National Geographic Japan shared this amazing time-lapse video of a bee being born. I love when science videos get over 1,653,803 views on YouTube 🙂 Click here for more information about a bee’s life cycle!
Over the course of 21 days, you can watch this bee egg hatch into a larva – the larva swims in its cell, feeding on liquid food from the queen bee – the legs and head evolve as it develops into a pupa – the tissue reorganizes in its body and the eyes form – then, the skin shrivels and it sprouts hair. BOOM. Bee time.
This video is the work of biologist turned photographer, Anand Varma.
There is a reason this video of a chameleon hatching – posted in 2008 – has over 1,715,098 views. I could do without the epic music, but overall this video is absolutely captivating; it starts changing colors within minutes. You can watch its tiny two-toed zygodactylous feet and independently mobile eyes experience the world for the first time. Click below to watch the incredible footage!
Chameleon Reproduction
Most chameleon species lay eggs (oviparous), while a few give birth to live young (ovoviviparous).
The oviparous species lay eggs three to six weeks after mating takes place. The female will dig a hole in the ground and deposit her eggs, covering them with dirt, keeping them warm and safe. The mom then leaves the eggs to hatch and fend for themselves – which can take anywhere from 4-12 months, even longer for some species. Chameleon babies are independent at birth and must find their own food and shelter.
A batch of chameleon eggs is referred to as a ‘clutch.’ Clutch sizes vary greatly depending on the species. Click here to view an African Flapneck chameleon burrow her eggs and wait for the babies to hatch and catch their first snack!
The ovoviviparous species, like Jackson’s chameleons, have a five to seven-month gestation period. Each young chameleon is born within the sticky transparent membrane of its yolk sac. Once the membrane bursts, newly hatched chameleon babies free themselves and climb away for their first feeding.
A baby female chimpanzee by the name of Keeva, born to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore on March 12th, has been given the best Mother’s Day present – a new surrogate mom!
Once the Maryland Zoo realized Keeva’s birth mother couldn’t care for her, they teamed up with Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo to find a surrogate mother to raise her properly. You can view the big announcement on the Maryland Zoo’s website and Facebook page 🙂
Baby Keeva (IMAGE: Facebook – The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore)
The tiny primate was born at 2.6 pounds to first time mother ‘Carole,’ who has been with the chimp troop at the Maryland Zoo for 27 years. Unfortunately, Carole could not care for Keeva properly, and the Zoo was forced to make a tough decision.
“The birth seemed to be without complication and the baby appeared to be healthy,” stated Mike McClure, general curator at The Maryland Zoo. “However, it soon became apparent that Carole was not adapting to motherhood appropriately and we made the difficult decision to remove and hand-rear the baby while searching for a suitable home with a nurturing surrogate.”
Maryland Zoo staff felt it was important to familiarize Keeva with the sights, smells, and sounds of the troop. The infant spent several weeks in a behind-the-scences section of the Zoo’s Chimpanzee Forest, receiving round-the-clock care.
Image: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Image: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Image: Facebook – the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Image: Facebook – the Maryland Zoo in Baltimorev
Image: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
Image: The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore
While Keeva was experiencing her first few weeks of life, the Zoo knew they needed to find her a surrogate. They worked with the Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan (SSP) of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) to find an adult female chimpanzee ready to take on the task. Luckily, they found an experienced surrogate named ‘Abby.’
“We know Abby has the instincts and skills to raise a baby chimp – she has been successful twice before,” noted Lee Ann Rottman, general curator of Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. “We have every reason to believe that she will raise Keeva as her own, when given the opportunity.”
Keeva is now 5 pounds, can hold her head up, has started to speak, and is beginning to teethe! But, it will be 4-6 months before she is introduced to Abby. She will be integrated slowly, as chimpanzees live in complex social groups with a strict hierarchal structure. We wish her the best of luck.
Humans tend to have a soft spot when it comes to chimpanzees. This is most likely due to the fact that they are our closest relatives, sharing 98 percent of our genes! Sadly, these great apes are endangered and still threatened by poachers, disease, and habitat destruction.
Bombardier beetles are famous in the insect world, not because they have colorfully patterned wings or a nasty bite, but because they have a very unique defense mechanism: When disturbed or attacked, the beetles produce an internal chemical explosion in their abdomen and then expel a jet of boiling, irritating liquid toward their attackers.
Photo: Charles Hedgcock
The liquid they eject is called benzoquinone, and they heat it to the temperature of boiling water before they shoot it out in an intense, pulsating jet. They are not the only insect to use this liquid, but they are the only ones to make it steaming hot. Not only that, they are the only ones to emit a pulsating stream, forcing out the liquid with unique precision five times faster!
Researchers were baffled as to how these beetles could produce this spray without causing themselves any physical damage. But, the question has now been answered! Researchers at MIT used high-speed synchrotron X-ray imaging to look inside the abdomens of living bombardier beetles during their chemical explosions. Check out the video below to see the X-ray footage in action!
The key is that they synthesize the chemical at the instant of use, mixing two chemical precursors in a protective chamber in their hindquarters. As the materials combine to form the irritant, they also give off intense heat that brings the liquid almost to the boiling point — and, in the process, generates the pressure needed to expel it in a jet.
The findings are published this week in the journal Science by MIT graduate student Eric Arndt, professor of materials science and engineering Christine Ortiz, Wah-Keat Lee of Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Wendy Moore of the University of Arizona.
Bombardier beetles lives on every continent except Antarctica and have virtually no predators. Sounds like a good life to me 🙂 Spray on, little dudes.
Have you ever wondered what it looks like when snakes digest their prey? As humans, we tend to eat certain parts of animals… while snakes eat and digest whole animals.
Below are a series of X-Ray images that reveal just what happens when a Burmese python swallows an entire alligator.
Burmese pythons are one of the five largest snakes in the world. Their body’s response to eating such large prey is what makes them a model species for digestive physiology. After they ingest their prey, their digestive system goes into hyper-drive. Each meal triggers dramatic increases in metabolism, upregulation of tissue function and tissue growth. Their organs literally supersize themselves!
Dr. Steven Secor, Professor at the University of Alabama, is obsessed with ‘the integrative design of gastrointestinal morphology and function.’ Who isn’t, right? 😉
Dr Secor said: ‘For the Burmese python, native to southeastern Asia, the next meal could range from a monitor lizard or ground-dwelling bird to a prey as formidable as a pangolin, deer or leopard… When it does eventually capture a prey and feed, the python’s previously dormant gut rapidly resumes function to tackle the difficult task of digesting a prey that may exceed half of the python’s own body mass. Upon the completion of digestion, these postprandial responses are thrown into reverse; tissue function is collectively downregulated and tissues undergo atrophy.’
Dr. Secor and his colleagues discovered that the snake’s heart increased by 40%, it’s pancreas increased by 94%, it’s kidney’s increased by 72%, and the reptile’s liver more than doubled in size.
Day 1- Here, you can see the alligator’s snout, torso, legs, and tail, snuggly stuffed in the python’s gut.
Day 2 – The soft tissue is dissolving and the skeleton has begun to break down. The python floods its small intestine with powerful enzymes and acid, while its metabolic rate increases – forty times!
Day 3 – The bones continue to be broken down, it’s scaly skin disappearing. The snake is essentially immobile during such a large meal, making it vulnerable to predators.
Day 4 – Only the hardest parts of the alligator remain as the python begins its final stages of digestion.
Day 5 – Almost finished. The snake must digest quickly before the alligator rots.
Day 6 – Little is left of the alligator. By day 7 the python’s large snack will be completely digested.
“Bonk” author Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious. (This talk is aimed at adults. Viewer discretion advised.)
It has been viewed on TED.com over 15,438,578 times. Mary Roach’s lecture on orgasm is both engaging, humorous, and smart . I learned more than I ever wanted to know about orgasm. You can conceivably, if the conditions are right, give a dead person an orgasm. A DEAD PERSON. Orgasm might cure your hiccups. Oh, and you’ll see a video involving a female pig you wish you could un-see. I highly suggest you take 16 minutes out of your day to watch the whole talk.
Click here for the full transcript and more information about Mary Roach. I’ve typed out the full list below, but trust me, there is much more interesting information in the video!
Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Orgasm
#1 – A fetus can masturbate in utero.
#2 – You don’t need genitals.
#3 – You can have them when you’re dead.
#4 – They can cause bad breath.
#5 – They can cure hiccups.
#6 – Doctors once prescribed them for fertility.
#7 – Pig farmers still do.
#8 – Female animals are having more fun than you think.
#9 – Studying human orgasm in a lab is not easy.
#10 – But it sure is entertaining.
Kinsey conducted, for lack of a better term, jerk-off in which he lined men up next to each other and had them ejaculate in order to study how far semen can shoot.
You thought Kermit the Frog was the cutest? Look at this little guy’s eye-popping lime-green skin, bulging white eyes, and perfectly shaped black pupils. Kermit may be rich, and he clearly he has better luck with assertive pigs, but this newly discovered glass frog has put the internet into a tizzy with its cuteness.
Brian Kubicki, founder of the Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center, discovered the frog in Costa Rica. He decided to name the tiny amphibian after his mother.
The Diane’s Bare-hearted glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium dianae) has a translucent belly and a very distinctive call. It lets out a high pitched whistle like that of an insect, which may help it find a mate.
Diane’s Bare-hearted glass frog rocks a see-through underbelly, leaving its organs completely visible! The reason for this lack of pigmentation remains a mystery to scientists.
Somehow this Kermit look-a-like managed for fly under the radar and evade researchers – which could be due to its whistle.
“The advertisement call that the males of this species produce are very unique, no other known species of frog has a similar call, and this was indeed one of the traits that we used for the justification of it being a completely new species,” and it “could have played a role in its going undetected prior,” said Kubicki.
This is the first glass frog discovered in Costa Rica since 1973.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN KUBICKI, COSTA RICAN AMPHIBIAN RESEARCH CENTER
Glass Frogs – According to National Geographic, ‘Glass frogs, found in Central and South America rain forests, live high in tree canopies near streams and creeks, descending when it’s time to breed. The glass frog’s name originates from its translucent, organ-revealing bellies. Their green coloration, on the other hand, helps the nocturnal frogs stay camouflaged on the undersides of leaves during the day.’
Her name is Rambo, she lives in New Zealand, she takes pictures, and, oh yeah… she is an octopus! In a new viral video released by Sony, you can see Rambo in action, snapping pics of excited guests in exchange for treats – using Sony’s underwater Cyber Shot TX30 camera.
Rambo, who was given the name based on the amount of destruction she caused the first few camera set-ups, lives at the Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium in Auckland. Rambo may be the world’s first professional ‘octographer,’ given the fact each photo costs $1.50 a pop!
The truth is, octopuses are highly intelligent. They open jars, make daring escapes from their tanks, and even dismantle high tech equipment! Click here to watch an octopus break apart a camera.
Mark Vette, Rambo’s trainer, told Cult of Mac, “When we first tried to get her to take a photo, it only took three attempts for her to understand the process. That’s faster than a dog… Actually, it’s faster than a human in some instances.”
Octopuses learn quickly and are highly motivated by food. Rambo was first taught to respond to a buzzer – which meant snack time. Then Vette had to teach her the buzzer meant to take a picture, which resulted in food.
Vette told NPR the hard part wasn’t training Rambo to shoot pictures; the hard part was creating an underwater set-up for the tank that the curious cephalopod wouldn’t destroy.
He told NPR, “She took the camera, ripped it off its hinges, ripped it off everything, smashed it to bits and spat it out.” Hence the name Rambo 🙂
Screenshot: Krystian Science
How Does the Octopus Seamlessly Co-ordinate Its Eight Arms?
Good thing octopuses don’t dance, because according to a new study, they have no rhythm.
Scientists found that the octopus moves by shortening and elongating its arms, which creates a pushing thrust. The animal does not move by bending or pulling its arms, as previously thought.
Octopuses have bilateral body symmetry, which means their left side is a mirror image of their right. Most bilateral-symmetric animals face forward when they are moving (except the crab, which walks sideways.) But, octopuses can move in ANY direction without needing to turn their bodies. They just push off a surface and propel themselves wherever they’d like.
“So the octopus only has to decide which arm to use for the pushing – it doesn’t need to decide which direction this arm will push,” explained Dr Levy. “[It has] found a very simple solution to a potentially complicated problem – it just has to pick which arm to recruit.”
While, the octopus clearly has some rad moves, researchers have not been able to spot a pattern, or rhythm to their movement. Levy believes there either is no pattern to discover, or their movement is too complicated for the studies they conducted.
The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.
Push-pull: The footage, captured by Dr Guy Levy, reveals how each arm moves the animal in a particular direction
The Humane Society of Utah started putting their adoptable dogs in front of the camera and the results are too cute!
Ciara the 3 year old Black Mouth Cur mix CREDIT: Humane Society of Utah Facebook
The mastermind behind the photo booth project is photographer Guinnevere Shuster, who is the Social Media Coordinator at the Humane Society.
This campaign puts adoptable dogs in front of the lens, letting them show off their unique personalities. The Humane Society uses their popular Facebook page to constantly post new pics of puppies, and updates those photos once the pup has been happily adopted.
The best part about this new photo booth campaign is that it’s working! According to the Humane Society, the placement rate of dogs has reached a whopping 93.26%.
All the dogs you see below have been adopted! Click through a selection of the dog portraits and enjoy 🙂
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It’s not all going to the dogs. The Human Society of Utah also has a bunch of adorable cats and other animals to adopt. They make frequent appearances on social media as well.
This adorable 2-year-old Rottweiler’s name is Brutus, and he gets around using four specially designed prosthetic paws!
Brutus was left out in the freezing cold as a puppy and developed frostbite. His owner decided to amputate all four paws, and eventually gave him up for adoption.
Lucky for Brutus, someone noticed him in a store parking lot in Colorado, where he was looking for a new home. Hundreds of people donated money to give Brutus a new lease on life and four new paws! Brutus’ new owner, Laura Aquilina, says she just wants to give Brutus the gift of being a regular dog.
Felix Deurr, an orthopedics professor at Colorado State University, says prosthetics like Brutus’ have only been around for about 15 years and not all dogs get used to them. A study reviewing their effectiveness is due out later this year.
According to NBC News, Brutus is the second dog in history to receive four prosthetic limbs.
Aquilina says if Brutus doesn’t take to the prosthetics, she will move on without them, but by the looks of this video, Brutus is doing just fine!
National Geographic Japan shared this amazing time-lapse video of a bee being born. I love when science videos get over 1,653,803 views on YouTube 🙂 Click here for more information about a bee’s life cycle!
There is a reason this video of a chameleon hatching – posted in 2008 – has over 1,715,098 views. I could do without the epic music, but overall this video is absolutely captivating; it starts changing colors within minutes. You can watch its tiny two-toed 
Most chameleon species lay eggs (oviparous), while a few give birth to live young (ovoviviparous).
Krystian Science 