Have you heard of the “African unicorn”? Okapis have tongues long enough to wash their eyelids. The 6-foot-tall, roughly 500-pound, famously shy okapi (Okapia johnstoni) can only be found in the wild in the Ituri tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its biology features some amazing adaptations: A unique strip pattern on its rump helps the mammal blend in with shade cast by the rainforest canopy, and its fur is coated in a natural oil that repels moisture, something that rainforests obviously provide in abundance. What’s more, the okapi’s large ears can detect even the slightest disturbance, and okapi mothers communicate with their young in frequencies beyond human hearing. However, perhaps the okapi’s most useful evolutionary trait is its tongue. Stretching some 12 to 14 inches, it’s long enough to swat flies, clean the okapi’s ears, and even clean its eyelids. The tongue is also prehensile, meaning it can grasp and strip leaves from branches. This is immensely useful, as okapis can eat up to 60 pounds of food every day. Although okapis live an isolated existence and look like a cross between a zebra and a deer, their tongues give away their genetic lineage. Okapis are the only living relatives of the giraffe, which explains the animal’s nicknames, including forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, and zebra giraffe. Like okapis, giraffes also sport blue-hued prehensile tongues, and scientists estimate that the two species shared a common ancestry some 11 million to 12 million years ago. Today, unfortunately, okapis live under threat from deforestation, mining, armed militant groups, and hunting. Thankfully, groups like the Okapi Conservation Project are hard at work preserving the habitat of this “Congolese unicorn” for generations to come. Rough length (in inches) of the average human tongue 3 Inches. Weight (in pounds) of a blue whale’s tongue 8,000 Estimated number of okapis living in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve 3,500 Number of stomachs okapis have 4 Until 1901, Western scientists thought the okapi was a mythical creature. For a mammal that can weigh hundreds of pounds, the scientific discovery of the okapi seems startlingly late. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Western scientists heard about an “African unicorn” that some Congolese Indigenous peoples called o’api. However, because okapis live in hard-to-reach rainforests and are famously shy, experts dismissed the animal as simply a myth, a cryptid similar to the yeti of the Himalayas or the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. However, in 1900, British explorer Sir Harry Johnston sent the first hide samples to the Zoological Society of London, and the okapi “myth” transformed into reality. Although finally “found” (at least by Western scientists; local tribes likely knew of the animal for millennia), traces of the okapi’s once-mythical status can still be seen — the creature serves as a mascot of sorts for the International Society of Cryptozoology. Because if the “African unicorn” is real, what else might science turn up next?

Why scary movies may be good for your health. Watching a scary movie can burn as many calories as exercise. We're all familiar with the feelings that come with watching a fright flick — the sense of dread that engulfs us as a character enters a foreboding place, ominous music building, etc. According to a 2012 study commissioned by the video subscription service Lovefilm, these heart-pounding moments can do more than cause a good old-fashioned scare, however. Of the 10 movies tested, half caused participants to burn at least 133 calories, more than the amount used up by a 140-pound adult on a brisk 30-minute walk. Granted, this limited study was hardly robust enough to earn a write-up in a peer-reviewed journal. Yet the science behind the results is essentially valid, thanks to human hard-wiring that traces to when our primitive ancestors had good reason to fear the monsters lurking in the night. When exposed to a harrowing situation, our sympathetic nervous system triggers the "flight or fight" response, which sends adrenaline into the bloodstream, diverts blood and oxygen to muscles, and kicks heart activity into a higher gear. Add in the outwardly physical reactions often prompted by the scariest scenes, such as jumping back in your seat or instinctively reaching for a companion, and it's easy to see how sitting through The Shining (184 calories) or Jaws (161 calories) delivers results akin to sweating through a workout. There are other benefits to putting ourselves through this sort of simulated danger, including the release of endorphins and dopamine, which allows us to feel relaxed and fulfilled after "surviving" the events witnessed on screen. Of course, not everyone is a fan of the frightening imagery in The Exorcist (158 calories) or Alien (152 calories), and researchers caution that stress can outweigh the gains for people who are genuinely repulsed by these movies. If health is your goal and the sight of blood makes you queasy, you're better off rising from the couch and getting your legs moving instead of watching someone else flee the clutches of a zombie. Calories burned during the study's airing of “A Nightmare on Elm Street” 118 Competitive chess players can burn up to 6,000 calories per day during a tournament. If scary movies aren't your cup of tea and you want another creative way to burn calories, then competitive chess may be your ticket. According to Stanford University researcher Robert Sapolsky, a chess player can go through 6,000 calories a day over the course of a tournament, about three times the daily amount expended by the average person. The reasons are largely the same as those previously mentioned — the heightened tension of a high-stakes game forces bodies into a state of energy-consuming overdrive. However, the effects are magnified by the behavior of participants, who often skip meals and endure sleepless nights as they obsess over strategy. As a result, top players have taken to training like professional athletes to prepare for the grueling toll of tournaments. Norway's Magnus Carlsen, for example, partakes in an array of activities that include running, soccer, skiing, and yoga, a regimen that helped him reign supreme as the undisputed world chess champion from 2013 to 2023.

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Lucille Désirée Ball was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by Time in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for her work in all four of these areas. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning 5, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She earned many honors, including the Women in Film Crystal Award, an induction into the Television Hall of Fame, a Kennedy Center Honor, and the Governors Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Born: August 6, 1911, Jamestown, New York, United States Died: April 26, 1989, Los Angeles, California, United States Cause of Death: Acute aortic aneurysm Net worth: $60 million

Word of the Day: Crepitate VERB 1. Make a crackling sound. Example Sentences. 1. "The fallen leaves crepitate under Samuel's feet as he runs through the woods." 2. "I could practically hear electricity crepitating beneath my fingers when I touched the plasma ball at the science museum." 3. "Lisa relished how the fire crepitated as more logs were thrown on." Word Origin. Latin, early 17th century When "crepitate" was first used in the early 17th century, it meant "to break wind." That embarrassing meaning has since disappeared, but the roots remain the same: The word comes from the Latin "crepitat-" ("crackled, rustled"), which in turn developed from the Latin verbs "crepitare" and "crepare" ("to rattle").