I am Maxwell the platypus. I am one of five egg-laying mammal species on Earth. I live in the streams and rivers of eastern Australia. When my kind was first discovered, people thought we were a hoax. I look like many different animals mixed together. It is harsh out here in Australia. I need many adaptations to help me survive. I have a venom delivering spur on my hind legs. I use the venom for protection. I have a duck bill with many sensors to help me locate prey in the riverbeds. I have insulated fur similar to an otter to keep me warm during cold winters. I have very strong claws that I use to dig burrows to live in. I spend most of my time underwater, my webbed feet and a strong flat tail help me swim. I am a unique creature
“Squirrel Power!” by Jon Mooallem, gives an inside look at the many outages caused by squirrels running along the power lines. Mooallem uses credible sources to highlight the amount of times a squirrel has caused a power outage and why the incidents are common to begin with. Mooallem wants the reader to know that squirrels are acting on natural instincts in a world filled with wires providing electricity for people.
Evolution is the reason for many different species and their existence. Evolution proves that there is much more to the world than the human can see. Charles Darwin had looked into the eye of the storm, and found something revolutionary. His research has changed and reshaped science in it’s own very existence; changing how scientists see their works. Charles created a new way of thinking, and proven that there is always an alternate reason why something is the way it is, and how it became that way, not to mention he constructed against religion that proves itself to be wrong. Everything has a reason, and evolution has made that reason clear to us, through Darwin’s works.”Charles Darwin is best known for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological change.”
The Pygmy three-toed- sloths are described to have buff-colored faces with dark circles that surround the eye and go outwards to their temples. Like all sloths, they are always in doldrums which can be very unbeneficial to them. They have clay-orange fur that covers their face and their hair is long and bushy. “Long hair hangs forward to the forehead, giving the impression of a hood” (Grzimek 161). Their outer fur has coated an alga that is used as camouflage to avoid predators. If they were attacked, they have a high probability of surviving due to their ability to heal from grievous wounds. These sloths have a total of 18 teeth, 10 coming from their upper jaw. Similar to other sloths their body temperature regulation is imperfect (“Bradypus pygmaeus pygmy three-toed sloth” (a)).
Nikola Tesla is a man that many individuals associate with brilliance. Moreover, Tesla is a name that ignites impulses within an individual’s brain which illuminate, via bio-circuitry, the thought association of Tesla and brilliance, similar to the force we term as electricity. Brilliance however, shouldn’t be the only descriptive word to come to mind when thinking of one of the greatest engineers and inventors to live. Innovation and determination should be undoubtedly included in the list of descriptive words of Mr. Nikola Tesla. For without the innovative mind of Tesla, midcentury inventions as well as current technological advances would be nonexistent, or worse, credited to Thomas Edison.
One hundred and fifty million years ago, large aquatic species of reptile such as the Plesiosaur dominated the ocean, and were pre-eminent predators of the sea. The branch of now extinct Plesiosaurs, or ‘near lizards’, evolved into variant closely related species specialised to take different niches in the food chain. Such species of Plesiosaur include the phenotypically similar Plesiosauroid and Pliosauroid. The physiological adaptations of the long necked variant, the Plesiosauroid, as it relates to deep sea diving, will be addressed in depth.
Today we will be taking about the Duck Billed Platypus, we will be seeing that makes them different. The first thing we will start out with is their appearance. The Platypus has brown waterproof fur and a flat tail like a beaver they also have a bill and webbed feet like a duck. They next thing I will talk about a Platypus diet. A Platypus mainly eat insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms but because Platypus have no teeth they use gravel they scoop up to break up there food. Platypus are also Carnivore meaning they only eat meat or flesh. Next we will talk about the Platypus defenses. When swimming the Platypus have folds of skin covering their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and the nostrils close with a watertight
Entropy is not a difficult concept to just take at face value, but it is a difficult topic to gain a good understanding of. To do this some background must be given such as the first and second law of thermodynamics. The second law of thermodynamics states that any event that occurs spontaneously must result in an increase in the randomness of lhe syslem. This means that as an ice cube melts the water molecules that it is composed of will progress toward a less ordered arrangement. The leaves that fall from the trees do nol arrange themselves in a pile on the ground because the second law of thermodynamics is against it. Entropy is a concept that most high school chemistry and physics students enjoy learning about because the now have an excuse for having a messy room, they are fighting nature.
At first glance platypuses seem to be an amalgamation of mammals, birds, and everything in between. In fact, their reproduction biology also has much in common with a variety of animals—reptiles, birds, placentals and marsupial mammals. Platypuses belong to a group of animals called monotremes. These egg-laying mammals have been a mystery to researchers since their discovery by Westerners over 200 years ago. The first specimens of platypuses brought back to England were thought to be hoaxes similar to mermaids (Moyal, 2001). Found only in and around Australia, there are only three living species of monotremes: the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and two species of echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus, and Zaglossus bruijni).
As James Levine is famous for saying, “I was lucky that I met the right mentors and teachers at the right moment.” To me, one of the greatest mentors of innovative scientific history was Nikola Tesla. That being said, if given the opportunity to spend the next year of my life in a different time period I would like to live during the year 1942 so I could work beside Tesla. This was the year before Tesla died, a time when he had experienced the full scope of his expertise and could impart that wisdom to me. My questions about his popularity would be answered in full. Questions about Tesla’s integrity could lead to the answer to the legendary disputes about what was rightfully his. Legends about genius inventions that could only be imagined
Lengagne, T., Jouventin, P., & Aubin, T. (1999, August). Finding one's mate in a king penguin colony: Efficiency of acoustic communication [Electronic version]. Behaviour, 136(7), 833-846. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
The platypus is covered with a thick water-resistant fur, excluding its bill and feet. It’s body it streamlined, has short limbs and webbed forefeet to propel itself through water using an alternative kicking motion. The webs on the for...
admitted to the Royal Society. He moved to Downe, Kent in 1842, and was plagued
A modern reader might be surprised to find that travel writings of the 18th century, books intended for the general public, featured specific scientific terms and precise descriptions of landmarks, species and resources. But how did it happen that “sentiment, imagination, and the graces have been banished” (Voltaire, Letter to Cideville) from 18th century literature? In her article “Science, planetary consciousness, interiors” author Mary Louise Pratt argues that the change in travel writing in the 18th century promoted a new type of planetary consciousness, thus triggering a shift in European colonial policies. In her subsequent article “Narrating the anti-conquest”, she argues that as travel writing evolved, so did colonial policies and she exemplifies the process by an examination of four travel writers of the era to show how travel writing changed. Pratt suggests that writing shifted from survival literature, focusing on coastal regions (an observing eye), through strictly descriptive accounts of interiors (a scrutinizing eye), to writing about the ways in which things could be improved (an improving eye). Forty years after Pratt’s last example of 18th century anti-conquest writing was published, Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle came out of press. The ethos displayed by Darwinian his journal, however, diverged from the anti-conquest ethos as modified by Pratt. Therefore, a close reading of Darwin, one of the most prominent 19th century authors of travel writing, could be used to suggest in what direction 18th century travel writing evolved.
Dr. Dr. h.c. Grzimk, Bernhard. “The Penguins.” Animal Life Encyclopedia. Volume 7, Birds I. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1968.