I Was Today-Years-Old When I Found Out Flying Squirrels Glow Pretty Pink Under UV Light
Animals never cease to amaze us with all of their unique abilities.
Will we truly know everything there is to know about the fascinating world of the animal kingdom?
A luminescent pink entity streaked through a Wisconsin forest, leaving one professor wondering if it was something otherworldly. Turns out, it was better than that.
A forest ecologist was examining lichen using ultra violet light when he noticed the pink flash was emanating from a North American flying squirrel, confirming that these aerodynamic critters do glow pink under UV light.
The phenomenon is considered by Nature to be a rare example of fluorescence in mammals.
Jon Martin, the Northland College professor who witnessed the pink flash told Newsweek he instantly identified the source of the familiar chirping he heard at a bird feeder.
"One evening, I hear the unmistakable chirp of a flying squirrel at our bird feeder."
"I point the light at it and bam! Pink fluorescence."
Bam!
Take a look at this tweet that Texas A&M University graduate student Allie Kohler posted.
The squirrels have made it into a Nature Highlight! https://t.co/yHCfpyKBqy #Nature #Journalofnature… https://t.co/5a5Z6yVXBf— Allie Monahan Kohler (@Allie Monahan Kohler) 1548710945.0
Martin enlisted then-undergraduate student Kohler to head a team of researchers to learn more about the pink glow phenomenon Kohler described as:
"seemingly unnatural in the natural world."
.@sierra_magazine has a great round-up of all the environmental news you may have missed this week -- including pin… https://t.co/ACDuetgMfF— Sierra Club (@Sierra Club) 1549046174.0
The team included Allison M Kohler, now a graduate student at Texas A&M University; Dr. Jonathan G Martin, Associate Professor of Forestry; Dr. Erik R Olson, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources and Dr. Paula Spaeth Anich, Associate Professor of Natural Resources; all at Northland College, a private college in Ashland, Wisconsin that focuses on the environment and sustainability.
They found that after studying 135 museum specimens across 3 squirrel genera, only the genus Glaucomys had the capability of illuminating cotton candy pink under UV light. Dr. Anich likes to "highlight the importance of museum studies and what knowledge they hold."
Attempting to study animals in the wild can take years and many more resources than studies conducted on museum specimens while often yielding the same results.
@NatureNews I would have never suspected this. I wonder the reasoning behind this and also why pink? #FS102— Alexandra Glavach (@Alexandra Glavach) 1548969797.0
While the reason for their furs turning into a pink hue is uncertain, the researches surmised it could serve as a recognition feature among the species or protection from avian predators.
Or, they could simply be flaunting their spectacular feature for us humans.
@NatureNews Do they eat too much cotton candy?— WestEnd Squirrel (@WestEnd Squirrel) 1548806940.0
Whatever the reason, Erik Olson, an assistant professor at Northland is impressed by the wonders of nature.
"I think these kind of discoveries just cause us to pause in wonder at the world around us."
Kohler added:
"There is so much that is waiting to be discovered in this world, hiding right in front of us in plain sight. Sometimes, it just takes looking at the world in a different way to see things that haven't been seen before."
Thank you @NatGeo for sharing our work! Seeing the fluorescence for the first time really made me realize that ther… https://t.co/gsHLePjgem— Allie Monahan Kohler (@Allie Monahan Kohler) 1548992570.0
We think their pink furs are fierce.
@NatureNews How Fab of them!— Poogle W (@Poogle W) 1548800092.0
@NatGeo Because it's fab https://t.co/YzDta6tKxx— Veg-table (@Veg-table) 1548969394.0
@SophieLGilbert @OSUCHS This is my new favorite thing— Kathy Zeller, PhD 🐾 (@Kathy Zeller, PhD 🐾) 1548468658.0
Now that we know about Rocky, what about her Moose-friend?
@NatureNews What color does Bullwinkle glow in UV?— Patricia Schwarz (@Patricia Schwarz) 1548824003.0
Wonders never cease, indeed.
The study was originally published as "Ultraviolet fluorescence discovered in New World flying squirrels (Glaucomys)" in the Journal of Mammalogy. You can read the full article here.
Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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Some relationships are doomed from the start.
But this might not always be obvious to the couple in question.
Sometimes, a relationship could last for months, even years, before one defining moment makes it clear that there will not be a future.
These moments might be things people can laugh about a few years later, or things they make every effort to rid from their memories.
Redditor donutnolikey was curious to hear the moment other members of the Reddit community knew that their relationship was dead in the water, leading them to ask:
"What was your “OH HELL NAH” moment in a relationship that made you leave?"
People are not always who they appear to be.
"I dated a guy who’s ex left him randomly one morning, kissed her goodbye for work and came back and her sh*t was gone."
"Changed her number, and moved back home."
"He never talked to her again, I thought it was super sad and messed up for what she did."
"He use to wake up in the morning crying over her, I pathetically just comforted him."
"But one day I woke up to him emailing his ex girlfriends mother saying he was going to come down to Seattle and kill them all!"
"It wasn’t much later I found out he was served a restraining order from the family."
"Now I see why she left without saying goodbye."- Tay14073.
"We were making out at his house and he kept pressuring me to have sex."
"I was still a young, naive virgin so I refused."
"We started watching a movie instead."
"I went to the bathroom and he stole my car keys."
"Once I was back on the couch he started trying to take off my clothes."
"I was scared so I grabbed my purse to leave."
"That's when he jingles my keys."
"He said I could have them back once I slept with him. I just ran outside and called my dad."
"My dad showed up and threatened to beat his a** if my keys weren't returned."
"Got my keys and got the f*ck out."
"He continued to stalk me for the next 7 years."- UnicornQueefsGlitter.
Couldn't wait to get married.... to someone else.
"She stole my car, drove it from Washington to Las Vegas, and married a guy she met on Xbox Live so he could get residence."- Reverend179.
Came back an entirely different person.
"She went on vacation to have a spiritual awakening by doing drugs in the jungle and came home accusing me of being a demon."- Modifiedpoutine.
"There was a lot of crap but this was the final straw."
"I locked the door before going to bed one night when he was out late with friends."
"He had lost his house key and never bothered to mention it, which was somehow my fault."
"He woke me up by banging on the window and when I let him in began screaming and throwing things at me."
"Telling me to pack up my sh*t and leave and locked me out of our bedroom."
"I slept on the couch."
"Next morning he acted completely normal, like nothing had happened."
"I was gone that day because I no longer felt safe."- swiftsafflina.
More than they could handle
"I woke up at 3am to my partner of 11 years muttering at me when he thought I was asleep."
"His tone was so dark and disturbing I felt that if I hadn't woken up to hear him I may not have woken up at all."
"He wasn't loud so maybe it was the way he was speaking that made me wake up like I did but my brain was immediately on high alert."
"I snapped awake and alert in an instant and just knew that I should just stay still and quiet and not let him know I was awake."
"What came out of him where all sorts of wild accusatory delusions spat at me with so much venom that 6 years later I still clearly remember the feeling of dread that washed over me."
"My whole body was weighed down with it."
"Our relationship wasn't a great one by any means but it was the first time I genuinely felt afraid of what he would do."
"I was afraid to speak up but also afraid that if I stayed quiet and let him keep on his rambling that it could progress into something worse and if it came to it I could never have fought him off."
"That's when it really clicked to me how seriously he needed professional intervention and that I was not only unable to help him but also that I needed to get out from under the same roof as him as soon as possible."
"Paranoid schizophrenia is a b*tch and the available mental health care in our area is a joke."- Wonkeynut.
Delayed validation.
"She crawled through my doggie door at 1:30 am, went through my phone, and then asked me why I was talking to another woman."
"Oh, I forgot to mention that I broke up with her a month earlier."
"We were not in a relationship when she pulled that stunt."- OLPopsAdelphia.
Over sharing?
"My ex would tell me about all the dreams he was having about killing me in vivid detail."- slightjudgment_.
Gaslighting, much?
"My ex would lie about sh*t and make me question my own reality."
"F*ck you bruh."- Suwaveh.
Lack of sympathy.
"Ex wife started an argument with me one morning when I was headed to the funeral of a childhood friend."
"I asked if she could not do this right now."
"Her response was “ohhhh, poor you.”
"That was the beginning of the end."- Slydermv.
There are those who look for a sign, as to whether or not they should stay in their relationship.
And when their sign is as bizarre and unsettling as several of the above stories, it might make them all the more grateful to have gotten out when they did.
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Sometimes when people speak, they leave you stunned.
You have to wonder what is running through people's minds.
Compliments are lovely until they sound like a reason for a restraining order.
Redditor dannydevitocuddles wanted to hear about the things people have said to others, thinking they were trying to make a person feel good, but just left bewilderment. So they asked:
"What's the weirdest compliment you've ever received?"
I lead with simple honesty when complimenting. Be me...
Umm...
"Your oral cavity is wonderful to work with! So spacious! - my dentist."
Fessir
Head Beauty
"Was told I have a beautiful brain while doing a paid MRI study."
Dylan619xf
"I guess seeing the brain is just really cool for that person. Maybe it was the fact that he was seeing a real life active brain and the person using it, when usually any other picture of a brain is from an unloved textbook. It’s crazy to think that our whole world is stored in like five pounds of sentient flesh."
Piggus_Porkus_
From Behind
"My girlfriend in college once said that she wished she had legs like me."
HersheyTheBrownBear
"One of my daughters’s classmates saw me walking into school. When he found out I was her mum he said to her, 'Man, your mum looks like she could snap someone in half with those legs!' Thank you, leg press machine!"
OneArchedEyebrow
Readers...
"You look like you read books for fun."
Thehoobywotzit
"Better than my friends husband saying to me 'I didn’t know you could read' Lmfaoooo dude was such a jerk to me. I stopped talking to them. The really great thing is I remember before he said that to me he told us he doesn’t like to read because it hurts his head… Lol."
Stoneybaloney111
And my Nose?
"You have a cool left ear"
"All i could think was 'well wtf is wrong with the right one?' Lol."
bigkeef69
Are you writing these down? Just to make sure they're NEVER used again!!
Ok Hannibal
"Optometrist told me my eyes were physically perfectly healthy and they’d make perfect specimens."
onlyeverthus23
I can Run
"You are surprisingly nimble for a fat guy."
bigdaddy151025
"I've been chubby for years but when I was younger I was in gymnastics. Early high school I went to a friend's house for a little get together grill party thing. Some of the kids were dancing and tumbling and whatnot in the huge lawn they had. I proceeded to do a long a** string of cartwheels as I could still do it even as chubby as I had gotten. My friends were stunned. It was great xD."
Havik989
Sound Off
"I have a perennial baby face and am a pretty quiet/shy individual but have a deep voice. Someone in one of my classes held the door so I said thanks. The girl holding the door did a double take and shouted 'WAIT THATS WHAT YOU SOUND LIKE???' And honestly that'll stick with me for the rest of my life."
SchuyWalker
Look Away
"Nice stream bro, while I was peeing in a bathroom at Chicago O'Hare."
CaptainChancla
People... y'all really need to think before you speak. Please. Oh my...
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CW: Suicide
There is so much to learn in life.
And once you acquire certain things mentally, you regret it.
How much 411 have you come across over time that made you think... "How can I unlearn that?"
Yeah, not possible.
Knowledge is power and sometimes it's a nightmare.
Don't we have enough to keep us up at night?
Damn curiosity.
Well let's do some learning.
Redditor RedBoyFromNewy wanted to shed some light on creepy issues we need to be discussing. They asked:
"What’s a disturbing fact that not a lot of people know of?"
So who is ready to spill, and where do you find the info?
From the Guts
"Without mucus your stomach would digest itself."
Ddubsquizzee
"The reason you body produces more saliva before vomiting is your bodies way if protecting your mouth from the acidity of the vomit before you actually throw up."
-AntiVegan-
Death
"There are more suicides than homicides in the US every year."
tmsanch
"60% of all gun deaths in fact are suicides. It is estimated that someone offs themselves with a firearm every 20 minutes in the US. And 80% of them are males."
hymnsees
"And what's worse (knowing, as my family just went through this.)... 70% of suicides have no note. It's a common misconception that most people leave a note and it just isn't true. Mainly because a lot of people who write notes realize they don't want to go through with it. Those who are 'successful' just do it."
jdward01
After...
"You can give still 'birth' if you die while pregnant. The decomp process will force the baby out. It’s rare but it does happen."
MelissaAthalie
"This is usually what ends up happening when a pregnant woman gets murdered. They usually find the fetus either completely separate (like in the Lacy and Connor Peterson case) or in the same location as the mother, but clearly birthed (like with the case with Shanann Watts). It's something I never knew happened until very recently and I think it's one of the most horrifying aspects of death."
rivlet
Disaster
"The deadliest ship disaster was the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship built during the Nazi Regime. In January 1945, she was evacuating 10,000 German citizens ahead of the soviet Invasion when (albeit ironically) a Soviet Submarine spotted them, and fired three torpedoes. The ship was on the freezing cold Baltic Sea, and the davits (ropes) for the lifeboats had frozen over."
"Not only that, but the ship was only meant to carry 2,000 people normally. These two factors, coupled with the harsh angle the ship was sinking at, meant only half of the lifeboats could be deployed. 9,400 people drowned to death that night, and nobody knows about it."
TheNonbinaryWren
I See You
"Your eyes have a separate immune system than the rest of your body, and if your normal immune system ever learns about your eyes, it will target them and you'll go blind."
hiruko_uchiha
Oh my eye. How do we protect them? As if I don't have enough stress.
Launched
"Penguins can launch their poop out of their butts like 5-6m far."
Bela_hrn
Despair
"Cotard's delusion, also known as walking corpse syndrome, is a neuropsychiatric disorder in which the person is in eternal damnation. They literally believe they are dead or dying [or don't have organs], the amount of despair is unimaginable and simply can't be grasped by people not suffering from it."
SweetTimpaniofLogic
'hard problem'
"It may seem like we know a lot about the human brain, but our standard way of studying brain activity is an fMRI, where a single pixel contains over 3 million neurons. That is more than many vertebrate animals' entire brains. The truth is, we really have no idea how the brain gives rise to consciousness."
"Edit: Even if we somehow perfectly worked out all the neural correlates of consciousness so we could say a mental state happens if and only if some exact pattern of brain activity happens, we would still have the 'hard problem' of consciousness: Why do these physical processes give rise to raw subjective experience, rather than just happening 'in the dark?'"
zeugenie
2 Minutes...
"If your esophagus closes and you cannot swallow, you have about 2 minutes before saliva starts reaching your windpipe. It is not a long time, but it is long enough to panic..."
grat_is_not_nice
"I have Eosiniphillic Oesophagitis and have had food stuck in the oesophagus for up to 24 hours before. And it’s horrible. You don’t realise how much saliva you swallow, to be constantly choking and vomiting that back up isn’t the best experience!"
AwayFollowing554
Get Lucky
"You’ve probably been closer to dying multiple times in your life then you even know. Just got lucky, or unlucky depending on who you are."
GingeBeardManBro
Well that's enough to disrupt sleep for life. Thanks y'all.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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