Spider silk is one of the strongest materials in the natural world. Consisting almost entirely of large proteins, silk fibres have tensile strengths comparable to steel
and, on a weight to weight basis, some silks are nearly as elastic as rubber. In combining these two properties, silks revea…
The Scriptures speak of the wild ass which inhabits mountain steppes and semi-desert plains (Job 24:5). These animals are known today as onagers. They are reddish-brown or yellowish-brown in colour and have a broad dorsal stripe on the middle of the back. Unlike donkeys, onagers have never been dome…
In December 2016, Current Biology published an article about some amazing discoveries they made after studying the noses of zebrafish!
They wrote: “Our data showed for the first time how the motile cilia decorating the nose pit act as a very powerful water turbine and generate strong and robust…
Fish with Nose Turbines Read More »
There are two types of wolves in Israel today. There is the smaller Arabian wolf living in the Negev and the larger Asian wolf living in the Golan. They were once widespread, but many were eradicated by means of heavy poisons in the 1950s and today only a few hundred remain.
The…
In reality, the aerodynamics of many insect wings, including those of bumblebees, have more in common with helicopter blades than with the fixed wings of conventional aircraft. Two pairs of wings attach to the thorax of the bee, but the wings on each side are joined with hooks, so that they…
The Flight of the Bumblebee Read More »
In ancient times, the land of Israel was heavily forested. In Joshua’s day, the hills in Israel’s heartland (the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) were called “the wood country” because of the extensive forests (Josh 17:15,18). Absalom was killed in the trans-Jordanian oak forest of …
Several recent studies have drawn attention to the work of bumblebees in horticulture.
In February of this year the ABC ran an article to the title: “Bumblebees can create mental imagery, a ‘building block of consciousness,’ study suggests.” The article went on to say: “Humans…
The Humble Bumble Bee Read More »
There is a great deal of difference between the pasturelands which did not have enough water to grow crops, but still had enough grass to feed the animals, and the “great and terrible wilderness” of Sinai. Yet the same Hebrew word is used to describe both types of terrain. What links these two…
The Venus flytrap is indigenous to the swampy regions of Carolina in the USA. It lives in nutrient-poor soil and depends on capturing insects to make up for the deficiency of certain elements in its habitat.
The plant has an elaborate system to trap and digest insects, which other plants …
Recent torrential downpours in northern Israel have broken a 50-year record of rainfall within a two week period, the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS) recently announced. Just since the start of January 2020, the rainfall accumulation in the north has surpassed the month’s average in …
