Dams From Space, Dark Plants, TikTok Emergency Services & More!
01. Scientists Found a Plant That Doesn't Need Sunlight
Deep in a forest in western Thailand, botanists have discovered a tiny black flower that looks sufficiently sinister to earn the name Thismia daemona, the “devil flower.”
But its appearance isn't even the strangest part. It doesn't photosynthesise.
The plant contains no chlorophyll, spends almost its entire life hidden beneath leaf litter and instead obtains its nutrients through underground fungi. Researchers found it nearly 1,000 metres above sea level, an unusual habitat for this group of plants.
Its black flower has horn-like structures and flashes of reddish-orange around the bottom, which researchers thought looked almost like glowing demonic eyes. And we've apparently discovered it just in time to potentially lose it.
Scientists currently know of fewer than 50 individuals, all growing within an area smaller than a football pitch, leading researchers to provisionally assess it as critically endangered.
02. Bats Have an Immune System Scientists Have Never Seen Before
Bats have always presented scientists with a fascinating problem. They can harbour viruses that are dangerous to other mammals while frequently avoiding severe disease themselves. Now researchers may have discovered part of the reason.
After analysing hundreds of bat species, scientists discovered that more than 500 species of vesper bats carry two sets of antibody heavy-chain genes.
That's an immune-system arrangement never previously identified in mammals. Essentially, these bats appear to possess additional genetic machinery for producing antibody diversity. Researchers are now investigating whether this unusual setup contributes to bats' extraordinary ability to coexist with viruses, and understanding how they do it isn't just interesting bat trivia.
Studying their immune systems could ultimately reveal new biological mechanisms relevant to human immunity and disease.
03. TikTok Just Helped Discover an Animal Living Underground
A strange video appeared on TikTok showing a tiny pale fish that had emerged from a borewell near the India–Nepal border. Scientists noticed and decided to investigate. They travelled to Bihar in northern India and began pumping water from local hand pumps, searching for whatever was living in the underground aquifers.
Eventually... they found it.
The animal is completely colourless, its eyes have been reduced to tiny spots covered by skin, and it appears adapted to spend its entire life in the pitch-black groundwater beneath the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
It has now been described as not only a new species, but part of a new genus: Gangaichthys indonepalicus.
Think about the chain of events here. An unknown vertebrate was living in total darkness underneath people's homes. It came shooting out of a water pump. Someone filmed it. They put it on TikTok. Scientists saw TikTok and humanity gained an entirely new branch on its catalogue of life.
How mad is that?
04. Someone Was Playing This Board Game 4,600 Years Ago
People were apparently getting competitive over board games 4,600 years ago. Archaeologists excavating Shahr-e Sukhteh — the “Burnt City” — in southeastern Iran have uncovered a previously undocumented type of ancient board game dating to the third millennium BC.
The discovery was accompanied by an engraved bone comb, pottery, textiles, leather, eggshell and evidence of previously undocumented burial practices. Comparable game designs have apparently only been reported at a small number of archaeological sites in Central Asia. I love discoveries like this because they humanise ancient civilisation.
We tend to imagine Bronze Age people building cities, farming, fighting wars and worshipping gods. But they also apparently sat down and played games.
Which planet has winds faster than the speed of sound?
A) Jupiter
B) Neptune
C) Saturn
D) Mars
B — Neptune.
Despite being nearly 4.5 billion kilometres from the Sun, Neptune has some of the most violent weather in the Solar System.
Winds have been measured at more than 2,000 km/h.
That's around 1,200 mph faster than the speed of sound on Earth.
Even stranger, scientists still don't completely understand how such a distant planet receives enough energy to drive weather that extreme.
What percentage of all the species that have ever existed on Earth are estimated to be extinct?
A) Around 25%
B) Around 50%
C) Around 75%
D) More than 99%
D — More than 99%.
Almost every species that has ever evolved is already gone.
Estimates commonly suggest that more than 99% of all species that have ever lived are extinct.
Evolution has been producing and eliminating species for billions of years.
Which means the millions of species alive around us today represent only a tiny snapshot of the extraordinary amount of life that has existed on Earth.
What is the largest structure ever built by an animal other than humans?
A) Beaver dam
B) Termite mound
C) Eagle nest
D) Ant colony
A — Beaver dam.
A gigantic beaver dam discovered in Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada, stretches for roughly 850 metres.
It's so enormous that researchers originally identified it using satellite imagery.
Multiple generations of beavers are thought to have expanded the structure over decades.
So one of the largest constructions made by any animal...
was discovered from space.
Have a great weekend!