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Yellow Pages -- a waste of resources
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The Yellow Pages use no virgin paper in the production of their directories, but to produce and deliver 540 million a year requires immense amounts of water and uses immense amounts of energy and fuel. If you need the Yellow Pages, keep it! But if you are among the 70% polled who say they never even open them, opt out. It is just a waste not to.
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5341 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Why do we get wrinkly fingers and toes when we leave our digits in water for too long?
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This question has puzzled scientists for a long time.Scientists think that they have the answer to why the skin on human fingers and toes shrivels up like an old prune when we soak in the bath. Laboratory tests confirmed a theory that wrinkly fingers improve our grip on wet or submerged objects, working to channel away the water like the rain treads in car tyres. People often assume that wrinkling is the result of water passing into the outer layer of the skin and making it swell up. But researchers have known since the 1930s that the effect does not occur when there is nerve damage in the fingers. This points to the change being an involuntary reaction by the body's autonomic nervous system — the system that also controls breathing, heart ...
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7292 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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6875 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
What happens to spiders when they are on drugs?
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In 1995 a group of NASA scientists repeated and refined some earlier tests on the effect that various drugs have on the web building abilities of the common garden spider. They tested the the effect of caffeine, benzedrine, marijuana and chloral hydrate and as you can see the results were pretty extreme!
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6004 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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5195 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
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5160 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
Urodid moth cocoon
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Check out this amazing image of am urodid moth cocoon. According to entomologist and Amazon explorer Phil Torres, It has a really beautiful woven lattice structure that hangs about a foot below a leaf on a thin silk string. This is an unusual structure because the pupa, resting inside the cocoon, seems fairly exposed to the elements. The hanging likely helps to prevent predation from ants, and the bright orange color may serve as an aposematic signal to predators to prevent it from getting eaten. The tube part at the bottom is the 'escape hatch' from which it eventually will exit as an adult moth. There is not a lot of research that has been done on the evolutionary origin structure - this is one of the many mysteries of the Amazon you can c ...
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10251 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Underwater world
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Near the town of Tragöß in Styria, Austria you can find this stunning lake known as Grüner See (Green Lake). Named Green Lake for its amazingly clear emerald green water it’s mostly the result of seasonal snowmelt from the surrounding Hochschwab Mountains and forests. During winter months the lake is only 1-2m deep with the rest of the area used as a county park, however as spring arrives the lake grows in size from all the melting snow reaching at its peak around mid-May 12m deep in places. Not surprisingly the waters are a little chilly at 6-7oC, although it remains popular among divers during the peak months who love to pose on the underwater bench and visit the flooded green meadows. ...
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13461 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
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6016 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
True human tail (vestigial tail)
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Only about 100 cases are documented around the world. The true human tail upon birth is caused by a lack of cell destruction of the distal end of the embryonic tail. According to some experts, the true human tail is not really a tail at all. It is thought to be linked to spina bifida or a hiccup in the natural human development process. While others thing that it is due to mutation of the genes that produce cellular destruction of the tail component As it is well known that it is derived from the most distal remnant of the embryonic tail. It contains adipose and connective tissue, central bundles of striated muscle, blood vessels, and nerves and is covered by skin while it lacks Bone, cartilage, notochord, and spinal cord. The true tail aris ...
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10618 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Tractor beam
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Scientists at University of St Andrews in Scotland and the Institute of Scientific Instruments (ISI) in the Czech Republic have designed a minute but completely functional tractor beam. Reminiscent of Star Trek, they use a beam of light to draw objects towards the light source on a microscopic level.
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5779 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The white shark kayak
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This photograph of a great white shark following a kayak is probably one of the most iconic and popular shark images of all time. Every time it pops up, it unsurprisingly garners a lot of accusations of being fake, or edited.
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6584 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
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5924 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The science of fireworks
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Many of us around the world will enjoy a firework display tonight (or have already); but what are the mechanisms behind the magnificent spectacle?The story behind fireworks begins about 2000 years ago in China. Alchemists at the time were in search for an elixir which made them immortal. Obviously, they did not find this- what they did find however was a substance consisting of potassium nitrate, charcoal and suphur; or gunpowder,as we know it. The evolution of fireworks from gunpowder took another 1000 years until a monk named Li Tian realised that if you placed gunpowder into a bamboo tube and ignited it, an impressive explosion on sound and light ensued. Fireworks were born! The gunpowder is responsible for the trajectory of the firework, ...
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15895 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
The LifeStraw
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The LifeStraw removes nearly 100% of waterborne bacteria and can filter up to 1000 L of water. Throughout the world, an estimated 884 million people still do not have access to clean sources of water. According to the LifeStraw manufacturers, the device contains no chemicals or batteries and makes it possible to drink safely from any river, lake or puddle. ...
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7090 |
duddy |
11 years ago |