May. 23rd, 2016

charisstoma: (default)
I giggled through this.
Carrying on from the Nile Crocodiles ...

Do Not Eat, Touch, Or Even Inhale the Air Around the Manchineel Tree
Meet America's deadliest tree. Found in Florida, of course.

By Dan Nosowitz MAY 19, 2016

The fruit of the Manchineel tree. (Photo: Barry Stock/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Throughout the coasts of the Caribbean, Central America, the northern edges of South America, and even in south Florida, there can be found a pleasant-looking beachy sort of tree, often laden with small greenish-yellow fruits that look not unlike apples.

You might be tempted to eat the fruit. Do not eat the fruit. You might want to rest your hand on the trunk, or touch a branch. Do not touch the tree trunk or any branches. Do not stand under or even near the tree for any length of time whatsoever. Do not touch your eyes while near the tree. Do not pick up any of the ominously shiny, tropic-green leaves. If you want to slowly but firmly back away from this tree, you would not find any argument from any botanist who has studied it.
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charisstoma: (default)
This seems to be a science day, mainly because I have been putting in shelf order 15 shelves of books that were in no order other than their non-fiction reading level. Still have another 3 shelves to do. Stopped finally at 2:30 to eat lunch because I couldn't any more)
My body hurts all over but mainly my back and hands. Got to get it done so I can see if some of the books that the computer says are still out actually are on the shelf. Students *rolls eyes* will put the books back on the shelf without getting them checked in first if we don't catch them in time. Or sometimes the computer will beep that it's checked in a book and the evil thing hasn't. Easy to do when you're checking in and out 60 books and hour.

Anyway interesting article but the prompt (grins) is in magenta font at the bottom. *snickers* The bottom.


Sharks Warn Off Predators by Wielding Light Sabers
Lanternshark uses light to camouflage itself and warn off predators, study finds.
By Helen Scales, for National Geographic News http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130225-shark-light-saber-animal-ocean-science/?utm_source=NatGeocom&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=multi_20160523&utm_campaign=MultiProduct&utm_rd=2108184227
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 27, 2013


The velvet belly lanternshark (below in daylight) warns off predators by lighting up two spines on its back (above, in circles).
IMAGES COURTESY JÉRÔME MALLEFET

ExpandRead more... )
Mallefet agrees, joking that these sharks are the "MacGyver of bioluminescence."

"Just give light to this shark species and it will use it in any possible way."

And while Widder doesn't discount the warning signal theory, "another possibility would be that it could be to attract a mate."

Lead author Julien Claes added by email, "I also discovered during my PhD thesis that velvet belly lanternsharks have glowing organs on their sexual parts."

And that, he admits, "makes it very easy, even for a human, to distinguish male and female of this species in the dark!"


The glowing shark study appeared online in the February 21 edition of Scientific Reports.

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