CHEMISTRY MIRACLE
Fireflies, also known as lightning bugs, these “specks of living light twinkling in the dark” are very familiar to all of us. But dont you really know why do they light up?
Actually fireflies produce a chemical reaction inside their bodies that allows them to light up so amazingly.
Well, what’s going on? Scientists finally have explained all details of this multi-colored glow that make us happy every time we see fireflies in the night forest or sea. This romantic phenomenon beetles use not only to communicate with each other and to attract sexual partners. Fireflies appear to light up for a variety of reasons. Fireflies appear to light up for a variety of reasons.
The larvae produce short glows and are primarily active at night, even though many species are subterranean or semi-aquatic. Fireflies produce defensive steroids in their bodies that make them unpalatable to predators. Larvae use their glows as warning displays to communicate their distastefulness. As adults, many fireflies have flash patterns unique to their species and use them to identify other members of their species as well as to discriminate between members of the opposite sex. Several studies have shown that female fireflies choose mates depending upon specific male flash pattern characteristics. Higher male flash rates, as well as increased flash intensity, have been shown to be more attractive to females in two different firefly species.
So, the fireflies contain specialized cells in their abdomen that make light. These cells contain a chemical called luciferin and make an enzyme called luciferase. Found that the color of light from firefly luciferin molecule is determined by the change in the weak electric charges in its oxidizing enzyme.
The luciferase speeds up the reaction, which occurs in two steps:
1. The luciferin combines with adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is found in all cells, to form luciferyl adenylate and pyrophosphate (PPi) on the surface of the luciferase enzyme. The luciferyl adenylate remains bound to the enzyme: luciferin + ATP ————-> luciferyl adenylate + PPi
2.The luciferyl adenylate combines with oxygen to form oxyluciferin and adenosine monophosphate (AMP). Light is given off and the oxyluciferin and AMP are released from the enzyme’s surface: luciferyl adenylate + O2 ————-> oxyluciferin +AMP + light
And today genetic engineering can include luciferin in the most unexpected organisms and create glowing in the dark fish, Christmas Christmas trees or anything elese.
Booting an Intel Architecture System
It’s very interesting article giving an understanding of how Intel Architecture-based systems work – The Pre-Pre-Boot, an overview of power sequencing, mode selection, switching processor operating modes and more and more systems work facts you every day use but attache no importance to it.
Taking a lot of little steps along a path is a good analogy for understanding boot flow in Intel Architecture-based systems. The minimum firmware requirements for making a system operational and for booting an operating system are presented in this article. The vast majority of systems perform these steps in this article to do a full or cold boot. Depending on the architecture of the BIOS, there may be multiple software phases to jump through with different sets of rules, but the sequence for waking up the hardware is, at least in the early phases, very much the same.
read article here – http://drdobbs.com/article/print?articleId=232300699&siteSectionName=
Are hybrid cars complicated to drive?
If you’re trying to educate your child about the importance of using electric or hybrid cars to help to save the environment, one popular question they may ask is: are hybrid cars difficult to drive?Well, to set the record straight for your child, there’s a bit of an urban myth going around; that hybrid cars are more complicated to drive – requiring a different set of driving skills from those of a conventionally powered diesel or petrol engine, for example.
Of course, this is simply untrue, but the myth persists.
How do we know this? Well, recent research commissioned by Honda which sought the view of 1,200 UK based drivers found that just over half those questioned didn’t even know what a hybrid was. And of the 49% people surveyed who did know the basics about hybrids, many believed the cars required some form of specialist driving techniques. Still more people thought that hybrid cars needed charging up overnight.
So, to put the record straight once and for all on both counts: Hybrid cars don’t require any different kind of approach in driving techniques from any conventionally powered vehicles. You put your foot on the accelerator as usual – and the hybrid car does the rest; automatically deciding the right mix between the requirement for fuel or electrical power. You don’t need to worry about it – or do anything different in other words.
The only practical way in which they are markedly different is in their quietness. When the electric motor is helping out the petrol in powering the car uphill, for example, then there isn’t as much noise as with a petrol or diesel car – so make sure you don’t take any unsuspecting pedestrians by surprise!
Similarly, hybrids don’t need charging up in any way. The engine braking system charges the battery up as the car goes along.
All you’ll really notice with a hybrid is the fuel bill – and it will be a very pleasant surprise.
Are hybrid cars better for the environment?
When you’re trying to teach your kid about the importance of saving the earth and protecting the environment for future generations, it can be worthwhile making the subject a little more interesting to them by relating the topic to cars, and in particular, hybrid cars.
There’s a short answer to your child’s predictable question of whether hybrid cars are better for the environment – which is simply a resounding “yes”. But as with most things in life, it’s a little more complicated than that in practice. Hybrid cars certainly reduce emissions of harmful substances to a significant degree – which is what we’re really interested in. When compared to a conventional petrol engine car, hybrid cars reduce harmful emissions by around 70% to 90% of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx). Also, most electric petrol hybrid cars reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% compared to an equivalent petrol only car.
So what complications are there? Well the manufacturing process to produce hybrid cars is a little more complex and environmentally damaging substances such as NOx are increased. Also, purchase prices are still generally higher for hybrids than for
conventional cars. Although this may change over time, it remains an
undisputable fact at present. “What’s this got to do with the environment?” I hear you ask. Well, nothing directly, but if a consumer has paid significantly more for
his/her vehicle, then there is the possibility that the same individual will seek cost savings in other consumption to make up the difference – choices which may not be as environmentally friendly perhaps.
This is something of a moot point, however, and hybrid cars are undoubtedly the superior choice for today’s green thinking motorist. There are, of course, even more environmentally-friendly options available like not owning a car at all, or choosing a purely electrically powered vehicle, but practicalities dictate that for most of us – the hybrid is the most realistic current “green”option.
How to learn mathematics
Today learning one or another subjects you use, of course, various video materials you need for. Starting to learn something I check out you tube sourse as well for the videos by the theme I need. For instance this is very helpful video – How to learn mathematics where you can get the main ways to understanding the subject.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRwfoyD1v_8&w=640&h=390]
It’s some thoughts on how to learn mathematics, that should also be relevant for this course in Rational Trigonometry and Geometry. The basic idea: `Mathematics is a landscape’. So learning mathematics is not that different from becoming knowledgable about an unfamiliar city or terrain. This is a short break from our usual thread of rational trigonometry!
This video is a part of the WildTrig series, then, no doubt, it’s worth to browse all of them.
Easter symbols
Easter eggs! Easter eggs!
Hidden all away;
Let’s go find our Easter eggs,
On this Easter Day.
One of the oldest Easter symbols in the world is the egg. The oval shape of the egg was the same shape for a raindrop and a seed. The egg itself promises new life as in spring, birds, and many other animals are hatched from eggs. In fact, the Persians, Hindus and Egyptians believed that the world began with a single egg. In ancient China, Rome and Greece, eggs were given as springtime gifts.
In Polland and Russia, hours are spent on drawing intricate designs on Easter eggs. In England, members of the royal families gave each other gold-covered eggs as Easter gifts in the middle ages. The most famous Easter egg decorator was Peter Carl Faberge. He designed eggs from gold, silver and other precious gems for kings of Europe and czars of Russia.
These eggs are priceless now and can only be found in museums and private collections. In early America, children decorated their eggs by using dyes made from natural materials like fruit and leave coloring.
What Meme Is
This term is using when you want to describe something that spreads swiftly via the Internet. Meme is a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one person to another by non-genetic means (as by imitation); “memes are the cultural counterpart of genes”. So any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another can be called as Meme.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zse_kOEI3x0"]
The British scientist Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catch-phrases, beliefs (notably religious beliefs), clothing fashion, and the technology of building arches.
How fish swim
Nobody can swim like a fish. But how fish swim? Many fishes swim by contracting and relaxing a succession of muscle blocks, called myomeres, alternately on each side of the body, starting at the head and progressing down toward the tail. The alternate shortening and relaxing of successive muscle blocks, which bends part of the body first toward one side and then toward the other, results in a series of waves traveling down the fish’s body. The rear part of each wave thrusts against the water and propels the fish forward.
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_VJ_0wORbM"]
This type of movement is quite clearly seen in the freshwater eel. Because movement of the head back and forth exerts drag, which consumes additional energy and slows travel, a great many fishes have modified this snakelike motion by keeping the waves very small along most of the length of the body, in some cases showing no obvious movement at all, and then increasing them sharply in the tail region. It is the end of the traveling waves that moves the tail forcefully back and forth, providing the main propulsion for forward motion. A simpler form of tail propulsion is seen in such inflexible-bodied fishes as the trunkfish, which simply alternates contractions of all the muscle blocks on one side of the body with those on the other side, causing the tail to move from side to side like a sculling paddle.
Some of the predatory bony fishes are the fastest swimmers; they can cruise at speeds that are between three and six times their body length per second and may be able to reach 9 to 13 body lengths per second in very short bursts. Some fishes, such as the blenny, which has been timed at 0.8 km/hr (0.5 mph), swim very slowly; others, such as the salmon, which may reach a sustained speed of 13 km/hr (8 mph), move much faster; and it has been estimated that tuna may reach speeds of 80 km/hr (50 mph), and swordfish, 97 km/hr (60 mph).
Write Each Day
Do you know that there are practical reasons why you should write every day. Even you didn’t do much writing at high school and here you are don’t throw down your pen yet. After all, the life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.
Dont you know that writing is good for your mental health and every writer will confirm that there is nothing better for one’s mental health than writing. Why? It removes stress from mind, placing it on paper, this habit gives you regular time to sweep your mind for forgotten tasks and ideas, it keeps your writing skilld sharp, it helps you to make some money at last. It allows you to build something significant, step by step.
Besides that writing is the only thing that, when do do it, you don’t feel you should be doing something else.
Just write then, who knows, may be come out something like this:-):
A Song from the Suds
Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,
While the white foam raises high,
And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
And fasten the clothes to dry;
Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
Under the sunny sky.
I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls
The stains of the week away,
And let water and air by their magic make
Ourselves as pure as they;
Then on the earth there would be indeed
A glorious washing day!
Along the path of a useful life
Will heart’s-ease ever bloom;
The busy mind has no time to think
Of sorrow, or care, or gloom;
And anxious thoughts may be swept away
As we busily wield a broom.
I am glad a task to me is given
To labor at day by day;
For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
And I cheerfully learn to say-
“Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;
But hand, you shall work always!”
Louisa May Alcott
What Earthquake Is
Why and what earthquake is? Many people living around the world have at one time or another experienced an earthquake. Most earthquakes occur as the result of slowly accumulating pressure that causes the ground to slip abruptly along a geological fault plane on or near a plate boundary. The resulting waves of vibration within the earth create ground motion at the surface that vibrates in a very complex manner. In other words earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves that make the ground shake. When two blocks of rock or two plates are rubbing against each other, they stick a little. They don’t just slide smoothly; the rocks catch on each other. The rocks are still pushing against each other, but not moving. After a while, the rocks break because of all the pressure that’s built up. When the rocks break, the earthquake occurs. For example this is recent Chile’s earthquake explaination
[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj2zewEEcf0"]
During the earthquake and afterward, the plates or blocks of rock start moving, and they continue to move until they get stuck again. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake. The place right above the focus (on top of the ground) is called the epicenter of the earthquake.
You can try this little experiment:
Break a block of foam rubber in half.
Put the pieces on a smooth table.
Put the rough edges of the foam rubber pieces together.
While pushing the two pieces together lightly, push one piece away from you along the table top while pulling the other piece toward you. See how they stick?
Keep pushing and pulling smoothly.
Soon a little bit of foam rubber along the crack (the fault) will break and the two pieces will suddenly slip past each other. That sudden breaking of the foam rubber is the earthquake. That’s just what happens along a strike-slip fault.
Earthquake-like seismic waves can also be caused by explosions underground. These explosions may be set off to break rock while making tunnels for roads, railroads, subways, or mines. These explosions, however, don’t cause very strong seismic waves. You may not even feel them. Sometimes seismic waves occur when the roof or walls of a mine collapse. These can sometimes be felt by people near the mine. The largest underground explosions, from tests of nuclear warheads (bombs), can create seismic waves very much like large earthquakes. This fact has been exploited as a means to enforce the global nuclear test ban, because no nuclear warhead can be detonated on earth without producing such seismic waves.