INTERESTING FACTS.

1. Sea urchin-inspired device may help explore Mars: Scientists have 3D printed a claw-like device, inspired by the sea urchins intricate mouth and teeth, that may be used to sample sediments on planets such as Mars. The urchin's mouthpiece is composed of an intricate framework of muscles and five curved teeth with triangle-shaped tips that can scrape, cut, chew and bore holes into the toughest rocks. "Our goal was a bio-inspired device that's more precise and efficient at grabbing ground samples and won't disturb the surrounding area like a shovel would", said Michael Frank, a Ph.D Scholar at University of California. Simulations show that teeth with keels when subjected to a 4.5 kg load. Researchers also noted that adding keel increases mass of the tooth by 4 percent.
2. Earth home to one lakh crore species: Earth may contain nearly one lakh crore species, while 99.999 percent of them remain undiscovered, according to the largest ever analysis of microbial data. Researchers at Indiana University in the US combined microbial, plant and animal community data sets from government, academic and citizen science sources, resulting in the largest compilation of its kind. This data represents over 5.6 million microscopic and non-microscopic species from 35,000 locations across all the world's oceans and continents, except Antarctica.

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