The creatures of the open ocean are often flashy, in both an abstract and literal sense, thanks to the flickering luminosity of many marine organisms. But maybe more fantastic than glittering squid and glowing, frilled fish are a group of animals that resemble nothing more than globs of gelatin or tangles of twine. Drifting through the mysterious depths of the water, siphonophores reach surprising lengths, and rule as some of the longest animals in the world.[embedded content]What Are Siphonopho ...read more
Elephant seals don’t need a hypnotist to spiral them deep into sleep: New research reveals that these marine mammals take deep, spiraling dives to catch a few short power naps every day while on long ocean voyages — so few that they might be the recorder-holders for sleep deprivation among mammals during these periods.“That’s pretty much unparalleled compared to any other mammal,” says Jessica Kendall-Bar, a marine biologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the Universit ...read more
Memes galore centered on the “orca revolution” have inundated the online realm. They gleefully depict orcas launching attacks on boats in the Strait of Gibraltar and off the Shetland coast.One particularly ingenious image showcases an orca posed as a sickle crossed with a hammer. The cheeky caption reads, “Eat the rich,” a nod to the orcas’ penchant for sinking lavish yachts.A surfboard-snatching sea otter in Santa Cruz, California has also claimed the media spotlight. Headlines ...read more
Billions of years ago, the quiet moon we know today was once a wild and violent place washed by volcanic eruptions, according to new data from the Chinese Yutu-2 rover.After gamely setting down on the dark side of the moon in January 2019, the rover took thousands of readings of underground structures using its ground-penetrating radar – and this new paper is based on three years of reporting.While the readings have attracted scientific attention, they’ve also attracted some scrutiny. Resear ...read more
French novelist Jules Verne delighted 19th-century readers with the tantalizing notion that a journey to the center of the Earth was actually plausible.Since then, scientists have long acknowledged that Verne’s literary journey was only science fiction. The extreme temperatures of the Earth’s interior – around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,537 Celsius) at the core – and the accompanying crushing pressure, which is millions of times more than at the surface, prevent people from venturin ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine