We were down for a week there, but we're back, baby!
In this episode: The cutest animal ever to be trained to use tools in a laboratory setting; rogue Olympians whose genes may let them pass doping tests; suspended animation via sewer gas; and a another reason feel superior for buying that overpriced laptop (besides the fact that it fits in an envelope).
Created, written & designed by John Pavlus / Screencasts produced by Smashcut Media / Music by Jeff Alvarez
Everyone knows chipmunks need their sleep — otherwise they get ornery and attack you in local parks. Oh, and they're also more likely to die.
Global warming, it seems, has shortened the hibernation period for animals like bears, marmots and chipmunks like Mr. Cutie Pants over there. But it leads to more than animals just getting crankier: They wake up earlier thinking it's spring, but the food sources often haven't caught up, and the animals starve. So much for the early-bird-gets-the-worm theory; it's more like "the early bird gets the shaft."
Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological lab have checked up on marmot hibernation behavior since the 1970s, and because temperatures have risen by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit in recent times, they've seen the marmots awaken from their dens about a month earlier.
Because of the temperature change, some animals don't hibernate at all. Brown bears in Spain skipped out on hibernation as did chipmunks in the U.S., and while the bears didn't take much of a population hit, many early-rising chipmunks starved or got chomped by predators.
See that cute guy up there? He's our old friend Herpes — I know a few of you out there might have had a run-in with this lil' bugger in the recent past (one in four of you, actually). Now you can celebrate your outbreaks by cuddling up with your very own plush version of herpes simplex type 2, thanks to the dreamweavers at Giant Microbes!
In fact, they've got all the venereal diseases, plus other adorable plagues like the flu, the common cold, ebola, and yes, the black plague! All these lovely pathogens come at an affordable $7.95 — perfect stocking stuffers for the doctor, terminally ill person, or bacterially afflicted relative in your family.
