This You Must Know
The surface tension of water, & how to use it for nearly effortless walking.
Light without heat: what every glowworm knows.
What it means to be larval, to have complicated mouthparts & the sprout-tips of wings.
The secrets of chitin, which imposes limits to growth through an architect’s dream of fully inhabitable space.
Why snow fleas persist in seeking their fortunes on the skin of such a cold, white host.
What the inchworm really measures with its green prostrations.
What this is that we are told the meek shall inherit.
Chitin, pronounced KITE-n, is a nitrogenous polysaccharide – i.e., a type of sugar – responsible for the tough, outer shells of most invertebrates, including insect exoskeletons, as well as the architecture of fungal mycelia and lichens.