What in our hand?

Did You Know: In one square inch of our hand, we have an estimated 9 feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors!

Papaya

Papayas are excellent sources of dietary fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin E, and folate, while at the same time being rich in antioxidants, flavonoids, and carotenes. Papayas also contain high amounts of enzymes called papain and chymopapain, which are critical ingredients for a healthy body. Enzymes are responsible for almost every aspect of life and health, and are needed to help control all mental and physical functions.

So what are the real uses for papaya leaf extract ? The beneficial properties surrounding papaya have been known for generations, but they are now just gaining back some attention. Some of the healing properties papayas provide are:

Increased quality of proteins in whole organism.
Revitalization of the human body and a maintaining of energy and vitality.

*Encouraged renewal of muscle tissue.
*Supported cardiovascular system.
*Strengthened immune system
*Help with the digestive system by breaking down proteins and supporting production of digestive enzymes.
*Treatment for skin wounds that don’t heal quickly.
*Prevention of cataract formation.
*Lowered risk of emphysema in smokers and passive smokers thanks to high vitamin D content.
*Alleviated inflammation.
*Help with nausea and constipation.
*Fighting various cancers and aiding the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal systems.

Although papaya leaf extract is often viewed as an excellent treatment for digestive disorders as well as disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract, it provides many more health benefits than just that (as outlined above). The papain enzyme found in papaya has also been utilized around the world to eliminate parasites within the body.

Strawberries

Strawberries contain beneficial chemicals known as phenols. These phenols have a variety of effects on the body, including their ability to induce the production of antioxidants in the body. This means that when you eat the strawberries, the quantity of potentially harmful oxidants can be reduced. Furthermore, the phenols have also been shown to have potent anti-inflammatory properties. This means that the fruit can be particularly beneficial in preventing conditions such as asthma and osteoarthritis.

Strawberries also contain the following important vitamins and minerals.

*Vitamin C
*Vitamin A
*Vitamin D
*Vitamin E
*Vitamin K
*B1/thiamine, B2/riboflavin, B3/niacin, B6 and B12
*Folic acid

The health benefits of strawberries are many, and it is quite easy to include this delicious fruit into your nutritional routine. Always remember to purchase high quality organic produce, preferably from a local source.

FRUIT AND YOGURT SMOOTHIE

Visit your local juice bar and ask for a fresh fruit and yogurt smoothie -- or make your own if you're at home. For a basic shake, blend a half-cup of frozen fruit with one cup of low-fat yogurt, or for a smoothie with a little more staying power, add a scoop of protein powder or two tablespoons of flaxmeal. The combination of carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats will give you lasting energy to get you through to your next meal.

Grapes, Some Interesting FACTS !!!

~ Grapes have been thought to have healing properties, In China, wine was mixed with frogs, snakes and other animals to create a cure for illness!!
~ There are over 8,000 grape varieties in many colours white, red, black, blue, green, purple and gold !
~ The production of wine from grapes started since 5000 BC !
~ One acre of grapes can produce around 15,000 glasses of wine !

A Time Traveler?

Did you know that A photo was taken in 1941 of a crowd watching the re-opening of the re-opening of the Forks Bridge in Gold Bridge, Canada. When a portion of the photo is enlarged, One Man Sticks out in the crowd. He appears to be wearing modern clothes that critics claim were definitely not the style in the 1940s. The man is wearing sunglasses and what looks like a cardigan of sorts and a t-shirt.

A time Traveler?!!,

What do you thinking?

Philosophers and mathematicians

Philosophers and mathematicians like Euclid (300BC) were once ridiculed for suggesting that all matter was, at a basic level, constructed from one of the five platonic solids. We now know this to be true.

Platonic solids, named after Plato, have at least 3 faces meeting at each vertex (maybe more). When you add up the internal angles that meet at a vertex, it must be less than 360 degrees (at 360° the shape would flatten out). All the shape's faces are all identical regular polygons. In a nutshell, it is impossible to have more than 5, because any other possibility would violate simple rules about the number of edges, corners and faces you can have together.

Here's an amazing example of an icosahedron in nature:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Haeckel_Phaeodaria_1.jpg

More info:
http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/platonic-solids-why-five.html

47 Inch Human Femur

Mystery of Geckos' sticky feet

The mystery of how geckos manage to scurry up walls and stick to ceilings may have been solved by scientists.

It seems the little lizards have a network of tiny hairs and pads on their feet which produce electrical attractions that literally glue the animals down.

With millions of the hairs on each foot, the combined attraction of the weak electrical forces allow the gecko to stick to virtually any surface - even polished glass.

Californian researchers believe the reptile's sticky toes could now help them to develop a novel synthetic adhesive that is both dry and self-cleaning.

If a human hand had the equivalent "sticking power", it could lift huge weights. "If the hands were maximally attached, we estimate that kind of size would be able to hold about 90 pounds (40 kilos) or so," Professor Autumn Kellar, one of the researchers in the gecko study, told the BBC.

Walk

Geckos are small, insect-eating, and often very noisy creatures that have become popular pets.

Close up on the gecko's setae

Biologists have long admired the animals' ability to walk up smooth surfaces but have never really understood how it was done.

Suction was regarded as an unlikely explanation since geckos can cling on to a wall even in a vacuum. That astonishing trick of walking upside down on the ceiling would seem to rule out friction.

Furthermore, without any glands on their feet, it would be hard for geckos to produce their own natural glue.

But a team of researchers, led by Professor Robert Full, now think it may all come down to van der Waals forces - the weak attraction that molecules have for one another when they are brought very, very close together.

Outstanding adhesives

The scientists looked closely at the feet of a Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) which is native to South-East Asia. Close-up pictures reveal about two million densely packed, fine hairs, or "setae", on each toe.

The end of each seta is further subdivided into hundreds to thousands of structures called spatulae.

Professor Full's team of biologists and engineers calculated the combined adhesive force of all the tiny hairs lining the gecko's toes is 10 times greater than the maximum force reportedly needed to pull a live gecko off the wall.

The spatulae - scale bar: one thousandth of a millimetre

"These billion spatulae, which look like broccoli on the tips of the hairs, are outstanding adhesives," said Professor Full, head of the Poly-PEDAL (Performance, Energetics, Dynamics, Animal Locomotion) Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley.

He said: "Geckos have developed an amazing way of walking that rolls these hairs onto the surface, and then peels them off again, just like tape. But it's better than tape."

Professor Full's team believe the stickiness of the gecko can now be attributed to intermolecular forces so weak they are normally swamped by the many stronger forces in nature.

Unbalanced charges

These forces come into play, though, because the gecko foot hairs get so close to the surface.

He said: "The hairs allow the billion spatulae to come into intimate contact with the surface, combining to create a strong adhesive force.

Hanging on to glass: The gecko's party piece

 "Our calculations show that van der Waals forces could explain the adhesion, though we can't rule out water adsorption or some other types of water interaction."

Van der Waals forces arise when unbalanced electrical charges around molecules attract one another.

They are responsible for the attraction between layers of graphite, for example, and the attraction between enzymes and their substrate.

Though the charges are always fluctuating and even reversing direction, the net effect is to draw two molecules together, such as molecules in a gecko foot and molecules in a smooth wall.

Geckos will stick to metal, plastics or glass, in air or under water, Kenny says. Engineers predicted the force of a single gecko foot hair by measuring the adhesive force of a whole gecko and dividing that by the number of foot hairs per animal. They were surprised when their measurements revealed a single hair to be 10 times more forceful at adhesion than they had estimated.

It turns out a gecko foot exerts a force of 10 Newtons (about a kilogram, or 2.2 pounds). A million hairs could fit onto a dime-sized patch capable of supporting about 20 kilograms (about 44 pounds).

Attachment takes about 6 thousandths of a second, detachment takes 16 thousandths of a second -- fast enough to allow a gecko to run, said. Metin Sitti, an engineer at Carnegie Mellon University

In yet-to-be published work the gecko hairs have been shown to be self-cleaning, unlike any other known adhesive. Work has also begun on building a mechanical gecko that Professor Full hopes will lead researchers to a new, synthetic, dry adhesive.

Courtesy: BBC Science, Stanford University 

Early warning system in the beetle

In this article we are going to see how German scientists had learned from the beetles how to make an early warning system to detect fires, the black beetle can detect the fire 80 kilometer away. Let us read….

During a forest fire, most insects and animals flee in all directions, flying, and running, crawling and using every possible means to avoid the deadly flames. But there are exceptions, like some spices of beetles.

Some scientists believe people can capitalize on their behavior and the body parts they use to detect fire or sense chemicals in the environment.

Scientific news from Germany

Nowadays, group of scientists in the University of Bonn are working hard to invent sensors like the detection sensors in the black beetles which can detect the fire tens of kilometers far from the flame, those scientists are looking for that invention to help in preventing forests fires.

Researcher kloka from the Institute of Zoology at the University of Bonn confirms that some spices of beetles can hear the fires, also he say that he is trying to study those spices to figure out how it avoids fire and how it detects the emitted Infrared ray from that fire?  

Under supervision of Professor Helmut Schmitz (University of Bonn), kloka concentrated on the black beetle which lives in forests and don’t runaway from fires, it searches for it. Its larva feeds on burned wood.

In their fire-seeking frenzy, flying into flames or crawling along still-smoldering trees, the beetles may be trying to beat competitors to weakened or dying trees so that they are the first to plant their eggs into them, researchers believe.

To do that, though, the beetles must be able to find burning trees and get to them quickly. While it has been known for decades that these insects have infrared detectors that allow them to sense the heat of fires, new research by scientists indicates they also possess highly sensitive detectors in their antennas that allow them to sense minute amounts of volatile substances in smoke from burning wood.

Scientists say that the beetle possesses highly sensitive detectors in its antenna that allow it to sense the volatile substances in smoke from burning wood.

The research team had succeeded to recognize how these systems work as they are willing to mimic it. Professor Schmitz says: 'we are cooperating with researchers in biology to build micro mechanic systems which are similar to what is in the beetles.'

Another researcher Dr. Stefan Schutz of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and colleagues say this highly sensitive smoke detection, coupled with their heat sensors, appears to be part of a system that allows the beetles to sense fires and home in on them from distances of more than 30 miles away.

''There is a complex interplay with the infrared system that we do not fully understand,'' Dr. Schutz said, also he added ''but we think detecting the smoke may be an early indication to the beetle that there is a fire in the area.''

''The beetles are often found in hilly places where there may not be the clear line of sight to a fire that is needed by their heat detectors'' he said: 

E. Richard Hoebeke, a beetle expert in the entomology department at Cornell University said the German work was ''new and exciting'' but also showed how much people had to learn about insects.

'Think about how little we know of insects with incredibly sensitive and complex sensory mechanisms.' Mr. Hoebeke asked.

Dr. Daniel Young, director of the insect research collection at the University of Wisconsin's entomology department, said many beetle species found in the United States and Canada exhibited fire-seeking behavior, looking for stressed or dying trees in which to plant their eggs, so their larvae could develop in or under the bark.

Dr. William G. Evans, an entomologist who studied the insects 30 years ago as a professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said he was gratified that scientists were continuing to study the beetles, but not too surprised by their findings. ''All insects have olfactory organs in their antennas,'' he said, ''and you would almost expect the beetles to detect smoke.''

In earlier research, Dr. Evans discovered that Melanophila acuminata had a pair of thoracic pit organs that were sensitive infrared receptors, guiding the insect to fires.

References

1.  http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/11/science/on-the-trail-of-fire-detecting-beetles.html 
2.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetle
3. www.dw-world.de  

The spider

Spiders are a specific class of animals called arachnids that range in size from the small jumping spiders commonly seen ….

Spiders are a specific class of animals called arachnids that range in size from the small jumping spiders commonly seen in residential areas to the Goliath Bird eater tarantula of South America (the largest spider in the world). They differ from insects because they have two body parts and eight legs.

Formal categorizations of spiders often start by placing them in families, based on specific criteria.

A less formal way to think about different types of spiders starts by considering their eating habits. Spiders are carnivores that catch their food in one of two ways. They either use a web or actively hunt on the land or water.

A photo of a giant spider eating a finch

  

A photograph of a giant spider eating a bird in an Australian garden

Size of spiders

Spiders occur in a large range of sizes. The smallest Patu digua are less than 0.37 mm in body length. The largest and heaviest spiders occur among tarantulas, which can have body lengths up to 90 mm (about 3.5 inches) and leg spans up to 250 mm (about 10 inches).

Spider Feet

many spiders have special adaptations that allow them to walk easily along relatively smooth or vertical surfaces.

Spiders have thick brushes of hair, each ending in tiny microscopic feet that let it walk up vertical surfaces.

The end of each leg is covered with thick brushes of hair, and the end of each hair is covered in tiny microscopic "feet." All the tiny feet grip the small bumps on whatever the spider is walking on, allowing the spider to move easily over most terrain.

Spider Vision

while most spiders have multiple pairs of eyes, vision is a secondary sense in the vast majority of species. Most spiders primarily interact with the world through tactile sensation.

Electron microscope image of one of a spider's sensitive hairs

They are covered in highly sensitive hairs that pick up even low-level vibrations in whatever the spider is standing on (the ground, floor, leaf or web, for example). Many spiders have additional hairs which pick up vibrations in the air (sound). Most spiders also have a sense of taste and smell, which play a role in feeding and reproduction. 

Spider Brain

one of the most amazing things about spiders is how much they can accomplish with such a small brain. The spider's central nervous system is made up of two relatively simple ganglia, or nerve cell clusters, connected to nerves leading to the spider's various muscles and sensory systems.

Who programmed the brain of this little animal with such sophisticated programs?

The simple instructions encoded in these nerve cells give spiders all the information they need to undertake complex tasks, such as building webs and attacking prey. Some species even exhibit learning behavior. If something isn't working -- a web in a particular spot, for example -- the spider will give up the activity and try something new.

Hence, scientists say that spiders have programs in brain to enable them to design their webs and these program couldn't be developed or created by itself as  claiming that nature or coincidence are the creator of these programs is equal to a man says that nature or coincidence had developed windows 7 or Xp.

References:

1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3354097/Bird-eating-spiders-new-pictures.html
2. http://animals.howstuffworks.com/arachnids/spider1.htm   

Amazing Facts: Spider web silk is 5 times stronger than steel

FACTS ABOUT SPIDERS:

* Spiders can live without food and water for long periods of time.

* Spiders are invertebrates (no backbones) and not insects.

* There can be about nearly 5 million spiders per hectare in certain places.

* Most spiders have 8 legs, an abdomen and the thorax.

* Not all spiders spin webs.

* They have 6 or 8 eyes, some have none.

* They inject venom throught their fangs to kill the prey.

* Spiders digest their food outside their body.

* They lay eggs.

* A jumping spider can jump up to 25 times its own body length.

* Arachnophobia is a term which means "fear of spiders".

* Most spiders can see only objects that are close, but they have specialized hair which helps them to keep a sense about their surroundings.

* Most male spiders are smaller than females.

* Most spiders are harmless to humans, but some (rare) can be deadly (like Black Widow).

* The weight of insects eaten by spiders every year is believed to be more than the total weight of the all humans.

* The spider spins a watery fluid. As soon as it hits the air it becomes hard.

* There are about 35,000 different spider species known to mankind.

FACTS ABOUT SPIDER WEB (or silk):

No one likes spider webs (Cobwebs) in their home or even outside, but they are essential to most spiders as they use it to trap insects, on which the spider feeds.

Spider webs can be found in many shapes and sizes, and are designed to best suit it's needs like - size and kind of insects in the environment, weather, spider's own size & weight and a design that allows the spider to move comfortably around the web. Spiders have special glands called "spinneret" located in their abdomen which helps them to produce the silk for web. It's rare but sometimes spiders may even build webs together in the same area.

Spider silk can have many uses like using it like a parachute to get carried away for transportation, to protect egg sacs and to wrap prey.

STRENGTH OF SPIDER's SILK/Web:

Yes, when compared on the weight-to-strength basis the Spider web strings are five times stronger than the mighty steel. The silk of spider is extremely lightweight and can stretch up to 35-40% without breaking. A typical strand of garden spider silk has a diameter of about 0.003 mm and most spiders can produce 3-7 different kinds of silks and each has a different use.

Underwater Spider Uses Air Bubble Webs

(SPIDER SCIENCE) Diving bell spiders spend their entire lives underwater. The spiders are able to breathe underwater by creating air bubbles in their webs that act as gills. While scientists have been aware of this phenomenon, researchers recently discovered that these spiders only need to surface once a day for air, which is much less frequently than previously thought. Read on to learn more about this fascinating new research!

Diving bell spiders create an air bubble web that functions as a gill.

Diving bell spiders only need to come up for air once a day, according to researchers.

The spiders are named for their sub-aqua webs which they fill with air in order to breathe underwater.

Scientists studying the European arachnids measured oxygen levels inside and around an air bubble web.

They found that the bubble acted like a gill, extracting dissolved oxygen from the water and dispersing carbon dioxide.

The study is published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Argyroneta aquatica live in ponds, pools and slow-moving streams across Europe and northern Asia.

They are the only spiders that live their entire lives underwater, mating, laying eggs and catching prey from their webs.

The silk webs are constructed among vegetation beneath the surface of the water.

To fill the “diving-bell” webs with air so they can breathe, the spiders use fine hairs on their abdomen to transport bubbles from above the water surface.

Scientists previously debated whether the spiders had to return to the surface regularly to replenish their air supply.

To settle the argument, invertebrate experts Professor Roger Seymour and Dr Stefan Hetz collected specimens from Germany’s Eider River.

In the lab they simulated a stagnant, weedy pond on a hot summer day and tested how the spiders fared in the challenging conditions with a device called an optode.

“The previous literature suggested they had to come to the surface as often as every 20 to 40 minutes throughout the day,” said Prof Seymour.

“It required the tiny, oxygen-sensitive optodes to do what we did. These have only been available during the last five to 10 years,” he said.

By measuring the differences in oxygen levels inside the bubble and in the surrounding water, the scientists identified a gas exchange similar to that performed by the gills of animals that breathe underwater.

“As the spider consumes oxygen from the air in the bell, it lowers the oxygen concentration inside. The oxygen can decrease below the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, and when this happens, oxygen can be driven into the bubble from the water,” said Prof Seymour.

“The carbon dioxide that the spider produces is not a problem at all, because it is readily dissolved in the water and it never builds up.”

Unlike animals that exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide across gills however, the spiders have to contend with the other gases in the air they transport.

“If you absorb one gas from a gas mixture in a collapsible bubble, the remaining gases must increase in concentration,” explained Prof Seymour.

“Because oxygen is taken from the bubble air, and CO2 does not build up, it causes the nitrogen in the bubble to rise in concentration,” he said.

As the nitrogen disperses from the bubble, the bubble collapses but it does so slowly, roughly over the course of a day according to the scientists’ results.

“The spider is able to remain in the diving bell on very hot days, when its metabolic rate is higher than normal, if the water is well oxygenated,” said Prof Seymour.

This means the spiders can return to the surface infrequently, avoiding the risk of being caught by predators such as birds.

The extended dive times also allow the spiders to wait undisturbed for prey to pass.

Courtesy: BBC Nature, Global Animals