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Survival Superpowers

Creatures that survive vacuum, fire, freezing, and chemical hell.

16 discoveries ~64 min

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01
Why Boiling Water Beats Cold Water to the Ice Tray
The Mpemba Effect is a counterintuitive phenomenon where hot water freezes significantly faster than cold water.
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02
The Vertical Concrete Pillars Inside Your Legs
Human bone can resist more pressure than a bar of solid steel of the same weight.
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03
The Desert Where It Hasn't Rained in Millions of Years
The driest place on Earth isn't the Sahara; it's a frozen valley in Antarctica.
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04
The frog that turns into a living ice cube
The Alaskan wood frog survives winter by letting 65 percent of its body water freeze solid, stopping its heart entirely.
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05
Your immune system dies every three days
While red blood cells last for months, most white blood cells survive for only 1 to 3 days in your bloodstream.
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06
You sleep with millions of skin-eating mites every night
Microscopic dust mites survive entirely on the dead skin cells you shed every day.
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07
The Bird That Survives 240 Mile Per Hour Winds
A Peregrine Falcon dives faster than a race car, but the real mystery is why its lungs don't explode from the air pressure.
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08
Woodpeckers wrap their tongue around their brain like a seatbelt
A woodpecker hits a tree with enough force to liquefy most brains, yet it survives because its tongue wraps around its skull.
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09
There's a temperature where water boils and freezes at the same time
At the 'Triple Point,' water exists as a solid, liquid, and gas all at the same time.
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10
The Animal That Never Truly Goes to Sleep
Dolphins survive by shutting down only half of their brain at a time, keeping one eye open for sharks.
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11
The Silent Vacuum Where Sound Waves Die
Sound cannot travel in space because there is no matter to vibrate, leaving the universe completely silent.
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12
We've found 3 million shipwrecks. Most are still secret
Each one a frozen moment of history.
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13
Tardigrades survived the vacuum of space
We put water bears in orbit and they shrugged.
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14
The Animal That Can Survive Space
A satellite opened its door in orbit and exposed these animals to vacuum. Most came back alive.
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15
The Russian Lake That Kills With A Glance
Standing on the shore of Lake Karachay for just one hour provides a lethal dose of radiation, turning an alpine landscape into the world's most dangerous vista.
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16
The New England Peak With Arctic Fury
Mount Washington doesn't look like much from a map, but its geology creates a wind tunnel effect that rivals the vacuum of outer space.
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Survival Superpowers

All discoveries

Why Boiling Water Beats Cold Water to the Ice Tray

The Vertical Concrete Pillars Inside Your Legs

The Desert Where It Hasn't Rained in Millions of Years

The frog that turns into a living ice cube

Your immune system dies every three days

You sleep with millions of skin-eating mites every night

The Bird That Survives 240 Mile Per Hour Winds

Woodpeckers wrap their tongue around their brain like a seatbelt

There's a temperature where water boils and freezes at the same time

The Animal That Never Truly Goes to Sleep

The Silent Vacuum Where Sound Waves Die

We've found 3 million shipwrecks. Most are still secret

Tardigrades survived the vacuum of space

The Animal That Can Survive Space

The Russian Lake That Kills With A Glance

The New England Peak With Arctic Fury