Curiosities

Biology, geology, deep ocean, evolution, and natural-world facts. Cross-domain wonder pieces.

87 articles · Curiosities

Tardigrades can survive freezing near absolute zero, extreme radiation, and the vacuum of space by drying into glass-like tuns that suspend their biology until conditions improve

Tardigrades survive boiling, near-absolute-zero cold and the vacuum of space by curling into a desiccated 'tun' and vitrifying their cellular interior with disordered proteins and sugars that take over water's structural jobs. Fossil evidence suggests the trick is at least 250 million years old.

By Silicon Canals Editorial Team · Jun 6, 2026

Curiosities

Greenland sharks can live more than 400 years, meaning some swimming the North Atlantic today may have been alive when Isaac Newton was, while parasites cloud their corneas without destroying the retina behind them

Greenland sharks are the longest-lived vertebrates on Earth, with some individuals dated to the 1600s. New research reveals how they keep their retinas working for four centuries even as a copepod parasite chews at their corneas.

By Silicon Canals Editorial Team · Jun 6, 2026

Curiosities

A single aspen colony in Utah called Pando covers 106 acres, weighs 6,000 tons, and is genetically one organism connected by a root system that may have been alive for 14,000 years and is now slowly being eaten to death by mule deer

Pando, a single male quaking aspen in Utah's Fishlake National Forest, spans 106 acres as roughly 47,000 genetically identical trunks connected by one root system — and unchecked mule deer browsing is now eating the next generation before it can grow.

By Silicon Canals Editorial Team · Jun 4, 2026