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Pando, also known as The Trembling Giant, is a clonal colony of a single quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. The plant is estimated to weigh collectively 6,000,000 kg (6,600 short tons). The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms. Pando is located 1 mile southwest of Fish Lake on Utah’s Route 25, in the Fremont River Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest, at the western edge of the Colorado Plateau in South-Central Utah,

(Fact Source/Read more about it HERE)

What’s fascinating about the tiny ‘leaf sheep,’ which can grow up to 5mm in length and can be found near Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines, is that they are one of the only animals in the world that can perform photosynthesis (the others all belong to the sacoglossa sea slug clade). When they eat algae, they suck out the chloroplasts and incorporate them into their own bodies in a process called kleptoplasty. This process, which otherwise can only be performed by single-celled organisms, essentially makes them solar-powered slugs!

(Fact Source)

Give me Hufflepuffs who get in trouble with Snape for not being able to keep quiet about his bullying in class because it’s not right. Give me Hufflepuffs who have the bad habit of staying up for 3 nights straight and are crabby because they’re working too hard. Give me Hufflepuffs who haul off and punch someone’s who’s been harassing them for weeks and their “infinite patience” just ran out. Give me Hufflepuffs who get into heated arguments with other Hufflepuffs because telling someone that they don’t belong here because they are too ‘something’ is directly against Helga’s principles. 

Not in a combative, threatening Gryffindor-or-Slytherin way, either, but a pure Hufflepuff way that slides gleefully into passive-aggressive if need be.

If he gets too snappish with one student somebody else will pipe up “Professor Snape?” and they’ll have a perfectly reasonable, intelligent question that they probably sat on for most of the lesson so as to have it in reserve. 

If he brushes it off or answers quickly and goes back to the first student somebody else will have a different question.

Once a second student asks their question it’s basically a heads-up to the rest of the class to come up with their own distractory questions.

Snape won’t be able to get near the student for the rest of the lesson because the whole class will keep him busy with questions.

If he snaps at any student for asking a stupid question somebody else will raise their hand and say they were wondering that too.

The person he started to bully is left to complete their potion in peace.

If Snape tries to shut them all up and make them wait until he’s finished yelling, someone will develop an emergency.

“Professor, my potion’s turning orange, why’s it turning orange?”

“Eeep! I accidentally dropped some knarl quills in too early, what should I do?”

They totally study volatiles and reactive ingredients in their off time so that they know how to produce a result Snape recognizes as a serious matter.

If all else fails Hufflepuffs will happily explode their own potions to draw Snape’s ire from whoever he’s tormenting.

The Ravenclaws happily take advantage of the distraction to do their own experimenting and research without being overly stymied by responsible adult supervision.

Forget Tatooine, scientists have found a triple-star system

Planets that orbit two stars are a dime a dozen in the universe. Even Star Wars pays homage to double-star systems in that classic scene on Luke Skywalker’s home planet, Tatooine. But now astronomers have found a much rarer triple-star system. If you stood on the exoplanet called KELT-4Ab, you’d see a three-sun sunset. It’s only the fourth triple-star system ever discovered. This is the closest three-star system we’ve ever found to Earth, so the researchers think we could learn a lot from it.