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PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Meet the elephant shrew (sengi)!
These small mammals grow between 4 and 12 inches long, live in southern Africa, and can run up to 18 mph! They’re also more closely related to elephants than shrews!
You can read more about them here!
5 FACTS
Giraffes: micro sleepers?? 🦒
We already know that giraffes are the tallest land animals, reaching up to 18 feet tall. But here are 5 quick giraffe facts you might not know:
Giraffe tongues can grow up to 20 inches long! This helps them grab leaves from trees. Also, their tongues are black to avoid sunburn! 👅
Giraffes sleep less than 30 minutes a day! They nap in tiny bursts, sometimes as short as 2 minutes! They have one of the shortest sleep cycles because they need to stay alert to avoid predators. 🥱
Giraffes communicate using infrasound, which is too low for us to hear. They also communicate by moving their heads and using long stares to warn other giraffes of danger. 👀
Giraffes can run up to 38 mph in short bursts. The way they run is also unique - they move both left legs, and then both right legs (rather than alternating like most animals). 💨
Giraffe hearts weigh up to 20 pounds! They need large hearts to pump blood all the way to their heads. They also have 4 stomachs like cows! ❤️
A group of giraffes can be called a tower, journey, kaleidoscope, or a herd.
TRIVIA CORNER
How is Roman concrete so strong? 🧱
MIT scientists discovered how Roman concrete gets stronger as it ages!
The Romans were master builders, but what’s amazing is how many of their buildings are still standing 2,000+ years later!
What was their “secret sauce”? Special pozzolanic concrete, made from volcanic ash (from the city of Pozzuoli) and limestone.
When limestone is heated, it turns to quicklime (or calcium oxide for the chemists out there). When quicklime mixes with ash and water, it:
Creates strong concrete that can even harden underwater, making it useful for building seawalls and bridges!
Forms lime clasts - tiny calcium-rich pockets that act like “repair kits.”
Here’s how the repair kits work:
Cracks form in the concrete over time.
Water gets into the cracks and reacts with the lime clasts.
The lime makes calcium carbonate, which glues the crack together and actually makes the concrete stronger than it was before!
Source: Science Alert
SCIENCE QUESTIONS
Why is everyone right-handed? ✋
85-90% of people are right-handed. But why?
Nature: Even before birth, most babies move their right arm and suck their right thumb more than their left.
Nurture: In some places, the left hand is seen as “unclean,” so children are forced to become right-handed.
Scientists have found 40+ genes that shape which hand we prefer. But, history also plays a role - being right-handed once helped in battle. So ultimately, it’s a mixture of both nature and nurture!
Source: Popular Science
