Exists. It is a water container toad Cyclorana platycephala, an amphibian that lives far from any pond, in the middle of the Australian desert. When summer arrives, this animal undergoes a process known as estivation, equivalent to the hibernation of some animals in the cold season. Specifically, when temperatures rise, the toad buries itself in sand (up to a meter deep) and reduces its metabolic activity to a minimum, while its skin secretes mucus that hardens and allows it to retain large amounts of water without a single drop evaporating.
In Mongolia and China there is a small and unique rodent, the long-eared gerbil (Euchoreutes naso), which by its appearance is reminiscent of the popular mouse created by the American animator Walt Disney. Its body is between 7 and 9 cm long, while its tail, thin and very long, reaches 18 to 25 cm in length. It has very short front legs shorter than the rear, which allows it to jump in the sand in the inhospitable places of the Gobi desert.
It is called Amanita muscaria, popularly known as a fly swatter or false mushroom. It is a poisonous mushroom that grows in forests of black pine, beech and birch, on the slopes of the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas and other mountain ranges. Deep red in color with white dots, it has become the most popular mushroom for its constant appearance in children's iconography in fairy tales and magical stories about gnomes and goblins.
Not all muscle fibers are the same. Each skeletal muscle contains 2 main types of fibers: slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers. The former act aerobically - they consume oxygen - and are useful in low intensity endurance events, such as a marathon.
Did you know that a potato chip is shaped like a hyperbolic paraboloid, or in other words, a saddle? This form of nature, which astrophysicists consider to be also the one adopted by the Universe, minimizes the deformation of the potato when, due to temperature changes in the pan, it is subjected to stress.
That in school they forced us to learn by singing the multiplication table or the rivers of Spain was not a whim. Accompanying the lesson with music is a good tactic to memorize, although some songs are more suitable than others. The ones that best help to retain information, scientists say, are those that use simple and highly repetitive melodies.
The person responsible for the pleasant smell of wet earth that we usually perceive after the rain is a harmless bacterium called Streptomyces coelicolor. This spore-producing microbe is found in most soils and produces a substance called geosmin, a word of Greek origin that means "aroma of the earth." Although this smell may be only anecdotal and evocative for us, for camels it can make the difference between life and death.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
