In my childhood I was shown the wonder of getting water by simply digging with hands a half a foot deep pit in the sand of river bed! Recently, I encountered a mystery of getting water without even this digging. An old dug-up storm water drain nearby is always dry except in rainy season. In the previous summer, to my amazement I witnessed water gushing out from its floor!
Whatever present in the Nature is mimicked, it will wonder us, is it not? A garden with colorful trees present inside a glass jar(!) is the wonder here - the Chemical garden or the Silica garden! This jar contains a solution of Sodium silicate (common name: Water glass). Inside it small crystals of various metallic salts are placed. Then the colorful trees start to grow instantly and visibly in minutes!
World wide personal problem is our body weight! I see many blogs that are entirely dedicated to posting on 'Weight losing.' Books and magazines quite often carry articles on this weight losing. These indicate that there is a global problem: Obesity. Once I found myself gaining weight due to insufficient activities and high intake of excessively nutritious diet.
It will be funny to see a tiny horse head to move about inside a aquarium tank, isn't it? It will also be exciting to see it as a 'mermaid' of horse! It is a Seahorse (Hippocampus kuda, 'Kadal kuthirai' in Tamil). It is not a mammal; but it is actually a bony fish! It lives in sheltered shallow waters containing coral reefs and sea weeds.
As a little boy I was shown some flying birds that flew past on the sky at dusk. (By doing this my sisters were clever in diverting my attention while they were on babysitting duty!). Those birds make sounds all through such flights as 'qwakgaa, qwakgaa'! I know now what is this bird, that made me curious and wondering, and also introduced me to the hobby, Bird-watching!
I found one day a plant among bushes on the wayside, becoming prominent by popping up by itself with its bright yellow heads. It had large leaves and had grown profusely within a shorter period of time. It was exactly like a robust Senna plant, as if it was from the era of Dinosaurs! I also found grannies picking up its leaves for preparing home remedies for illnesses (Granny's medical treatment, 'Paati Vaithyam' in Tamil!).
In the previous year, one day, I had my nose detecting some musky odor as I entered the junk room of my house. There, down on the floor some patches of oily matter were seen. That smelt musky. My sixth sense indicated me that there must be an intruder. I was right: there was a Musk Shrew (Asian House Shrew, Suncus murinus)!
I find often labels stuck to the cloths that I wear. These labels advertise about the company or the tailor which are unwanted and unsightly marring the good appearance of the cloths. Should I bear them on me always, wherever I go wearing the cloths? I am sure that I shall be unable to remove those labels easily - with a razor blade or by using a stitching needle.
Usually we think that microbes are harmful and that they impair our health. But here is an example for their good beneficial work without which our Termite (Mastotermes darwinensis) cannot live at all! Protozoan (Trichonympha) and other Microbes live in the guts of these termites and aid in the digestion of Cellulose of plant materials by secreting out the enzyme, Cellulase - to release energy from it! (Note here the fact that humans are also weak to digest cellulose!).
