Transcriber’s Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged. Italics are represented thus _italic_. THE STRANGEST THINGS IN THE WORLD THE STRANGEST THINGS IN THE WORLD _A Book About Extraordinary Manifestations of Nature_ THOMAS R. HENRY Public Affairs Press, Washington, D. C. Copyright, 1958, by Public Affairs Press 419 New Jersey Avenue, S. E., Washington 3, D. C. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-10881 INTRODUCTION The challenges of Nature’s paradoxes have been sharp spurs to man’s search for knowledge since the start of science. Fortunately the number of these paradoxes is infinite, and so the quests are endless. Man never will know a wonderless world. In the phenomena of life especially we have come only to the zone of morning twilight. The bright day of understanding is ahead. As its hours pass we can expect a constant succession of new paradoxes, new spurs to further advances. Man would be in a sad situation were it otherwise. For the bright light of noon and afternoon inevitably precedes sunset and darkness and sleep. This book is a compendium of some of Nature’s curiosities and contradictions in the field of life and as such it well may awaken that wonder which, as somebody has said, is the beginning of knowledge. The author is one of the world’s best-known and most respected science writers. This book is a personal and unique distillation of the wisdom he has developed in a lifetime of dealing with man’s effort to resolve the paradoxes of nature. LEONARD CARMICHAEL _Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution_ PREFACE Life has invaded nearly every crack and crevasse of the world during the billion years since it left its first traces on this planet. It has adjusted itself to all extremes of living, from nearly airless mountaintops five miles high to lightless floors of oceans five miles deep. It has found abodes in boiling hot springs and in the everlasting ice of Antarctic peaks. It very likely has invaded the cold, red deserts of Mars. Everywhere it has succeeded in altering the garments it wears to meet the stresses it has experienced.