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The Wonder of Life
Sam Levin

Carry this magazine outside, open to this page. Step off your front porch, or stoop, or whatever you have, and look around. What do you see?
I guess that will depend a lot on where you are. If you live in the desert, you might be stepping onto the world’s best drinker: the Texas horned lizard. This little guy doesn’t even need his mouth to quench his thirst. He drinks with his feet. His body is covered with micro-ducts, and when he steps on moist ground, the water travels through the ducts, across his body, and feeds into the side of his mouth through some tubes. So while you are gasping for breath while practically swallowing your Nalgene water bottle, he’s just walking around, sipping water through his toes.
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Sam Levin is a junior at Monument Mountain Regional High School in Massachusetts. In 8th grade, he spent nine months observing a pond near his house and wrote a book about it. As a freshman, Sam co-founded a student garden that now provides food in all three cafeterias of his school district.
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