Hibernation: Dormant ground squirrels recycle urine to maintain their muscles

Hibernating animals find it hard to get the nitrogen they need to maintain muscles – but ground squirrels have gut microbes that can break down urea to free up the nitrogen it contains Life 27 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins Hibernating thirteen-lined ground squirrel Robert Streiffer Hibernating ground squirrels stay in shape by recycling urea, … Read more

Alien Life Could Theoretically Survive Within Venus’s Clouds, Scientists Say

With an atmosphere acidic enough to strip the skin from your bones, Venus is far from what we might imagine as hospitable. But a new study backs up the idea that cocoons of life could potentially exist in the planet’s corrosive clouds.   Researchers have identified a chemical pathway through which the droplets of sulfuric … Read more