Chaga

Relatively unknown in the West, chaga is one of the strangest-looking fungi you will ever see. Hard, woody and found on birch and other trees, it looks like a hardened, crusty formation of burned charcoal. Despite its unseemly appearance, it possesses profound healing properties.

Found throughout northern parts of Europe, Asia and North America, chaga draws nutrients from the tree on which it grows. It is rich in antioxidant phenols, and in studies with mice has exhibited anti-inflammatory and immune-boosting effects. One of the most surprising benefits of chaga is the relief of psoriasis, a disease notoriously difficult to treat. In a 1973 Russian study, chaga was given to 50 people suffering from psoriasis and everyone saw improvement. “Nothing really works for psoriasis,” Kilham says. “But everyone in this study had their psoriasis resolved. There’s never been an effect like that for psoriasis.”

Chaga extract may also have anti-cancer effects, according to some laboratory studies. One 2008 study observed that chaga extract inhibited liver cancer cell growth, suggesting that this fungus may provide a new therapeutic option for treating liver cancer.

Sceletium

This succulent herb from South Africa was once used as a bartering currency, according to written records that date back to the 1600s. Since then it has made its way to North America and has been embraced for its reported antidepressant properties, including its ability to help elevate mood and promote relaxation and a sense of well being.

Sceletium contains alkaloids that interact with receptors in the brain, affecting the release of dopamine (a compound that affects pleasure) and serotonin (a compound that affects mood). “After you take it, you will feel its effects in about half an hour, and it feels great,” says Chris Kilham, a researcher and author also known as the “Medicine Hunter.” The herb produces an increased sense of clarity and an enhanced capacity for ideas and mental focus, he says. Sceletium may also be useful in decreasing anxiety, stress and tension.

Naples

Naples is the capital of the Italian region Campania and the third-largest municipality in Italy, after Rome and Milan. In 2015, around 975,260 people lived within the city's administrative limits. The Metropolitan City of Naples had a population of 3,115,320. Naples is the 9th-most populous urban area in the European Union with a population of between 3 million and 3.7 million. About 4.4 million people live in the Naples metropolitan area, one of the largest metropolises on the Mediterranean Sea.

Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Bronze Age Greek settlements were established in the Naples area in the second millennium BC. A larger colony – initially known as Parthenope, Παρθενόπη – developed on the Island of Megaride around the ninth century BC, at the end of the Greek Dark Ages. The city was refounded as Neápolis in the sixth century BC and became a lynchpin of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society and eventually becoming a cultural centre of the Roman Republic. Naples remained influential after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, serving as the capital city of the Kingdom of Naples between 1282 and 1816. Thereafter, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861.

Danakil Desert – Ethiopia

The Danakil Desert is a desert in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. Situated in the Afar Triangle, it stretches across 100,000 square kilometres (10,000,000 ha) of arid terrain. The area is known for its volcanoes and extreme heat, with daytime temperatures surpassing 50 °C (122 °F).^[1] Less than an inch of rainfall occurs each year. The Danakil Desert is one of the lowest and hottest places on Earth. It is inhabited by a few Afar, who engage in salt mining.

Local geology is characterized by volcanic and tectonic activity, various climate cycles, and discontinuous erosion. The basic geological structure of this area was caused by the movement of tectonic plates as Africa moved away from Asia. Mountain chains formed and were eroded again during the Paleozoic. Inundations by the sea caused the formation of layers of sandstone, and limestone was deposited further offshore. As the land rose again, further sandstone formed above the limestone. Further tectonic shifts caused lava to pour out of cracks and cover the sedimentary deposits.

The Danakil Desert has a number of lakes formed by lava flows that dammed up several valleys. Among these is Lake Afrera, which has thick saline crusts on its banks. The area is flanked toward the east by the Danakil Alps, a tabular mountain system that has a few volcanic cones which peak in height in Mount Ramlo (2,130 metres (7,000 ft)). A deposit of salt up to 800 metres (2,600 ft) thick can also be found in the Salt Plain flatlands. Other local lakes include Lake Asale (116 metres (381 ft) below sea level) and Lake Giuletti/Afrera (80 metres (260 ft) below sea level), both of which possess cryptodepressions in the Danakil Depression. The Afrera contains many active volcanoes, including the Maraho, Dabbahu, Afdera and Erta Ale.

Arctic Hydromedusa

Hydromedusae form the largest group of cnidarians and are generally smaller then the true jellyfish (typically only a few millimeters to centimenters at maximum size). Hydromedusae are distinquished from true jellyfish by prodcing their eggs and sperm under the bell, but on the outside of the animal, while true jellyfish produce eggs inside the gut.

Cnidarians can be found all the way from the surface to the bottom of the oceans, although most species have a specific range of depth over which they are found. Within the water column, hydromedusae they can be common, frequently being a large but variable proportion of the volume of zooplankton collected by nets. All Hydromedusae are predatory and eat smaller zooplankton. Some species have relatively few predators, while others are preyed on heavily by other cnidarians, and fish such as mackerel and chum salmon.

Sea Angel

Sea angels (clade Gymnosomata) are a large group of extremely small, swimming sea slugs, not to be confused with Hydrozoans (Jellies and other similar creatures), classified into six different families. They are pelagic opisthobranchs in the clade Gymnosomata within the larger clade Heterobranchia. Sea angels were previously referred to as a type of pteropod.

Sea angels are also sometimes known as "cliones" but this is potentially misleading because the family Clionidae is just one of the families within this clade.

Recent molecular data suggest the Gymnosomata form a sister group to the Thecosomata (other planktonic, weakly or nonmineralized gastropods), but this long-standing hypothesis has also had some recent detractors.

Christmas Tree worm

The worm is aptly named, both its common and Latin names refer to the two chromatically hued spiral structures, the most common feature seen by divers. The multicolored spirals are highly derived structures for feeding and respiration.

Spirobranchus Gianteius Peniez is similar to most tube-building polychaetes. It has a tubular, segmented body lined with chaeta, small appendages that aid the worm's mobility. Because it does not move outside its tube, this worm does not have any specialized appendages for movement or swimming.

The worms' most distinct features are two "crowns" shaped like Christmas trees. These are highly modified prostomial palps, which are specialized mouth appendages. Each spiral is composed of feather-like tentacles called radioles, which are heavily ciliated and cause any prey trapped in them to be transported to the worm's mouth. While they are primarily feeding structures, S. giganteus also uses its radioles for respiration; hence, the structures commonly are called "gills."