Discovery Science 🧬

tself, it simply deceives the cell and forces it to become its own personal factory. This scheme has a lot of weak points, due to which we do not become infected with everything that flies in the air around us. Firstly, the virus needs a specific gateway receptor to penetrate the cell. Over millions of years of mutations, breakdowns and reassemblies, some viruses have acquired gaps, but they only work for specific cells. Therefore, even if a sick dog or cat sneezes on us, its viruses will still not pick up the master keys to our cells and nothing will happen. Secondly, even if the key and lock suddenly match, there will also be a surprise waiting inside the virus cell. Because of their maximum simplicity, they need specific environmental conditions: temperature, acidity, the presence of certain substances. Even in the same organism, these indicators differ among different cells, let alone cells of different types. And if there are no suitable conditions, then the infection will simply collapse and go out, as if nothing had happened. But once a year the stick shoots. Sometimes it happens that a virus that gets inside a cell mutates, breaks down and assembles incorrectly, but this is very fortunate for the virus. The chances of this happening are critically low, but at times viruses from animals can still “learn” to infect people and vice versa. This is how, for example, influenza viruses operate: swine, avian and human ones can periodically mutate and jump from one type to another. There are also coronaviruses, which, in addition to us, also affect camels, cats, minks and bats - remember the case in 2019. Smallpox and herpes viruses also sometimes change their host, each has its own specific methods of reproduction and infection, but there is a fact of a change of host. Well, the most important example is the rabies virus. This killer doesn’t care at all about the type of animal; all mammals without vaccination are at risk. So it turns out that not all viruses can jump from a person to an animal and vice versa, you can hug sneezing dogs as much as you like. But there is also a certain and rather small group of viruses that live on several hosts at once - however, they have been studiedWe know that for many there are vaccines and treatments have been developed. Author: Arina Taran Editor: Elizaveta Isaeva 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Why don't animals get infected with human diseases and vice versa? You all know these people who shout at every step: “Ugh, don’t touch this dog, she has a lot of viruses!” So, after reading this article, you can answer them quickly, clearly and reasonably. A dog may have viruses, but a person won’t get sick from them even if they hug him 24/7. And vice versa also works: an owner with ARVI is not at all dangerous to his pets. This is because this system is much more complex and interesting than it seems. But first, let's figure out what this “virus” even is? Many people imagine it as a tiny and very evil parasite that just wants to infect someone as quickly as possible. However, this is fundamentally wrong. A virus is not even a living creature in the usual sense. He has no body and metabolism, he does not know how to move and eat independently. It's just a flash drive with a piece of genetic information that uses the cells of other living beings for its own reproduction. Then a logical question arises: if the virus is so simple and almost not alive, why would it infect anyone at all? No reason. Viruses don't need anything at all. They are not interested in our quarantines, masks and QR codes at the entrances to restaurants. They don’t make us sick on purpose because they are so bad. This chthon does not even search for a person or dog purposefully: it enters someone’s body completely by accident: with microdrops of water, dust or secretions of the patient. But then the most interesting part begins, and this will be the answer to the question of the entire article, why dogs don’t get our viral diseases, and we don’t get theirs. When the virus enters the body, at first it simply floats in biological fluids. It does not have any flagella or cilia to swim somewhere. There are also no sensory organs that would tell influenza viruses to go to the nasopharynx, and intestinal viruses to the gastrointestinal tract. This infection simply tries to penetrate ANY cell that comes in its way! All cells in our body have a membrane on which receptors are located. With their help, cells communicate with each other, receive nutrition and remove metabolic products. These doors are locked so that nothing unnecessary gets in or gets out. Viruses also have receptors - they poke them into all cells in a row - for good luck. Sometimes they get lucky, and the receptor key on the virus matches the receptor door on the cell. If this happens, the cell itself drags the virus inside, assuming that if there is a match in receptors, then this is definitely something needed. Having climbed into the cell of the host organism, the virus slips its fragment of genetic information into it as instructions for action. Instead of minding her own business, she endlessly spends her resources on creating new copies of the virus that has entered her. Over time, they leave the cell, enter the body again, and the cycle repeats. That is, the virus does not even reproduce i

Ghost Elephants: Snow-white, strange and very rare. These are not albinos! Since ancient times, African tribes have told legends about white ghost elephants, mythical creatures filled with mystical power. They say that only a very lucky or very honest person can meet such an elephant. Etosha National Park guides disagree. They say: “Come to us, you can look at white elephants every day!” The national park is in the very north of Namibia, which is very, very dry land. For most of the year, Etosha is a bare wasteland, in the midst of which there are scattered scattered emerald oases, in which all local life is concentrated. And local elephants are perfectly adapted to such conditions. Their herds wander from oasis to oasis, where they find temporary shelter, food and, of course, the opportunity to swim and roll in liquid mud. Very light and clayey mud. Can you see where I'm going with this? This dirt, as well as the dust that adheres to the giant, forms a crust, which turns an ordinary elephant white. But if you rub it with a wet cloth, under the layer of dust and dirt you will find a very ordinary elephant. So the national park workers lied to us a little. But the aborigines do not. Let's change the topic and talk about completely different white elephants from another region of Africa. When ecologist Steve Boyce heard stories from Angolan tribes about ghost elephants, he took them seriously. So in 2016, Steve returned to Angola, armed with camera traps. Camera traps recorded leopards, monkeys, pigs and a lot of rodents, but not a single elephant. Then he came back again, and again, and again. He rented helicopters, hired guides and communicated with local hunters and leaders. Year after year he searched for his white elephant, like a man possessed. Until finally, in 2024, his labors bore fruit. He managed to shoot one single, unclear and low-quality video. But this was enough to gain recognition, volunteer helpers and funding. It was thanks to him that we found out that white elephants are a unique population of African elephants, numbering from 40 to 100 individuals. Their herds roam the expanses of the Angolan highlands, but move exclusively at night, and during the day they lie in bushes and open forests, which is extremely atypical for elephants. And real white elephants, unlike “painted” ones, are only a couple of shades lighter than the overwhelming elephant mass. And a non-specialist may not even notice the difference. But from the point of view of their behavior and genetics, they are unique. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Selection of cool photos number 10: 1. The serpentine eagle performs a gastroscopy. 2. The brown-throated sloth is wet, but doesn’t seem to be discouraged)) 3. Maned Acerodon is the largest flying mammal. Luckily, he eats fruit) 4. Three-banded armadillos. Bakugan from the animal world. 5. A baby wombat is looking at you right from... its bag! Yes, for wombats it is in the opposite direction. 6. A couple of coconut crabs are coming to eat the dog. 7. The camel was very angry, and he decided to cough up everyone (probably he was having an attack of lust). 8. Frightening Amazonian dolphins in their infernal dimension (in the muddy water of the rivers of South America). 9. The last photograph of the forever extinct marsupial wolf ((. 1933, Tasmanian Zoo. We are trying to launch in Max, since sooner or later we will have to. If you use it, you can read us in it: https://max.ru/knigajivotnih Honey badger. Hello! 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Haymaker Rabbit: Why does a spider need a dog's head on its back? Here is a dog running. Well, let her continue jumping on her eight legs, let’s not disturb her. In the end, our task is not to torment the poor arachnid dog, but to find out who he is, why he grew a dog’s head on himself and why he is called the haymaker-rabbit. The answer to the last question is the simplest: the discoverer, apparently, forgot his glasses at home, and without them you cannot see this long-legged booger the size of a fingernail. So she became a rabbit, not a dog. And yes, despite its terrifying appearance, this dog does not bite and cannot hurt you in any way. It has no poisonous glands, and its jaws are not capable of biting through human skin. In the end, it is just a haymaker, sucking out small insects as it goes. So the job of the dog's head on its back is not to bark and bite people. Its task is to deceive the vision of small predators, forcing them to mistake the harvester for a larger animal. At least, that’s what the discoverer of the species thought, and that’s what his followers think. This pattern on the back performs the function of mimicry - it helps scare away predators. When the harvestman feels threatened, he raises the back of his body, and the pattern becomes similar to the muzzle of a larger animal with eyes. This may frighten or confuse potential predators such as birds or lizards. This strategy is called eye mimicry, a common defense mechanism in the world of insects and arachnids. Predators instinctively avoid what may be a larger or more dangerous animal looking at them. But not everyone agrees with this. Other spider scientists are sure that back-snout spiders simply find each other attractive! They believe that the dog/rabbit head on the back evolved as a sign of sexual selection. With its help, harvestmen distinguish representatives of their species from others and determine which of them is most worthy of mating. We do not know which of the points of view is correct, just as practically nothing is known about the way of life of the haymaker. After all, the baby lives in the remote corners of Ecuador and is in no hurry to show itself to scientists. And try to find them, they are so small! Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

g diving tourism, choose destinations and operators that actively protect reefs. Ecotourism creates an economic alternative to destructive fishing. Author: Yaroslav Ilyin 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Cyanide Fishing: The Most Inhumane Way of Fishing Cyanide fishing is the nastiest, most disgusting, most environmentally damaging fishery I have ever heard of. Things are so bad with him that I won’t even try to embellish the situation with humor. Here it would be good to refrain from insults. Its essence is very simple: a diver, usually young and poor, dives to a coastal coral reef and sprays a concentrated solution of sodium cyanide over it. After which he can only wait until the sea current carries the paralyzed fish out of their hiding places. He then packs hundreds of paralyzed animals into bags and nets and drags them onto the deck, where he sorts them according to suitability. Useless commercial fish are thrown overboard, but exotic aquarium specimens are left behind to be sold at a profit later. However, most of them will not end up on the counter: the mortality rate among fish caught with cyanide reaches 75%. And those that survive will live several years less than their healthy counterparts - cyanide poisoning does not go away without consequences. But the fishermen don’t care about this, because they collect fish in the thousands. They also don't care that they are wreaking death and destruction on coral reefs, the most beautiful and biologically diverse communities in the ocean. After all, after spraying, cyanide does not go anywhere. It spreads like an invisible suffocating cloud, killing in its path myriads of invertebrate creatures and even the corals themselves, the basis of reefs and all their diversity. And it doesn’t end there: the bodies become a source of secondary poisoning for those who decide to eat them. And if these were isolated cases, it would not be scary at all. But in 1996, the World Resources Institute conducted an investigation and found that approximately 20% of aquarium fish sold in the Philippines were caught with cyanide. And further research showed that this practice is widespread along the entire coast of South Asia, with the exception of Japan and Korea. Even though it is illegal all over the planet. Do you know what is the most bitter thing? People involved in this fishery earn mere pittance: only slightly more than ordinary fishermen who do everything according to the rules. But even for such a small difference in income, there are desperate heads who are ready to destroy thousand-year-old ecosystems and poison themselves. And despite everything, the illegal and disgusting business is thriving. Okay, so we wrote an article about a rather unpleasant thing. What benefit can the reader get beyond simply being informed about it? 1. If you buy aquarium fish, make sure that the fish was caught and raised in captivity. Now many species are successfully bred in nurseries. Require certification. Ask the seller where the fish is from and how it was caught. Buy only from those who can document this. 2. Spread the word. Most buyers are simply unaware of this problem. 3. If you are plannin

wards authors, all this, unfortunately, rests only on rare advertising and your support. You can support the stability of our nervous system with a minimum subscription of 100 rubles per month. You can request support directly through the button in this post. Thank you! 🏀 Hit the hoop and get an NFT gift — https://t.me/BasketbolX_bot

Drone: Why do hardworking bees need a slacker and parasite in the hive? Loafers and procrastinators can often hear the following phrase addressed to them: “You’re sitting there, driving around, a real drone!” But instead of going about their business, they wonder: why are drones needed if they don’t do anything? After all, there are no meaningless decisions in nature, right? To begin with, let's say that a drone is a male bee, and it really doesn't work. He has a very short proboscis to collect food; he does not care for the younger generation. This parasite also eats many times more, which is why its size is twice that of a working bee. Maybe he at least protects the hive like a real man? Nope, it doesn't even have a stinger. In short, a slacker and a waster of life - that’s what a drone is. But don't rush to call it useless. The drone has talents too! It flies beautifully, has excellent vision for a bee (a drone has 8,000 facets in its eyes, while a worker bee has only 5,000) and a sense of smell. Why does he need all this? For its main purpose - reproduction! The mating flight is the name given to the flight of the queen bees to meet the drones in order to reproduce. This happens only once during the queen’s life and then she no longer needs the male seed. More precisely, it is necessary, but she can store sperm from a single date up to 5 years and use it when needed. And the only chance to meet the queen is to see and catch up with her before the others. And this is not an easy task! Several hundred drones live in one family, and everyone wants to leave offspring. However, the abundance of suitors for the queen is a huge plus. They not only keep her female self-esteem high, but also provide security. A cortege of drones hides Her Majesty from the eyes of predators during the mating flight. To produce offspring and become prey instead of the queen - this is the purpose of the entire three-month life of the quitter. But it often happens that in one flight the queen is fertilized by up to 20 (!) drones at once. And the genetic material of each of them will be used. But the further fate of all the drones is tragic: as soon as the cherished date ends, he will quickly leave this world with a sense of accomplishment. Moreover, natural death is the most humane death for a drone. After all, in all other cases, the hardworking bees will finish him off. They take full revenge for all the honey eaten and hours of doing nothing. First, the workers mercilessly drive away the drones from the honeycombs. Small bees easily throw men weakened from hunger out of the hive to cold and starvation in the best traditions of Sparta. So yes, the drone is not just a parasite. This is a highly specialized parasite with the important mission of procreation! - - - - - We have a huge group, which is 11 years old and there are many zoologists who write tons of text every day from the field in which they are specialists. Due to VK’s failed policy to