naked mole-rat fructose oxygen survival

These mammals can survive 18 minutes without oxygen

Up To 18 Minutes

Most mammals quickly suffer severe damage when oxygen runs out. Naked mole-rats can survive up to 18 minutes without it. Their secret is an unusual metabolic switch: they can use fructose to keep producing energy when normal oxygen-dependent processes fail. Scientists study this ability to understand how cells survive oxygen deprivation.

Pendulum clocks cut daily errors from minutes to seconds

About 10 Seconds Per Day

A pendulum takes almost the same amount of time for each swing, making it useful for keeping time. Christiaan Huygens used this idea in his 1656 pendulum clock. Early versions were wrong by less than a minute per day, and later ones cut the error to about 10 seconds.

A raccoon's old instinct overpowered its training

A raccoon trained to put coins into a box began rubbing the coins with its paws instead. The movement resembled the animal's natural food-handling behavior and interfered with the learned task. This return of an instinct during training is called instinctive drift.

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naked mole-rat fructose oxygen survival

These mammals can survive 18 minutes without oxygen

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