Science!: Snail Armor, Dino Deathtraps and Beer
- Thread starter Lauren Admire
- Start date
That snail sounds like one hard mofo! I love reading these science articles always amusing, yet clever!
Also, HORRAY FOR BEER! The cause, and solution, to all of lifes problems!
Also, HORRAY FOR BEER! The cause, and solution, to all of lifes problems!
I just read the word "Beer" in the title and click. Pretty intesting articles, especially the armour one.
I'm going to have to steal that snail citation for my dissertation. Obviously I'll put an acknowledgement to The Escapist and Ms. Admire in there too for finding it.
Snail phylogenies, but I need to add in a few thousands words so figured I just waffle on about the randomness of snails. I really not a closet malacologist.
Wow, reading the snail artical in particular was an interesting way to kill some time. And to be fair its mechanism is sheer genius.
I must admit even though I'm nowhere near the States, that Yellowstone artical with dozens of earthquakes is a little worrying - at least, like they say, these 'quakes are purely tectonic and not below the magma line, then the sh*t would really hit the fan.
I must admit even though I'm nowhere near the States, that Yellowstone artical with dozens of earthquakes is a little worrying - at least, like they say, these 'quakes are purely tectonic and not below the magma line, then the sh*t would really hit the fan.
The snail story is really cool. Makes one wonder what the evolutionary process of that snail must've been like to produce something so complex and specifically suited to one special type of environment. Then again the same goes for many other living things as well.
I'm gonna take the beer story with a grain of salt though. God knows how 'experts' tend to vastly overstate the importance of their field of expertise, and this sounds to me like just another example.
I'm gonna take the beer story with a grain of salt though. God knows how 'experts' tend to vastly overstate the importance of their field of expertise, and this sounds to me like just another example.
The snail thing is even more mind-boogling if you remember how exactly evolution works. Many snails have died to bring you these shells.
I had always known that beer was pivotal for the beginning of civilization as we know it, but the version I heard is that, since it's fermented an alcoholic, it was much less likely to be infected by a number of microorganisms than water back then. And the whole settling thing is due to a shortage of food from the more traditional hunting and gathering thang, and then it turned out agriculture had like ten times better yield than hitting mammoths with clubs and picking stuff off the ground. But then again, the cool thing about scientific theories is that they often turn out to be wrong.
I had always known that beer was pivotal for the beginning of civilization as we know it, but the version I heard is that, since it's fermented an alcoholic, it was much less likely to be infected by a number of microorganisms than water back then. And the whole settling thing is due to a shortage of food from the more traditional hunting and gathering thang, and then it turned out agriculture had like ten times better yield than hitting mammoths with clubs and picking stuff off the ground. But then again, the cool thing about scientific theories is that they often turn out to be wrong.
Unfortunately, once the military tested the new 'snail armor,' they found out it heavily compromised mobility and speed... and resistance to salt. XD
Why doesn't it surprise me the entirety of out civilization revolves around getting drunk on anything fermented?
For good reason. I remember reading somewhere that the explosion and resultant ash ejection would equal the devastating effects of a low- to medium-grade nuclear detonation. Minus the radiation, of course.John Funk said: