Neither a beaver nor a rat, or a Hydromys. World Rat Day is celebrated on April 4, while April 7 is International Beaver Day. The Hydromys does not have its own day, so we will honor it by making it our April object of the month.

Ruby at night, emerald by day...
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, expeditions were constantly setting off to the Urals to search for natural resources. It was during one such expedition, in 1832, that one of the researchers found gray-green crystals.

About 100 million years ago, in Maryland, USA, where the Goddard Space Flight Center is now, there was a swamp. Today, there is a complex of office buildings in this place, but in 2012, amateur paleontologist Ray Stanford found a fragment of iron-coated sandstone in this area. His attention was drawn to a track left there by a herbivorous dinosaur.

The Permian is the last geological period of the Paleozoic era, following the Carboniferous and ending about 252 million years ago with the largest extinction in Earth's history. It was a time when many amphibians lived, whose body shape would more closely resemble reptiles such as lizards or crocodiles than most amphibians today.

Czytając o wulkanach rzadko myślimy o terytorium naszego kraju. A tymczasem mamy w Polsce miejsca, gdzie wulkaniczne stożki górują nad horyzontem niczym japoński Fudżi.