent of their brain, shit isn’t going particularly well for them.
Giraffes are kinky fuckers. Before getting down, the female will piss into the male’s mouth. It’s believed that this is done to check if the female is ovulating, but I think some of them are just into it.
New Zealand sits on top of a submerged continent called Zealandia. It’s 94% underwater and about the size of Australia.
Your dog’s mouth is not cleaner than yours. If your mouth is dirtier than an animal that recreationally snacks on cat turds, it means you need to clean your filthy fucking mouth.
We still don’t know exactly why gravity is a thing other than that it super fucking has to be.
This has been your Moment of Science, not sure how I’m handling the knowledge that I’m glowing like a platypus.
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I don’t see Q in the periodic table, either
Your theory on gravity is pretty much mine on most of the natural world. It just is.