Wednesday 12 December 2012

In Japan they have square watermelons

In Japan they have square watermelons they get square watermelons by growing them inside of square glass cases. That way they can fit easily into a refrigerator, and you can stack things on them. Square watermelons are expensive though (10,000 yen or about $82). Compare that to regular round watermelons which cost about $15-20 in Japan.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Heroic Mother

During an early morning response to a house fire in Santa Rosa de Temuco, Chile, firefighters witnessed the incredible. A mother dog risked her life to save her puppies from the fire surrounding the burning house, which started because of a car bomb. The mother dog, Amanda, raced back and forth between the houses; putting her ten day old puppies in the safest Place she could find a fire truck. She didn’t stop racing back into the fire until all of her puppies were safely away from the fire. The firemen on scene could not accept as true their eyes. Most people have never seen a dog this smart or this brave! After rescuing all of her puppies from the blaze, Amanda sat down next to them, protecting them with her body. Onlookers called an emergency veterinary service and she and her puppies were rushed to the hospital. Aside from one puppy being treated for serious burns, the whole family is alive and well – many thanks to the bravery of Amanda, the heroic mother.

Seven Year Genius Who Performed Surgery


Akrit Jaiswal, 7 years old genius who performed a surgery on the hands of a burnt victim and qualified for admission in a medical university in India. Doctors at local hospitals took notice and started allowing him to observe surgeries when he was 6 years old. Motivated by what he saw, Akrit Jaiswal, read everything he could on the topic. When he was seven years old, an impoverished family unable to pay for regular healthcare heard about his astonishing abilities, and asked if he would operate on their daughter. The surgery was successful and was widely celebrated. Akrit Jaiswal, look forward to to someday continue his studies at the Imperial College London. With an IQ of 146 he is considered as the smartest person of his age in India.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Active Lave Flows touching the Ocean


Starting at Kalapana, Hawaii I walked for two hours right to the place on the coast where lively lava flows were touching the ocean. I was besieged about the scene: Hot air touching my face as I stood at the edge of the cliff, steam drifted away by the strong wind, thunders in my ears as the waves crushed on the melted stones and water fought with fire. I stood and noticed the lava flows started to glow as it became darker. I wanted to articulate what happened there. All four elements water, air, fire, and earth came together at that point to show how they are playing the game. Location: about 6 miles southwest of Kalapana on Big Island, Hawaii (USA).

Beautiful Pink Handfish That Don’t Swim But Walk


Fishes are bizarre enough as they are, but what about fishes with hands? Totally Weird! The pink handfish, as it is named, is a part of the handfish family, and is last seen in 1999. It is now one of the newly named species of the handfishes, among 9 others. This very strange fish doesn’t swim, and that give explanation why it’s to be found at the bottom of the ocean. It uses its “hands” that are supposed to be fins, to walk around. Tasmania, an Australian island, is the place where the nine fishes have been found, to be entirely precise, around the city of Hobart. It is perhaps the place to be for a handfish, because all the 14 species of this kind are found nearby southeastern Australia. The little pink beautiful creature is only 4 inch large and the scientists don’t know that much about its behavior because it has been poorly studied.

Glowing Blue Waves Lights on the Sea water in Maldives


Pinpricks of lighting on the coast seem to mirror stars above in a picture taken on Vaadhoo Island in the Maldives. The biological light, or bioluminescence, in the waves is the product of marine microbes called phytoplankton and now scientists considers they know how several of these life-forms generate their brilliant blue glow. A variety of species of phytoplankton are recognized to bioluminesce, and their lights can be seen in oceans all around the world, said by Woodland Hasting a marine biologist and bioluminescence expert.
I have been across the Atlantic and Pacific, and never seen a mark that wasn’t bioluminescent or a night that bioluminescence couldn’t be seen.  The most familiar type of marine bioluminescence is created by phytoplankton recognized as dinoflagellates. A new study co-authored by Hastings has for the first time identified a special channel in the dinoflagellate cell membrane that responds to electrical signals offering a potential mechanism for how the algae create their exclusive illumination.
The newly found channel had just the right properties required to trigger the flash. If you replaced the dinoflagellate channel with the corresponding cell channel from humans or mice or snails, so it could not do the right job. The dinoflagellates float, movement in the surrounding water propels electrical impulses around a proton-filled compartment inside the microorganisms. The electrical pulses unlock the voltage-sensitive proton channels, triggering a series of chemical reactions, which eventually activate a protein called luciferase that produces the neon blue light.