Did you know that fish like the electric eel and the electric ray can produce high voltage electric shocks as high as 700 volts. Although these electric shocks can only be discharged in short bursts they are extremely effective as both an attack and defense mechanism. To put things into perspective the electricity levels involved with an eel could protect it from most large predators such as anacondas and crocodiles, and may even be enough to kill a human.
So how on earth do they create electricity from within their own bodies. The answer lies in the presence of specialised cells called electrocytes. On average an electric eel might have around 7000 of these cells and with each cell being able to produce 0.1 volts of electricity you can quickly see where all that voltage comes from.
At the start of this period, dinosaurs still did not exist. However there were many reptiles and amphibians that roamed the earth during this time. Some corals have appeared in the seas and the ammonites reappeared. At this point plants were mostly conifers and seed plants. The first mammals appeared during the late Triassic period, they were tiny and mostly they were nocturnal which means they are only active at night. Now frogs, turtles, salamanders, snakes and lizards appeared. But still Dinosaurs were smaller then. Flying reptiles such as the Pterosaurs appeared in this period and also some marine reptiles. Be reminded though that flying reptiles does not belong to the group of dinosaurs. They just lived during the time when the dinosaurs started to exist. The Pterosaurs do not have feathers and their wings are similar to a bat. They were the first flying vertebrates. Other important reptiles that were present were the ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs. The ichthyosaurs are marine reptiles with long snout and their bodies shaped like the modern dolphins. The Plesiosaurs on the other hand had broad turtle-like bodies, long necks and tails, and large flippers. The following Dinosaurs although smaller in size are worth mentioning since they were the first to characterize the Triassic Period. Here they are: o Coelophysis o Eoraptor o Plateosaurus
Most of you already know the horrible health effects related to smoking but did you know that nearly 85% of all cases of lung cancer in the U.S. are caused by smoking and that all smokers have an increased chance of developing other deadly cancers such as leukemia, stomach, bladder, and kidney cancers.
Apart from Cancer did you know that smoking can also lead to severe heart problems, arthiritis and causes a general greater risk of developing injuries by slowing down the bodys natural healing time.
On the upside it’s never too late to quit smoking. If you were to quit smoking right now, here’s what you would gain…
Amount of time after you quit:
8 hours: Oxygen levels in body would return to normal. 48 hours: All nicotine has left your body. 2 weeks: Circulation will increase, energy will return to normal. 1 year: Risk of heart attack will drop by half. 5 years: Risk of stroke will return to that of non-smokers. 10 years: Risk of lung cancer will return to that of non-smokers. 15 years: Risk of heart attack will return to that of non-smokers.
The large, magnificent tail ploomage of the peacock is most probably a result of natural selection. The female peacocks only pick the male’s with the biggest ploomage so therefore the gene for having big feathers is more likely to be passed on so therefore the entire species develops bigger feathers. The peacock i put below is an albino, this means it carrys a mutation in its genes that means it can’t produce melanin which gives it it’s colour. These mutations are rarely passed on in animals because the fact that they are bright white means they can be picked out by predators rasily or are unsuccessful in competition for mates because they look real weird. So even if they do look like deformed swans there probably isnt that many mutant albino peacocks even though they’re pretty cool.
The galapagos islands are a great place to prove the theory of Evolution but more specifically the theory of Natural selection. This is the theory in which a certain gene that is favourable to a species survival helps the organism that carrys it in live better than those who dont posses it therefore it is more likely to be passed on and therefore become more prominant in future generations. For example, a gene which makes a birds beak grow slightly larger would be useful to a bird that needs a big beak to eat nuts that need to be broken out their shells etc. This has happened to a number of finches that Charles Darwin had noted at the Galapagos. The beak variations hold 13 closely related species that differ slightly in the shape of their beaks. Each one of their beaks is suited to their preffered food source, suggesting that the beaks evolved from natural selection. When we went to the Liverpool Natural History Museum the guy (i forget his name) got out a group of these finches that Darwin had braught back himself from the Galapagos and one had the same tag around its foot that Darwin had wrote on himself.
Nanotechnology is so new that no one really knows what effect it will have on humans. Even so, people predict that the technology could range from the ability to reproduce things like diamonds and food to the world being devoured by self-replicating nanorobots with a mind of their own. We just dont know…
To understand the miniscule world of nanotechnology we need to have a look at the scale of the units involved. A centimeter is one-hundreth of a meter, a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter, and a micrometer is one-millionth of a meter, but all of these are still huge compared to the nanoscale. a nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, this is smaller than the wavelength of visible light and a hundred-thousandth of the width of a human hair.
A nanometer may be incomprehensibly small but it is still large compared to the atomic scale. An atom itself has a diameter of about 0.1nm, its nucleus is even smaller, about o.oooo1nm.
In terms of “dangerous”, we are referring to life threatening effects that certain species around the world can cause to humans.
What’s the world’s most dangerous insect?
Mosquitoes. Yes, mosquitos account for millions of deaths world-wide per year. Mosquitoes can be carriers of countless diseases such as malaria, West Nile virus, yellow fever, and dengue fever. Forms of encephalitis are deadly mosquito-borne diseases in the United States that effect humans as well as animals.
The spread of disease occurs when female mosquitoes bite an infected person and then bite an uninfected person. The mosquito can potentially leave a trace of a virus or parasite with someone who was once uninfected. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other single factor.
Albino Catfish
Albino Pingu
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