Biology

Pronghorn — Second-Fastest Land Animal

Pronghorn — Second-Fastest Land Animal

09/14/2022

Updated on 10/17/2022

Cheetahs are cool. They’re sleek. They’re majestic. They’re hunters who use their speed to chase down their prey. They’re the fastest land animals around, topping out in some measures at 60-70 mph. True, cheetahs can only maintain their sprints for maybe a half mile to a mile at most before needing a rest, but we don’t care. Cheetahs are just…read more

William Shakespeare, RIP

05/27/2021

Just shy of 6 months after he became the second person in the UK to receive a Covid-19 vaccine (he got the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine), William “Bill” Shakespeare passed away on May 26, 2021. Shakespeare became famous on December 8, 2020 when he received his first Covid vaccine jab. It was a momentous occasion for him, as well as everyone…read more

William Shakespeare — The Second Person to Receive the Covid-19 Vaccine

William Shakespeare — The Second Person to Receive the Covid-19 Vaccine

12/08/2020

The United Kingdom on December 8, 2020 became the first nation to begin widespread distribution of a working Covid-19 vaccine. At the University Hospital in Coventry, in what hopes to be the beginning of the end for the pandemic that effectively shut down the world for most of 2020, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world outside…read more

Canada — Second Country to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

Canada — Second Country to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

10/17/2018

The legal sale of recreational marijuana began today (10/17/18) in Canada, the second country to do so. More than just decriminalizing its use, or limiting its use or sale to specific places, people can now buy, cultivate, and use marijuana to their heart’s content (if their hearts are content with whatever limits their provinces may impose, that is). None of…read more

Fin Whale — World’s Second-Largest Animal

Fin Whale — World’s Second-Largest Animal

02/28/2018

Updated on 09/20/2022

Finner, razorback, flathead, common rorqual, herring whale, finback whale — these are all names for the fin whale, an animal that few outside of the marine biology or maritime communities know or care about. But it is a majestic animal with sleek hydrodynamic lines and curves that roams the world’s oceans gulping down plankton and fish in astonishing quantities. Second…read more

2018 Groundhog Day Round-up

2018 Groundhog Day Round-up

02/02/2018

Updated on 10/08/2018

It’s February 2 — favorite day for SilverMedals.net enthusiasts! Not only is it the second day of the second month and the anniversary of the launch of SilverMedals.net, it is also Groundhog Day! Yes, it’s the day where fancy men in top hats stand outside in the freezing cold staring at the furry little rodents and their shadows. As a…read more

Laika the Space Dog

Laika the Space Dog

10/24/2017

Updated on 09/10/2022

Sputnik 1 was successfully launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, becoming the first artificial object to reach Earth orbit. Having been launched during the Cold War era, this tiny, beeping, ball-shaped satellite caused great concern among many paranoid red-scared Americans for whom the event was not so much a great moment of scientific achievement, but rather a disconcerting development…read more

Second-degree Burns

Second-degree Burns

10/19/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

Editor’s note: Please don’t be a moron. Under no circumstances should anything written in this post be considered medical advice or be used for diagnostic purposes. Doctors do that stuff. I’m not a doctor and I don’t pretend to be. SilverMedals.net is not a refereed journal by any stretch. At some point in all our lives we experience a first-degree burn….read more

Survivors

Survivors

06/14/2017

Updated on 10/08/2018

It looks like we can add “survivor of mass extinction” to the list of awesomeness associated with pronghorns. According to this piece on the BBC website, while mastodons, giant sloths, and camels were dying off like a bunch of evolutionary wimps 11,000 years ago, the pronghorn kept bounding along the American plains and deserts like a happy-go-lucky little smart-ass. That part…read more