A bird falls down from the roof of the building onto its floor. It does not fly or run away. But simply sits down as if it is brooding with fluffed up feathers. This happened in the Physics Laboratory of my college in the year 1971! This white streaked bird is a chick of the Asian Koel (Cuckoo, Eudynamys scolopaceus, 'Kuil' in Tamil). At first I thought it to be a sick bird of prey. But later on I
In my college Chemistry laboratory there are racks and racks of small reagent bottles containing various chemical solutions. As a curious chemistry student then, I used to see the reactions as when a reagent is added to another one or multiple reagents added to a single one in a test tube. It was really adventurous to note the various chemical reactions taking place - change of color, production of colored solution from colorless one, precipitation of solids as a magic from a solution and colored vapors coming out with specific odors! A wonderful reaction to which one of our lecturers
In the year 1970, I tried to tune in a new Pocket radio receiver. But I could not hear any voice or music with it as there was no radio station found in its band. The radio was a present from a German penfriend to my brother - in- law. But how can a receiver produce sound if ...
Excitement awaits for doctors whenever something disturbs patient from within his abdomen. If his abdomen is cut open and viewed they could stop the disturbance; but the procedure is both invasive and risky. Now a less invasive and novel way to view the inner wall of intestine has been devised by the Italian Scientists using a small device called 'Spider Pill.'
As a school going boy I know about a tree that bears beautiful flowers. This tree that was present in my school had its ground all strewn with its reddish yellow flowers. We used to chew these flower petals to get the sour taste out of them! ...
Every day we maintain our body and mind to stay fresh, alert and healthy by subjecting or submitting ourselves to this activity (of inactivity)! I mean here our Sleeping! We sleep in about one third of our lifetime – to do our best and clever activities, when we are awake. This wonderful sleeping mechanism is essential to all animals including birds, reptiles and fish. Sleep deprivation makes both the body and mind activities dull and makes all susceptible to accidents, and also to illnesses.
This sleeping time is set by the Biological Clock present inside the brain (Hypothalamus). It is maintained by the Circadian Rhythm that is governed by the light and darkness cycles found in the Earth. But the subtle mechanism of this clock is altered by our activities, desires, excitement and drugs! But even after these alterations this clock reminds (warns) us always about sleeping, and succeeds in making us fall asleep in the next possible instant. If we ignore it repeatedly and put this clock in ‘Snooze,’ we will surely land up in problems such as memory loss, irritability, tremors, headache, mental illnesses, Diabetes and Heart diseases.
There are two types of stages in a sleeping time: Non-Rapid Eye Movement and Rapid Eye Movement stages (NREM & REM). These two stages follow one another and are repeated in about five cycles. The NREM sleep lasts for about 90 minutes and the REM for 20 minutes. NREM sleep is the deeper sleep in which all the systems slow down, and bed-wetting and sleep talking also occur! But in REM, there are rapid movements of eyeballs from side to side and dreams that we remember at morning!
Mechanical engines perform well when given maintenance such as dust removing, giving rest and oiling. Similarly, our body and mind are also maintained daily by the sleep by itself: we need not take any effort in it ourselves!
This wonderful sleeping must be desired and undergone by each one of us, and should not be ignored by each one of us for the health of all of us!
Usually we see a big baby delivered from a huge animal. But in 1980s I read about an animal of six feet height, that delivers its bean like baby having only two inches as length! ...
We see many adaptations in animals to their environment . Do you know that the eggs of a fish adapt to its environment? This fish is the Killifish (Cynolebias constanciae). It lives in rivers and streams in Brazil, South America. When there is a dry season, the pond in which it lives dries up and so, it dies in it. But its eggs escape from the season's effects, as they are preserved inside the moist mud of the pond. When the rainy season starts, these eggs sense the change in the environment and hatch out into fry (young fish)!
This Killifish is also kept as pet in aquarium. It is five centimeter in length. In aquarium, to breed this fish a dry season and a rainy season are mimicked to trick its eggs into hatching out! The life span of this fish is about two years and it is also used in controlling mosquito breeding, as it feeds on mosquito larvae also.
We have seen earlier in one of my older posts about the Lung Fish that estivates inside the mud. Here we have now seen the intelligent and wonderful adaptation of these eggs of Killifish too!
Being in the tropical region the 'ice' has been a wonder matter since my childhood. Then I tasted the sweetness and the coldness of the 'ice fruit' purchased from cart man . We used to peep into the ice factory with much enthusiasm how this wonder is being made. Then came the 'ice-making chest' in the medical shops. I had placed the water inside the ice tray of its freezer compartment and later opened the freezer with amazement to see the water frozen into ice cubes. This 'ice chest' was nothing but our Refrigerator! It works on the principle of compressed gas on being released out, produces coolness at the site of its release. At school we were explained this with an example: 'while releasing the air from the bicycle tube by taking out the tube valve, place your finger tip on the mouth of the air releasing tube. You shall now feel the coolness!' Yet another example was also given: 'a drop of spirit put on the skin produces coolness by its evaporation into the air!' Similarly, inside the refrigerator (fridge) a gas like Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) is used. It is first compressed to its liquid state and then released into in its gaseous state, when it cools down our food kept in the fridge, taking out the heat from them!
Every place we go, we see this fridge being used. It preserves food preventing wastage by decay and enables us to store our food purchased in bulk quantity. It also gives us cool drinks that are inevitably preferred in summer to keep ourselves cool. Can we now imagine a life without this wonderful refrigerator?!
