Constantly Sci-Tracked

You may not have heard of them, in fact I very much doubt you have, but I just want to say that the bar-headed goose is an absolute marvel of nature. This goose can fly over Mount Everest. That means they fly almost 9000 metres up in the air. The bar-headed goose (Anser indicus). Image credit: Noel Reynolds ( Wikimedia Commons ) "Whoop-de-doo" you might think. After all, they can fly so it shouldn’t be that hard. Wrong! Flying is already tough enough as it is. I mean I can’t do it, can you? (and no planes do not count). Flying is an incredibly tiring activity under normal circumstances, but this goose faces further adversity from chilly winds and oxygen starvation. The only question now is 'how do they do it?' The problem A big problem with flying as high as the bar-headed goose does is that the air is very thin. But what does this even mean? Mount Everest. Image credit: Ocrambo ( Wikimedia Commons ) I'd like you to imagi...

It’s no secret that we love our fluffy friends. Studies have even shown that humans have evolved to release oxytocin (the love hormone) just from gazing into the eyes of our four-legged pals . But have you ever wondered how we created such lovable companions? What was the process that created our best friends? One fox, two fox, nice fox, mean fox Since 1959, Dmitry Belyaev and his student Lyudmila Trut have been running a continuous genetic experiment . Put simply, they have been raising a population of foxes and splitting them into separate groups of friendly and mean. “Why?” You ask. Belyaev wanted to replicate the domestication of dogs to prove that domestication has a genetic basis. He also wanted to link the ‘tameness’ trait to other traits commonly found in domestic species but not in their wild ancestors (more on that later). Belyaev was meticulous in ensuring that all his results were due to genetics alone. Contact with humans was kept to a minimum ...

In the animal kingdom there is one romance so tragic, it puts even Shakespeare ’s finest work to shame. That romance is the life of the antechinus. If you’re not sure wha t an antechinus is, imagine a shrew, but prettier. Actually that’s a picture of an antechinus dow n there, so maybe just look at that. A shrew but prettier. Image credit: Mel Williams ( Wikimedia Commons ) These animals live a cycle of love at first sight(s), followed by a sad and unfortunate death. So keep reading and I will recount to you the tale of two tragic lovers. Act I: Love at first sight… and second, and third, and then a few more The day would start out like almost any other for our dear Romeo, with one exception, his  testosterone  levels are beginning to skyrocket. The breeding season has begun. Romeo goes on the prowl. Heart pumping and mind racing, he searches for a partner. That’s when he sees her, his true love. Romeo dashes to Juliet, fighting off all oppone...