45 Strange Bits of Science That’ll Make You Wonder If Mother Nature Is Just Screwing With Us

How can the natural world seem so unnatural?
45 Strange Bits of Science That’ll Make You Wonder If Mother Nature Is Just Screwing With Us

Calling nature “unnatural” is a massive oxymoron, but we really don’t know what else to call its more peculiar happenings. It’s probably our own beefed-up egos telling us that the way we experience the world around us is “normal.” 

Things like the quantum realm, distant space, the deep sea and all those creepy, slimy little things in far-off lands are really hard to wrap our egos around (as big as they are). But these better start making sense soon if they ever hope to be normal like us!

The Sea Pig

THE SEA PIG JUST WANTS TO EAT DIRT. It's a variety of sea cucumber, and spends its time gulping up mud in the deeper parts of the ocean. CRACKED.COM r

Plant Predators

Rat-Eating Plant CRACKED.COM Nepenthes attenboroughii (named in honor of Sir David Attenborough) is a football-sized pitcher plant that traps insects and small animals, including rats.

Source: CNN

Cicadas

Female cicadas can confuse loud tools for mating calls. CRACKED.COM The roar of a lawn mower is enough to send the insects into a heated frenzy, swarming the poor soul out doing yard work.

Source: CNET

The Russian Space Program

CRACKED THE RUSSIAN SPACE PROGRAM WAS DEVELOPED. Stalin frowned upon any science that didn't support him, so he threw all the scientists he didn't like in prison - but had them keep working. Their engineering breakthroughs resulted in the country's World War II victory and revolutionary space program.

Source

The Deep Sea

Deep Sea Sponges live up to 18,000 years. CRACKED.CO COM Giant tube sponges can live past 2,000 years, in part due to the cells that make up their bodies. Unlike typical animal cells, the sponge cells can transform into whatever the sponge needs at the time. Deep sea glass sponges, which sway in deep waters atop 10 foot poles of silicone, can live up to 18,000 years.

Source: Eos

Ecosystems

Scientists believed all life and food chains depended on the sun, until 40 years ago. CRACKED.COM The discovery of deep-sea vents with whole ecosystems driven solely by chemical energy changed this view. Now it's thought that life may have actually originated from such systems. 27%

Nasa 

Whiptails

There is a species of all female lesbian lizards. GRACKED.COM New Mexico whiptails are 100% female. They are nicknamed as the Lesbian Lizards, they still participate in mating rituals in which they mount each other. This stimulates egg production without any gene transfer.

BBC

Theories on the Universe

The Holographic Universe The 3-D universe might be encoded on its 2-D boundary like a hologram. A holographic theory might sound like science fiction, but research in 2017 from the University of Southampton, UK, showed that it is consistent with observed patterns in space. CRACKED.COM

Source

Steady-State Universe

The Steady-State Universe Evolutionary Theory Steady-State Theory Opposing the Big Bang's starting point and ever-expanding universe, scientists propose an eternal universe in one steady state. They imagine the universe looks the same from any time and place, but it hasn't gained the scientific support that the Big Bang CRACKED.COM

Source

Mating Rituals

DROOLING BE OVER HER CRACKED COM Female scorpionflies are wooed by spit and choose a mate based on saliva secretion. The male draws her in by hacking up a drippy gift, then reuses whatever's left to romance new conquests.

Source: time

Eyes

HUMANS ARE THE ONLY ANIMALS WITH PATENTLY WHITE EYES. Scientists speculate that the white of the eye, called the sclera, may be more visible because h

The DSV Alvin

The deep-ocean submersible Alvin has been in service so long that none of its components are original. Like the Ship of Theseus, every part of the DSV Alvin has been replaced over the last 58 years of service, in which it explored hydro- thermal vents, the Titanic, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

WHOI

Sea Slugs

Researchers in Japan found that a group of sea slugs called Chromodoris reticulata lose their penises after sex but then grow another one just a few h

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