Happy Thought for 9 January 2026

 Have a Happy Thought:

A fun fact you all learned at some point in your life is that SCUBA is an acronym – meaning it is a word made up of the first letters (or sounds) of other words.

Can you remember what it means?

Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus.

And we humans think we are so smart for coming up with this concept.

Turns out, some other air-breathing animals also take pockets of air with them when they go underwater. (as in: not just holding their breath)

1.    Diving-bell spiders (Argyroneta aquatica). These live in freshwater across the Eurasian continent, and take air with them so they can live out most of their lives underwater – they even hunt and breed underwater! But since they still need to breathe air, they spin a silk canopy and trap air bubbles that naturally form along their body hairs under the canopy. And when they need to venture out to hunt, they basically create a smaller air bubble and carry it around like a backpack. Definitely SCUBA certified.

Image: Luce tu Mente

 

2.  Lizards – specifically Anolis aquaticus. These lizards live quite a lot of their lives in the water but do still need air to breathe. So when they drop below the surface, they breathe out a bunch of air and it forms a bubble right along the surface of their tiny little snout. They can then keep breathing this air to keep them underwater for longer – which really helps them outlast those predators waiting for them to resurface.

Image: Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard | Biology Letters | The Royal Society

 

Unrelated, but carrying on with the last post’s theme of #ShareGoodNewsToo, I have two entries this week:

1.    The world’s fifth-largest economy relied 100% on renewable energy sources for at least 50 days last year

2.  Portland Oregon has done what we should all do and has banned gas(petrol)-powered leaf blowers. (Electric-powered are still ok to use). Further proof that we can electrify most things (still no plans for hot air balloons though)


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