LAS Live Sciences

“What for?” you may ask. After all, they could hurt someone or something, or they could even be hurt by their own pins. Amazingly, the pins are too tiny, soft and flexible to even hurt anyone or anything. That is why, if you’ve ever had a wall gecko climb on you, you would never see any scar on your body. The information you are about to read reveal the very reason gecko lizards can climb and walk on almost any surface. It was discovered that gecko lizards possess extremely tiny hairs under each of their feet. These hairs rise and flatten, and can be detached easily from surfaces because of the direction, or angle, in which they grow. These hair-like pins, more appropriately called setae , also have several smaller parts on each of them, making them look like ceiling brooms.  The tinier hairs, which are more of fiber, are called spatulae . The setae are made of keratin_ the same material human fingers are made of. Due to their structure, size, mass number and the material with ...

Does it surprise you to think that an animal can escape death, talk less of a housefly? Of course it shouldn’t. Remember the first science post on this blog that explained how fireflies escape danger, thanks to their wing speed and exceptional flying skills. Like fireflies, houseflies obviously have wing speed and flying skills, though they flap their wings at a much lesser speed than fireflies, that is 80 times per second, compared to fireflies that flap theirs 200 times per second. However, this post is not about speed or flight skills. This is about surviving a death trap. So just picture the following scenario. You used a local African broom to hit a housefly so that it doesn’t fly anymore, but you still manage to leave it alive so that you can punish it. You carry a condemned water bottle and fill it almost to the brim with water. After that, you picked up the weak fly, put it inside the water bottle (maybe even use a small stick to push the fly down the liquid to drown it sin...

  Did the title surprise you? Well, don’t be, for nothing shows that cats can see spirits. In this context, the “invisible” are visible things hidden from sight because of darkness. So how do cats find their way and even hunt comfortably in the dark? The secret lies in their whiskers, or vibrissae . Cat whiskers are super sensitive to pressure, even air pressure. The slightest movement of air is noticed by these whiskers. How are they so equipped? Cat whiskers are joined to tissues that are connected to so many sensitive threads called nerves . These nerves connect directly to the brain of cats and act as direct messengers to the brain. Since the connection process between the brain and the whiskers is almost direct and involves soft sensitive tissues and cells, the brain can easily detect even the things that pass by the whiskers. Cat whiskers have a lot of functions that are not even fully understood. They can sense the movement of animals and obstacles around because of ai...

If you have ever taken an interest in spiders, you will definitely observe that these are some of the most amazing animals on earth. From a lot of observations and studies about spiders, they are wonderful creatures blessed with skills, and they deserve our attention. We are going to be taking a look at some of the mind-boggling and indeed interesting features of spiders. EYES eyes of jumping spider   Spiders have two true eyes and six eye spots, that is eight parts that look like eyes with only two actually used for sight. Spiders do not see very clearly, so they have other features that make them move freely without hitting things unnecessarily. But what significant purpose do their true eyes serve? Research shows that the Jumping spider, like many other spiders, can catch insects for food in one jump. To do this, those same eyes with faint sight are needed. The Jumping spider have a retina (the part of the eye that sends message to the brain about what it receives as l...

  Considering the kind of environment in which butterflies flourish, it is expected that they would find flying around difficult. This is because their wings are so soft and light that even little dust particles or water droplets can make their wings heavy for them. Surprisingly, though, the butterflies are mostly observed clean and dry. What’s the big secret? Let’s consider the Giant Blue Morpho butterflies . Like other butterflies, these Morpho butterflies have wings that look flat and feel extremely smooth. However, research confirms that they are structured in layers, in step-by-step pattern. In addition to the step-by-step arrangement, each layer has grooves or open lines, just like gutters dug in the ground. This efficient design makes it possible and easy for any dirt or water moisture to fall away. To understand this more clearly, think of this illustration: What could happen if a small ball the height (or diameter) of a CD is kept on top of roofing sheets that are ab...

You may have heard about living things that display colourful lights. In fact, plants like some fungi and algae species produce beautiful light at night. Fireflies produce light to attract prospective mates.  But some animals use their light for hunts or protection. Let's take some classic examples. Hunts Have you ever heard about a monstrous-looking fish called Deep-sea angler fish ? These deep sea little monsters produce light using bacteria living in the pole, or long organ on its head. By producing light on this organ and moving it back and forth, they succeed at getting the attention of smaller fishes. These smaller fishes find this attractive, but unfortunately they are being deceived . They only realize this once it is too late because as soon as they get too close to the hungry monster who is hunting stand-still, they are eaten at once! Protection And you're in here for 'special treats.' We would consider three amazing underwater creatures here, so let's get...