Rewriting the Rules of Life: Extreme Insects

Stole this from a scientist who studies the Arctic and it completely changed how I

see insects. There's a beetle in Alaska that literally freezes solid every winter and

comes back to life in spring. Its body produces a natural antifreeze that replaces seventy

percent of its water content. I thought that was wild until I learned about

bombardier beetles that store two separate chemicals in their abdomen and mix them to

create a boiling hot explosion. The temperature reaches two hundred twelve degrees Fahrenheit.

Then there's the twist nobody talks about. Desert ants in the Sahara can

withstand body temperatures of one hundred twenty eight degrees by walking on stilted legs to