sea otter
edyong | April 13, 2009Our teeth are a mystery. The set we grow during late childhood stays with us throughout our lives, biting and chewing thousands of times a day. They can withstand forces of up to 1,000 newtons and yet, the material that coats them - enamel - is little tougher than glass. How does this extraordinarily brittle substance not shatter into pieces every time we crunch a nut or chomp on an apple?
Herzl Chai from Tel Aviv University found the answer, and it's a surprising one. At a microscopic level, our teeth defend against fractures by developing with cracks already built in. These pre-made…
zooillogix | March 12, 2007I was lucky enough to find myself in Atlanta this weekend and made a trip to the one year old Georgia Aquarium. The animals and exhibits were spectacular. The Georgia Aquarium is one of only four in the world with whale sharks and the only one outside of Asia.
The aquarium has the distinct advantage of being brand new, some of the enclosures seemed a bit small and it lacked the ubiquitous dolphin Vaudeville show, but it blows all other aquariums I have been to out of the water.Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) - Pictures don't do these guys justice. There were three of them, each 15-25 feet.…