#grams to moles

[er-cryptid]

Patreon

[ace-dodo]

DEFEATING MY TEACHER WITH THE POWER OF AUTISM RAAAHHH 🦅🦅🦅

[soliddaddy96]

if the boss was here she would help me with my chemistry work ithink

[chiasfeu]

as a retired ff writer ive come out of hibernation bc the lack of smallville clark kent ffs is unacceptable tom welling is toooooo fine

sorry for all the grammatical errors i wrote this all at once and didn’t reread

part two

SECRET ADMIRER - clark kent x reader

Fumbling the lock of your locker, you sigh; you were on your fifth day at smallville high school and you weren’t ecstatic to say the least. After your dad had gotten into some legal trouble with LutherCorp your family had to move out of Metropolis to somewhere more safe.. more remote. Adjusting to the rural life of smallville had proven to be difficult and the people seemed strange. Slamming a fist against your locker you try again, meticulously turning the lock of the locker. Click. As you open the doors of the locker, a piece of paper slowly falls out.

Picking it up you read your name in bright red across the folded up piece of paper, you smile to yourself thinking, my very own secret admirer..

Maybe smallville won’t be so boring.

—————

Sipping on your coffee, you annotate your copy of the scarlet letter for English class. “Hey! y/n right?” A friendly voice calls out. You look up from your book, smiling. “Yeah! you must be Lana?” She nods, “I see your getting ready for the English exam, you need any help?” You glance at your book before starting, “I’m good for now.. I’ll let you know if I have any questions!” She smiles again before turning away to walk back behind the counter. Your eyes follow her as she talks to the costumers by the counter, they look familiar— a blonde girl with short wispy hair, and two other guys beside her.

You almost jump out of your own seat when you lock eyes with one of the boys, has he been looking at me this whole time? You think, embarrassed, quickly focusing on your book again. Although you’ve looked away you can still feel his gaze lingering on you.

“Hi.” You’re startled as you hear the voice, looking up at the boy that was staring at you from across the room. Before you can reply he starts, “You’re in my first period Bio class.. you know.. with Jenkins..” You blink, waiting for him to continue. He gulps, “uh well Jenkins is really tough.. and we have our first quiz next class so I was wondering if you would want any help….?” You smile sweetly, what is it with small town folks being so eager to help out? “Yeah I would really like that actually,” He smiles, almost in a relived way. “Great. You’re actually my new neighbor so I’ll just come over to help out,” He says before turning away. You cock your head to the side before saying, “Wait.” He turns around, facing towards you, “I never got your name,” you say.

“Clark Kent.”

—————

You’re sitting on your bed as you peer up at Clark while he explains how to convert moles into grams, “So you’re going to divide the number of particles by Avogrados number..” You yawn tuning him out, your eyes fall the paper that slipped out of your locker earlier today. I still haven’t read that note. You grab the note, opening it up, “y/n are you listening to me.” He says clearly frustrated. “Sorry Clark..” you say apologetically smiling, he notices the paper in your hands and nervously looks back up at you. “What is that?” He says, shifting around in his seat, looking intently at your face. You smile lightly, giggling, “It’s a letter from my secret admirer.” He visibly relaxes, “Oh.. I take it you like having one?” You nod shrugging, “makes smallville a lot more interesting than it could be.” He fake winces, “Smallville is a lot more interesting than you think.” You raise your eyebrows unconvinced, “Really? You’ll have to show me what’s so ‘interesting’ one day.” He smiles glancing down, “Maybe I will.”

You look at Clark’s notebook and your eyebrows furrow, the handwriting looking strikingly similar to the one in the note you found this morning. “Clark..” “Hm?” He looks up at you, “Do you possibly happen to know whoever wrote me that note?” He scratches his head, “No? Why would I?…” You shrug, “Just curious..” He awkwardly smiles before writing in his notebook again. You shift your position on your bed, scooting closer to him, “Clark, it’s ok you can tell me if you do know…” you bring your hand to his exposed forearm caressing it. He coughs before breathlessly stating, “I really don’t know who wrote it, y/n.” You push up against him, drawing circles up his arms, “Hm.. that really is too bad..” He swallows dryly, “yeah?” You nod slowly, “yeahhh.. I would’ve gone along with everything they wrote in that letter..” There’s a moment of silence as he looks at you. He shuts his eyes, sighing hard before confessing, “I wrote it.”

You grin mischeviously, running a hand through his hair, “You really didn’t have to lie, Clark..” He opens his eyes to look at you, his cheeks red from embarrassment, “y/n” “hmm?” You hum, tilting your head bringing your lips closer to his. He glances at them, sighing heavily before parting his lips to say something. He’s cut off by you pressing your lips against his, you feel his body relax into yours, his hands sliding up your back and his lips pushing deeper into the kiss. You pull away from the kiss, your hands holding Clark’s head; using your thumb you wipe lipstick off of Clark’s swollen lips as he looks at you longingly.

Yoau press your lips together, suppressing a giggle, “Hmm it’s getting late.. how about we pick back up tomorrow?”

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Mammalia - Notoryctemorphia

(Sources - 1, 2)

The marsupial order Notoryctemorphia is commonly called the “marsupial moles.” It contains just one genus with two known species: the Southern Marsupial Mole (Notoryctes typhlops) (image 2) and the Northern Marsupial Mole (Notoryctes caurinus) (image 1).

Marsupial moles are rarely seen and poorly known, with N. caurinus being one of the most poorly understood mammals in all of Australia. They are convergent with the placental moles, living a fossorial lifestyle and only coming aboveground after rain. Notoryctids use two enlarged, spade shaped, flat claws on the third and fourth digits of each forelimb to dig in an up-and-down motion. They are functionally blind, their eyes reduced to vestigial lenses under the skin that lack a pupil. They have no external ears, just a pair of tiny holes hidden under thick hair. They have a leathery shield over their muzzle and their tail is a short, bald stub encased in leathery skin. They do not make permanent burrows or tunnels, but rather “swim” through the soil from place to place in search of food. They feed on earthworms and insect eggs and larvae, but have also been recorded to eat adult insects, seeds, and lizards if given the chance. They are between 12 and 16 centimetres (4.7–6.3 in) long, weigh 40 to 60 grams (1.4–2.1 oz), and are uniformly covered in fairly short, very fine pale cream to white hair with an iridescent golden sheen. Little is known about the preferred habitat of notoryctids, but they are more often found in sandy dunes or flats, and they are probably restricted to areas where the sand or soil is soft.

Notoryctids have a small but well-developed pouch that faces backwards so it does not fill with sand while the mother digs. It contains just two teats, so the animal cannot support more than two young at a time.

The order Notoryctemorphia has been around since the Oligocene. Notoryctids themselves are represented by early Miocene fossils of Naraboryctes and Yalkaparidon.

(source)

Propaganda under the cut:

Notoryctids are the only marsupials with a true cloaca.

Fossil evidence suggests that marsupial moles have been burrowing long before the Australian deserts came into being, staying underground while the terrain slowly evolved from jungle to desert.

Nineteenth century scientists believed that marsupials and eutherians had evolved from the same primitive ancestor and were looking for a living specimen that would serve as the missing link. Because the marsupial mole closely resembled the golden moles of Africa, some scientists concluded that the two were related and that they had found the proof. This, of course, was not the case, as scientists later discovered when better preserved marsupial mole specimens could be examined and were found to have a pouch. The coincidental similarities of the two species are, in fact, the result of convergent evolution.

The fact that the marsupial moles’ middle ear seems to be morphologically suited for capturing low frequency sounds, and that they produce high pitched vocalizations when handled, indicates that this kind of sound that propagates more easily underground may be used as a form of communication between marsupial moles.

Despite being generally unknown to European scientists, the Southern Marsupial Mole (Notoryctes typhlops) was known for thousands of years to Australia’s Indigenous people and was part of their mythology. It was associated with certain sites and dreaming trails such as Uluru and the Anangu-Pitjantjatjara Lands. They were regarded with sympathy, probably due to their harmless nature, and were only eaten during hard times. Aboriginal people generally cooperate with researchers by teaching them tracking skills and help with finding specimens. Their involvement has been instrumental in gathering information about the species’ habitat and behavior.

Marsupial moles have a presumably high impact on soil turnover, as they do not build burrows or tunnels, instead allowing the sand and soft soil to backfill behind them as they “swim”.

Large numbers of marsupial moles were collected in the early twentieth century, and informal reports of a fur trade using their pelts were reported.

As very little is known about marsupial moles, it is hard to access their conservation status, but records seem to indicate that they have declined. As 90% of medium-sized marsupials in arid Australia have become threatened due to domestic cat and red fox predation, it is likely marsupial moles are also threatened by these invasive predators. One study found remains of marsupial moles in 5% of the cat and fox faecal pellets they examined.

[gigalork]

How Big is a Mole of Moles?

According to google (and someone who's calculated the mass of a mole of moles before), the average mole is about 75 grams. So, the mass of a mole of moles would be 75g × 6.022×10²³ = 4.52×10²⁵ grams aka 4.52×10²² (45.2 sextillion) kilograms. Since moles are mostly water, let's just assume their density is the same as water, 1kg/m³. This means that 4.52×10²² kg of moles would also have a volume of 4.52×10²² cubic meters. The Earth's volume is about 1.1×10²¹ cubic meters, so a mole of moles would create a planet over 40 times larger than Earth (unless I did my math wrong someone check me please).

[o-craven-canto]

What is your position on the debate between contingency and convergence in evolution? As a creator and enjoyer of speculative evolution, I imagine you might fall more towards contingency, but I'd still be curious on your overall thoughts on it, and on how different a separate run of evolution on an earthlike planet would really be.

Hmm.

Biologists usually distinguish two types of resemblance among organisms: analogy, which mostly regards general function and appearance and is driven by common conditions, and homology, which mostly regards deep structure and is driven by common ancestry.

All the limbs of land-dwelling vertebrates and their descendants are made of one long bone, followed by two parallel long bones, followed by a maximum of five (except in ichthyosaur flippers) series of digit bones. This you see from frogs to seagulls to horses to manatees to moles -- the descendants of proto-amphibians such as Ichthyostega -- but not in any other animal group. This is the canonical example of homology: there is no reason for such different limbs with functions so different to share the same 1-2-n pattern except inheritance from a common ancestor. On the other hand, the wings of birds and those of insects, or for that matter their eyes, are so different because they arose independently. The common features in the wings of a hummingbird and a dragonfly are due to the same physical constraints, and that is analogy.

Sometimes it depends from the level of analysis: bird wings and bat wings are analogous as wings -- their flight surface is achieved by different means, feathers in one and skin in the other -- but homologous as vertebrate forelimbs -- they have the same 1-2-n sequence of bones, and their development is regulated by the same genes.

There are, of course, physical reasons for structures to resemble each other: everything that moves quickly through water needs to be more or less spindle-shaped; everything that grows past a few hundred grams on dry land needs some sort of rigid support; photosynthesizers and filter-feeders need fractally branching structures; and so on. Compound eyes and exoskeletons really are more efficient at smaller sizes, camera-type eyes and internal skeletons at larger, so that's a reason other than ancestry for insects and birds to be so different; but the largest butterflies are bigger than the smallest hummingbirds, so it's not just a matter of scale; and the eyes of tunas are more like the eyes of eagles than like the eyes of squids, so it's not just a matter of environment.

Some classical examples of convergent evolutions overstate their case a bit: sharks, ichthyosaurs, and dolphin all started from the same aquatic vertebrate chassis, so their similarity is not pure environment-driven convergence. (But it is a bit: from the same chassis you can also make a turtle or a crane.) Similarly for marsupial mice and moles vs. their placentate equivalent, none of whom gets that far from the original mammal model to begin with. When you get a bit farther, you find that the Australian equivalent of a horse is not an almost identical "marsupial horse" but a kangaroo, for reasons that have to do with marsupial birth. It's the same for the now-famous case of carcinization, which only applies to decapod crustaceans -- it's not even universal for crustaceans in general! If you try over and over to make an open-water pursue predator out of the vertebrate plan, you'll get similar results: the shark, the tuna, the ichthyosaur, the dolphin. But try the same with the mollusk plan, and you get a squid.

Now, convergence is likely to occur on other planets, because anything recognizable as life will have similar requirements and meet similar challenges. But it will be much more subtle than making planets full of blue horses and humans with weird eyebrows (I can't overstate how complex and specific the history of our body shape is). Assuming an Earth-like planet, for example, I'd expect its surface ecosystems to be overwhelmingly based on photosynthesis, its "plants" to have branching shapes with flat light collectors, and its largest "animals" to be bilaterally symmetrical with eyes, intestines, and skeletons of some sort. But that still leaves an enormous amount of variety, based both on ancestry and on smaller-scale micro-environmental constraints: note that the description of "animal" I gave fits equally a tarantula, a giraffe, a snail, and an axolotl.

TL;DR: many important traits of living organisms are made necessary by physical and environmental constraints, but there's an immense variety of ways to develop them, and that is mostly going to be driven by contingencies in ancestry. In my opinion, that is.

As readings, I'd recommend The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution (Charles Cockell, 2018) and Convergent Evolution on Earth: Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (George McGhee, 2019) as summaries of the physical constraints and useful strategies that are going to arise over and over in living systems, as well as this brief paper on the evolution of complexity in alien life. Note how much similarity they predict, but also note how much they don't!

Thanks for the question! <3

[ultimateyapper]

anyway, here's wonderwall. | chapter one

[ chapter 2 ]

were you truly mentally prepared for what would unfold in hotarubi? it couldn't be any worse than having a gun to your head right? despite the late hour, it's nearly impossible to get what taiga said out of your mind.

there's a mole.

but why would there be a mole at darkwick? who would it be? someone you know? a friend? how does taiga even know this?

there's officially too much on your mind to get any sleep.

yawning, you turn over to pull your phone off the charger. it was cute with an adapter shaped like a cat paw. the smile kaito wore as he handed it to you was full of pride. he said he got it "just because". it was clearly a lie after luca suggested it was consolation for skipping out on training but it's funny remembering how red he got afterwards. it was a sweet gesture but how does he expect to pay off his debt if he keeps buying things "just because".

the screen lights up and after blinking away tears from the initial brightness you read the time. ten minutes after midnight. maybe there's something interesting on wickchat? there wasn't a lot of time to check during the last mission.

eventually you make it to your messages. only a select few people are active due to the late hour and kaito is one of them. you can see him typing in your group chat. the one he made after the mission in frostheim. you temporarily left the chat while talking with taiga. although, in all honesty, trying not to get killed by taiga would fit better. you had texted him more than 10 minutes before you came to his room. yet still a gun was pointed to your head for the third (maybe fourth, you were losing track) time that week.

with complete and utter seriousness he claimed he "didn't know any honor student".

how many times did he expect you to introduce yourself exactly? you considered being a smartass and just saying a fake name. instead you decided to move, slowly so you didn't set him off, and show the texts.

suddenly the blonde started spamming the group chat in all caps, lighting up your phone with vibration after vibration. something about getting his point across to that dumbass, who you're assuming is probably luca. in hindsight, you could've just turned notifs off but when taiga was clearly starting to get pissed off you went with the quickest option. upsetting the guy with a machine gun for a special artifact isn't exactly at the top of your to-do list.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

im surprised to see luca up this late

the conversation comes to an abrupt halt. three dots circle at the bottom of your screen followed by a cat emote waving hi.

( kaito ✮ )

hiii : D

i added you back earlier btw i dunno why you left but it was probably an accident right??

wait sorry did i wake u up

mb 💔💔

( Lucas Errant )

I suppose it is a bit strange, yes? My conversation with Kaito must have made me lose track of time haha

( #1 peekaboo fan )

yeah you're usually knocked out lol and dw kaito i was already awake : )

( kaito ✮ )

ohh ok lol

i can't sleep either

( Lucas Errant )

You can't? I thought you said you were going to sleep because I was boring you.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

lmao

( kaito ✮ )

bro you were talking about fun facts and shi

ofc i was nodding off

( Lucas Errant )

My apologies. I assumed because of your life at home you'd be interested in it.

( kaito ✮ )

no not really

( #1 peekaboo fan )

wdym?

( kaito ✮ )

he was telling me about farm life as if i didn't get enough of that at home

( #1 peekaboo fan )

wait you grew up on a farm!?

( Lucas Errant )

I'm really interested in the culture. In the U.K I took horseback riding lessons but I've never seen any other farm animals in person.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

ooo that does sound fun

pigs are really cute

( kaito ✮ )

bruh

you would take horseback riding lessons

( #1 peekaboo fan )

you didn't like it there?

( kaito ✮ )

i mean... i liked being able to help my grams.

she's older so she needs that support

but in any other scenario??

nobody is getting that muddy for free

like you won't say that when you have a bull sprinting at you full speed

( #1 peekaboo )

this visual... 💀

( kaito ✮ )

bro 😭

( #1 peekaboo fan )

nah but fr

luca if ur interested you should volunteer at jabberwock

it's not the same but it's close

haru could use the extra help

( Lucas Errant )

Working with anamolous creatures would be an interesting learning experience. I'm not familiar so one day if you're free?

( kaito ✮ )

wait

( #1 peekaboo fan )

YESS

i'll show you everything i know ^_^

( kaito ✮ )

just the two of you?

( Lucas Errant )

I'm glad! I'll be available tomorrow during advisory. We have the same class right?

( #1 peekaboo fan )

yeah I'll meet u and we can go from there!

it's a date :3

( kaito ✮ )

WHAT

( #1 peekaboo fan )

u coming with?

( kaito ✮ )

yeah I'll come

( Lucas Errant )

I do worry if this is suited for you Kaito, but if you feel up to it I won't stop you.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

yea u don't like getting dirty right? you don't have to if you don't wanna

( kaito ✮ )

no it's fine i'll just try not to get anything on my uniform and

...keep an eye on him

( #1 peekaboo fan )

what

( kaito ✮ )

nothing.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

right so

see y'all tomorrow

im gonna go to bed

( Lucas Errant )

Yes, me as well. I wish both of you a good night's rest.

( #1 peekaboo fan )

seriously get sleep kai or im going to get you

( kaito ✮ )

promise? 😳

JK JK

gn

an emote of a cat waving goodbye signifies the end of the conversation. that's that you suppose. haru wouldn't mind right? he did really need the help. he's impressively good at what he does but you can't help but feel that he overexerts himself. maybe before you go you should text him to—

"meoww!!"

you nearly jump out of your skin. below you a soft yet prickly sensation is revealed to be a cat, pawing at your leg. the cute little thing is an orange cat with light spots along it's body and tail. as soon as your attention is fully away from your phone it jumps on your leg making you laugh.

it makes no complaints as you scoop it into your arms and cradle it close. it's a bit surprising to see one of the campus cats being so cuddly. they're friendly but very independent as chancellor cornelius had said. most of them don't linger for long, always busy with something else. this one is is a bit smaller though so maybe it was still new to the school.

the vibrant orange of it's coat of fur is reminiscent of the cat who fixed your window. where did that one go off too?

you finally lay down for the night. the warmth from your new companion lulling you to sleep as he settled on top of your chest.

in the morning you'd call haru to let him know you'd found some extra help.

[sacredhyacinth]

my school is doing a day of silence and also a state wide test so my trans flag is just popping out of my book bag while I try to convert moles into grams

[ahedderick]

Chemistry

Aaaaauuggh(heartfelt wail of frustration)

I have spent HOURS this weekend working out the problems for K's chemistry assignment and then tutoring her through them. The weekly assignments average around 40 problems, and they're almost all math. This is MORE a math class than a chemistry class. I can do it. I can do it! But, working at 'tutoring speed,' it takes so long. Even a student who was good with math would take quite a while to get through this. (I should probably have timed myself in doing it with no distractions; I would like a baseline. Maybe I'll do that next week.)

So, anyway. we know SO MUCH about molar mass and grams to moles to molecules conversions. Also balancing equations. And using balanced equations to calculate moles of reactants and products. And then grams of reactants and products. Or vice-versa.

I need a freakin' large-print periodic table for people with very poor vision.

I should probably balance the rant with a positive note. In one of the early labs, K got overwhelmed by the math and the fact that all the students around her were moving through it more quickly and easily. She took a moment to put her head down and gather her courage. The teacher noticed her discouragement right away, came over, and offered her extra help. Prof also has regular tutoring available (K has been taking full advantage of that) and is just KIND about everything. That is a way better experience than my son had at his uni.

Dyscalculia, man. Sucks turnips. I, a person who went to teacher's college and got a degree specifically to be a math teacher, never even heard of dyscalculia until I read a post about it on Tumblr. For god's sake. It's really, really a crappy disability to have.

[beatriceportinari]

How do i still struggle with concentrationsssssssss at my big age. My head giving out smoke converting grams and mL. Do NOT even talk to me abt moles.

[waytooobsessedwithmcyt]

Decided to do the math on the Spiders Georg post, in order to get the average amount of spiders eaten per year of the world up to three, Spiders Georg would have to eat not 10,000, but 100,000,000 spiders a day

Assuming the average spider weighs 0.01 grams, he eats 1,000,000 grams of food a day, converted to kilograms, he is eating 1000kg a day. There are 2267961850 kilograms of spiders. It will take 2267961.85 days for spiders Georg to consume the entire population of spiders. That is about 6213.59 years. We are safe.

Spider's Georg is eating .694 kilograms per minute. The fastest eater in the world eats 7.6 hotdogs a minute. Each hotdog he eats weighs .0056 kg. That is .042 kilograms a minute. Spiders Georg is not human.

Star nosed moles are the fastest eaters, being able to eat ten mouthfuls of earthworms in 1.3 seconds, I was unfortunately incapable to find anything about how many earthworms a mouthful was, so for the sake of this post, I shall assume it is around 10. I have been getting so many mixed messages on how much worms weigh, anywhere from .25g to .45g but the one I saw the most was .39oz or 11 grams. (Do y'all see how un-fucking-helpful these were?) But I guess we'll go with 11 grams (I do not trust that number) so 1100 grams a second, or 1.1 kg a second. That seems way too fucking high, so I'll be trying the lowest number I saw to prove my point. .25 grams comes out to .011 kg a second, or, .65kg a minute.

Spiders Georg is just a very slow eating star nosed mole. However, this is assuming he eats 24/7, giving him the speed of a star nosed mole, it would take him only 15 minutes a day to consume his quota of making the average amount of spiders eaten by humans 3 per year. HOWEVER! Since Georg, a star nosed mole, is affecting the human population spiders eaten average, we must add all star nosed moles to the human population.

But because fuck me THERE ARE NO ESTIMATES OF STAR NOSED MOLE POPULATIONS. There are roughly 25 per hectare. Calculating its entire area (roughly because nobody gives me a straight answer on this shit), 554, 363. Around 2.5 percent of land is taken up by cities, so about 13,859 miles are unusable. So 540,504 square miles are inhabited. 139989893.4 hectares. 3,499,747,335 star nosed moles.

Total population of humans and star nosed moles: 11,499,747,335

Spiders Georg has to eat 40,000,000,000 spiders a year to keep the population eating 3 spiders on average. 109,589,041 a day. 4566210 an hour. 76104 a minute. 1268 a second. 13 grams a second. .013kg per second. Easily accomplishable by Spiders Georg.

It would take a mere 16 minutes of his day to eat enough to make the entire human population have an average of 3 spiders swallowed.

Sites I used and my math so people may fact check me (I feel like I did something incredibly wrong and the star nosed mole numbers should not be coming out like that)

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/science/underground-gourmet-mole-sets-a-speed-record.html

https://majorleagueeating.com/eaters/106

https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/spiders-gobble-gargantuan-numbers-of-tiny-prey/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/facts/common-earthworm

https://www.newgeography.com/content/001689-how-much-world-covered-cities#:~:text=My%20attention%20was%20recently%20drawn,is%20occupied%20by%20urban%20development.

https://www.esf.edu/aec/adks/mammals/starnosed_mole.php#:~:text=The%20range%20is%20from%20southeastern,organic%20muck%20adjacent%20to%20water.

[as-rynse]

making a mountain out of a wormhole

Perhaps this was some great cosmic test, thought the mole bitterly. It was just his luck to have caught this blasted cold only days before the great feast. He was distraught. In fact, distraught did not even cover the depths of his devastation. He was completely beside himself. In the last 5 hours of digging, the mole had managed to capture only 7 measly worms - barely enough to feed himself for the duration of their approaching night of revelry. 

“Oh maggots!” bemoaned the mole. What was he to do? He did not think he could suffer the humiliation of bringing fewer worms than even old Aunt Linda (who had become rather useless ever since the sprinkler incident of ‘09). 

The mole was wandering about in the softly packed earth rather despondently as he attempted to decipher the meaning of the half-formed signals emanating from his blocked, snotty nose. When, at that moment, the suggestion of a whiff of a worm wiggled its way up his left nostril. The subtle scent was almost lost amongst the host of self-flagellating thoughts running through the mole’s mind - when, suddenly, he caught it! It was a smell like no other! A most sweet fragrance that he could not help but to follow to its source. 

“Oh, joy!” exclaimed the mole rather loudly, before he quieted his tone so as to not scare off his prize. “I’ve got you,” he whispered to, what he assumed, was an unsuspecting worm. The mole began to dig with great alacrity, tiny hands shovelling many grams of dirt out of his way before, quite suddenly, he was falling. 

Down, down, down… Until he landed in an undignified lump on the floor of a large,  cavernous room.

“What under the earth is-” the mole began, feeling  quite sore and rather sorry for himself at this unexpected turn of events. But he halted mid-sentence as the smells of the room washed over him. 

As previously mentioned, the mole’s nose was not performing at its best at that current moment. But even the snot-riddled nose could not block out the scent of the most delicious worm that must have been laying not more than 10cm before him. What it was doing in this abandoned cavern, the mole did not know, and nor could he bring himself to care. Instead, the elated mole began to approach the worm, sending up a small prayer to the gods above, thanking them for his luck, when he was, yet again, halted midstep. This time, it was the sound of a surprisingly commanding voice that stopped the mole in his tracks . 

“Ah, dear mole. I have been expecting you.”

“AGH!” screamed the mole, who had not been expecting to be expected by a talking worm. 

“Fear not, my furry friend. I mean you no harm,” said the worm. 

“Agh!” said the mole, who had very much been meaning harm to the worm and who could only hope that said worm held no suspicions of such grisly intent. The mole shuffled uncomfortably on his tiny paws which, not moments ago, had been grasping around for his prey, claws extended and blood on the mind. “Well, yes. Good. I should hope so,” said the mole. 

The worm huffed a knowing laugh and regarded the mole with all-seeing eyes. 

“Tell me, mole. What is it that your heart desires most in this world? Tell me, and I shall grant it. For I,” said the worm with a humble flourish, “am a magical worm.”

The mole, who had been attempting to sneak up on the worm whilst it spoke, was once again brought to a halt by its words. 

“A- A magical worm? What? Like the ones from the great mole tales of old?” 

“Exactly like those ones, yes,” confirmed the magical worm, who himself had never made it into one such tale but who was very much gunning for it. “And, being the legendary, magical worm that I am, I would like to grant you one wish. Anything that your heart desires most.” The worm watched the mole as understanding graced his pointy face. 

“Anything I want… well. Wow. Who would have thought? Little old me stumbling upon a magical worm,” said the mole in awe. “Well, now. Let me think.”

And so the two creatures sat in comfortable quietude as the mole thought upon what he would wish for. Finally, the mole spoke.

“I’ve got it. I know what my heart desires most.” 

“Speak it, and it shall be yours, my mole-y friend,” spoke the worm.

“I want to be able to see! To see with my eyes!” the mole clarified. “I don’t want to have to depend on only my nose everytime I’m looking for food or trying to avoid foxes. I want to see what’s coming before it can see me. Oh magical worm,” said the mole with reverence, “give me sight!”

For a moment, there was silence. The worm said nothing and the mole could do nothing but wait with bated breath. 

“As you wish,” the worm responded at last. “But be warned, my friend. You may not like all that you see.” 

The mole took little stock of the worm’s final warning. He was already imagining the feast that would be held in his own name when he returned to the clan with more worms on which to feast than any mole could even dream of. The mole shuffled in excited anticipation as the worm worked its magic. 

Silence descended once more. The mole was starting to wonder if the worm had just been having him on and was currently trying to make a break for it. When a little trickle of something slid into his consciousness. 

“What-,” shouted the mole in shock, “What under the earth is this?!”

A warm yellow light began to illuminate the strange room and the mole came to the exhilarating realisation that this must be sight! The mole stood very still, waiting for his eyes to adjust to their new capacity. Finally, after no more yellow grew into the world, the mole began to move. His eyes roamed about the space. He could see the colour of the walls. They were brown. He looked down. The floor! It was brown as well, only it was slightly darker! The mole looked up and was elated to see that the ceiling above him was yet a different shade of brown. 

“Oh what fun!” exclaimed the mole. He turned to share in his newfound joy with the magical worm who had granted it when the most abominable sight caught his eyes. There, in the centre of the brown space, was the most horrible creature. It was long and pink and glistened with malice. And there, near what the mole assumed was the creature’s head, were the most frightening white orbs. The orbs bulged from the creature’s body, as if they had been stuck on with glue. And in their centre were little black dots that seemed to stare into the mole’s very soul.

“AGH!” screamed the mole and, stumbling about in the brown, he dug as fast as his little hands would take him away from the frightful beast and back home where he would tell the tale of the magical disappearing worm and the horrible pink monster that would haunt his dreams for years to come and that only a night time snack could chase away.  

[xoxochb]

Hello! I saw your post about stoichiometry and I was wondering like how deep exactly is your lesson on it? Like is it the basic level where you mostly have to balance the equations and then like change the molar mass into grams or moles? I didn’t take up a STEM course for college so I’m probably wrong and probably not the best person to help, and it has been a little over a year since I learned it. But, I quite enjoyed it back then so I wanted to help!

it’s just basic balancing and molar mass and grams and all that stuff lol I can’t do anything more advanced than this I SUCK at stoichiometry 🫩💔💔

[mindofrogue]

Chemistry student here. For relating shit to chemistry I find the best way is to understand the actual experiments and shit themselves. Like one mole of iron means fucking nothing it just seems like some randomly chosen huge fuck off number. But if you like know that a mole was created by taking (I believe this is true I’m going off brain knowledge) 100 grams of carbon black and figuring out the amount of molecules in it it makes more sense. Cause sure one mole of iron versus one mole of carbon weigh different amounts but fundamentally they have the same amount of molecules floating around.

saw this ask initially and still wasn't *getting* it. until i was in the bathroom on the toilet really thinking about a pile of iron vs a pile of carbon and went "yooooooooooooo" loudly in the bathroom (alone, thank fuck.) so im gonna try and draw out my thoughts after lunch to see if the connection is actually right.

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Mammalia - Afrosoricida

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

Our next group of Afrotherians is the strange order Afrosoricida. Afrosoricida is a Latin-Greek compound name which means "looking like African shrews”, another of the many groups of animals called “shrews” that is in no way related to true shrews. It contains the families Potamogalidae (“otter shrews”), Tenrecidae (“tenrecs”), and Chrysochloridae (“golden moles” - also in no way related to true moles).

Afrosoricids tend to be small. Most species are nocturnal and have poor eyesight. Their whiskers are rather sensitive and they can detect very minute vibrations in the ground to locate their prey. The three living groups have very little similarities otherwise, having evolved to occupy different niches. Potamogalids, the “otter shrews”, are carnivorous and semi-aquatic, preying on any aquatic animal they can find with their sensitive whiskers, particularly insects. Unlike most aquatic mammals, they swim by undulating their tail in a side-to-side motion. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa. Tenrecids, the “tenrecs”, are diverse, with some resembling shrews, some resembling rodents, and some resembling hedgehogs. Most are terrestrial, but some are semi-arboreal, some are fossorial, and at least one is semi-aquatic. All species are at least somewhat omnivorous, with invertebrates making up the largest part of their diets. They are native only to the island of Madagascar. Chrysochlorids, the “golden moles”, have short legs with powerful digging claws, very dense fur that repels dirt and moisture, and toughened skin, particularly on the head. Their fur varies from black to pale yellow or grey, and has an iridescent sheen of green, blue, violet or copper when viewed in light. Their eyes are non-functional and covered with furred skin, and their external ears are just tiny openings. An enlarged, dry, leathery pad protects their nostrils while the animal digs. They feed on small insects and earthworms or small vertebrates such as lizards or burrowing snakes. They are native to sub-Saharan Africa, mainly South Africa.

Unusual among placental mammals, afrosoricids have a cloaca, a singular orifice for both relieving waste and reproducing. Otter shrews have just two young per litter, golden moles one to three, but tenrecs can have as many as 32, depending on species.

Afrosoricida arose during the Eocene. The otter shrews and tenrecs are considered to have split about 47–53 million years ago, with all modern tenrecs descending from a common ancestor that crossed the Mozambique Channel 29–37 million years ago. While the fossil record of tenrecs is scarce, at least some specimens from the early Miocene of Kenya show close affinities to living species from Madagascar, such as Geogale aurita. Golden moles likely diverged from the group around 50 million years ago.

Propaganda under the cut:

Some species of tenrec are among the few terrestrial mammals that echolocate.

Some tenrec species are social, living in multigenerational family groups with over a dozen individuals.

The Large-eared Tenrec (Geogale aurita) (image 4) is heterothermic, meaning its body temperature fluctuates with the surrounding environment, although pregnant and lactating females may maintain a more steady, higher temperature. The animal is often torpid in the heat of the day, hiding in concealed locations such as hollow logs or holes, and waking up at night to hunt.

One of the smallest tenrecs is the Large-eared Tenrec at 6 to 7.5 cm (2.4 to 3.0 in) long, with a tail half as long, and weighing between 5 and 8 grams. Nevertheless, they are tiny predators, and will hunt for small prey, particularly termites, on the forest floor.

The endangered Jenkins's Shrew Tenrec (Microgale jenkinsae) lives only within the Mikea Forest, a semi-arid forest of sandy soil and relatively short trees. The forest is also home to several other species of tenrecs (though not unique to the forest), rodents, a shrew, lemurs, and many reptiles, including two vulnerable bird species. Mikea Forest is currently not protected, and is at risk of clearing for land and for commodity lumber.

Like humans, the Lesser Long-tailed Shrew Tenrec (Microgale longicaudata) can be active at any hour of the day or night. Each individual maintains its own pattern of rest and activity.

The Web-footed Tenrec (Microgale mergulus) is the only known semi-aquatic tenrec. It is strictly nocturnal, spending the day in stream-side burrows, only emerging at night to hunt. It feeds on aquatic insects and larvae, crayfish, crabs, small fish, and tadpoles.

The Greater Long-tailed Shrew Tenrec (Microgale principula) is one of eight species of Microgale tenrecs whose remains have been found in deposits in caverns at Andrahomana, alongside the bones of extinct birds including Elephant Birds (Mullerornis modestus) and Malagasy Sheldgoose (Centrornis majori). The animals may have fallen into the cave system through "skylights" in the roof. The cave is outside the present day range of the Greater Long-tailed Shrew Tenrec, suggesting it used to be more widespread.

The Lesser Hedgehog Tenrec (Echinops telfairi) is a tenrec which has convergently evolved to resemble a hedgehog. Like many other small exotic animals, they are growing in popularity in the exotic pet trade, resulting in these tenrecs being taken from the wild to fuel the industry. Like many other wild animals kept as pets, they tend to suffer from higher rates of malnutrition, abandonment, and morbidity when kept as pets.

The Highland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes nigriceps) takes its quilled defense to the next level, raising its quills when agitated. The barbed spines can also detach and will remain lodged in the skin of an inquisitive predator, like porcupine quills.

The black-and-white pattern of the Highland Streaked Tenrec is thought to mimic the juvenile patterning of the Tailless Tenrec (Tenrec ecaudatus), since the parents of the Tailless Tenrec are known to be aggressively protective.

The Tailless Tenrec is the largest species of tenrec, at 26 to 39 cm (10 to 15 in) in length and 2 kilograms (4.4 lb) in weight. As an omnivore, it eats large invertebrates, frogs, reptiles, mice and other small mammals, as well as fruits, leaves and other vegetation. It has small, needle-sharp teeth and, if threatened, will scream, erect its spiny hairs into a crest, jump, buck, and bite.

The Tailless Tenrec was the first tropical mammal observed to hibernate, for long stretches of time without waking periods, up to nine months at a time.

Tailless Tenrec females possess up to 29 teats, more than any other mammal.

The Lowland Streaked Tenrec (Hemicentetes semispinosus) (image 1) will not only raise its quills to deter predators, but may also aggressively headbutt them. It can also rub its quills together in a method known as stridulation, similar to the method of sound produced by crickets and cicadas. The sound produced is too high-pitched to be perceived by human ears, and is likely used to communicate with other Lowland Streaked Tenrecs. The streaked tenrec is the only mammal known to use stridulation for generating sound.

Giant Otter Shrews (Potamogale velox) (image 3) are solitary and are known to occupy between 500 and 1,000 m of stream, marking the boundaries of their territory with piles of dung, which they regularly visit to refresh.

The Nimba Otter Shrew (Micropotamogale lamottei) is able to dive for up to 15 minutes when frightened, temporarily slowing its metabolic rate to withstand oxygen deprivation.

Golden moles sense the world mainly through their heightened sense of hearing. They have been found to have ossicles (middle ear bones) that are larger than other similar mammals. These ossicles are believed to allow them to sense seismic vibrations, allowing them to be able to sense where they are. Many species also have long and highly coiled cochleas.

The Rough-haired Golden Mole (Chrysospalax villosus) sometimes feeds above ground, and, when it does, it roots about like a pig in search of worms and insects.

Golden moles may travel up to 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) a night in search of food. They seek promising clumps of grass by listening for wind-rustled grass-root stresses and termites' head-banging alarm signals, neither of which can be heard easily above ground, so they stop periodically and dip their heads under the sand to listen.

Cape Golden Moles (Chrysochloris asiatica) live in soil, but have been observed venturing onto sandy beaches, presumably to feed on amphipods and isopods occurring there.

In 2013 it was discovered that Hottentot Golden Moles (Amblysomus hottentotus) prefer males with larger penises.

The Giant Golden Mole (Chrysospalax trevelyani) is the largest golden mole species, at 23 cm (9.1 in) in length. It is also one of the rarest and most endangered of all the golden moles.

The critically endangered De Winton's Golden Mole (Cryptochloris wintoni) was last seen in 1937, and thought to be extinct. In 2017, it was listed among the 25 "most wanted lost species” for Re:wild's "Search for Lost Species" initiative. Using data and samples from surveys conducted in 2021, including environmental DNA, burrow traces, and sniffer dogs, a population was finally rediscovered in 2023, 86 years after its last sighting!