Science 🧬 on Instagram: "Earth’s 24-hour day is not a constant. It’s set by a spinning, squishy planet locked in a slow-dance with the Moon. That dance is stretching the day, not by minutes you can feel, but by milliseconds that accumulate across deep time.⁠ ⁠ The main engine behind this shift is tidal friction. The Moon’s gravity raises ocean bulges, and because water and seafloor friction keep those bulges from lining up perfectly, Earth’s rotation loses a tiny bit of energy. Angular momentum doesn’t vanish, it gets transferred outward, nudging the Moon farther away by roughly 3.8 centimeters per year while Earth’s spin very gradually slows. Geological “clocks” preserved in sediment rhythms suggest that around 1.4 billion years ago a day lasted about 18 hours and 41 minutes.⁠ ⁠ Extrapolate that slow brake and you get a 25-hour day on the order of 200 million years from now. The number is a just projection because Earth’s rotation also jitters. Winds and ocean currents trade angular momentum with the solid Earth, and big earthquakes can tweak day length by microseconds.⁠ ⁠ Catching these tiny changes demands precision bordering on the surreal. Geodesists combine atomic clocks, satellite and star-based references, and instruments such as ring-laser gyroscopes that can resolve fractions of a millisecond in day length.⁠"

Good Vibe Quotes on Instagram: "New research shows some female frogs fake their own deaths to avoid unwanted mating. We’re talking full-body limp, floating upside down, even holding their breath. It’s the ultimate ghost move— literally. Turns out “playing dead” isn’t just for opossums... it’s for frog queens dodging thirsty suitors, too. 🐸💀 via @realratedred #NaturelsSavage #FrogFacts #RatedRed #WildScience #NoMeansNo"