This is a repost. The original post appeared on November 20, 2007.

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by Miss Baker

A fisherman received quite a shock when he found a bizarre dead fish floating in the ocean near the Cayman Islands. The fish, only around 7.5 inches in length, had swallowed a 34-inch fish and quite literally busted its gut!

Now, to be fair to the fish it’s important to note that it is known as the “Great Swallower”. Scientifically speaking, Chiasmodon niger. Like a snake, this deep-sea fish unhinges its jaw in order to eat a large meal. It has been known to eat 3 times its body size!

After eating, it has an adorable pot belly similar to Homo sapiens after too much turkey stuffing and pumpkin pie.

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Unfortunately, this swallower was a bit too confident for its own good. I envision a teenage dare similar to the tobasco sauce challenge that occurs with great frequency in the school lunch room:

“I bet you can’t eat that!” says one C. niger to another.

“Oh yeah. Watch me! I can do it,” replies the other as it puffs up its fins.

Famous last words.

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“Now, pass the gravy!”

by Miss Baker

Good luck tomorrow!  I’m thinking about you and wishing you the best!

Note: I’ve been sending many of you emails today regarding your blog posts, but I just discovered my school mailbox is not working properly again.  If you have sent me an email or blog post and I have not responded, send it to extremebiology@gmail.com

Thank you to Brandon for the gorgeous new blog header!

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by Collin

When I hear dishonesty I think of lying. It turns out that animals can lie, too. When I hear that, I think no way, but scientists from Australia have found out that there is dishonesty in the animal kingdom. The dishonest animal is only two centimeters across, the fiddler crab.

The fiddler crab has one giant claw which it uses to attract mates and fight rivaling males. If the big claw is lost it can always grow a new claw. This is where the lying comes in. During the growth of the claw, the crab’s body says there is a “cheaper” way. They make the claw bigger but they also make it lightweight and toothless. Dr Simon Lailvaux of the University of New South Wales says that the interesting thing is that other males can’t tell them apart. Before a fight the crabs display their big claws which is important to the process.

The study is important because it helps us understand more about dishonesty among animals. The thing is it is hard to pick up on it. It is hard because dishonest signals are supposed to be hard to catch on to. Lailvaux said “By studying how animals fight we can learn what physiological and performance capacities enable males to win fights, we’re getting closer to identifying which traits are likely to be generally important for male combat.”

Can these crabs lose their claw multiple times and if so do they get weaker each time? Are there other animals that can bluff in a similar way as the fiddler crab? How are fiddler crabs able to re-grow their claws?  Can this be used to help humans?

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by Frank

Sperm Whales are the largest of toothed whales and of any animal with teeth. The whale was named after a milky white substance found in its head mistaken for sperm. It dives over 2,000 meters (approximately 7,000 feet) to feed on its prey of fish and squid. It is the deepest diving mammal in the world. Sperm whales live for more than 70 years! Sperm Whales are enormous, while as not as large as the blue whale, sperm whales inspired the book Moby Dick. If you have ever seen a sperm whale there are circle shaped spots on its skin. These are from the sucker cups of a giant squid. These sucker cups have teeth in them cutting the skin where they are hooked onto leaving a scar. Of course these sucker cups are not they only weapon a squid has.

Giant Squid belong to the deep ocean dwelling family Architeuthidae. These squid can grow to 43 ft. for females and 33 ft. for males. The Giant Squid is smaller than the Colossal Squid which is estimated to be over 14 meters long. There have been some claims about squids reaching 20 meters long but these have not been documented. These squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom, the eye can be up to 27cm across! The lens alone is as big as an orange! Being caught in New Zealand, it remains preserved in New Zealand’s national Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. The squid have two long tentacles that make up most of the length of their bodies. Also they have a very powerful beak to smash the bodies of prey.

The fight between a giant squid and a sperm whale would start out as a whale going out to look for food, and detect the squid with its sonar location. The whale moves in to attack the squid and as it is about to bite it the squid attaches itself to the sperm whale’s head (this is why we see those suction cup marks on the head of the whales). The whale would try to throw the squid off while the squid would be trying to bash through the whales skull and skin with its powerful beak. This video shows what could happen. Of course only older whales can hunt these squid.

What advantages to giant squid have over sperm whales? What advantages to sperm whales have over giant squid?  Why can only older sperm whales hunt these giant squid?

Photo source, Babe Ruth is on the left and Lou Gehrig is on the right

by Clark

When many people hear Lou Gehrig they think of the baseball player or the disease called Lou Gehrig’s. The disease’s original name is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). They nicknamed the disease “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” because Lou was the first person to have the disease that most people knew. The disease has been a topic of many discussions lately, because people want to know if the disease is caused from passing it on through genes (hereditary).  A lot of people who work in the medical field have found out the disease is not all hereditary.  10% is hereditary and 90% is not.

There are many meanings for the disease, for example Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis means many things in Greek. The A in Amyotrophic means without. Myo means muscle. Trophic means nourishment. Lateral means side or side of the spine in the back. Sclerosis means hardening or scarring. The disease does a lot of damage to the motor neurons, upper motor neurons, lower motor neurons, and the neuromuscular system. All of these things have a big deal with how you move and how your brain processes this procedure.

What Lou Gehrig’s disease does is it makes it so your muscles shut down. The things I listed above (motor neurons, upper motor neurons, lower motor neurons, and the neuromuscular system) are what move your muscles that mostly have to do with your back. The motor neurons are neurons in your back, spine and brain, they control muscle movement. Upper motor neurons are neurons that send messages from your brain to your spine.  Lower motor neurons are neurons that send messages from the spine to the muscles. The neuromuscular system is what enables the human body and it is made up of the brain, many nerves, and muscles. Lou Gehrig’s disease overall paralyzes the person who has it. Lou Gehrig’s disease is very powerful; so far there is no cure for Lou Gehrig’s disease.

ALS being as powerful as it is, how often do people die from it? With ALS paralyzing your body, how much of your body does it paralyze?

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by Sam F
Many people love the taste of hamburgers and hot dogs and other red meats. Even though red meat gives you protein, a new study shows that red meat is harmful because it can cause cancerous tumors. This research was conducted by researchers from University of California and San Diego School of Medicine.

When you eat a delicious hamburger, a molecule enters your body which causes swelling which can lead to  a tumor. Neu5Gc or glycan, or a sugar molecule which humans don’t make can combine with the tissue because you ate a hamburger. Your body then develops anti- Neu5Gc which reacts to make your tissue have swelling constantly. They found out that Neu5Gc causes tumors because they saw a lot more of it in tissues that have tumors then tissues with out it, so it must mean it causes tumors. Scientists also found out that the constant swelling from Neu5Gc can also stimulate cancer.

Scientists have tried this on mice. Scientists got a lot of mice that didn’t have much Neu5Gc. They did this because it is like a human that has not eat a hamburger yet. The scientists caused the mice to have tumors and then they gave half of the mice anti-Neu5Gc so they can mimic a human. The mice given the anti-Neu5Gc had tumors that grew even more and the other mice given this didn’t have as severe tumors. This proves that red meat can not be the best selection to receive protein from.

Is red meat the only meat that can cause this? How many hamburgers do you think you have to eat in order for you to develop a tumor? Would you be able to abandon this addictive meat?

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by Logan

Have you ever wondered how caffeine works?  In this article, I found out how caffeine can affect your brain.  Adenosine is the chemical in your brain that causes sleepiness.  Adenosine binds to receptors on brain cells, causing drowsiness by slowing down nerve cell activity.  When a person takes in caffeine it binds to the adenosine receptors in the brain.  Now the adenosine cannot bind to the adenosine receptors because the caffeine is already there.  Without caffeine the adenosine would cause the cells in the brain to slow down, but with caffeine in your body the cells will speed up.  This will allow you to stay awake longer than normal.

There are some problems in taking caffeine as well.  When the caffeine wears off you will normally feel extremely tired.  Also, if you tend to take caffeine a lot it could cause fatigue and depression.  As you could imagine, taking large doses of caffeine every day would be very unhealthy because everybody needs their sleep.

Have you ever taken caffeine in order to stay awake all night?  If so, how did you feel the next morning?  What substance do you think contains the most caffeine in it?

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by Mary

Sweating is one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to you, right? Well zoo keepers at the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo discovered that hippo sweat actually has special chemicals in it that keeps the hippo disease free and that blocks ultraviolet rays.

The sweat is not exactly like ours because it comes from glands that are deeper and bigger than humans; the sweat also has some special features about it. Scientists discovered that the chemicals in the sweat can keep certain types of bacteria from growing on the hippo. This is why many of the frequent cuts and punctures they get from fighting rarely become infected.

The sweat comes out of holes in the hippo’s skin onto its body and the sweat gives off a reddish/ orange color. Scientists believe that the color pigmentation absorbs the ultraviolet rays, protecting the hippo from sunburn or even cancer. The sweat pretty much acts like the hippo’s own natural sunscreen!

Do you think scientists could find away to make hippo sweat into a human sunscreen? Would the sunscreen work on human skin? Do any other animals have abilities like this?

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by Chris

A new species of bacterium was found in a South African gold mine that is able to get nutrients and energy from the environment around it. This rare bacterium, called Candidatus Desulforudis Audaxviator (Whose name means “Bold Traveler”) is able to live completely independently, with no other organism nearby. Scientists believe that it doesn’t get its energy from the sun.  Carl Pilcher, the director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, says “Virtually all other known ecosystems on Earth that don’t use sunlight directly do use some product of photosynthesis.”

With evidence from other ecosystems, scientists concluded that ecosystems would need multiple species to survive. This new find however, shows that an organism may be able to live completely independent of any other species. It lives 2.8 kilometers below the surface of the Earth in 60°C water, without any light or oxygen. Researchers suspect that this organism gets its energy from radioactivity instead. It also has genes that allow it to extract carbon from Carbon Dioxide surrounding it.  Candidatus Desulforudis Audaxviator’s genes give it access to everything it needs for survival. Some scientists say that this could lead to finding life on other planets.

How could this affect scientists’ views on ecosystems? Can you find anything else on this bacterium?

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by Curtis

Not too many people ever think about the multitude of diseases which may be lurking in that piece of chicken you just sat down to. However; it may be wise to think about it because a new study has found that around 40 billion commercial chickens may be carrying or susceptible to horrible diseases.

This is due to the fact that these chickens breed over and over again with each other, and because of this half of the genetic diversity that is possible in the chicken genome is lost.  One of these diseases is the ‘bird flu’ or Avian Influenza which William Karesh, head of the Field Veterinary Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, stated that “There are more [bird] flu infections in more countries than ever before.” In other words, the problem of the bird flu is not going away.

A study was conducted with 2,500 chickens where the variety of genes was compared between different types of chickens. In some of the most extreme cases, the commercial chickens (those raised for meat and eggs) were found to have only about 10% of the genes which were carried by other free range chickens. This means that 90% of the genes had been lost due to confined breeding habits. The average loss of genes was around 50%. Hans Cheng of the US Department of Agriculture and also an Avian disease specialist who conducted this study said that the “commercial stock may lack the genetic diversity necessary to combat new and emerging diseases.”

Bill Muir, Purdue University animal sciences professor, who was also part of the study said that it is important to protect the non-commercial species of chickens in order to interbreed the two to keep disease resistance up along with genetic diversity.  Muir stated that “traits such as disease resistance may be found among the rare alleles of other (non-commercial) birds.”

Many scientists are encouraging an immediate interbreeding of chickens in order to prevent the “pathogenic avian flu viruses.” Poultry consumption in the US, per person, has never been higher. It would be a disaster if poultry production had to immediately cease due to health concerns. Cheng states that “this would greatly impact both the poultry industry and human health.”

Do you believe that these are valid concerns? Why are these reports just now coming out? Are there other sources of data that back up the information provided in this study? Does this cause you to worry about the chicken you are eating? Are there other types of agriculture (cows, sheep, etc.) that are at risk for these types of diseases?

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by Dylan

Did you know that the largest mammal in the world can swim up to 30 mph? That is pretty fast for being over 100 tons. The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived on our planet. Blue Wales are very difficult to film. They are faster than most boats and are even faster then some speed boats. This means that tracking one would be very difficult. They can consume up to 40 million krill a day. These whales can be found in all of the oceans around the world. They can live in the tropic water and also can live in the arctic waters. They are very adaptable which is unique for an animal with such mass. Here is a video of the blue whale.

The age that most female blue whales reproduce is 6-10 years. In the late summer the female whales will give birth to a 2 ton baby blue whale. When the whale is in the mother’s womb it is growing 8 pounds an hour and 200 pounds a day. The mother will stay with the baby until age 3 then it will set off on its own. These animals do not usually travel in large groups but it is not a surprise when a whale is with one to four other whales. Blue whales feed on shrimp krill and other small crustaceans. The tail is somewhat short and only is 12% of the whale’s actual size.

Are there any other animals that can eat close to what the blue whale can eat?  Are there any organisms that depend on the blue whale?

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by Miss Baker

I’ve adapted written this story from a vague memory I have of another story, but I can’t recall that story.  If any elements in this story are comparable to another story, please share it with me.  Who knows, maybe it was just inspired from a weird dream I once had. 

A boy is playing in a sandbox in his backyard. He’s having a ton of fun building sandcastles when his dad comes to him and says,”Hey there!  How would you like to go see the ocean?”

The boy doesn’t understand what his dad means because he’s never been to the ocean.  The boy replies, “When?”

“We’ll, we’re going to leave right now,” says the dad.

The boy screams, “No!  I want to stay here!  I like my sandbox!”

But, the dad persists, “At the ocean there is a ton of sand to play in.  Far more than what you’ve got in this tiny sandbox.”

The boy sticks out his lower lip and again screams, “No!  I like it here.”

“But, I promise you’ll like it so much better at the ocean,” dad continues, “Because at the ocean you’ll be able to build even better sandcastles and you’ll be able to build sandcastles with other people to make really great big sandcastles!”

The boy starts to cry, “I don’t want to go to the ocean!  I want to stay here!  Please don’t make me go!”

The dad is confused because he doesn’t understand why his son won’t trust him and be excited about going to the ocean.  But, you see, all the son has ever known is the sandbox.  The boy doesn’t understand that the ocean is a much more incredible place than his little tiny sandbox.  Although, he knows it will cause his son unhappiness and frustration for a little while, the dad reaches down, picks up the crying boy and forces him to leave his sandbox.

What is the point of my story?  Well, the dad is supposed to represent me, your teacher (weird, I know), and the son represents all the students in the class who aren’t grasping the point of the blog project.

The blog is the ocean!  But, you have to trust me and get out of the sandbox before you can understand its value.

You’re too big for the sandbox now anyway.

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Go explore the ocean:

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Here are some more blogs you can explore and comment on:

The Intersection, Everyone Loves Echinoderms

Cognitive Daily, Can a Blind Person Whose Vision is Restored Understand What She Sees?

Living the Scientist Life, For All You Piscivores