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Oldest Mystery Lake, Olympic Predicting Tools, and Lack of Wetness Sense in Humans
Lake Baikal: A World Within a Lake? We all know that lakes hold freshwater, but one lake holding 20% of the world’s unfrozen freshwater seems quite unfair, and unbelievable. That’s what Lake Baikal does, right in the heart of Siberia. This ancient marvel isn’t just a lake, it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and holds…
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Seahorses are Predators, Mirrors have Color, and Ants have Tree friends
Seahorses: Masters of Hunting When you think of fearsome ocean predators, seahorses probably don’t make the cut. But don’t be fooled by their delicate appearance; these creatures are surprisingly adept hunters. They have success rates of 90%. For reference, the same for Great white sharks is less than 50%! Seahorses have several things in their…
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Blues that Battle Bacteria, Gates of Hell, and Magnets of the Galaxy
Horseshoe Crabs: Blue-Blooded Ancients Horseshoe crabs, which look less like crabs with their armored exoskeletons and spindly tails, might as well have time-traveled from Earth’s distant past. They are ancient. They have roamed our oceans for over 450 million years, and predate even the dinosaurs. But beyond their age, it’s their unique, mesmerizing blue blood…
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Greek Fires, Figs with Bugs, and Human Eater Clams
GOT’s Wildfire: It was Real? If you are a Game of Thrones (GOT) fan, you would remember Battle of Blackwater, where “wildfire” is introduced. It is shown as a highly volatile, flammable liquid burning with a green flame and being almost impossible to extinguish, used to devastating effect against the attacking fleet. Do you know…
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Talking Mushrooms, Colossal Eyes of the Deep, and World’s Largest Cave
Mushrooms: As Talkative as Humans? In the secret, underground world of fungi, it turns out mushrooms are quite the chatterboxes. Who knew, right? Apparently, Professor Andrew Adamatzky did. This scientist from the University of the West of England has been eavesdropping on the mushroom gossip. Adamatzky’s research, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science,…
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Harnessing AI for Web Scraping and Content Creation: A Conversation with ChatGPT 4
I am getting on the ChatGPT bandwagon! Recently, I learnt about the paid version of it which has various plugins. My amazing friend, Harshvardhan, introduced them to me and I cannot stop myself from sharing my discoveries. I used a plugin called Scraper on this website, and asked ChatGPT a series of questions. In the…
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Unleashing the Power of AI: A Glimpse into the Future with OpenAI’s ChatGPT
Hello, dear readers! Today, I’d like to share some exciting insights from a recent TED2023 talk by Greg Brockman, the co-founder of OpenAI. In his presentation, Brockman demonstrated the capabilities of GPT-4, OpenAI’s most advanced large language model, and discussed why he believes this is a historic moment to shape the future of artificial general…
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Shrinking Ocean, Dangerous “Bluebottle”, and All-tasting Catfish
Pacific Ocean: Shrinking Everyday No, this is not another piece on how Global warming is changing the world we know today. The Pacific Ocean, that majestic body of water spanning across our globe, is undergoing the remarkable transformation of shrinking, and the reason behind it are the good old tectonic plates! To be more specific…
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Whales’s Vertical Slumber, Engineer Slime Molds, and Cup that teaches Self-Control
Whale Sleep: Keep an eye open! Imagine a massive sperm whale peacefully dozing beneath the moonlit waves, its colossal form vertically suspended in the water. One may think it is either dead or going to drown. While it may seem so, the whale’s slumber is anything but ordinary. As one half of its brain sinks…
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Plague of Dancing, Electric Algae, and Infinity Tiles
Dancing Plague: When Feet turned Foes Picture this: hundreds of citizens swaying, twirling, and jiving their way through the streets, unable to stop. No I am not talking about a rock concert in the city. I am talking about the peculiar year of 1518 in the enchanting city of Strasbourg when an epidemic of epic…
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Loneliest Point on Earth, Delicious Ants with Potbellies, Boomer Milky Way
Point Nemo: The Ocean’s Graveyard? If you are living in a developing country like me, you must have wondered what is the farthest away from this crowd of humans! Well the answer is Point Nemo, which is the farthest distance out in the sea, away from any land. That’s right, it’s smack-dab in the middle…
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‘Bird Poop’ Wars, Chopsticks, and Ants in Microwave
Bird Poop Leading to Wars Let’s talk about the Guano Wars – the battles that took place over something that’s essentially just bird poop called guano. Yes, you heard that right – countries were fighting over bird and bat excrement in the 19th century, leading to estimated 18,000 deaths. The history of guano dates back…
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Moon’s Mother, GPS Bees, and Asymmetrical Humans
Birth of the Moon Have you ever wondered how the Moon was formed? Well, hold on to your hats, because scientists have a thrilling theory. A hypothetical Mars-sized object, called Theia, is believed to have collided with the early Earth around 4.5 billion years ago. This collision was no ordinary event; it was a cataclysmic…
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Alien Island, Greek myth of Echo and Colors in your Eyes
Socotra: Most-Alien looking Island Socotra is a small archipelago (an extensive group of islands) located in the Arabian Sea, belonging to Yemen. The islands have been isolated from mainland Africa for millions of years, which has resulted in the evolution of unique plant and animal species found nowhere else on earth. In fact, around one-third…
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Bicycle Face, Machine Learning Smells, and Duck Vaginas
Bicycle Face: Fear of Changes Bicycle face is a term that was coined in the late 19th century to describe a supposed physical condition that was believed to afflict women who rode bicycles. According to this theory, the act of riding a bicycle could cause a woman’s face to become distorted and unattractive, with bulging…
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City of Octopuses, Planned Obsolescence, and Hate for Veganism
Octopolis: The City of Octopuses off the Coast of Australia Have you heard of the mysterious city of Octopolis? Discovered in 2009, Octopolis is located on the coast of Jervis Bay, Australia. The city is made up of about 15 individual dens, each inhabited by a single octopus. The octopuses in Octopolis have been observed…