One day I was walking barefooted on the cellar of the house. I felt a pinching pain on one of my toes. I found a vermin move away from my foot. It is the Common Centipede (Scutigera forceps, 'Pooraan' in Tamil)! Though its name implies that it has hundred legs, it has only fifteen pairs of legs.
The word, camouflage was introduced to me when I joined N.C.C. (National Cadet Corps) at school. Then the ways of camouflaging practiced in battlefield were taught. Later I learned that animals also practice this camouflaging to evade a predator attack. Animals change their colors similar to that of their surrounding environment to become invisible!
While doing certain household experiments as a school boy, I was shocked in two incidents to see my experimenting work spoiled. First one occurred when the glass bottle in which I had poured hot water broke down and the other one when I poured water in a hot glass bottle ('Horlicks bottle', as it was called then) - it cracked and fell down in pieces! My efforts to set up a 'home laboratory' was thus shattered!
We, the human beings, are the medium-sized member in the Mammal group of this world. We bear in our body the smallest bone that measures only 3mm in length and 3mg in weight! It is the Stapes bone (Stirrup bone). It is one of the three auditory ossicles (bones) found in the Middle ear of us, one on each side. It is the innermost bone. The other bones are the Incus present in the middle and the Malleus in the outer side.
