Mighty Feathers Pt. 1

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: Another name for the main shaft of the feather is the rakious sporangia.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: The shaft of the feather and all the rest of the feather is made of a protein called keratin.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: Keratin is a protein that also makes up lion claws, horse hooves, rhino horns, your skin, and your knee caps.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: Feathers are made in a small tube called a rachis feather.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: Egrets and herons produce continuously growing talcum down feathers. The down feather’s tips break off and create a cleaning powder.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: The plumule feathers and the afterfeathers of the emperor penguins hold just the right-sized air bubbles.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: The emperor penguin’s 90,000 feathers are squeezed by muscles attached to the outer feathers. A micro-bubble air tunnel emerges from their feathers which coats the swimmers like a jacket.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: The emperor penguin’s “bubble jacket” lets them swim 6-times faster which helps them zip past enemies and pop out of the water onto icebergs.

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: The peacock’s astonishing “eye feather” shockingly has no color. It’s instead has flat, exact-width keratin-layered mirror barbules. 

MIGHTY FEATHERS PART 1: Peacocks have flat, exact-width keratin-layered mirror barbs.  They destroy and amplify light. The “eye feathers” are actually light destroying and light amplifying feathers.