Points to Ponder

Been a long time since I last put anything up here. I'm rather caught up with work these days so here are some interesting questions for you to ponder on in the meantime.

Enjoy!


1) How long did the Hundred Years' War last?

2) Which country makes Panama hats?

3) From which animal do we get cat gut?

4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?

5) What is a camel's hair brush made of?

6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?

7) What was King George VI's first name?

8) What color is a purple finch?

9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?

10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?


So you think you are smart eh?

Through the eyes of a wild animal: Part 2

Our general idea of an eye is a round white ball with a black circle in the middle of it. However not all animals have this kind of geometrical arrangement. One example you would be most familiar with is the cats eye, which takes an elongated oval shape during the day time. But you probably wouldn't have come across some of these unusual pupil shapes that I've got below.


Most of us know the cat's version of the story. These cute fur balls have eyes that are able to see in dark conditions, increasing their sensitivity to light. Thus to protect their eyes from the glare of the sunlight during daytime the pupils contract to a mere thin vertical line. And if you see a cat lying around with droopy eyelids with that typical 'don't care' attitude, it's nothing more than trying to protect his eyes!


Next time you visit New Zealand, you can directly look in the eye of a local and see if this is true. Sheep and even horses (below) have a horizontally elongated pupil, increasing their field of view to around 290 degrees. Again another adaptation for a animal of prey.


I have no idea why these beasts have got a bean shaped pupil, the elongation is probably to do with being the hunted party.


Look at those heavy eyelashes! Would work very well for a mascara advertisement!!?
Seriously, the square shape is a very uncommon shape in nature. The heavy lashes are to protect their eyes against sand storms, but square pupil?? no idea.


That shape looks quite funny, but that bump in the pupil is to give the hippo the ability to see out over the surface of the water. So he can keep himself half immersed in his luxurious bath and gaze out over the water level.


The magnificent horse has a blind spot directly in front of it, so even if he can see a wide field of view, the image will have a dark slit at the front.


This half circle can be rotated. So when the deer is grazing the hemispheric pupil will come down, keeping level with the horizon.

I must mention that I borrowed these pictures from this site (what with all these allegations of photo theft going around in the blogosphere!) And if you do like to know some more interesting stuff about how frogs, birds etc use their vision you will find them here.

Through the eyes of a wild animal: Part 1

The location and structure of the human eyes enable us not only to see how long and wide an object is but also to see how far away it is from us and how thick it is. If we had 2D vision (like what you get when you close one eye and look through the other) we would still be able to see objects clearly but judging the distance would be a problem, so we would look rather clumsy trying to grab things that are further beyond our reach.

So for this reason nature has decided to give the natural predators/ carnivores the ability to see in 3D. Or else finding something to eat would be quite a challenge! Thus most of the predators have their eyes located at the front of their head, a feature of 3D or stereoscopic vision. So think of the big hunters like the tiger, cheetah, leopard, lion (lioness rather), wolf, hawk (more or less), bear, owl etc. all of these have their eyes located at the front of their heads. This gives them the ability to judge the distance to their food and pounce upon it at the right moment.




awww.......... purrr

And what about the prey? the hunted? Well, as far as they are concerned they would rather prefer to have the ability to scan a wide area than be able to see in 3D. Because ill judging the distance to the grass patch is not going to be fatal, but not being able to see the hunter creeping up from behind is! Therefore most of the hunted animals have their eyes located on either side of their heads giving them access to a panoramic view. Deer, antelope, horse, zebra, goat , sheep, buffalo and the like. These animals can only see in 2D, but they have a wide field of view almost close to 360 degrees enabling them to spot any suspicious activity around them.


Eyes focused on the grass


But of course nature is pretty diverse. And there are very many types of visionaries and all of them can't be categorised into these two classes. But at any time in your life if you do find some unidentifiable wild animal charging towards you, and if it has got its eyes at the front of its head, you are in deep trouble!

And what about us humans? does this mean that we are born predators? Well I'm not an expert in natural history but if you ask one he or she would probably argue that this has to do with humans being descendents of apes, if you believe in Darwin that is (the natural historian not the blogger). So for our predescessors it was vital to be able to judge the distance to the next swingable tree branch (I just made that word up I think). So we humans inherited the 3D vision due to this reason.


So you could say we were born to be Tarzan!

Once in a blue moon

The blue moon from NASA

I've wondered about this expression once, sometime back. Blue moon? why blue? were there any instances where the moon appeared blue?

Today, I came across the answer in an unexpected manner. I was reading through a Physics book called "Absorption and scattering of light by small particles", which is quite nicely written I have to say.

Anyhow, the part about the blue moon....I think we are quite familiar with the reddening effect at sunrise and sunset, which is partly the result of light scattering from airborn particles. Ok I'll spare the scientific details......

Similarly there's a 'bluing' effect, but for this to take place the airborn particles must be within a narrow range of particle sizes, which is very hard to come by, hence the term 'once in a blue moon'.

However, there have been instances recorded in history where the sun and moon were observed to be blue, specially after the giant eruptions of the volcano Krakatoa and following huge forest fires in Canada.

If you'd like a more scientific explanation see here & here.