I love science

And you must too if you ended up here. How do I keep up to date on what's going on in the science world? Facebook! Hold on hold on you guys/girls really need to add "I fucking love science" on Facebook it's a giant community of like minded people and th literally have the coolest shit on the Internet add it in and thank me later when you actually learn something from cruising the tity-database aka Facebook

They touch base on mj and how it effects humans all the time FYI

Anyone already a member?

Typical post from I fucking love science..



The Portuguese Man-o-War (or Blue bottles)

In the adjacent pic, we can see thousands of portuguese man-o-war washed up on the shore of Padre Islands, Texas in Feb, 2012. Strong onshore winds may drive them into bays or onto beaches and it ... is rare for only a single Portuguese man o’ war to be found for they travel in groups.

The portuguese man-o-war is not a jellyfish. Not only is it not a jellyfish, it's not even an "it," but a "they." The Portuguese man-of-war is a siphonophore, an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together. It is a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids.

The man-of-war comprises four separate polyps. It gets its name from the uppermost polyp, a gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, which sits above the water and somewhat resembles an old warship at full sail.

The tentacles are the man-of-war's second organism. These long, thin tendrils can extend 165 feet (50 meters) in length below the surface, although 30 feet (10 meters) is more the average. They are covered in venom-filled nematocysts used to paralyze and kill fish and other small creatures. For humans, a man-of-war sting is excruciatingly painful, but rarely deadly. But beware—even dead man-of-wars washed up on shore can deliver a sting.

Muscles in the tentacles draw prey up to a polyp containing the gastrozooids or digestive organisms. A fourth polyp contains the reproductive organisms.

Man-of-wars are found, sometimes in groups of 1,000 or more, floating in warm waters throughout the world's oceans. They have no independent means of propulsion and either drift on the currents or catch the wind with their pneumatophores. To avoid threats on the surface, they can deflate their air bags and briefly submerge.

Although their sting is not usually fatal for humans, it can be excruciatingly painful and even dead bodies of these creatures can cause injury if there's contact.

Then on the lighter side of things..

Last one.. for now muhaha



This is a remote forest in Western Poland, where 400 pine trees have grown with a curvature in their trunk structure and it turns out that no one really knows exactly what caused it. There are, however, a few theories:

1) The main theory s... eems to suggest that this is the result of human interference. It is believed that this is a tree farm and the trees were forced to grow horizontally in their youth to make a carpenters life easier. The curved shape can be induced by laying a heavy object over a young tree stem. Phototropism will cause the stem beyond the heavy object to grow toward the sky, while the growing stem beneath and behind the heavy object will develop what is called morphogenetic compression wood - which ultimately makes the curve in the stem permanent.

The problem with this theory is there is no evidence of a carpenter nearby and as the trees are relatively young (90 years) you would think someone would local would have some insight.

2) The other theory suggests that the curved formation is simply a result of heavy snow load combined with a long spring melt. The trees become photosynthentically active as the angle of the sun increases during spring. With a snow load still on the stem during this period, compression wood forms as the trees grow; resulting in a permanent bend.

Again, another problem comes from this theory; why did snow effect just these 400 trees, rather than the whole pine forest?

3) A third expalnation could be soil creep; as colder temperatures pervade the area, the moisture in the soil freezes and expands, displacing the soil and anything not held fast in it (ie. saplings), then during the warmer part of the day, thaws and retracts. Over days, tiny saplings can be moved to angles ranging from just slightly off 90° to laying flat against the ground as if they had fallen. The saplings prefer very much to remain vertical, as their ability to be able to catch sunlight to keep photosynthesizing is dependent on it, so it will actually bend itself towards the sunlight, much like a sunflower turning its 'head' to face the sun. The result, these curved trunks of trees until they are old enough to grow straight up, and not be affected by soil creep. This phenomenon is most prevalent on hilly terrain, as the steepness of the slope causes for more drastic soil creep.

Once again; this theory falls short; the area is not particularly hilly, especially not to the extent of causing such a dramatic curvature.

Is this one of life’s mysteries? What is your hypothesis?

-Jean

Photo courtesy of Maciej Sokolowski