Recent Changes

[[Hummingbird]]s do not draw nectar through [[capillary action]] — their [[tongue]] is a [[fluid trap]]. The forked tip opens when it touches nectar and snaps shut as the tongue retracts, scooping up liquid in the process. The finding overturned a century-old textbook explanation.

The northern [[blue-tongued skink]]'s [[tongue]] does more than look blue — it strongly reflects [[ultraviolet]] light, with the rear reflecting roughly twice as much as the front. Normally camouflaged, it gapes its mouth at predators to flash the UV-bright rear in a deimatic display.

A [[woodpecker]]'s [[tongue]] is so long it cannot fit in the mouth. It rides on a bone-and-cartilage rig built around the [[hyoid]] bone, looping around the back of the skull up to the forehead or even the nostrils. Up to a third of the bird's length, it also stiffens the skull during each peck.

A [[giraffe]]'s [[tongue]] reaches 45–53 cm with a tip colored deep [[blue]], [[black]], or [[purple]]. The dark hue comes from [[melanin]], and the leading explanation is [[ultraviolet]] protection: giraffes spend 16–20 hours browsing with the tongue out, so its most exposed part needs sunscreen.

The giant [[anteater]]'s [[tongue]] can extend about 60 cm and, unlike that of other [[mammal]]s, attaches directly to the [[sternum]] instead of the throat. It flicks in and out up to 150–160 times per minute, snapping up [[ant]]s and [[termite]]s with backward-pointing papillae and sticky saliva.

The smallest [[chameleon]], Rhampholeon spinosus, fires its [[tongue]] at 264g — 264 times gravity. F-16 pilots feel about 7g; the Space Shuttle reaches roughly 3g. The trick is not muscle but [[elastic energy]] stored in collagen sheaths around the hyoid bone and released like a slingshot.

[[Shark]]s have no real [[tongue]] — just a small slab of cartilage, the basihyal, on the mouth floor. Useless in most species, it is the [[cookiecutter shark]]'s key weapon: the shark latches on, retracts its mobile basihyal to create a vacuum, then twists out a round plug of flesh.

[[Crocodile]]s cannot stick their [[tongue]] out — it is fixed to the mouth floor by a membrane. The anchored tongue acts as part of the gular valve: tongue below, throat fold above, sealing the airway so water cannot enter when the mouth opens underwater.

1950s engineer Jerry Pournelle proposed dropping [[tungsten]] rods from [[satellite]]s. Project [[Thor]] ("Rods from God") drops 6.1 m × 30 cm rods at Mach 10 with ~11.5 tonnes of TNT energy. Not a nuke, so no fallout — and the 1967 [[Outer Space Treaty]]'s ban on "WMDs in orbit" doesn't apply.

The [[USA]] swapped a [[Hellfire missile]]'s warhead for six folding blades — the AGM-114R9X "Ninja Missile." It deploys them just before impact, slicing the target with no blast — just a hole in a roof. In 2022 it killed [[al-Qaeda]]'s [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] on a [[Kabul]] balcony.

[[Pluto]] hasn't completed a full [[Orbit]] around the sun since its 1930 discovery. With an orbital period of about 248 years, it will finish its first lap in 2178. Counting from its 2006 demotion as a [[Solar System]] [[Planet]], it will complete a full orbit in 2254.

Chemist Fredric Baur, whose [[Invention]] was the iconic [[Pringles]] tube [[Packaging]], asked that his ashes be buried in a Pringles can. When he died in 2008, his family stopped at a drugstore on the way to the funeral to buy an original-flavor can and placed his remains inside.

Indigenous people of eastern [[Greenland]] carved wood into 3D shapes mimicking coastlines, creating 'Ammassalik maps.' Since paper [[map]]s were impossible to read in the snow, these tactile maps let navigators feel the terrain by touch alone.

The term '[[spam]] mail' comes from [[Monty Python]]'s comedy sketch 'Spam.' During [[World War II]], [[USA|the US]] supplied massive amounts of SPAM cans to [[Britain]], and the Brits' frustration inspired the sketch. The name later stuck to annoying promotional emails.

In 1939, American mathematician [[George Dantzig]] arrived late to class, saw two problems on the blackboard, and solved them thinking they were homework. His professor was stunned—they were actually unsolved problems in [[statistics]]. This story later inspired the film '[[Good Will Hunting]].'

You can't directly smell anything in [[space]]. But [[astronaut]]s report a distinctive [[odor]] when returning to the spacecraft after spacewalks—described as 'gunpowder,' 'brake pads,' 'seared steak,' '[[ozone]],' and 'walnuts.'

When raising [[cow]]s, farmers feed them a single [[magnet]] at around 6-12 months old. This prevents diseases caused by swallowing metal. The magnet stays in the cow's first stomach for life, trapping any metal pieces.