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5221 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The versatility of trees
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How this bicycle got up in the tree has been the subject of plenty of local legend around Washington’s Vashon Island. The real story involves a boy in the 1950s who left his bike in the woods while playing with friends, because he didn’t like it. The bike was placed about two meters high in the tree, which eventually grew around it.
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4923 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Do certain foods actually increase/decrease blood pH?
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Many people believe that if you eat certain foods, it can cause your blood to become more alkaline or acidic. Medical research studies have clearly shown that breathing and blood carbon dioxide and bicarbonate ions levels are more significant factors in blood-pH control. Alveolar hyperventilation that is common in the sick reduces cell oxygenation, increases resting blood lactate levels, intensifies production of free radicals due to tissue hypoxia (cells are deprived of oxygen), causes diabetic ketoacidosis in the genetically predisposed patients, and suppresses the immune system and main blood-pH buffer systems of the human organism. ...
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4208 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The power of 1
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A little over 30 years ago, a teenager named Jadav “Molai” Payeng began burying seeds along a barren sandbar near his birthplace in northern India’s Assam region to grow a refuge for wildlife. Not long after, he decided to dedicate his life to this endeavor, so he moved to the site where he could work full-time creating a lush new forest ecosystem. Incredibly, the spot today hosts a sprawling 1,360 acre of jungle that Payeng planted single-handedly.
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2468 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Parasitism leads to 'zombieism'
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Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as cordyceps, is a type of fungus that infects insects and takes over their nervous systems. The method with which they take control of nervous systems is still a mystery to science. However, the repercussions of such an infection are all too clear. Carpenter Ants, for example, live in the canopy of the tropical rainforest. They frequently forage for food on the forest floor. Unfortunately, this is where the cordyceps fungus proliferates. A new study shows that the fungus prefers to grow on “the undersides of leaves sprouting from the northwest side of plants that grow on the forest floor” This places it in an ideal position to grow and release its spores to infect ants. Here's how the fungus gets ther ...
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2397 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
A shrimp is the world's loudest animal?
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Meet the pistol shrimp. It is known to be the loudest animal and can emit a sound up to 200 decibels which it uses to stun its prey using its pincers. Check out the video below:
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3287 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
The basket tree
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In the early 1900s, Swedish tree sculptor Axel Erlandson planted “The Basket Tree.” Actually, this is a bit of a misnomer, as it is a collection of six different Sycamore trees that have been grafted together. In the late 1940s, Erlandson opened a roadside oddity attraction containing 20 to 30 tree sculptures. Today, they have been transplanted and are on display at Gilroy Gardens amusement park in California.
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3208 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Imagine being inside this hurricane
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This fantastic photograph of a hurricane on Saturn was recently snapped by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It measures an astonishing 2,000 kilometers across the eye - that's big enough to cover the UK twelve times. Wind speeds reach as fast as 150 meters per second.
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3082 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
Feeding ducks bread could actually be harmful
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Feeding bread to wild ducks is incredibly harmful. Bread has almost no nutrients that are useful for the duck, so they become malnourished and more susceptible to disease. Compounding the problem is excessive bread in the water, which leads to high levels of E. coli and even botulism outbreaks. Wild ducks need to stay wild, and artificially feeding them causes them to lose their natural instincts for acquiring food. If you want to feed captive waterfowl, consider chopped vegetables, whole grains, or fruit instead. ...
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3025 |
duddy |
11 years ago |
How Far Can Biotechnology Take Us?
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Throughout conservations on a daily basis, I often get asked ‘Will there ever be a cure for…?’ or ‘Do you think there will ever be…?’ and those questions are quite a stumbling block. Having discussed various aspects of current biochemical and biotechnical research of late I suppose it has prompted me to ask a similar question myself. The question being, how far can biotechnology take us? How much can we cure, eradicate or produce through further research in the biosciences? It’s a stimulating question and one that is impossible to answer definitively. We never know what exactly lies around the corner, but we can extrapolate on from current trends and ideas. Obviously, the areas of gene therapy, synthetic biology and pharmacoge ...
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3418 |
Chapman333 |
11 years ago |
How to make meat in a lab
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The biomass pyramid above shows how a large amount of plant matter is eaten by many small animals which are in turn eaten by fewer numbers of large animals. At each step of the biomass pyramid, matter and energy are lost in the form of energy to keep the animal warm and moving, or as faeces and urine. Therefore, the more steps there are in a biomass pyramid, the more loss of matter and energy that occurs. Humans are usually at the top of the Food Chain or biomass pyramid (unless we are eaten by sharks, lions or bears!). Also, there is often a significant loss of matter and energy at each step that can be avoided. Does that mean that we should all become vegetarians? No. However, we can eat more vegetables and less meat. Food security is an im ...
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3221 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
My phone is nearly six months old, I think I need an upgrade
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Mobile phones contain a metal extracted from an ore called columbite-tantalite (or Coltan). Vast areas of African gorilla habitats are destroyed every year as we buy more and more mobile phones. Watch these two videos. The first video is about the people of Congo The second video is about the gorillas of Congo. Which evokes more emotion in you? ...
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2697 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
The flipping ship
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The FLIP ( FLoating Instrument Platform) ship is an open ocean research vessel designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 degrees, resulting in only the front 55 feet (17 metres out of 108 metres) of the vessel pointing up out of the water, with bulkheads becoming decks. When flipped, most of the buoyancy for the platform is provided by water at depths below the influence of surface waves, hence FLIP is a stable platform mostly immune to wave action. At the end of a mission, compressed air is pumped into the ballast tanks in the flooded section and the vessel returns to its horizontal position so it can be towed to a new location. ...
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3753 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |
Stealth bomber
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This is the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit (stealth bomber). This machine is capable of pin-point strikes on most any hardened target available such as underground bunkers. Needless to say, it is also capable of delivering nuclear weapons. This stealthy aircraft was designed in a way that enemies could not anticipate its arrival, but its 22,600 Kg bomb load and a multitude of nuclear missiles would ensure they'd know when it had arrived. Named the B-2 Spirit, its advantage in battle is derived from its designation spirit; it operates like a ghost. Engines: Four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans of 17,300 lbs. thrust each Wingspan: 172 ft. Length: 69 ft. Height: 17 ft. Speed: High subsonic Takeoff weight: 336,500 lbs. ...
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3836 |
bio_man |
11 years ago |