1. Wood frogs can survive being frozen solid, over and over
Every autumn, animals head south, fleeing the encroaching winter lest they freeze to death or get eaten. But then there’s the wood frog, which simply lies down and freezes solid. When it thaws, months later, it just hops away and gets right back to business. “Once winter reaches a wood frog its skin freezes. The frog becomes hard and crunchy and when you drop it, it goes ‘clink,'” said Kenneth Storey, a professor of biochemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
2. Sea cucumbers can turn into liquid
The sea cucumber might not be the prettiest fish in the sea, but when it is attacked, it literally spills its guts out and later regenerates all of its vomited body parts. The sea cucumber quite literally, through sheer “neurological control,” transforms its solid tissue structure into a liquid, and then transforms back into a solid. It’s thanks to the special collagen fibers in their tissues that sea cucumbers can liquefy at will, allowing them to pour their bodies into tight spaces and solidify again to hide from predators. Scientists think that, once they unlock the secrets of how the cucumbers actually do this, they might be able to scientifically reproduce the effect.
3. Some squids have built-in headlights
The Hawaiian bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes forms a partnership with the luminous bacterium Vibrio fischeri. The squid houses colonies of these bacteria in special light organs, and it can control the brightness and direction of their illuminations. But these organs do much more than produce light – they detect it too. The core of the organ where the bacteria live is surrounded by a reflective layer of tissue and part of the squid’s ink sac. These can expand and contract like an iris to control how much light escapes the core. The entire package is covered by a thick, transparent tissue – a “lens” – which diffuses the light produced by the bacteria.
4. Cats use purring to self-heal
There’s a reason why cats are said to have nine lives. Scientists believe that simply by purring, cats are helping to rapidly heal themselves. Although we assume that a cat’s purr is an expression of pleasure or is a means of communication with its young, perhaps the reasons for purring can be deciphered from the more stressful moments in a cat’s life. Cats often purr while under duress, such as during a visit to the veterinarian or when recovering from injury. Scientists have demonstrated that cats produce the purr through intermittent signaling of the laryngeal and diaphragmatic muscles. Cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.
5. The veined Octopus goes undercover
Octopi are renowned for their defensive bag of tricks. Some can hide by squeezing into nooks a tenth of their width. Others are expert mimics, morphing their color and appearance to appear foreboding like a sea snake, scorpion fish or a flounder and everyone is familiar with their ink squirting defence mechanism.
But the veined octopus trumps all others at their own game. It will cloak itself with its surroundings by squeezing into shells or any debris it can gather to form a makeshift fortress. If the octopus can actually get hold of materials like a coconut shell, it will take its defenses on the road. It will wrap itself in the shell and roll out on the ocean floor like a bunker on wheels.
