Wisdom, The Oldest Mother Albatross

Wisdom comes with age, goes the age-old saying. And Wisdom, the Laysan albatross, proves it. She is 70 years old, lives in the wild, and is full of surprises. First tagged in 1956, Wisdom has since become very special to bird-lovers everywhere. Her long life has reshaped our knowledge of albatross and their behavior. Over the years, she has outlived mates and raised nearly 36 chicks. On February 1, Wisdom and her current mate welcomed their newest chick at the world’s largest albatross colony in Midway Atoll, Hawaii. The Albatross Known for their unusually long wing-spans, albatross are...

Clues From An Ancient Kauri Tree

Forty-two thousand years ago, our Earth looked nothing like it does today. Solar winds caused dazzling displays of lights at our planet’s poles, electrical storms raged across the continents, and cosmic radiation filled the atmosphere -- all thanks to a flip of the Earth's magnetic field. This reversal of the Earth's magnetic field triggered a “global environmental crisis” according to a study by Australian scientists. The scientists named this climate phenomenon the “Adams Event” after science fiction author Douglas Adams. Adams wrote about the significance of the number 42 in his novel The...

A Rare Bird Photographed

When Jamie Hill saw a photograph of a peculiar-looking cardinal, he first thought that it had lost pigmentation (skin color) in some of its feathers. One-half of the bird was the customary bright red color you would see on Christmas cards. But the other half was a muted taupe brown. Hill was a retired ornithologist (expert on birds) and this particular bird caught his attention. He rushed with this camera to snap photos of the bird himself. That's when Hill realized that he had captured something very rare, and far more extraordinary. The bird was half male and half female! Gynandromorph: A...

A Secret Message Decoded!

When NASA landed its Perseverance rover on Mars, all eyes were on the colorful parachute. When NASA scientists announced that the red and white designs on the parachute had a secret message, internet sleuths got busy trying to decode it! Within 6 hours, the people of the internet had cracked the code! The hidden message was “Dare Mighty Things”, a motto used by the team that worked on Perseverance. The coordinates for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California were also included as 34°11'58" N 118°10'31" W. It turns out the red and white stripes stood for binary characters which would add...

A Massive Iceberg Breaks Away

On February 26, a giant 1,290 square kilometer iceberg broke away from Antarctica’s 150 meter-thick Brunt Ice Shelf. The chunk of ice drifted into the Weddell Sea on the continent’s northwest coast. Thankfully, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) were expecting this split to happen, so no one was hurt. The idea of such a large iceberg breaking off may sound intimidating, so let’s look at the process of calving and why it happens. What Causes Calving? Calving is the process of ice chunks breaking off from the end of a glacier. Usually small, fast-flowing glaciers have small...

Finding My Roar

“Once upon a time, there was a tiger. His name was Kamau. Kamau (Kah MAH oo) means the quiet warrior. This makes Kamau wonder - "Will I ever live up to my name?" Kamau is young and makes friends with everyone, but thinks low of himself. His leg disability makes it hard to walk. It makes him feel useless. But what he doesn’t know is, today will change it all. One bright morning, Kamau decides to roam the woods. There he spotted a macaw in a tree, her bright colors so cheerful. She looked old and was known to very wise. But he noticed one of her wings was cut. She still flew. Just a little...

The Mysterious Animals

I see a boat 🛶 You see a boat 🛶 And the captain is a goat. 🐐 The boat has one oar🥄 Rowing the boat is a boar 🐷 The sole goat controls the boat and makes it soar!💫 The boat’s owl says, “It's nighttime, hoot-hoot!”🦉 The boars had beans for lunch, so they will surely toot!💨 The bull goes to the engine room and is covered in sordid soot.🐂 A meteorite came crashing down and the boat almost wrecked!😳 The meteorite hit one of the wings of the flying boat—all hands on deck!🙌🏽 The tall, terrified giraffe gets very stressed and lengthens its long, long neck.🐆 “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!” the ship’s emergency...

A Little Help For Turtles

When Texas was hit by a freezing storm, people weren’t the only victims. Thousands of paralyzed sea turtles washed up on the beaches of South Padre Island, an island that is a part of Texas. Since sea turtles are cold-blooded, they rely on the heat in the environment to maintain healthy body temperatures. However, when the storm hit Texas, the water temperature dipped and the sea turtle’s heart rates slowed down, leaving them alive but paralyzed. Turtles usually control their internal temperature by moving to warmer water when the temperature drops. However, since the waters near Texas were...

Why Are Thieves Crawling Under Cars?

Imagine going to bed one night, only to find that the next morning, your car roars like a lawnmower when you start it. What happened? Unknown to you, a thief had crawled under your car in the middle of the night and sawed out your car’s catalytic converter! The theft of catalytic converters has tripled over the past year, forcing many car owners to pay around $2000 to replace the stolen part. This is a devastating amount, especially as people have been struggling financially as a result of the pandemic. What is a catalytic converter and why are they so sought after by thieves? What are...

Saving The Black-Footed Ferret

On December 10, 2020, Elizabeth Ann -- a black-footed ferret -- was born. She is the first-ever endangered animal native to the U.S. to be successfully cloned. Her birth was celebrated by scientists as black ferrets are one of North America’s critically endangered mammal species. To achieve this, scientists used the DNA belonging to a ferret named Willa whose tissues were frozen 33 years ago. As a clone, Elizabeth Ann is an identical twin to Willa, despite Willa dying over three decades ago. And now, hope is not lost for the survival of the black-footed ferret. Why Endangered? Black-footed...

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