Building on the work of that Russian study, researchers in Germany cut into thebrains of hibernating European ground squirrels to learn more about Alzheimer'sdisease. How could the ground squirrel that watched me on Thorofare Ridge haveanything to do with Alzheimer's research? I can't seem to reconcile the storiesin my mind. Sometimes bears will pound the ground to flush out the rodents; they eat up to100 or 150 ground squirrels per summer. As we're coming upon the spot where I saw my first ground squirrel, onesuddenly pops out of a hole and stands up on its haunches in the same pose. "That's an arctic ground squirrel. That's what I wanted you to see." My story, Ifeel, is nearly complete. As the biologist Edward O. Wilson puts it, human beings "Live entirely within amicroscopic section of the stimuli that are possible and that flood in on us allthe time." I ask my daughter: What if when you inhaled, an entire landscapebloomed in your mind, complete with flora and fauna? What if you could spot aground squirrel at a distance of a mile? What if you could perceive the groundsquirrel in a thousand ways, hear the rapid stutter of its heart from ten feetaway, see its heat in a glow of radiating light? "That would be awesome," myfifth grader says. "A different person, in a different time and place, might well tell a differentstory." Like the scientist scrutinizing a slice of squirrel brain through amicroscope, what I perceive is but a thin shaving of the unknowable whole.
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Imagine the possibilities you could encounter with the ability to be invisible! Cystisoma is one of the few species among the marine life that exerts the ability of transparency. Due to their habitat being the open ocean, this species is unable to camouflage itself among other marine or plant life. Although the trait of invisibility seems like it could protect these species from any predators, the sunlight that reflects along the backs of these species reveals the presence of these fish. Bagge researches the Cytosima's features in more depth to find out if this species carries another "survival of the fittest" feature. It turns out that these fish have nanoproturbances along their legs that reduce the reflection of light on the species toward its predators. Due to the small ridge like mountains on their legs, the light that is refected passes through a buffer. The ability of the Cystisoma to change their physical appearance is a part of natural selection among the open ocean, allowing this species to survive and reproduce, outcompeting inferior species.
The features that Cystisoma are remarkable, but they also serve as a sign that evolution of species has occured in a way that is not known to most of society. The trait of transparency among organisms is not widely heard of and this species signals to inhabitants worldwide that change has occured within the environment and the competition among life is greater. news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/oceans-animals-invisible-physics/#/01-sea-creature-cloak-invisibility.ngsversion.1481311943701.jpg |
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