It’s 2018 and I still have no clue how CDs work. It’s a shiny disc, how do they get data on that, let alone that much?? Magic
Like a vinyl disc, where a physical groove is marked into the vinyl, a laser marks the ink of a CD in a similar manner.
A laser (your disc drive) can then look at the pattern in the ink and understand it.
There’s no grooves on a CD tho???
They’re just really tiny, hence the laser. The smaller grooves means that more info can fit on a disc of the same size.
Man how the fuck did they figure out how to make that
well they looked at a record and said “How do we fit more information on this?” to which the reply is “Well either you make the record bigger or the grooves smaller” and making the grooves smaller is way more convenient so they say “Well how do we make the grooves smaller?” and that’s when a total madman comes out with eyes flashing and yells “WITH A LASER!”
It might not seem like a big deal, but the ability to recognize that the face in the mirror is your own makes us part of a pretty exclusive club in the animal kingdom. Humans obviously can do it (from about 15 months of age), and so can apes, monkeys, dolphins, elephants, and some birds. Now a fish species has passed the mirror test for the first time, which may suggest that the animals are smarter than we give them credit for.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute, the University of Konstanz and Osaka City University conducted the experiment with a species called the cleaner wrasse. The team put a colored mark on each fish in a place that can only be seen in reflection, then held up a mirror. The idea was to check whether the fish could tell they were looking at themselves and would try to clean the mark off. Since these fish are naturally in the habit of cleaning parasites off other fish, they’re fairly well-adapted to spotting marks like these.
Sure enough, after seeing their reflection the fish rubbed themselves on hard surfaces, trying to clean the marks away. That suggests that the creature understood that the reflected image was itself and not a neighboring fish – an ability that was long thought to be beyond their capabilities.
I don’t know my chemistry but there have to be some compounds an organism could manufacture and mix together that ignite on contact with the air.
There’s already bombardier beetles whose chemical spray reaches boiling temperatures in a split second.
The issue with fire-breathing isn’t so much actually doing it, but rather evolving the ability to do so. Transitional forms are always something that need to be considered; there are plenty of things that, despite being biologically possible, could never really evolve naturally. When it comes to fire breathing, there are three things you need to evolve simultaneously: a fuel, an ignition system, and protection. If you’re missing one of those, then the other two are either useless or actively harmful. In the case of bombardier beetles, the chemicals they use are derived from those used by other beetles to produce a smelly goop; some even use a less extreme reaction to help spray it out! But with fire, this sort of gradual change isn’t really an option; you either have ignition or you don’t.
Of course, all this only applies to naturally-evolved organisms. Genetically modified ones don’t have those sort of restrictions, since they didn’t evolve over time. If you want fire-breathing ants, then you could either a) have them be genetically modified, or b) have their “fire” be caustic chemicals rather than actual flame (plenty of real ants use these sorts of chemicals already).
one of my favorite things is how badgers and coyotes will hunt cooperatively. as in not just like happening to go after the same thing at the same time but actually combining efforts to bring down prey; coyotes are faster and can chase down prey species, while badgers are adept at digging them out of their burrows
“Ghost apples” appeared in an orchard in Michigan after an ice storm.
A freezing rain coated the rotting apples, creating a solid icy shell around them. The orchard owner then pruned the trees, causing the rotten, mushy apple inside the ice to slide out the bottom. (Source)
ifesbob 