Reflection on Survival

Animals have different ways of survival depending on their abilities. For example some animals wouldn't be able to survive in the winter, so they hibernate. When they aren't active, they don't need as much energy and therefore now even as much food. Therefore they can survive just from their own fat. Or animals that live that live in very cold places have very warm fur. Some animals use deception. For example the snapping turtle. Under their tongues they have worm like flesh. Some animals pretend to be more dangerous than they really are.

Current Events 2 - 29/9/10 - Tomatoes That Trick Taste Buds

Tomatoes That Trick Taste Buds

by Stephen Ornes

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63519/title/FOR_KIDS_Tomatoes_that_trick_taste_buds

Even though they are officially fruits, they are usually sold, treated and used as vegetables. In fact many people think that they are simply vegetables. Now, their classifying could become even more confusing as Kazuhisa Kato and his colleagues have developed tomatoes which trick your taste buds.  They make you think that sour things taste sweet for about an hour after you eat them. For example if you ate one of these and then ate a lemon within an hour, the lemon would taste super sweet. This could be very helpful for weight-loss. For example you would eat a grapefruit which has vitamins and low amount of calories but it would feel like you are eating sweets. The key to these genetically transformed tomatoes is miraculin. Miraculin is a glycoprotein which is a protein with a carbohydrate molecule attached to it. Miraculin is mostly found in a type of berries which grow in Western Africa. There they are sold as “Miracle Fruit”. These berries are already being used in some parts of the world for weight-losing purposes. People have already thought of planting them in bigger numbers but it would be pretty complicated and could even cause the extinction of the berries if the demands were too high. The scientists have inserted gene of miraculin in the genetic code of the tomatoes. With the genetic code changed, the tomatoes started producing miraculin themselves. In fact, they have produced and amount of miraculin which could be compared to the amount of it in “Miracle Fruit”.  The main advantage of tomatoes is that they can be produced in large numbers in controlled indoor conditions. The scientists will be trying the technique on other fruits and vegetables in the future as well.

I personally find this story very interesting. I’ve heard and read a lot of amazing scientific stories but when I so this I was like “WOW!”.  It is pretty amazing that there are such substances which can totally change your taste. I’m still wondering if this isn’t a bit exaggerated though. It would also be pretty cool if they could actually make sweet lemons using the same method.

Current Events 1

Karen Osborn discovered several species of "James Bond"-like worms. I'm saying "James Bond"-like because they blind their opponents by using green bombs. Seven species that have never been seen before were discovered in a depth of over 1,800 meters. They are very small as they only grow to a size of 3/4 of an inch, to 4 inches. They use green flash bombs to blinden their opponents. Then when the opponent has been blinded, the worms quickly disappear before the opponent can see again. They all live in the Pacific in depth of 5,900 to 12,000 feet. Although they do all live in different parts of the Pacific so the odds are that there will be more similar species discovered in the close future. Some scientist consider this very interesting as it proves that even “simple” worms can have very sophisticated behavior unlike expected.
I personally find this very interesting as it doesn’t happen very often that we discover organism which have achieved something that took us thousands of years just in the process of evolution. I haven’t heard about many similar cases, especially not ones where worms would evolve to such a level. As mentioned they are usually very simple and their behavior isn’t very sophisticated. This makes it even more of a surprise for me. It is also pretty incredible that such a tiny creature can use this to defeat predators which are much bigger and would easily kill them if they didn’t get blinded.

Jan Marek 7.A










Bibliography:


http://www.sciencecastle.com/sc/index.php/home/james_bond_like_worms_discovered_in_deep_sea

A living thing...

• Reproduces in some way
• Excretes waste
• Intakes nutrition
• Grows
• Usually needs oxygen and water
• Has one or more cells

What I Want to Know:

• Do some jellyfishes have brains?
• Is there a mammal that can fly?
• What is the biggest insect?