Have you ever asked yourself how it is possible for migrating birds to be able to fly over such long distances in order to spend one part of the year in a more favourable environment? You have probably already seen swarms of birds flying away in a V-shaped formation, which for sure has an advantage...
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In the course of evolution animals developed diverse and sophisticated ways to fly. The way how they succeed in flying strongly depends on several factors. How big is the animal? How big are its wings and how is their shape? Which distances does the animal need to cover? And how much energy can it spend...
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Flying is something that has been occupying the human’s mind since always. That is why we think it is an appropriate and interesting theme for our next monthly session. Numerous legends tell stories about people using birdlike wings and trying to fly by jumping from a cliff. The Greek legend of Daedalus and Icarus is...
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When I think about electricity and nature – lightnings are the first thing coming to my mind. Not only is the phenomenon of such a huge amount of electricity being released at once absolutely amazing. Also, the atmosphere and feeling, lightnings can create are very special. Some people are scared of them and hide under...
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Water and electricity – two things that we normally avoid bringing in contact because it can lead to a bad accident. And there comes the question, how could this combination be an essential survival strategy for many fish species? Electric eels are one of the most known examples and will be presented in this article for...
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Welcome back readers. Hope all of you had a great summer vacation. We start with a new theme ‘Electricity’. We humans are very familiar with the term electricity, because we are surrounded by it. Electricity is powering most of our technology from our cell phones, computers, lights, soldering irons, and so on to basic amenities...
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After learning how fish are dealing with high salt concentrations (and especially with changing salt concentrations), I would like to continue with a similar topic this week – but in the plant kingdom. How do plants filter salt out of the water? In particular, I will focus on mangroves – plants which are actually growing...
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What happens to a watermelon, if you throw it the sea? Try to answer this question already now based on your knowledge about physical laws or just make a pure guess. If you are not sure, keep this question in mind while reading the article and you might get a better understanding of the principle...
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Dear readers, It is time for me, again, to give you an introduction to one of our theme session. In the following weeks, you can read articles about salt. To take a look at our previous theme session just click here. The basic Definition of Salts When we talk about salt, we usually think of...
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As already mentioned in our introduction article about energy storage, the topic of this article will be elastic energy storage. There are many examples of how different animal species use this kind of energy for running, walking or hopping (kangaroos, flees, click beetles, etc.) by using tendons. For them, elastic mechanisms have a great influence...
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