Where Are The Turtles and Frogs?

 

Every winter, ponds across the world freeze over. The water molecules condense and slow down their movement and eventually become hard enough to walk on (if the thickness is right!) But what happens to all the turtles, frogs and other aquatic life down below the surface?

Most would assume that they hibernate, and you are correct! They slow their breathing, slow their heart rate, and use less oxygen and nutrients, allowing them to sleep through the toughest months of the year. But are they not below the surface in that freezing water? How do they survive that!?

They bury themselves in the mud! Usually, unless the pond is very shallow and the winter is exceptionally cold, only the top few inches of a pond will freeze. And even when it is exceptionally cold, it is very rare that the body of water will freeze all the way through. Meaning that that extra bit of warmth that is held in by the mud is just enough to allow these aquatic creatures survive another year, to merrily swim along eating bugs, algae, and whatever else their system requires!

Why Do Coastal Areas Stay Warmer?

 

With fall settled in and winter approaching (too) quickly, it is that time of the year again where the temperatures drop and our coats bundle up. But every year this occurs, coastal areas never seem to get as consistently cold or snowy as non-coastal areas. Why is this?

The answer has to do, of course, with the oceans! Oceans are absolutely MASSIVE bodies of water than surround our continents (they hold 97% of all water on earth!) and it is because of their size that coastal areas stay warmer. Think of it this way, if you cook say, a chicken in the oven and then pop it immediately in the fridge to cool down, it is going to take a while, but not as long as a turkey, right? This is because there is more area of the turkey than there is the chicken, so there is more to cool down. Same with the ocean. There is just so much water that it takes a LOT of cold air to cool it down, and it still will not cool down to the same levels as inland areas, even by spring. This is not to say that every day along the coast is warmer than inland, but the overall trend of the season is warmer.

Ever wondered why summers in coastal areas are cooler than those inland? Just take this concept, and reverse it!

In 2019, we are at the peak level of human technology. Everything we create is better than anything we have made before it, and because of this, people assume that there is nothing we can learn from the natural world. After all, humans are the dominant species on the planet, meaning we are the smartest, which must mean that there is nothing nature can teach us, right?

WRONG!

There is in fact so much we can learn from nature, we are unable to fully understand it! There are so many things that nature does better than us, it is impossible to think of where to start a proper list! After all, life has occurred on the planet for 3.6 BILLION years, while humans have only been in controlling fire for at most 1.5 million years. To give a better idea of how long that is, 1 million seconds is around 1.5 days while 1 billion seconds is around 31 years. So yeah. A LOT longer.

So when you think about it that way, evolution has had a ridiculous amount more time to develop. Which is why humans have taken the design of a lot of things in nature, and used them for ourselves! This process is called biomimicry, and is incredibly cool when you think about it! Some famous examples are the beak of  Kingfisher being the design style for the bullet trains of Japan, termite towers to help build skyscrapers, the bumps on whale tails to help us build efficient wind turbines, sending signals underwater from dolphins, and so many more!

If you want to read more about this, head on over to The Biomimicry Institutes website and read about all of these examples and more!

As anyone with a cat can tell you, they constantly act in some very curious ways. They squeeze where they should not be able to, think in ways you would not expect and animal to, and always seem to have this plotting look to them.. But one thing every cat does consistently is land on their feet. No matter how they fall or what angle they fall at, they always land on their feet. Ever wondered why that is? Cats use their body in a very unique way to make this happen. They operate the two halves of their body almost as separate entities that are working in coordination with each other. One pair of paws pulls in closer to the body, allowing the body to rotate at a faster rate that it would if they were extended. But that other pair of paws? They extend! This interaction allows them to flip their body, meaning they land on their feet almost 100% of the time. Check out the video below, which films cats being (safely) dropped in slow motion, allowing you to watch this amazing action as it happens!

“Why do you love science so much?” people ask. While it may seem like you should have a straight forward and simple answer, that is certainly not the case. Which, ironically, is one of the things that makes science so great! There is almost never an easy or simple answer to a question in science. If any scientist says “I figured the previously unknown answer on my first try” they are probably lying! Getting to the right answer is never a straight path, but often times you discover something new along the way!

Science is fun because it is a challenge! If everything in life was easy, then life would be pretty boring, I would think. The thinking that goes into solving a problem, the work you have to do to achieve your answer, the struggle to find it, all make it a very satisfying ending when you finally get there. Is it frustrating sometimes? Yes. Incredibly. So much so you almost want to quit, and sometimes you do. But that nagging curiosity in the back of your head always comes back and puts you back into discovery mode!

You learn along the way! You learn the answer to your question, you learn the answer to other questions, you learn a new skill, or maybe brush up on an old one! Science is an art, one that takes so much practice it makes your head hurt (literally sometimes!) That feeling of your knowledge expanding as you progress is incredibly satisfying and makes you, and possibly humanity as a whole, better along the way.

All these things are great, but personally, I think the best part of science is not that it answers questions, but that it makes you ask more. Sure, hopefully you find the answer to your original query along the way, but if you dont discover any more questions, that means there is nothing left to learn. And that can be very boring indeed.