Lizard drinks through it's foot

Cool and funny. [Link]

This mind-bendingly cute thorny devil lizard is one of the most sought-after creatures in the engineering world because it has a special talent: drinking through its foot. Using cracks in its scales, this little guy can wick water up through its foot into its body. Materials scientists hope that by studying how the lizard does this, they can invent substances that absorb water in a similar fashion. And bioengineers might go further.

Now why I think this is funny is another story. A gaming story. A Star Wars gaming story about a jedi with a very poor knowledge of science. We were playing the old Star Wars RPG from West End Games. A player I'll call 'K' was playing the jedi of the group. We were attacked by bad guys with poison gas. K had a habit of extending jedi powers way past the logical limit, so he declared that he would 'breathe through his skin like a frog', thus preventing his poisoning. He couldn't understand why we all started laughing.

You probably needed to have been there.