Discovery Science 🧬

Burmese python: Thousands of giant snakes are destroying US nature The Burmese snake is becoming extinct. It is firmly listed in the Red Book, but even this is not particularly helpful, because the number of snakes has fallen by 30% in just the first decade of the 21st century. And all because of the loss of habitat and the capture of reptiles by local residents. But, ironically, it was precisely this activity that gave them a new home and a small environmental disaster for the Americans. The fact is that pythons were caught not so much for snake skin, but for sale as exotic pets. And they were sold mainly to Americans, who fell in love with snakes for their unusual appearance, calmness, easy-going disposition and lack of poison. However, even with such introductions, many American families were not prepared for life with snakes under the same roof. Especially those who bought a cool exotic cord the length of a human palm, and a year later received a two-meter living rope. A rope that continued to grow over the next 20 years of its life. And those who bought females were doubly lucky. They quickly discovered that their pythons had also begun to lay eggs, 20-30 a year, despite the complete lack of contact with the male. Almost none of the owners knew that Burmese pythons are capable of parthenogenesis: their unfertilized eggs are capable of developing into clones of the mother! Of course, careless and unprepared owners simply released excess pythons into the wild, where they died. As a rule. But in warm, humid Florida, they survived and established a stable population. They avoided local predators by hiding from them in leaf litter, on tree branches and under water. And their ability to survive without food for up to 18 (!) months due to a decrease in the size of the intestines and heart, gave them time to adapt to new conditions and find new prey. As a result, Burmese pythons in the United States have created a stable population of 30 to 300 thousand individuals and have become a real scourge that destroys all life in their habitat. In the Everglades swamps, where the python population is at its highest, they have completely wiped out rabbits, possums and raccoons have dropped by 90%, and foxes by 80%. And US environmental organizations simply don't know what to do about the creeping threat. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

vival. Following a stormy spring, the female gives birth to three to six cubs. Another month and a half will pass, and the new generation will begin preparing for winter and a powerful party immediately after it! Author: Egor Churakov Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Crazy hunger and thirst for lust: How do hedgehogs recover from hibernation? There are two types of people in the morning - those who have a good morning, and those whom it is better not to approach before coffee. Hedgehogs on this spectrum were closer to the first, because their morning begins with gluttony and lust! Hedgehogs that have barely emerged from hibernation are accelerating the pace of their lives to the fullest! April. Winter is already clearly losing ground in the range of the European hedgehog. The natural solarium heats the living space of the animal to positive temperatures, and the hedgehog’s body launches the “Two Deadly Sins” protocol. When the temperature rises to +5-10 degrees, hedgehogs roll out to explore the area. But, as is usually the case, awakening does not happen instantly. “Five more minutes” from the animal’s point of view looks like several days of careful forays and light snacks, and then a hasty retreat into slumber. But it’s worth surviving five nights without hibernation, and the hedgehog finally comes out of winter sleep. There is a serious reason for this - while in the kingdom of Morpheus, the thorn lost almost a quarter of its weight. And it's time to replenish your supplies. Let others lose weight by the summer, the hedgehog urgently needs to gain weight by the same time. And he works tirelessly. Hedgehogs consume food around the clock. Literally: usually, these are nocturnal predators. But immediately after hibernation, the thorns hunt even during the day. All small living creatures - insects, lizards, eggs - are distributed. The body demands protein and the hedgehog obeys, committing spring genocide and gaining muscle mass as if there would be a prickly bodybuilding competition in the summer. But noisy trampling in the bushes is not limited to gluttony. Immediately after awakening, another desire sets in - to reproduce. While still dozing, the male hedgehogs received a serious dose of testosterone. The male hormone urgently needs to be used. So, in the intervals between playful crunching and hungry slurping, hedgehogs try to find a mate. There is not even a hint of pickiness and monogamy in this process. Debauchery and lust lead to the fact that cubs from one litter can have up to five fathers! This phenomenon is called superfecundation, when there is one mother and two or more fathers. Thanks to this mechanism, several eggs of the same sexual period are fertilized by sperm from different males. It may not be very clear how hedgehogs mate given their spines. And there are several secrets here. When the female is ready, she relaxes her muscles and presses the needles as flat as possible to her body. The male climbs up from behind, resting his front paws on her back. It is protected by thick skin on the belly and the inside of the paws. The process is short. With this approach, the genetics of prickly babies will be as varied as possible, and they will have a greater chance of sur

Unexpectedly: Dog people get cancer 64% less often than other people. It's about the dog's microflora We all know that domestic dogs are real badasses. They help their owners cope with diabetes, asthma and problems with the cardiovascular system. Well, a fresh study published in the journal Nature a few days ago showed that they also save us from cancer! For 7 years, scientists collected information about cancer patients. And they got a huge base of 55 thousand people. All of them had survived cancer, successfully recovered from it and were now under the supervision of oncologists, but still remained at risk. After all, after defeating cancer, you need to cope with the consequences of harsh treatment, mental problems and the risk of relapse. The first five years of life are especially difficult. During this period, the chances of a new tumor appearing are highest, as is the risk of death from concomitant diseases. And this is where dogs come to the aid of doctors and patients. Statistical analysis showed that dog owners have a 64% lower chance of death in these 5 years than cat owners and people without pets! And all because by its very existence the dog does three useful things at once. First of all, it forces the owner to go for a walk at least a couple of times a day, which means sitting on his butt for exactly weeks and getting moldy will no longer be possible. Secondly, in exchange for care, she gives a person hormones of joy and a simple, but so necessary desire to live. And as you know, if the patient does not want to live, medicine is powerless. Well, the third reason is the most interesting. A dog living in the same house with you unwittingly shares its bacteria, the spores of which are released into the air with particles of saliva. But these invaders do not cause dysbiosis, ulcers or food poisoning in humans. It's the other way around - they make him stronger. Due to contact with the dog, the microbiota of the gastrointestinal tract becomes richer and produces more complex organic substances. And many of them protect the intestines, stimulate the immune system, tired from a long struggle, and suppress chronic inflammation. So now scientists confirm: a dog at home is an extremely useful animal. It will make you move, give you free dopamine and make your inner world richer! And most importantly, it will save you from diseases and prolong your life. Well, hands in feet - and to the shelter? Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

ady understood what this brief educational program is for? Well, the Phronims also understood. Mini-monsters purposefully hunt free-swimming salp species, open them and get inside the carcass. Then the only thing left to do is eat the entire contents. After the feast, only an empty shell remains, the same one made of durable tunicin. Transparent, light and very comfortable. So the phronims solve three issues at once - food, safety and a place to breed offspring. Yes, only females do these terrible things; males have no need for it. The guys travel light and inseminate all the ladies they come across along the way. Females are larger and more noticeable than the opposite sex. They also demonstrate care for their offspring, which is very atypical for their family. Most arthropods simply spawn and water the process with seed material. But in sea aliens, the eggs develop for some time inside a special brood pouch on the mother’s body, after which she lays them directly inside her capsule-ship. In cramped conditions, but don’t be offended - one phronima can bring up to 600 larvae! After a few molts, when the young become relatively independent and no longer fit inside the shell, they leave the mother and begin the cycle again. Young crayfish set off for free swimming, but their chances of survival are low. Even if you manage to find a salpa in open waters and eat it, larger phronims may immediately appear. Empty shell barrels are a very valuable resource, and you can start a fight for it. In the battle for the empty capsule, one person will be left floating in the water without any shelter, which is almost tantamount to death. Author: Arina Taran Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Fronima: This cancer eats the victim from the inside and makes a strange house out of her body Did you know that the alien alien from the series of films of the same name was not invented from scratch? Yes, this evil extraterrestrial creature has a very real earthly prototype! Moreover, the scriptwriters even smoothed out the corners a little - in reality everything is even worse. Meet the fronima sedentaria - first it eats its victim from the inside, and then climbs inside and lives there, as if in a spaceship. And he also raises children inside. Are you ready to get to know the monster better? Then you will have to arm yourself with a magnifying glass, and you can put the flamethrower aside for now. Humanity is incredibly lucky, because phronims grow to a maximum of 5 centimeters - for us they are absolutely safe, despite their terrifying appearance. The same cannot be said about the harmless salps, from which mini-monsters make their shelters. But let's take things in order. Who are they anyway? Phronims are tiny crustaceans from the family Amphipods and the class of higher crayfish. Unlike tens of thousands of its microscopic planktonic relatives, phronima can be seen with the naked eye and even picked up. They live alone, without flocking into large flocks. And also, unlike most other crayfish, these creepy creatures do not have a carapace shell, which usually protects the body. Despite its monstrous appearance - two pairs of eyes, an elongated head, like that alien from the screens, five pairs of legs with claws and spikes, this chthon cannot fend for itself in open waters. So it turns out: its size, helplessness and solitary lifestyle make the phronima an easy prey for anyone in the ocean. But I don’t want to die. So, you need shelter - but where to get it? Phronims live right in open waters - that is, they hang out somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Oceans, to be more precise: crustaceans settled in the temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific, plus they populated the Mediterranean Sea. Pebbles, rocks, algae, reefs - there is absolutely nothing in the water column where you can hide from voracious predators. But salps swim in open waters. Salps are primitive translucent creatures that look like living plastic bottles. They spend their entire lives drifting and filtering tiny edible particles from the water. It would seem that the most boring animal in the world. But they have one very cool feature - at the dawn of their evolution, salps somehow acquired genes that are now only found in plants. Scientists say it was horizontal gene transfer from bacteria. Thanks to this, salps are able to produce tunicin, a substance similar to plant cellulose. This is practically not the case in animals: all hard parts of the body are usually made of either collagen and bones, like ours, or chitin, like insects and crustaceans. And salps build their tough outer shell from tunicin, like plants. Have you alre

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<b>Sabetes: It will bite beautifully. This genus of mosquitoes decided to look amazing, but why? </b> Ordinary, normal mosquitoes try to work quietly and not flash too much light, because they understand that any attention for them is tantamount to death. But not mosquitoes of the genus Sabetes. These insects are a living flying performance that seems to be trying to attract attention with all its appearance! Damn, just look at them, it’s as if they ordered their suits from Kirkorov’s personal designer! Every, every part of their body looks like it was dipped in molten titanium, then anodized, and the mosquito somehow managed to survive! But this beauty was not enough for the female sebetes, so they grew long and beautiful multi-colored hair on their legs, which their males find attractive. But this level of self-expression was not enough for the mosquitoes themselves; they decided that they would not drink blood like everyone else. When a metal mosquito lands on a victim and begins to suck its vital juices, it extends its middle legs above itself, like some kind of screen from the sun. And no one in the whole wide world knows why she does this! And their gymnastic tricks don’t end there. As is typical for mosquitoes, female mosquitoes drink blood to stock up on nutrients for egg production. But if normal mosquitoes, after an act of vampirism, carefully sit on the very edge of the reservoir, after which they quickly and quietly lay eggs, then our colorful heroine puts on a show here too. The mosquito turns circle after circle around the pond and drops eggs one after another until the ammunition in its abdomen runs out. And she didn’t care about the attention from predators, because showing off is more valuable than life. Okay, to be honest, there is some logic to this. Although the female exposes herself to the attack of flying predatory insects, she scatters her offspring over a large area, and not a single predator can eat her babies en masse. Yes, it's a risk, but it's a worthwhile risk. As well as bright colors. The fact is that it was created not with the help of pigments, but due to iridescence. On the surface of the mosquito's exoskeleton are nanostructures that refract light, creating a metallic sheen and a variety of colors. And these iridescent shades, oddly enough, do not so much attract attention as confuse insects. Try to understand what this bright iridescent thing is sitting on the tree. Could it even be a drop of dew? It's funny that these mosquitoes live in the tropics of South America. In the same place where similar style festivals take place. But still, despite the scientific explanation for the strange habits of the mosquito, I am ready to give it a helping hand and give it a few drops of my blood. Just to admire the unique metal mosquito. Which, by the way, does not tolerate diseases dangerous to humans, unlike dozens of species of other tropical midges! Author: Yaroslav Ilyin <b>🏀 Hit the hoop and get an N