Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfish, toadfish, toadies, toadle, honey toads, sugar toads, and sea squab. They are morphologically similar to the closely related porcupinefish, which have large external spines. The scientific name refers to the four large teeth, fused into an upper and lower plate, which are used for crushing the hard shells of crustaceans and mollusks, their natural prey.
Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin. Its name derives from Tetraodontiformes, an order that includes pufferfish, porcupinefish, ocean sunfish, and triggerfish; several of these species carry the toxin. Although tetrodotoxin was discovered in these fish and found in several other animals, it is actually produced by certain infecting or symbiotic bacteria like Pseudoalteromonas, Pseudomonas, and Vibrio as well as other species found in animals.
The River Piddle or Trent or North River is a small rural Dorset river which rises in the Dorset Downs and flows into Poole Harbour near Wareham.
The fugu in Japanese, bogeo or bok (복) in Korean, and hétún in Standard Modern Chinese is a pufferfish, normally of the genus Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides, or a porcupinefish of the genus Diodon, or a dish prepared from these fish.
The A35 is a major road in southern England, connecting Honiton in Devon and Southampton in Hampshire. It is a trunk road for some of its length. Most of its route passes through Dorset and the New Forest. It originally connected Exeter and Southampton, the original A35 ran along what is now the A3052 joining the present road at Charmouth.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood is the final novel by the English author Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870.
In a cellular automaton, a puffer train, or simply puffer, is a finite pattern that moves itself across the "universe", leaving debris behind. Thus a pattern consisting of only a puffer will grow arbitrarily large over time. While both puffers and spaceships have periods and speeds, unlike puffers, spaceships do not leave debris behind.
The Vital Spark is a fictional Clyde puffer, created by Scottish writer Neil Munro. As its captain, the redoubtable Para Handy, often says: "the smertest boat in the coastin' tred".
Puddletown is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated by the River Piddle, from which it derives its name, about 4.5 miles (7 km) northeast of the county town Dorchester. Its earlier name Piddletown fell out of favour, probably because of connotations of the word "piddle". The name Puddletown was officially sanctioned in the late 1950s. Puddletown's civil parish covers 2,908 hectares and extends to the River Frome to the south. In 2013, the estimated population of the civil parish was 1450.
USS Puffer (SS-268), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the puffer.
The Clyde puffer is a type of small coal-fired and single-masted cargo ship, built mainly on the Forth and Clyde canal, and which provided a vital supply link around the west coast and Hebrides of Scotland.
Bowling is a village in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, with a population of 740 (2015).
The Tales of Para Handy is a Scottish television series set in the western isles of Scotland in the 1930s, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. It starred Gregor Fisher as Captain Peter "Para Handy" MacFarlane, Sean Scanlan as first mate Dougie Cameron, Rikki Fulton as engineer Dan Macphail and Andrew Fairlie as Sunny Jim. These four made up the crew of the puffer Vital Spark which was employed by the Campbell Shipping Company, headquartered in Glasgow and run by Andrew Campbell, Para Handy's brother-in-law and owner of the Vital Spark.
Takifugu rubripes, commonly known as the Japanese puffer, Tiger puffer, or torafugu, is a pufferfish in the genus Takifugu. It is distinguished by a very small genome that has been fully sequenced because of its use as a model species and is in widespread use as a reference in genomics.
Brandon Duane Puffer is an American former professional baseball pitcher. A relief pitcher, Puffer played in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Houston Astros (2002–2003), San Diego Padres (2004), and San Francisco Giants (2005).
The northern puffer, Sphoeroides maculatus, is a species in the family Tetraodontidae, or pufferfishes, found along the Atlantic coast of North America. Unlike many other pufferfish species, the flesh of the northern puffer is not poisonous, although its viscera can contain poison, and high concentrations of toxins have been observed in the skin of Floridian populations. They are commonly called sugar toads in the Chesapeake Bay region, where they are eaten as a delicacy. There was widespread consumption of northern puffers during the rationing that accompanied the Second World War, establishing a commercial fishery that reached its zenith in the 1960s. In much of the Northeast, the fish is known simply as "blowfish" or "chicken of the sea". They may also be sold as "sea squab".
Canthigaster rostrata, commonly known as the Caribbean sharp-nose puffer, is a pufferfish from the Western Central Atlantic. The Caribbean sharp-nose puffer is a small fish with a maximum length of 12 cm or approximately 4.7 inches. It can be encountered from the coast of South Carolina to Venezuela, including Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Sea. They can live up to 10 years in the wild, females typically live longer due to aggressive male territory behavior. The Caribbean sharp-nose puffer is a highly toxic species of marine fish due to the presence of tetrodotoxin in its tissues and organs. Despite its toxicity, the sharp-nose pufferfish occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade.
The down jacket, known more commonly in the fashion industry as a puffer jacket or simply puffer, is a quilted coat which is insulated with either duck or goose feathers. Air pockets created by the bulk of the feathers allow for the retention of warm air.
Dolphins - Spy in the Pod is a British factual television series that was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 January 2014. The two-part series was narrated by David Tennant and produced by John Downer Productions. The series was also broadcast by Discovery Channel in the US.
The Puffer is an American rowboat, motorboat and sailing dinghy that was designed by Fred Scott and first built in 1972.
