The Daily Science Nugget...

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

**clears throat**

Well....they're sorta pretty in a buggy way... but I'm scared to death of spiders and snakes. Ticks aren't any fun either - I got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from one of those little critters. I was a sick puppy..

[Denise]

Ahhhhhhh......no he isn't handsome, I am scared to death to spiders...

[D. Allan]

20/20 vision means the eye can see normally at 20 feet. 20/15 is better; the eye can see at 20 feet what another eye sees at 15 feet.

Why have they been keeping this a secret all these years?

[D. Allan]

Scientists have been discovering that the human brain is quite flexible and able to rewire itself. An extraordinary example is the case of Peter Eckert, former carpenter, who after becoming blind took up photography. He 'feels' light, and his brain has developed a type of 'x-ray vision.'

Peruse an article from the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE.

View a slide show here : BLIND PHOTOGRAPHER'S PHOTOS

[Amelia]

Very creepy and bizarre pictures.

[Bravus]

We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made

[D. Allan]

That's for sure, Bravus. And medicine is learning how to cure blindness in those who have Age-related Macular Degeneration. First they have done it transplanting cells from the patients own eye; now they are going to use stem cells grown in a laboratory to repair the retina.

Read about at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6721685.stm

[D. Allan]

The largest flower in the world grows in Indonesia, being up to 3 feet across and weighing up to 15 pounds! It has no visible leaves roots or stem.

read more about the : Rafflesia arnoldii

[D. Allan]

There is a beautiful picture of the Rafflesia arnoldii at:

http://www.lostworldarts.com/asia/rafflesia_2.htm

[Amelia]

Bizarre. Reminds me of something from a sci-fi movie.

[D. Allan]

Ethnomathematics...

... the study of math as used in various cultures. Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, a Brazilian mathematician, was using the word in the 1960's.

He says,(quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 October 2000):

"Mathematics is absolutely integrated with Western civilization, which conquered and dominated the entire world. The only possibility of building up a planetary civilization depends on restoring the dignity of the losers and, together, winners and losers, moving into the new. [Ethnomathematics, then, is] a step towards peace."

Some say that it reduces science to social-studies, some make fun of it saying it is of no use 'unless you want to balance your checkbook the ancient Navajo way.

Maybe it belongs with the history of math. Is that science?

A good article is at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomathematics

[D. Allan]

An example of "non-western" mathematics is that of the Mayans. They used a system of only three symbols: lines, dots and a shell-like symbol in a number system based on 5 and 20 (our system is based on 10). Lines represent 5 units, dots 1 unit. Can anyone explain the shell?

Here is a page from the Dresden Codex, which escaped destruction somehow when the Spanish destroyed so much of Mayan writings around 1500 A.D. Notice the lines and dots.

http://www.tu-dresden.de/slub/proj/maya/folio16.html

[Amelia]

Are you sure that's math? Looks like part of their alphabet to me.

[D. Allan]

Yes, it's math. The lines and dots.

...

____

equals 8.

...

===

equals ? 13 or 28? ask an ethnomathematian :)

[D. Allan]

Mayan scripts have shown them working with numbers up in the 100's of millions.

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization#Mathematics I found this chart:

[D. Allan]

The ordinary Mayan people could have easily added using pebble and stones. Notice in the above chart how 5+6=11. The symbols are merely combined into one for sums smaller than 20.

The Mayans had this nifty system while Europe was still struggling with the Roman Numeral system: MMCLXI... it had no zero. The Mayans did have a zero.

A good explanation of the Mayan number system is at : http://www.hanksville.org/yucatan/mayamath.html

[D. Allan]

Several species of iguana lizards are found in the New World, from Brazil to the southwestern United States.

The common iguana (Iguana iguana) is the most impressive species, often reaching six feet in length with a dorsal crest nearly three inches high. It lives in the high branches of trees and bushes near bodies of water. If disturbed, it will jump down, even from a height of 18 feet, to plunge into water and escape.

The desert iguana dives behind rocks. When facing an enemy, iguanas defend themselves with their long, powerful tails, using them like whips.

The iguana mating season varies, depending on locale. Females dig holes in the earth before laying about 30 eggs with thin, leathery shells and then covering them.

Wild iguanas at a park in Eucador being fed.

They evidently can make interesting pets!

You can learn more at the GREEN IGUANA SOCIETY

[D. Allan]

The Homing instinct.

We know pigeons have it;

and salmon find their way back to their birth-places;

rats are uncannily good with mazes.

But do you realize cats have such an ablility?

The record for long distance homing among cats goes to one 'Ninja' who when her owners moved her with them to Washington state,

found her way back to the old home place in Utah

850 miles away.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/excats/homing.html

[Denise]

Interesting, I always heard that, but wonder how do they have that instinct? Someone at the vet told me that cats get lost! I wonder if some get lost and some can find their way back home? I dunno!

[D. Allan]

Earthworms are fascinating animals.

They have 5 pairs of hearts. 10 in all!

Their reproductive rites are amazing because they are monoecious. That means they have both male and female organs in the same individual. When mating they are exchanging sperm. At a later indefinate time the worm forms a cocoon/egg-case around hisher own body, and injects herhis own eggs and the sperm recieved from the other earthworm into it as shehe backs out of the cocoon.

source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthworms

:D

[Amelia]

How do they decide which to be? He or she?

[D. Allan]

They are both. No decision necessary. In mating they keep their eggs but exchange their sperm.

[D. Allan]

How to Clean and Prepare Earthworms

- (from Entertaining with Insects, 1976)

"Your earthworms will probably not require purging if you buy them from a dealer who packages them in peat moss for shipping. Earthworms eat and expel material equal to their weight every twenty-four hours, so the worms will have essentially only peat moss in their bodies. By the time you get them, any material they had been raised on would probably have been purged from their bodies. The small amounts of peat moss that one would be eating with the worms would be negligible. One might even rationalise that the additional roughage would be a good for you anyway. For any further purging, place them in moist cornmeal, flour, or similar material for 24 hours. In this way you can be certain that the worms will be clean inside and out and ready to cook."

[D. Allan]

Earthworms are 82 % protein.

Research has shown that eating earthworms can reduce cholesterol. The basic essential oil of earthworms is Omega 3.

[Gail]

Okay... I'd like to know-

How many of you have eaten an earthworm???