Science Hax

Now DID woodpecker Sparrowhawk fails spot prey nervous bird hides below ...

If you ever wondered how it looks like when your car is transformed into soil then, you could find some answers to your questions here. I am sure that unfortunate owners of those cars were very surprised when they came back after a few days and found their cars almost transformed into soil by a bunch of weird worms. Next time they will care more where they left their car and how long :) ...

Mammoth dung has proved to be a source of prehistoric information, helping scientists unravel the mystery of what caused the great mammals to die out. An examination of a fungus that is found in the ancient dung and preserved in lake sediments has helped build a picture of what happened to the beasts.The study sheds light on the ecological consequences of the extinction and the role that humans may have played in it.Researchers describe this ...

Arowanas were the oldest fish species for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period about 230 million years ago until the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. Arowanas are freshwater bony fish. In this family of fishes, the head is bony and the elongate body is covered by large, heavy scales, with a mosaic pattern of canals. The dorsal and the anal fins have soft rays and are long based, while the pectoral and ventral fi...

It sounds like a classic horror story -- eyeless, mouthless worms lurk in the dark, settling onto dead animals and sending out green "roots" to devour their bones. In fact, such worms do exist in the deep sea. They were first discovered in 2002 by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), who were using a robot submarine to explore Monterey Canyon. But that wasn't the end of the story. After "planting" several dead whal...

Real terror lurks in quiet darkness The deadliest (and easy to miss) critters lurk in dark silence, ready to strike with either the barest of warnings or none at all - and with absolutely fatal venom. Some you've heard about, and so sit there and scoff. Yeah, big deal: rattlesnake, cobra, black widow -- either you can hear them coming, avoid going to India, or simply not stick your hands into dark places. They are nothing but annoyances: fata...

"Do Androids Dream of Painted Sheep?" Could it be a new art form? Painting live sheep and cattle in bright, brilliant colors might become the next big fad in Scotland. One farmer painted his flock of sheep (grazing on a pasture just off M-8 highway at Bathgate in West Lothian) bright red , aiming to entertain passing motorists and to "spice things up" a little. Well, everybody liked the view so much that it became an attraction in itself, and ...

Climbing: involuntary New definition of "lost": This moose is not just "hanging around". It's actually quite a sad story. "This moose got his antlers stuck in a newly-laid power cable, strung on the ground for miles. When the men (from a big distance) pulled the lines with their heavy equipment, he went too. They could not get the line straight and went searching for the problem. The moose was still alive when they lowered him..." Volunt...

Jaws... Cue the Music. They are perfect, relentless and always hungry. They never sleep and prowl the seas like nuclear-powered torpedoes. That would be a pretty bad rap for anybody, even though few sharks would attack a human without being provoked. Scientists claim that sharks kill without ill will or premeditation and thus cannot be labeled 'malicious'. Yeah, right :) Great White (and Smirking) Killing Machine These guys hang around t...

Nothing's like an octopus that wants to hide. Pun intended: it does look like nothing until you approach really close, then it springs at you (morphs at you, intimidates and astounds you, you pick the right verb) Here is a video that most tellingly shows how some unassuming clump of weed on a rock can grow tentacles in a matter of moments. This "invisible octopus" is fine, but "mimicking octopus" is even finer piece of trickery. We've already...