One creature’s poison is another one’s meat
NASA recently held a press conference announcing the first demonstration that organisms could use arsenic in place of phosphorus in their cells. Not surprisingly, science fiction got there first. Kirk told [Bones] about the tabekh sauce. Bones nodded at that and said, “Yes, I’ve heard of it. I don’t think you’d want to try it,…
What’s the origin of facial erections in turkeys?
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Improbable Research asks the very question you all were wondering. The snood – the long fleshy appendage above the beak, is what erects, becoming red as it engorges with blood. (The snood photo we reproduce here is from the Homegrown Hobby Farm blog.) Rebecca T. Kimball and Edward L. Braun…
Hardy bugs could survive a million years on Mars
It was already nicknamed “Conan the Bacterium” for its ability to withstand radiation. Now it seems Deinococcus radiodurans could, in theory, survive dormant on Mars for over a million years. Lewis Dartnell at University College London and colleagues froze the bugs to -79 °C, the average temperature at Mars’s mid-latitudes. Then they zapped them with…
