Skip navigation

Tag Archives: science!

Coconut crabs

Have you ever heard of coconut crabs?  The first time I saw/heard of one, I thought it was a joke.  Because…srsly?

Coconut crab. . .

Links to source

Look at that!  The thing is about the same size as the trash can!  And no, as far as I can tell, it’s not a tiny trash can.

So anyway, coconut crabs are a species of hermit crabs are are the largest of the terrestrial arthropods.  They grow up to about 16 in with a leg span of about 3 ft.  Three feet!  That’s about the same length as Yaris!  It’s a Yaris-sized crab!  (Ok, I know it’s only the leg span but still.)

They aren’t as heavy as Yaris though.  Yaris is now at a svelte 55ish lbs.  A coconut crab with the dimensions described above would probably be about 9 lbs.  Can you imagine a 9 lb crab on your plate for dinner?  It wouldn’t even be a plate.  It would have to be a platter.  A platter holding a single crab.  And you have to eat it all.  Gosh, why are you such a piggy?

But anyway, you probably won’t find any here (by which I mean the continental US).  Coconut crabs are found on coasts in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but not all the way out to the continental States.  It’s sad that they also don’t exist in wherever my Animal Crossing town is.  Actually, coconut crabs only made it into one game, I think.  I guess I won’t get to see one of these things up close any time soon.

Giant tomatoes on the sun

I recently came across a headline that read, “See giant tornadoes on sun.”

I have a tendency to misread things when I’m sleep deprived, so I read, “See giant tomatoes on sun.”  And then I had to do a double take.

But actually, that would make a lot of sense, that tomatoes would grow to giant sizes on the sun.  Tomatoes really like sunlight.  On the sun, there’s sunlight all the time (duh).  The tomatoes are probably ginormous.  You know, it’s probably where we’re getting our weapons-grade lasers from.  You haven’t forgotten that lasers and tomatoes are directly related, have you?

Anyway, this explains so much.  We don’t really see laser guns and laser cannons in use because those tomatoes have to be cultivated on the sun.  But that’s pretty hard to do given that the sun’s surface isn’t the greatest living environment for humans.  And our manned space program is in shambles anyway (I’m not counting the ISS in this).  We could send rovers to do everything for us, but all the active missions are on Mars.  The sun’s surface isn’t the greatest place for rovers anyway.

Hmm…maybe they’re growing tomatoes on SDO.  Maybe SDO’s mission isn’t to observe the sun and the sun’s influence on earth.  Or maybe that’s just the cover mission.  The real goal is to grow weapons grade tomatoes.  I bet SOHO was doing that too.

I think…I may be onto something here.

Well, I don't imagine the tomato would be happy to be growing on the sun. It's hot. Also, even though I put stars in the background, it's a lie. You'd never be able to see any stars in the background with the sun in the way. It's too bright.

Well, I don’t imagine the tomato would be happy to be growing on the sun. It’s hot. Also, even though I put stars in the background, it’s a lie. You’d never be able to see any stars in the background with the sun in the way. It’s too bright.

Here’s a video of the giant tornadoes (the storms are many times the size of our planet) on the sun if you’re interested.  The sun is an interesting place.