Ocean drilling and deep mines have revealed microbial life several kilometers below the surface, in hot, lightless rock. According to the Deep Carbon Observatory, this deep biosphere holds 15 to 23 billion tonnes of carbon, hundreds of times the mass of all humans. Some of these cells may have been living in slow motion for thousands of years.
In 2022, a young tagged bar-tailed godwit flew from Alaska to Tasmania in about 11 days of nonstop flight, covering 13,560 km without eating, drinking or landing. Before departure, these birds pile on huge fat reserves and shrink their digestive organs, which are useless during the journey.
To escape rivals, a dung beetle rolls its ball of dung in a straight line. At night, it holds its course using the glowing band of the Milky Way. In a planetarium, researchers showed that beetles rolled straight under a starry sky but wandered aimlessly when the galaxy was switched off. It was the first animal known to navigate this way.