What Makes Flamingos Pink?

by Bill McLain

  FACTOIDS

  If the earth’s diameter were 10 percent larger or smaller, all life would either burn up or be frozen.

  The earth weighs over 6.5 sextillion tons. That’s 6 with 21 zeroes after it.

  Not all the dust you see comes from the earth. Some scientists estimate that over 30,000 tons of cosmic dust are dumped on our planet every year.

  The earth’s axis is tilted about 23° from the perpendicular. If the earth’s axis were perpendicular, we would have no seasons and it would be impossible to grow food.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  In Jules Verne’s book Journey to the Center of the Earth, a professor, his nephew, and an Icelandic guide enter a dormant volcano and travel to the earth’s center. It’s a fascinating idea, but could such a journey be possible? Believers in the “hollow earth theory” think it could be.

  It all started in the 17th century when the famed scientist and discoverer of Halley’s comet, Edmund Halley, theorized that the earth was composed of concentric spheres, one inside another, and that each of these spheres might support life. Although modern science has pretty much proven how the earth is constructed, the hollow earth theory did not die.

  A few hundred years after Halley’s theory, other people claimed that they could prove the earth was hollow. There were large openings at the poles, they said, that would allow people to gain access to the center of the earth.

  In 1947, Admiral Richard Byrd flew over the North Pole. An alleged “secret diary” of Byrd’s claims that he encountered green rolling hills and a living mammoth-like creature. Even Hitler’s top advisers believed that the earth was hollow and mounted an expedition to see if they could enter the hollow earth as a means of escape should they lose the war.

  There are hundreds, if not thousands, of documents that discuss mysterious underground caverns and tunnels crisscrossing the earth, as well as ancient stories of beings living inside the earth.

  Although scientists today scoff at these beliefs, there are still many people who believe in the hollow earth theory. Although the proponents of this theory have many fascinating arguments, they aren’t convincing. After all, there are also people who still believe the earth is flat.

  Has a tenth planet been discovered recently in our solar system? (What about a death star?)

  Scientists often use the term “minor planets” when referring to asteroids. A few years ago an amateur astronomer in England discovered a new asteroid in the asteroid belt. There was nothing unusual about this because many new asteroids are discovered every year.

  A newspaper picked up the story, but instead of reporting that a “minor planet” had been found, someone left out the “minor,” so that the newspaper story said a new planet had been found. It wasn’t long before newspapers, radio stations, and television stations around the world were reporting the discovery of a new planet. Fortunately, the truth eventually became known.

  Some astronomers believe that a tenth planet does exist; other scientists do not. Although we have not discovered any new planets in our solar system lately, scientists have discovered 14 new planets in other solar systems.

  The search for a tenth planet goes on. Many scientists believe that there is a new planet out there. Some theorize it’s about half a light year away (3 trillion miles) and could be up to 10 times as large as Jupiter. If you were to draw a diagram of the solar system so that the Earth is just one inch from the sun, Pluto would be a yard from the sun, and this theoretical tenth planet would be half a mile away, too dim to be seen by any telescope we have today.

  No one has bothered to name this mythical planet. Vulcan and Planet X have already been used in the past to name theoretical planets. If the planet is found, whatever name it is given will surely go down in history.

  FACTOIDS

  When the planet Pluto was first discovered, some scientists suggested names such as Atlas, Zymal, Perseus, Vulcan, Tantalus, and Cronus. Newspaper reporters suggested Osiris, Bacchus, Apollo, and Erebus. Other people suggested Minerva, Constance, and Zeus. A few months after its discovery, the planet was officially named Pluto, a name suggested by Venetia Burney, an 11-year-old schoolgirl in Oxford, England.

  In the 1600s, it was believed that Venus had a satellite. It was seen over 33 times by 15 different astronomers for almost two centuries. It has never been seen again since 1768, and scientists today are convinced it doesn’t exist. However, the observers of the satellite were astronomers who had reputations for accuracy and reliability. It’s difficult to believe that so many reputable scientists over a period of almost two centuries could all make exactly the same error. Even today, it is still a mystery. Did it exist? And if it did, what happened to it?

  Scientists have discovered over 120 meteor craters on the earth, ranging in size from a few hundred feet in diameter to 100 miles in diameter. The original meteorites are still at the bottom of some craters. However, scientists believe that most meteor craters haven’t been discovered yet.

  A spectacular meteor train was seen in Canada in 1913. A fiery red body was first seen over Saskatchewan and observed until it passed over Bermuda. As soon as it had passed, a number of smaller bodies with tails followed in groups of twos or threes. There was a procession of 20 major bodies along with groups of 40 or more smaller bodies over a 2,500-mile path. None of the meteors hit the earth and no one knows what happened to them after they passed Bermuda.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Is it possible for a “death star” to exist? Some scientists believe one does. They have theorized that a faint or dark star moves in an elliptical orbit around our sun. This dark star, or “death companion” passes through a cloud of comets at a very long distance from the sun, stirs them up, and causes earth to collide with these comets tens of thousands of years later. This is theorized to happen around every 30 million years or so. The scientists who proposed this theory in 1985 named the sun’s companion star “Nemesis,” which means a rival or something that inflicts vengeance.

  The earth’s geological record indicates that most life has been annihilated every 30 million years, as when the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.

  The idea of a virtually invisible sun using comets to attack the earth sounds like a science-fiction story and most scientists do not accept the theory. However, they admit that it is possible.

  If the theory of this death star eventually proves to be true, that means we are due for another mass extinction of life on earth. Should we worry? Probably not. It isn’t scheduled to happen until about 15 million years from now.

  How are seedless watermelons produced? (No more world’s record for seed spitting.)

  Watermelon seeds can be planted to grow more watermelons. However, if you have a watermelon with no seeds, how can you possibly grow any more watermelons? Well, it is possible, thanks to modern science.

  First of all, consider what happens when a donkey and horse are mated. The offspring, a mule, is sterile because it is genetically different from either of its parents. To get another mule, you have to mate a donkey and a horse again.

  It’s the same with watermelons. If two watermelons are genetically different, their offspring will look like normal watermelons, but they will be sterile and won’t produce seeds.

  Normal watermelon plants have two sets of chromosomes. The first step in producing a seedless watermelon is to extract a compound, called colchicine, from autumn crocus plants. The compound is added to the watermelon plant, doubling the chromosomes so that the plant now has four sets.

  The next step is to cross a plant with four sets of chromosomes (a female plant) with a normal plant that has two sets of chromosomes (a male plant). Each plant then gives half its chromosomes to the offspring. The male produces pollen with one set of chromosomes, and the female uses two sets to produce an egg. All the offspring will each have three sets of chromosomes.

  The rind and flesh of a watermelon grow from the plant’s nonreproductive cells. So the offspring grow into normal plants and produc
e seemingly normal watermelons, although they cannot produce seeds. The plant has only three sets of chromosomes, but it needs four in order to produce seeds.

  In the past, farmers had to buy seedless plants from breeders and then transplant them into the fields. In addition, they had to rely on bees, because even seedless plants have to be pollinated. Farmers would plant seeded and seedless plants next to each other so that the bees would pollinate the seedless plants in order to produce seedless watermelons.

  Now scientists have figured out a way to produce seeds from seedless plants. These seeds will produce seedless watermelons. However, they are expensive, costing as much as $150 per 1,000 seeds or 15 cents for a single seed.

  Many people like the new seedless watermelons. Others miss being able to spit out the seeds. Hopefully, there will always be watermelons with seeds. If not, there won’t be any more watermelon seed—spitting contests.

  FACTOIDS

  In Florence, Italy, there is a celebration every year on August 10 to commemorate the patron saint of cooks, Saint Lorenzo. During the event, people go on a watermelon-eating binge.

  Watermelons were not grown commercially in the United States until the 1930s, although they were eaten in Egypt over 5,000 years ago.

  A traditional watermelon can have as many as 1,000 seeds.

  During the Civil War, the Confederate Army boiled down watermelons as a source of sugar.

  Lee Wheelis of Luling, Texas, holds the world’s record for watermelon-seed spitting, with a record 68 feet 9 inches.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Seedless watermelons were created because of advances in modern science. But hundreds of agricultural miracles were performed by a man who was born in 1849, Luther Burbank.

  Although he never went to college, Burbank was an avid reader and was greatly impressed with Charles Darwin’s treatise “The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication.” When he was 21, he bought a 17-acre piece of land and started his experiments, which he continued for the next 55 years.

  Luther Burbank conducted as many as 3,000 experiments at once. He knew nothing of genetic principles. He experimented by grafting and crossbreeding native and foreign plants to produce new plants. Even today, some of his early inventions are still with us, including the Shasta daisy, the Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, and the Flaming Gold nectarine.

  When he was only 22 years old, he created the Russet Burbank potato, now commonly called the Idaho potato. It was exported to Ireland to help the Irish recover from the great potato famine of 1840 to 1860. The Idaho potato has become a staple of agriculture in the United States and has remained unsurpassed to this day.

  Luther Burbank developed over 800 strains and varieties of plants during his lifetime. Of the 113 varieties of plums and prunes he developed, 20 are still commercially important today. He also developed 10 commercial varieties of berries and 50 varieties of lilies.

  The next time you bite into a delicious peach or plum, there’s a good chance you are tasting one of Luther Burbank’s discoveries.

  Is it true that glass is a liquid? (Liquids don’t break.)

  People used to think that glass was an extremely thick liquid. They got the idea from glass windows in ancient cathedrals, because the windows were thicker at the bottom than at the top. They believed that glass flowed like a liquid, only extremely slowly, and that’s why the glass eventually became thicker at the bottom.

  Scientists decided to test this idea and discovered that to see any significant flow in glass, you’d have to wait at least a hundred million, trillion, trillion years. That’s a very long time. It turns out that old cathedral windows are thicker at the bottom because of the way they were made. It’s also believed that the early glass makers intentionally made windows thicker at the bottom for stability and safety.

  Because glass is definitely not a liquid, it must be a solid. No, that’s not true either. So if it’s neither a liquid or a solid, and it’s definitely not a gas, what is it?

  Although the atoms in glass stay in one place just like atoms in a solid, they are arranged in the jumbled fashion of a liquid. Therefore, glass is sometimes described as a liquid that has cooled and thickened to the point where it has become rigid. In other words, it’s a frozen liquid. However, that’s not quite right either because a liquid flows when subjected to stress and unhealed glass cannot flow.

  The best way to describe glass is that it’s a shapeless, or non-crystalline, solid. In a crystalline object, the atoms line up perfectly. However, in glass, the atoms are all mixed up like a bunch of loose balls in a big box.

  The main ingredient of glass is silicon dioxide. The most common form of silicon dioxide is sand. To make glass, the sand must be heated until it melts. However, it’s impossible to get a fire hot enough, unless it’s a meteorite. Therefore, a chemical called a flux is added to help the sand melt at a lower temperature. The Romans discovered that you could lower the temperature for making glass by adding lime and soda to the sand.

  If you were simply to melt sand, you would create glass, but it would tend to crumble or break easily. Therefore, a chemical called a stabilizer is added so that the glass will be uniform and retain its basic structure.

  The basic ingredients of glass are called formers. In addition to silicon dioxide, the basic mixture might include various chemicals to color the glass. Various combinations of formers, fluxes, and stabilizers are used to create thousands of different types of glass.

  Glass has been used for thousands of years to make containers as well as myriad jewelry products. Today it is also used for windows, mirrors, lamps, vases, and thousands of other products. Wherever you are at the moment, look around and you’ll probably see a number of glass products.

  FACTOIDS

  Because glass takes one million years to decompose, it never wears out and can be recycled almost forever.

  Laminated glass is created by bonding sheets of tough plastic between layers of glass. Automobile windshields are made this way. Thicker sheets of glass are laminated to create bulletproof glass.

  Milk glass, sometimes called porcelain glass, is an opaque white glass made by adding burned bone or horn to the glass mixture. It was created as an inexpensive substitute for Chinese porcelain.

  If lead oxide is added to the mixture when glass is being made, the result is called crystal. Crystal was originally called flint glass, because flint was used instead of lead oxide. Crystal is known for its brilliance and clarity.

  DID YOU KNOW?

  Almost every child has played with marbles at one time or another. In ancient times, marble games were played with rounded pebbles, nuts, or fruit pits. In modern times, marbles have been made from baked clay, steel, plastic, glass, and other materials.

  Most modern marbles are made from glass. To make a handmade marble, a rod of glass is used. The rod usually consists of smaller rods of different colors. The rod is heated and gently twirled until a round blob is formed. The blob is then cut off.

  When marbles are made by machine, a stream of molten glass is shot out of a furnace through a small hole. As the stream emerges, a continually revolving scissor cuts off the exact amount needed for a single marble. The blob of molten glass falls onto a belt made of counter-rotating rollers. Because the rollers are inclined, the glob travels down the center of the belt and eventually forms a perfect sphere. By the time it reaches the end of the belt, it has cooled and become a marble.

  In recent years the game of marbles has been making a comeback. A number of national tournaments are held in the summer. So get your best “aggie” shooter and “knuckle down” to the line.

  In movies, why does a wheel appear to be rotating backward when the wagon or car is moving forward? (It happens to airplane propellers also.)

  Most people have seen movies in which a wagon or stagecoach is traveling through the country and the wheels look like they are moving backward even though the stagecoach is moving forward. You won’t see this phenomenon in real life, but you
will often see it in movies and television. The illusion occurs because a film is actually a series of still photographs, replayed so fast that your eye thinks it is seeing a continuous flow of images.

  A single still picture is called a frame. The eye can see approximately 12 frames a second. To fool the eye into believing it’s seeing motion, frames must be shown at least twice as fast as the eye can see them. Movie films display 24 frames a second and television films display 30 frames a second.

  To understand this illusion, assume that the wheel rotates once a second and you show a still picture once a second. In this case the wheel will appear to stand still. This is because in the interval between each frame a new picture moves into the same position as the previous picture. However, if the frame interval your eyes see doesn’t match the camera’s frame interval, the wheel will appear to move either forward or backward.

  If a frame on the film arrives a little sooner than the camera’s frame interval, the wheel appears to move forward. On the other hand, if the frame arrives a little late, the wheel appears to move backward.

  The next time you see an automobile in a film, watch closely as it speeds up. Although the car is continually moving forward, the wheels will first appear to be going backward, then they seem to stop, and finally they appear to be going forward.

  On the other hand, if you really want to enjoy the movie, keep your eye on the car instead of the wheels.

  FACTOIDS

  Stop-motion or stop-action photography is also used to fool the eye into seeing motion. A still photograph is made of an object, such as a clay model of a dinosaur. The object is moved slightly and another photograph is taken. This process is repeated thousands of times. When the photographs, or frames, are shown at the speed of a motion picture camera, 24 frames per second, the clay model appears to be moving. Here are a few interesting facts about stop-motion photography.