FW: Campaign to save Barrier Reef from industry

 

 

Feed: Science Yahoo UK
Posted on: Sunday, April 28, 2013 08:51
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Campaign to save Barrier Reef from industry

 

Conservationists accused Australia of failing to protect the Great Barrier Reef from massive industrial development as they launched a multi-million dollar campaign to drum up awareness. The move follows UNESCO demanding decisive action to protect the world's largest coral reef from a gas and mining boom and increasing coastal development, or risk the embarrassment of seeing it put on its danger list. The government says it is "absolutely committed" to the reef and in February outlined to UNESCO how it planned to improve management and protection. UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will consider the response at its annual meeting in Phnom Penh in June. In the lead-up to the meeting and in an election year, the Australian Marine Conservation Society and WWF-Australia launched an advertising blitz to highlight increased "dredging, dumping and shipping in the marine park". "The reef is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, but our governments seem to have forgotten that fact," said Bob Irwin, father of late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin, who is the face of the TV, radio, online and newspaper campaign. "The reef belongs to all of us, not to big industry to use as a dredge, dumping ground and shipping superhighway. The Australian people are the only ones who can make a difference to protecting the reef." Australia is riding an unprecedented wave of resources investment due to booming demand from Asia, with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of resource projects in the pipeline. Last year, UNESCO said the sheer number and scale of proposals, including liquefied natural gas, tourism and mining projects, could threaten the reef's status. The Australian Marine Conservation Society's Felicity Wishart claimed the Queensland state government was fast-tracking mega ports along the reef and planned to dredge and dump millions of tonnes of mud and rock in its waters. "In 2012, less than half a million tonnes of dredge spoil was dumped in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. In 2015 it's predicted that figure will explode out to 23.5 million tonnes -- a massive 50-fold increase," she said. "The Great Barrier Reef is a major tourist destination generating $6 billion a year and supporting 60,000 jobs. No one is going to want come half way around the world to see mega industrial ports." According to WWF-Australia, recent polling it conducted showed 91 percent of Australians think protecting the Great Barrier Reef is the country's most important environmental issue in 2013. The Queensland government was not immediately available to comment.

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FW: Iranian scientist freed by U.S. returns home - local media

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 18:56
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Iranian scientist freed by U.S. returns home - local media

 

DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian scientist held for more than a year in California on charges of violating U.S. sanctions arrived in Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, after being freed in what the Omani foreign ministry said was a humanitarian gesture. Mojtaba Atarodi, 55, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Iran's Sharif University of Technology, had been detained on suspicion of buying high-tech U.S. laboratory equipment, previous Iranian media reports said. The trade sanctions were imposed over Iran's nuclear programme, which Iranian officials say is for peaceful energy purposes only but Washington says is secretly geared to developing the capability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said Atarodi arrived in Tehran on Saturday, after a stopover in Muscat on Friday. Upon arriving at Tehran's Imam Khomeini airport on Saturday, Atarodi told reporters that he had tried to buy simple equipment for his personal lab to conduct academic research when he was detained by U.S. authorities, according to state-run Press TV. There was no immediate U.S. comment on Atarodi's case. Oman, a U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state which also enjoys good relations with Tehran, has previously helped mediate the release of Western prisoners held by the Islamic Republic. Omani authorities had worked with U.S. officials to speed up Atarodi's case and return him home, the foreign ministry in Muscat said in a statement carried by local media. He was released after follow-up approaches by Iran's foreign ministry, its spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). In a report on its website dated January 7, 2012, Press TV said Atarodi was taken into custody on his arrival in Los Angeles on December 7, 2011, accused of buying advanced lab equipment. Iran and the United States severed relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the pro-Western monarchy in Tehran. In 2011, Iran freed into Omani custody two U.S. citizens who had been sentenced to eight years in jail for spying. Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, among three people arrested while hiking along the Iraq-Iran border in 2009, were flown to Oman after officials there helped secure their release by posting bail of $1 million. They denied being spies. The third detainee, Sarah Shourd, had been freed in September 2010, also by way of Oman. (Reporting by Saleh al-Shaybani and Sami Aboudi; additional reporting by Zahra Hosseinian in Zurich and Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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FW: State of war protects Chad's last elephants

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 17:58
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: State of war protects Chad's last elephants

 

In an isolated wilderness in Chad, a war is being fought to save central Africa's decimated elephant herds from gangs of ivory poachers. The frontline is the southern Zakouma National Park: a 3,000-square-kilometre (1,900-square-mile) sanctuary that has lost 90 percent of its elephants in the last 10 years. Numbers plunged from 4,300 in 2002 to some 450 a decade later, thanks to a poaching bloodbath. The reserve now uses paramilitary-style tactics, with 60 guards who act like soldiers and a new 15-member rapid reaction force. "The poachers are heavily armed, determined, motivated," said Patrick Duboscq, a former police officer from France who trained the group. The shift to beef up the protection came two years ago when the South African conservation group African Parks took over management of Zakouma. The first step was establishing a permanent presence in the reserve, which had been abandoned in the summer wet season when most of the park is under water. Airstrips were built and the monitoring system was streamlined -- including fitting 14 elephants with satellite tracking devices that transmit their location six times a day. Being aware of the elephants' movements means that the anti-poaching patrols can be sent out to the right spots in and around the vast park. "The only way we can save the elephants in Chad is by knowing where they are going," said Lorna Labuschagne, head of logistics in Zakouma. As a result the elephant massacre has been stemmed -- just 13 have been lost since 2011. And the once highly stressed animals have started to breed. But the takeover did not go smoothly. In September 2012, six guards were killed in a suspected reprisal attack a few days after raiding a poaching camp northeast of the park. "It had a huge impact on our operations and on the morale of the guards. We were quite shocked that guards out there just to protect elephants were just slaughtered like that," said Rian Labuschagne, Zakouma's manager. The information collected then confirmed what the conservationists already knew: based in Sudan, the poachers are heavily armed, well-organised and have a good knowledge of the bush. Several are Janjaweed, the state-backed militias known for atrocities in Darfur in western Sudan, which was plagued by a bloody civil war for 10 years. "Now that they do not get the support of the Sudanese government, all those groups are still there, the Janjaweed are a sidelined group of people, very frustrated," he told AFP. "They have been involved in ivory hunting for years," he added. With cheap firearms and ammunition and the rocketing price of ivory, more people are getting involved. In response, the park's show of force has been accompanied by a strengthening of the information network among locals. "Even if we tripled the guards, physically you are not going to be able to protect these elephants in the last areas they move, you have to rely on good information and cooperation with the communities and with the local authorities," said Rian Labuschagne. "And that will enable you to put your guys in the right place at the right time." And there are worries that Zakouma's toughest fights may yet be ahead. Conservationists fear that once the gangs have torn through the region's easier targets, they will turn to Zakouma. According to the latest figures available, some 25,000 elephants died in Africa in 2011 alone, about five percent of the entire population, with central and west African elephants hard-hit. The bloodbath is being driven by poaching gangs who move with impunity between Sudan, Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. "Zakouma is the only protected area" in Chad, said Stephanie Vergniault, a Frenchwoman who founded the SOS Elephants association. Some 89 elephants were killed in one night in Southwestern Chad in March by a gang of suspected Sudanese poachers who had killed more than 300 elephants in Cameroon last year. "One by one, all the other elephants in Chad are being slaughtered before our eyes," said Vergniault.

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FW: Permit delays raise US-Canada pipeline costs: company

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 02:15
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Permit delays raise US-Canada pipeline costs: company

 

Delays in greenlighting TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline will increase construction costs and postpone its in-service date by at least six months, the company said Friday. "Due to ongoing delays in the issuance of a (US) presidential permit for Keystone XL, we now expect the pipeline to be in service in the second half of 2015," TransCanada said in its quarterly financials. "Based on our pipeline construction experience, the $5.3 billion cost estimate will increase depending on the timing of the permit." TransCanada originally hoped to have finished by early 2015 building the 1,179-mile (1,897-kilometer) pipeline from the Canadian province of Alberta to the US state of Nebraska, where it would hook up with a new southern leg to bring the oil to refineries in Texas. But the proposal stirred up a lot of controversy. Pipeline supporters say the project would generate much-needed jobs for the sluggish US economy, while opponents warn it could have a dire impact on the environment and vital groundwater resources. The State Department is expected to make a final recommendation on the project to US President Barack Obama in the coming months.

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FW: C.Africa elephant population down 62% in 10 years: NGOs

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 02:12
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: C.Africa elephant population down 62% in 10 years: NGOs

 

Poaching on an "industrial" scale has slashed the elephant population in the countries of central Africa by nearly two-thirds, a group of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Friday. "A recent study shows that the population of forest elephants has dropped by almost two-thirds or 62 percent in the past 10 years, victims of large-scale ivory poaching," the group of eight NGOs said in a statement. "The situation is dramatic and worrying. It's very dangerous," Jerome Mokoko, assistant director of the Wildlife Conservation Society, told reporters at a news conference in Brazzaville. "Nearly 5,000 elephants have been lost in the northern zone of Congo between 2009 and 2011," said Mokoko. He added there were 80,000 elephants in the Central African Republic just 30 years ago but their number has been reduced to just a few thousand. "The Democratic Republic of Congo alone is home to 70 percent of the elephant population of central Africa. But now there are only between 7,000 and 10,000 elephants in the DRC," Mokoko said. Jules Caron, head of communications for the World Wildlife Fund in central Africa, said the elephant poaching situation had changed "dramatically." "We are no longer talking about small-scale poaching but poaching on an industrial scale, all run by highly organised and well-armed gangs of international criminals," added Caron. The NGOs said poachers were seizing on weapons, especially Kalashnikov rifles that have become widespread due to several civil wars flaring in the region. "The ivory trade begins and ends in south-east Asia, notably China and Thailand, respectively the world's biggest consumer and the world's biggest legal ivory market," Caron told AFP. He called on heads of state to "take on the fight against poaching, criminal activity surrounding animal parts and illegal trade in wild species."

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FW: India predicted to receive normal monsoon rains

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 00:08
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: India predicted to receive normal monsoon rains

 

India will receive normal monsoon rains this year, the government said on Friday, boosting prospects of a stronger performance this year by Asia's third-largest economy. The pounding rains that sweep across the continent from June to September are dubbed the "economic lifeline" of India, which is one of the world's leading producers of rice, sugar, wheat and cotton. "The southwest monsoon rainfall for the country is most likely to be normal," said Science Minister S. Jaipal Reddy. "The monsoon rainfall is likely to be 98 percent with a margin of error of five percent," he added. But monsoon rains in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu may be delayed or could be below normal levels, government officials said. More than 70 percent of Indians depend on farm incomes, and at least 60 percent of the nation's farms lack irrigation, meaning they depend entirely on the rains that fall in intense bursts over the wet season. Last year, India got below-normal rain in the first half of the June to September wet season. The rains picked up in some areas later, but large areas of west and south India did not benefit. The rains are crucial this year for central parts of the western state of Maharashtra, India's biggest sugar-producer, which is reeling from the worst drought in over four decades. The southern state of Andhra Pradesh is also parched. India's weather department defines normal monsoon as seasonal rainfall between 96 percent and 104 percent of the long-term, or 50-year, average. The Congress-led national government's hopes of over six percent economic growth this financial year -- up from an estimated decade low of five percent last year -- hinge on India receiving a normal monsoon. A good monsoon is particularly vital for the government this year ahead of the general elections in 2014 as it struggles to kickstart economic growth in the country of 1.2 billion people. Agriculture contributes about 15 percent to the nation's gross domestic product but the livelihood of hundreds of millions of Indians living in rural areas depend on the farming sector. Memories remain fresh of India's devastating drought in 2009 that came despite the meteorological department's predictions of a normal monsoon. The drought, the worst in nearly four decades, sent food prices rocketing and caused huge hardship for the country's poor.

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FW: Cargo spaceship docks with ISS despite antenna mishap

 

 

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Posted on: Saturday, April 27, 2013 00:01
Author: Science Yahoo UK
Subject: Cargo spaceship docks with ISS despite antenna mishap

 

An unmanned cargo vehicle on Friday successfully docked with the International Space Station, in a delicate manoeuvre after its navigation antenna failed to properly deploy following launch, Russian mission control and NASA said. Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov first oversaw a so-called partial "soft docking" of the Progress craft at 1225 GMT, careful to make sure the unopened antenna did not cause any damage. Around 10 minutes later the full docking was completed with "hooks closed" and the cargo ready to be taken on by the crew into the main station modules. "We have capture between the ISS and Progress," a NASA commentator said after the soft docking completed while the space station was over Kazakhstan. The full docking, which was considerably slower than normal, was then completed at 1234 GMT. The cosmonauts were on standby for possible manual docking, but in the end it was done automatically, a spokesman for Russian mission control told Russian news agencies. The failure of the Kurs antenna on the craft to properly deploy after launch from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan earlier this week had raised fears about whether the docking manoeuvre could be successfully carried out. It was also mooted a spacewalk could be required to check the antenna, but in the end mission control deemed that this would not be necessary. Launched on Wednesday, the Progress vehicle took two days to reach the ISS, bringing with it about three tonnes of cargo. Besides fuel, spare parts, oxygen and water, space station crew received packages from their families, books, fresh fruits and some specially requested foods. "By special request, we are sending some garlic and chili pepper sausages to the station," Alexander Agureyev of the Russian Academy of Sciences biological institute, which oversees the ISS rationing, told Interfax news agency. The cargo vessel, like its predecessors, will be filled with trash and released from the station on June 11, according to NASA. The crew of six at the ISS currently includes Russian cosmonauts Romanenko, Vinogradov, and Alexander Misurkin, as well as NASA astronauts Tom Mashburn and Chris Cassidy, both American, and Canada's Chris Hadfield, who is currently ISS commander.

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Online hackers struck FIFA Twitter addresses

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Posted on: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 03:23
Author: Technology Yahoo UK
Subject: Hackers hit FIFA Twitter accounts

 

FIFA has confirmed that the Twitter accounts of president Sepp Blatter and the World Cup team have been hacked, with a series of controversial messages left on both. The co-ordinated hacking affected the @SeppBlatter and the @FifaWorldCup accounts, with messages suggesting the decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar had been corrupted. While the @FifaWorldCup account carried tweets suggesting Blatter was to stand down following corruption charges, the @SeppBlatter account 'responded' with messages purporting to be Blatter defending himself. A FIFA statement on Monday night said: "We can confirm that some of FIFA's twitter accounts, including the account of the FIFA President and @fifaworldcup, have been hacked today. "We are looking at this issue at the moment. In the meantime, to avoid any doubt, we kindly ask you to verify and check any statements that you see on a FIFA twitter account with the FIFA Media department (media@fifa.org)." A group called the Syrian Electronic Army claimed responsibility by signing off from both accounts. The hacking began with a message which read: ""FIFA executives held a meeting regarding the decision to host the 2022 World Cup in #Qatar "It was decided that the president Sepp Blatter is to step down due to corruption charges." A message on Blatter's account then said: "So what if I took money from Qatari prince? I am the family's bread earner."

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How Fast do We Move?

A good athlete can run 1.5 km in about 3 min 50 pec the 1958 world record was 3 min 36.8 sec. Any ordinary person usually does, when walking, about 1.5 metres a second. Reducing the athlete's rate to a common denominator, we see that he covers seven metres every second. These speeds are not absolutely comparable though. Walking, you can keep on for hours on end at the rate of 5 km. p.h. But the runner will keep up his speed for only a short while. On quick march, infantry move at a speed which is but a third of the athlete's, doing 2 m/sec, or 7 odd km. p.h. But they can cover a much greater distance.

 

I daresay you would find it of interest to compare your normal walking pace with the "speed" of the proverbially slow snail or tortoise. The snail well lives up to its reputation, doing 1.5 mm/sec, or 5.4 metres p.h. exactly one thousand times less than your rate. The other classically slow animal, the tortoise, is not very much faster, doing usually

70 meters p.h.

 

Nimble compared to the snail and the tortoise, you would find yourself greatly outraced when comparing your own motion with other motions even not very fast ones that we see all around us. True, you will easily outpace the current of most rivers in the plains and be a pretty good second to a moderate wind. But you will successfully vie with a fly, which does 5 m/sec, only if you don skis. You won't overtake a hare or a hunting dog even when riding a fast horse and you can rival the eagle only aboard a plane.

 

Still the machines man has invented make him second to none for speed. Some time ago a passenger hydrofoil ship, capable of 60-70 km. p.h., was launched in the U.S.S.R. On land you can move faster than on water by riding trains or motor cars which can do up to

200 km. p.h. and more. Modern aircraft greatly exceed even these speeds. Many Soviet air routes are serviced by the large TU-104 and TU-114 jet liners, which do about 800 km. p.h. It was not so long ago that aircraft designers sought to overcome the "sound barrier", to attain speeds faster than that of sound, which is 330 m/sec, or 1,200 km. p.b. Today this has been achieved. We have some small but very fast supersonic jet aircraft that can do as much as 2,000 km.p.h.

 

There are man-made vehicles that can work up still greater speeds. The initial launching speed of the first Soviet sputnik was about 8 km/sec. Later Soviet space rockets exceeded the so-called velocity, which is 11.2 km/sec at ground level.

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Organic Compounds: Nutrients

Fortunately, the very complicated compounds which the plants provide and which both plants and animals use for food and growth, can be grouped into three great classes called: (1) Proteids, (2) Carbohydrates, (3) Fats. These are sometimes taken all together and called organic nutrients.

 

Proteids. These are very numerous and are found in all living substances; the following are some that are common and found in large amounts. You can find protein in gluten in grains, legumin in peas and beans, myosin in lean meat, albumen in the white of egg, and casein in milk and cheese

 

It is not necessary to learn these names but the list is put in to show that proteids are of many kinds and, though first provided by plants, are needed in animal tissue as well. To test proteids is quiet easy. Proteids differ in many ways but there is one point in which they all behave alike and which is different from any other substance hence we can use it as a test. If a substance supposed to contain any proteid is put into nitric acid and heated gently, it will turn bright yellow. Then if the acid be washed off and ammonia added the proteid, if present, will become orange color. This is the test for any proteid for no other substance will act in the same way.

 

The proteids are the most useful of the nutrients for they make up most of the active living substance of plant and animal; they are called tissue builders on this account. Proteids are composed of the elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, with sometimes mineral salts as well, so we see they are very complex organic compounds.

 

Among Sodium, Potassium, and Calcium

Our list of elements important to organic life will end with three similar ones sodium, potassium, and calcium. These are light, metallic substances which burn when put in water and are therefore very dangerous to handle. Potassium compounds must be in the soil if plants are to thrive, while sodium and calcium compounds are necessary for the blood and skeleton of animals.

 

Nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium, and calcium are all obtained from their mineral compounds in the soil; animals use salt (a sodium compound) directly, while they get the other elements from plant foods. Plants in turn obtain them from the soil.

 

By themselves, all these elements are inorganic substances, but in the wonderful process of assimilation, plants and animals can combine them to form the living stuff of which their tissues are made. On the other hand, by the processes of oxidation, death, and decay, the complex organic compounds are broken up into simpler forms, and return to the soil or air as inorganic compounds or elements, to be used over again by organic things.

 

Can We Differentiate Phosphorus to Iron?

Phosphorus (P) is a light yellow, waxy, solid element. Like sulphur, it dissolves in several other liquids, but not in water. It also resembles sulphur in that it unites readily with oxygen. In fact it unites with oxygen more readily than does sulphur, for, if exposed to air, it will take fire and burn fiercely, forming an oxide of phosphorus. It has to be kept covered with water to prevent it from burning and is a dangerous and poisonous element.

 

It seems strange that such a substance should be a necessary ingredient of our bodies and, in fact, of all living things. To be sure it is present in small amount but is absolutely essential, being especially abundant in bone and nerve tissue. You have probably heard plant fertilizers called "phosphates." This is because they contain phosphorus compounds.

 

Iron is another element. We are familiar with it as a heavy, solid metal; and we know it unites slowly with oxygen forming iron oxide (rust). This is about the last thing we would think to be of use in the bodies of plants or animals. However, iron is absolutely necessary in the green coloring matter of plants and in the red blood of animals. Later we will learn the remarkable services which its compounds perform in these substances.

 

Another Element: Sulphur

Sulphur (S) is a yellow solid element, which (like carbon) will not dissolve in water, but can be dissolved in other chemicals. Sulphur itself has no odor, but it readily unites with oxygen, even at low temperatures. It also burns readily, producing in both cases an oxide of sulphur (SO 2) with the familiar, suffocating odor which we wrongly associate with sulphur itself.

 

Its importance in biology is due to the fact that it is a part of the living substance of all organic things though in smaller amounts than any of the preceding elements.

 

Mustard, onions, and eggs will blacken silver dishes. This is due to the sulphur compounds which they contain; but sulphur, in smaller quantities, is found hi all plants and animals.

 

Carbon, Know What It is for?

Carbon (C) is an element with which we are more familiar; coal, charcoal, and wood are common forms. Lead-pencils do not really contain lead at all but another form of carbon called graphite. Strangest of all, the diamond is carbon, too, though not a common form.

 

Carbon is (except in the diamond) a black solid, not soluble in any thing. At ordinary temperature it is very inactive. When heated, however, it unites readily with oxygen, (that is, it burns) and forms an oxide which is called carbon dioxide a compound very necessary to plants, as we shall see later.

 

What is carbon for? Carbon's importance to biology is due to the fact that it is a part of all organic substances, combining with hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen and other elements to form all plant and animal tissues and many of their foods.

 

We know that if any plant or animal substance is partly burned a black solid is produced. This, in every case, is carbon. We also know that if the burning is continued the carbon will disappear. This means that it becomes oxidized into carbon dioxide, which is an invisible gas. Plants alone have the power to obtain their carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air. Animals depend entirely on plant foods for the carbon compounds which are necessary for their life

Curious of Hydrogen? Find Your Answer Here!

Hydrogen (H) occurs combined in water, plant and animal tissue, wood, coal, gas, and all acids. It resembles both nitrogen and oxygen in being colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It does not dissolve much in water and it will not cause things to burn, but unlike either nitrogen or oxygen it burns readily and even explodes when mixed with air and brought into contact with fire. It is the lightest substance known and, because of this fact, is used to fill balloons.

 

Hydrogen is important to the biologist because it unites readily with oxygen and forms water. It also combines with both oxygen and carbon (another element) and forms a whole series of compounds called fats, sugars, and starches. It is an essential ingredient in all organic tissue.

 

So, have you find what you want to know from hydrogen?

It is about Nitrogen, guys!

Do you know guys where is nitrogen found? Nitrogen (N) is another important element. It makes up four-fifths of the air. It is found combined with several minerals in the soil and exists in the living tissue of all organic things.

 

Nitrogen resembles oxygen in being colorless, odorless, and tasteless, and in that it will not burn. It is less soluble in water and lighter in weight. It is the exact opposite of oxygen in its behavior, for it will not cause combustion, nor will it combine readily with other elements. Its compounds decompose easily.

 

And do you know what nitrogen for? It is found in the active living substance of all plants and animals and is essential to their life. Its various compounds are our most necessary foods.

 

All fertilizers which we use for plants, as well as meat, milk, eggs, and many other animal foods contain very important compounds of nitrogen. If the air were pure oxygen, fires could not be controlled and things would oxidize too rapidly. Thus, another important use of nitrogen is to restrain the activity of oxygen and make the atmosphere suitable for life.

 

Little Secret about Oxygen is Revealed

We already know that oxygen (O) is part of the air, but it is also a part of water, sand, soil, rock, and many other things. It may be hard to understand how a gas, like oxygen, can be a part of a liquid, like water, or of a solid like wood, but this is true. Oxygen is found in all plant and animal substance. In fact it is the most abundant element in the world, and is itself one-half of the solid material of the earth.

 

We shall see oxygen prepared in the laboratory, and shall discover that it is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. It is heavier than air, will dissolve slightly in water, and most curious of all, though it will not burn, it nevertheless makes other things burn very rapidly. Iron, copper, and many other substances which do not seem to burn at all in the air will do so in oxygen, while sulphur and wood, which do burn in air, burn very fast in oxygen.

 

Test. It is the only substance which will cause a glowing splinter to burst into flame. This fact is utilized in testing whether a gas is oxygen or not, and is therefore called a test for oxygen. When anything unites with oxygen, the process is called oxidation, and the compound formed by the substance and the oxygen is called an oxide. Oxygen may unite with substances rapidly, as when a stick burns, or slowly, as when iron rusts. An oxide is always the product, and there is always a more important product, namely, heat energy.

 

Both plants and animals use oxygen. Heat energy is necessary for all life. All plants and animals therefore depend on oxygen which they take into their bodies by breathing, as we have seen in CKapter II. As the living tissues become oxidized they produce heat and energy, leaving a residue of oxides and other material to be thrown off as waste. The food assimilated as tissue contains the vital energy which oxidation releases.

 

Distinctions between Elements and Compounds

In something the same way, all the matter in the world is composed of about eighty individual substances called elements. These we might think of as the letters in a chemical alphabet which spell all the substances both organic and inorganic that are in existence. When elements unite, they form all the innumerable things that compose the world around us. -These substances, formed by the union of two or more elements, are called compounds. For example, iron is an element. Oxygen in the air is also an element. When these two unite, they form a compound which we call iron rust.

 

Organic substances utilize only about ten elements, but when we stop to think of the thousands of kinds of plants and of animals, and of all the different substances of which they are made, we see that ten elements are enough to make a wide variety of compounds.

 

The complete study of these elements and their compounds is called chemistry, but for the present we need to learn only four things about the elements which compose organic substances: (1) their names, (2) where they are found, (3) enough of their characteristics or properties so that we can recognize them, and (4) their use to living things.

 

Likeness of all Living (Organic) Things.

The cat before the fire and the geranium on the window sill, though apparently different, are really alike in all of the necessary processes of life. It is, therefore, possible and easy to study plants and animals together. Biology is not merely botany plus zoology, but a study of the life processes of all living things.

 

The points, in which all living or organic things are alike, are also the points in which they differ from inorganic things. A stone and a piece of iron are familiar examples of inorganic matter. We cannot imagine a stone taking food or growing, or a piece of iron moving or reproducing its kind. Our study of biology is thus sharply separated from inorganic things.

 

To be sure, plants can take inorganic matter and by certain wonderful processes make it into the living plant as we have mentioned. But it then ceases to be inorganic and becomes a part of the plant. Plant and animal are alike in all essential ways and they also differ in these ways from all inorganic substances.

Unique Characteristics of Living Things (2)

Other unique characteristics of living things include:

 

Respiration. Another point in which our two examples are alike is that they both breathe. If we keep either one in an air-tight box it will die. The cat breathes by means of its lungs and it is easy to see the muscular movements involved. The leaves of the plant breathe too, although our eyes cannot detect the way in which this is done. The process of breathing is called respiration in both cases.

 

Excretion. Both cat and geranium use the food that they assimilate to build up their bodies or to give them energy, and both throw off from their bodies unused and changed food materials by a process called excretion. The animal does this by means of the lungs, skin, intestines and kidneys; the plant by means of the leaves.

 

Motion. Another way in which all living things are alike is in the power of motion. It is easy to see the cat move, but few observe how the geranium turns its leaves to the light and its roots to the water. Though animals usually have greater freedom of motion, plants do not lack it altogether.

 

Sensation. In a general way, all plants and animals have the power of responding to touch, heat, light, and other forces outside of themselves. This is sensation, and may vary in its expression, from the mere turning of leaves toward light to the delicate operation of a wonderful sense organ like the human eye.

 

Reproduction. Both plants and animals reproduce others like themselves. Kittens are born and grow to be cats, and the plant bears seeds which will produce other plants like itself. By this wonderful provision of nature, although all organic things die, others like them are left to take their places. The processes of reproduction and nutrition are the two most important characteristics of all living things.

 

Unique Characteristics of Living Things (1)

Biology, then, is the study of organic, or living things, and living things include both plants and animals. At first one would say that plants and animals have very little similarity and that it would be difficult to study them together, but let us see if this is true.

 

Nutrition. First, both plants and animals are alive and grow in size and that means that they both need food. A cat, for instance, has to eat, and a geranium has to have earth, in order to live. The cat uses organic food and the plant inorganic. The cat obtains its food by means of its claws and teeth, while the food-getting of the plant is done largely by the roots. They are both dependent on food.

 

After they get their food, both plants and animals have to put it into liquid form in their bodies. We call that process digestion. Then the digested food undergoes a change by which the milk or meat actually becomes part of the cat, while the plant foods become part of the geranium. This is a very wonderful process and is called assimilation. (Look up this word in the dictionary and see if you can tell why it is used in this way.)

 

Food-getting, digestion, and assimilation together make up the process of nutrition (getting nourishment). The animal and the plant have this process in common.

The Life History of a Star

As a matter of fact, stars are created out of clouds of interstellar dust. Gravity will cause such a cloud to collapse on itself. As the cloud of condensing dust contracts, it heats up. Eventually, the temperature of the center gets to the point where fusion reactions ignite and the star is born.

 

Astrophysicists still argue about the fine points of the birth of stars. There appears for instance, to be a kind of ‘stuttering’ in which the newborn star misfires like a car on a cold morning and blows large amounts of material back into space. Eventually, however, the star settles down into the steady equilibrium that characterizes the star in its mature life.