The term “plankton” comes from the Greek word planktos, meaning “drifter.” Not a single species or biological group, planktic species actually include a wide range of aquatic organisms – animals, plants, and bacteria – that drift in the world’s oceans,…
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El Niño is a period of very high temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. El Niño literally means “the boy” referring to the child Jesus because El Niño often occurs during Christmas season. El Niño can affect weather disturbances in different…
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For sexually reproducing species, progeny result from the fertilization of an egg by a sperm. Organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring are members of the same species. Organisms that can’t interbreed and produce fertile offspring are separate species….
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There are several kinds of snowstorms and each can be substantially different that other types in many ways. However, all of them require two things: Humidity and cold temperatures near the ground. Let’s look at how, in general, a typical…
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El Nino, formally known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, is a major five-year climate pattern over the Pacific Ocean, which affects land regions all around that ocean, including at considerable distances from the coast. It is characterized by unseasonally…
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When we think of fungi, we mostly think of mushrooms. All mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. One type of gourmet “mushroom” called a morel does not actually look like the pedestal-shaped mushroom that we are familiar…
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Katabatic wind describes the movement of cool air down a hillside into a valley or depression. It is one of several mountain or valley winds which are caused by a difference in ground level atmospheric temperature and density. The phenomenon…
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“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.” This age-old expression was first uttered thousands of years ago and has probably been used thousands of times since. But is there really any truth to…
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Our ancestors probably first discovered oysters when they were hunting and gathering food along seashores thousands of years ago. The tasty, nutritious molluscs also yielded pearls, and archaeological studies provide evidence that pearls were as highly prized in ancient cultures…
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When you visit your doctor, you may be asked to give a blood sample for a series of tests that evaluate your health. The hematological values obtained from these tests can give your doctor important information about various components of…
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