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Huge Whales! Tiny Ears.

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  North Atlantic Right Whale. Photo Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA research permit #15488 Whales, porpoises, and dolphins (collectively known as cetaceans) demonstrate incredible adaptations to obligate marine lifestyles. Their streamlined bodies facilitate efficient swimming, flippers aid in steering, blubber provides warmth, and respiratory anatomy allows them to submerge for long periods without breath. With a plethora of increasingly optimized systems, scientists are looking towards cetaceans for innovative strategies to function underwater. One recent line of inquiry focuses on marine mammals’ ears. How do mammals hear? When mammals perceive sound, we are processing waves created by vibrations. As matter oscillates, particles scatter, creating areas of densely and loosely packed atoms. To continue bumping into one another, sound requires a constant medium to travel through— like air, water, and some penetrable solids. Sound travels fastest thro
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Spiders Use Hydraulics to Move Their Legs

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  St. Andrews Cross Spider. Photo Credit: Ken Slade From their unusal and multitudinous eyes to their eight robot-like legs, spiders have a history of receiving a bad rap. While these traits may seem like anatomical abnormalities, there’s a simple physiological explanation for spiders’ odd movements: their legs rely on a combination of hydraulics and skeletal muscles to move.
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Mammals Came from Viruses, and So Did You

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  Artistic Rendition of the First Placental Ancestor. Illustration Credit: Carl Buell If not for retroviruses, mammals would not exist. Mammals are distinguished from other classes by their live births, a trait made possible by the placenta. The placenta is a temporary organ that connects the developing fetus to its mother via the umbilical cord to the uterine wall. This placenta combines with the mother’s blood to facilitate nutrient uptake, thermo-regulation, waste elimination, gas exchange, and more. The protein syncytin is essential for formation of the placenta and is present in all placental mammals. However, genetic analyses show that the code for syncytin originally came to the genome of ancestral mammals through a retrovirus infection.
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The H in HABs (Harmful Algal Blooms)

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  HAB in Lake Michigan. Photo Credit: Zachary Haslick Ranging from microscopic, single-celled organisms to large seaweeds, algae are aquatic photosynthesizers that form the base of food webs. Sometimes, however, their roles are more detrimental to ecological communities. When given intense sun, high nutrients, and warm water, algae often grow out of control. Harmful algal blooms (HABs, also commonly called “red tides”) refer to the rapid and unchecked proliferation of algal colonies (conglomerates of photosynthesizers) capable of overwhelming ecosystems with lethal effects on fish, shellfish, marine mammals, birds, and people. A few of these blooms (dense concentrations of algal cells) produce toxins that can cause illnesses and even death; other varieties are nontoxic, but deplete oxygen when they decay, clog organisms’ gills, smother benthic organisms, contaminate drinking water, and block light from penetrating the water . Aesthetically, effects are often equally displeasing. Disc
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When Lightning Strikes, It Roars

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  A Lightning Storm. Photo credit: Boris Baran Lightning is a rapid discharge of energy in the form of heat, light, and electric. A single lightning strike can heat the air to 54,000 °F! Heat isn’t the only extreme, lightning’s light can be seen from space and its energy contains up to one billion volts ! High heat causes the air to expand extremely quickly, creating a shock wave that booms! This loud rumble is thunder.
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Pistol Shrimp Shoot Bubbles as Hot as the Sun and Faster than Sound

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Pistol Shrimp. Photo Credit: Trevor Cox Snap! Swish! Boom! Bang! For the marine pistol shrimp, bubbles are more than air— they’re life and death. Pistol shrimp use sonic hunting to stun and kill prey using bubble ‘bullets.’ Like most arthropods, pistol shrimp employ tough exoskeletons and sharp raptorial appendages for protection and hunting. The catch: pistol shrimp have a built-in weapon that kills without contact. A highly adapted, enlarged snapper claw allows pistol shrimp to dexterously open and close the appendage with incredible speed (despite immense water pressure and resistance). More than a physical feat, evolution has kept this capability around in more than 600 species belonging to the Alpheidae family!
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There was an old lady who swallowed a phage

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Bacteriophages Attack Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria. Illustration Credit: MIT I know an old lady, who swallowed a phage, it wriggled and jiggled, and tickled inside her. She swallowed a phage to catch the bacteria, but I don’t know why she swallowed the bacteria. I guess she’ll live. Welcome to the wonderful world of phages. Today I’ve taken the liberty of amending a nursery rhyme’s catchy lyrics to create a more factual, albeit less melodic, tale of swallowing success. Rather than teaching children to inhale large animals, lets look at helpful microbes and their abilities to keep us healthy.
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Seagulls tap their feet on grass to make worms think it’s raining

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Herring Gull holding a worm. Photo Credit: Ralph Hancock The rhythmic tapping sounds like faint footsteps in the ground, but underneath, the tumultuous pitter patter is music to worms’ senses: “rain!” Unfortunately for worms, vibrations can be deceiving.
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How much can a human eat?

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Giant Sandwich. Photo Credit: Madmajesty Whether colloquial or competitive, the limits of human consumption have perplexed audiences for decades. From local restaurants’ challenges to national competitions, stomach capacity is an unanswered (but repeatedly tested) worldwide question. Although competitive eating contests have been around since 1916, records keep going up. In the absence of empirical evidence, some scientists are turning to theoretical models to answer this question.
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It’s Christmas (worms) in July!

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Christmas Tree Worm. Photo Credit: Armando F. Jenik Christmas in July has become a cultural staple and the recent pandemic has brought it nothing, if not more, publicity and believers. For those who celebrate Christmas, whether fad or tradition, tree decorating only comes once (or now twice) a year. In the world’s tropical seas however, living Christmas trees are erected year around. Christmas tree worms ( Spirobranchus giganteus ) are brightly colored marine polychaetes, or segmented worms. As you’ve probably guessed, their common name comes from the branched cones (or trees) that adorn their bodies.
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