If you read this, you'll be able to know the STD status of the mallards the next time you feed the ducks: Still reading? How could you resist, really. That was my response to the title of this paper: "Sexual ornamentation reflects antibacterial activity of ejaculates in mallards." Shockingly, "despite the evolutionary implications of ejaculate antimicrobials" that the authors note, nobody had bothered to spread duck semen on bacterial cultures before. A brave international collaboration (Norway, Germany, and the US were all involved) has now rectified this situation, and found that there is indeed a correlation between antibacterial activity and a specific bit of sexual ornamentation: bill color. The brighter the male duck's bill, the more bacteria killing its semen demonstrated.
Remember that the next time you're in the park. As if you'll ever be able to get some of these images out of your brain.
It's the heating unit in your fridge that's using all the power: And, sadly, that's not a joke. Many refrigerators now come with built-in ice makers, and these devices can account for up to 20 percent of the fridge's energy use. But most of that energy actually goes to a heating element. Why, you might ask, do you need a heating element to make ice? Glad you asked. You can make it just fine without one, but the ice has a tendency to stick in its molds; the heater ensures the ice gets released into the storage area once it's frozen.
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