There are an estimated 10³¹ virus particles on Earth, most of them in the oceans, roughly ten times more than bacterial cells. Placed end to end, they would form a chain some 100 million light-years long. Far from mere nuisances, these viruses kill a large share of marine microbes every day, recycling nutrients throughout the ocean.
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.