00:00An elite combat pilot wearing a pressurized flight suit can black out at roughly 9 Gs.
00:05But a woodpecker, that tiny red-crested builder of the trees,
00:10can handle deceleration forces of nearly 1,400 Gs every time it hammers into wood.
00:16Its brain should be crushed. Its neck should snap. Its eyes should burst from the impact.
00:22Yet it survives because its tongue is incredibly long,
00:27wrapping all the way around the skull and cushioning the brain like a built-in shock absorber.
00:33Every strike also has to land perfectly straight,
00:36because even a slight angle could damage its delicate vertebrae.
00:40And just before impact, its eyelids tighten and thicken,
00:44acting like natural safety shields that keep the eyes firmly in place.
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