Today’s interesting fact has to do with the Angel Winged Clam.

The angel wing clam gained a bit of fame in the movie Sahara, where Dirk tells Dr Rojas about the clam, calling it Petricola Pholadiformis and stating that the river they were in is the only place on earth that they occur. He goes on to state that they glow in the dark, and that science has been unable to determine why. He continues that he thinks they glow, because they can.

Unfortunately the clam he identifies, doesn’t glow in the dark, is actually called the false angel wing and is found in many fresh water rivers. The angle wing clam is Cyrtopleura Costata, is found only in salt water and while some of these shells will glow if exposed to ultraviolet light, they do not produce their own light.

Some molluscs do have a bio luminance organ and produce a green light. This light can be seen glowing through the shell. In some species of molluscs this light shines brighter through the shell than others and the shells have been shown to amplify the light produced. The technique used by the molluscs for laying down material in the shells are have been determined and the method is being used by LED producers to increase the output of their devices.

As to why these creatures produce light, it seems that the brighter the light, the less predation the animals suffer in the wild. It is thought that the green light produced hides them from their predators, effectively hiding them in plain sight. It has been confirmed that at least some of these predators cannot see the frequencies produced.

I'm a bit late in posting the 23rd's interesting fact. I did give the fact to Nick yesterday face to face though.

Today's interesting fact has to do with faecal transplants.

Faecal transplants have been performed since the 1950's, on patients with infected colons with unstoppable diarrhoea who have failed to respond to conventional treatments. At this time, it is a sort of last resort, but it may become more common place after a new set of medical trials are finished later next year.

There are an estimated 25,000 different type of bacteria, fungi and viruses that normally live in the large colon. This vast colony of micro-organisms for the most part live in a symbiotic relationship with us, increasing the nutrients available for us to absorb from our food. These creatures also work with each other, supplying compounds and nutrients that others cannot synthesise.

When the mixture of types of micro-organisms are disturbed, such as from antibiotics, poor diet or disease, harmful bacteria and viruses can take hold and cause us problems. It has been suggested that the appendix harbours a collection of good bacteria that gets released when this happens, but if the balance is too far out of whack, the colon colony cannot recover.

C. dificile is one such bacteria, and cause death.

Faecal transplants, from individuals with healthy bowel colonies, have been shown to correct this type of problem, within 48 hours of administration. One medical clinic has done over 1500 faecal transplants, all of the patients recovered from their debilitating conditions.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with exploding toads and frogs.

It was noticed some years ago, that toads and frogs were exploding in gardens, parks and along river banks in parts of Europe. No one could explain at first why they were exploding and there were a considerable number of theories advanced, including one that required visiting outer space men.

One biologist noticed that the samples he studied had no livers. So he and several of his colleagues set up blinds and cameras in various frog and toad habitats to determine what was going on. After several weeks of investigation, they realised that the culprits in the case of the exploding frogs and toads were crows.

Crows would fly into the areas, settle down on the ground, and stand still. Toads and Frogs seem to have trouble seeing anything that doesn’t move. They are primed to see movement, so if something stands still, they don’t notice. When a frog or toad got close enough, with surgical precision, the crows would stab the amphibian in the stomach, and remove the liver, which crows seem to really enjoy. This didn’t kill the frogs and toads immediately, but left a wound, that would often partially heal, until the frog or toad decided to make their calls. They would fill their throats, the wound would burst and the poor creature would explode.

This behaviour was only found in certain areas of Europe, but the behaviour seems to be learnt by crows watching other crows, and the actions have been reported in the US now, a world wide phenomenon.

I’m posting yesterdays interesting fact today, as yesterday was a bit hectic. It has to do with the weather and climate.

Weather is what happens from day to day. Climate is what happens globally. For what ever reason, the world’s overall temperature is rising, even if in parts of the world, it is getting colder.

In England has experienced a lot of swings in the weather patterns over the past 50 years or so and seems to come and go. This has been shown to be because of changes in the jet stream, a river of wind that runs around the world.

Models suggest that as the overall temperature of the world increases, the jet stream will meander more. This seems to be happening, which has been causing the swings in weather, such as the droughts and subsequent forest fires in Russia, the cold winters in some parts of the world, as well as the warm winters in other parts.

This is because as the jet stream kinks, cold air from the north is dragged south, bringing cold and snow, and then warm air is dragged north, bringing the warm weather.

You can see this in a pot of water on a stove or cooker. When the water simmers, hot water rises, and cold water settles down to the bottom to warm and rise again. The more heat applied to the bottom of the pan, the faster this rising and falling occurs, until eventually you get a rolling boil. This is basically what is happening to the air.

As the tropics get warmer air rises and goes north, where it settles and then moves south. Because the earth is spinning, this causes the various trade winds. The hotter the tropics get, the further north the warm air goes, the more violent it moves and the faster cold air from the north, along with the snow and freezing rain, goes south.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the element carbon.

There are three common isotopes of carbon that are found on earth, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14. Around 99% is carbon-12, about 1% is carbon-13 and carbon-14 is found in trace amounts.

Carbon-14 is radioactive and decays into nitrogen-14. You might think that this is why carbon-14 is so rare and that it might eventually disappear, but carbon-14 is produced when cosmic rays enter the atmospheres, produce neutrons, through a reaction convert the nitrogen-14 into a carbon-14 atom and a hydrogen atom.

Carbon-14 is constantly replenished, so that in the there is always about the same amount in the atmosphere at any time. Carbon-14 gets picked up by plants and through herbivores enters the animal food chain. Once an animal or plant dies, the ratio of carbon-14 to the other carbon isotopes doesn’t remain constant, as the carbon decays.

Because we know the half life of carbon-14, and the amount of carbon-14 is thought to remain constant (which remains true as long as the amount of cosmic rays remains constant), by determining how much carbon-14 remains in a sample, can determine how old the sample is, which is how radio-carbon dating works.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with atoms, elements and isotopes.

The simplest atom, hydrogen, has one electron and one proton. The proton is in the nucleus with the electron circling around it. But there isn’t just one form of hydrogen, there are three. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen that has a neutron in the nucleus with the proton. Tritium has two neutrons with the proton. Hydrogen is also the only element with separate names for the various isotopes. The simplest form, without any neutrons, is also known as protium.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Echinacea and Ginseng.

These herbal remedies have been used for thousands of years. Echinacea by American Indians, Ginseng by those in the far east.

Many claims have been made about the potent powers of these two herbs and few of them have been confirmed, but one fact has been scientifically proven in blind tests. The use of these two herbs in combination have been shown to reduce the length an individual has a cold and a case of flu, by at least a third and sometimes by half.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the pygmy sloth of the Caribbean.

These diminutive creatures are much smaller than the land bound version. They were separated from the land about ten thousand years ago and have become a new species very quickly.

Unlike their relatives, these regularly swim and can be found paddling in the ocean, although they don't yet know exactly why.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with T-Cells.


T-Cells are used by the body to attack bacteria and viruses. Many of them are produced by the Thymus. T-Cells seem to rewrite some of their DNA, to produce small circles of RNA, which are used to help them do their job.

Recently they have worked out that the number of these T Cell Receptors found in T-Cells can be used to determine how old someone is. Blood samples, found by the police, can now give them the age of whoever lost the blood. This technique has already been used to rule out individuals in some cases.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Dogs.

As most people know, the domestic dog seems to be a descendant of a species of wolves that lives on and around the Himalayas, with the occasional input of genes from other wolves or wild dogs throughout the world.

Short legged dogs seem to all descend from one genetic change, that is felt to have originated in the middle east, anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Global Warming.

Not the global warming that is being discussed today, with some stating that it doesn't exist and others stating that it does. But the global warming that occurred some 50 million years ago.

No one is quite sure how it happened, but around 50 million years ago, the temperature of the planet sky rocketed. The shores of the Arctic ocean had palm trees lining it. Hippo's and Elephants lived in the Arctic circle. And perhaps most importantly to us, the number of primate species boomed, and eventually resulted 50 million years later in humans.

There are a number of theories as to why the planet warmed at that time. One is a meteorite that struck some high carbon content rocks. Another are some volcanoes that came up through other rocks that had a similar content. Another one is a methane burp, from the sea floor.

Whatever it was, the world warmed over the course in the matter of a few thousand years, and instant in geological time frame.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with the past two posts.

What is the difference I was asked, between Epigenetics and Lamarckism or Lysenkoism.

Epigenetics changes the way genes work, sometimes for several generations, but is eventually reversed, and the genes go back to the way they worked. No change to the genetic code is made. These changes allow the following generations to cope with specific changes to the environment. For instance, if a generation or two of an organism is given limited access to nutrients, epigenetic changes allow successive generations to survive by increasing the way they take up nutrients and how they utilise them. When the conditions that cause the change are reversed, eventually the epigenetic changes are reversed.

For both Lamarckism and Lysenkoism it was postulated that changes made to an organism, affects its offspring. Lamarck suggested that cutting off several generations of mice tails, would eventually lead to tailless mice. If this were true, breeds of dogs that had their tails docked for hundreds of years would now not have tails when born, yet those tails still exist.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Trofim Lysenko, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the theory of the heritability of acquired characteristics.

Lysenko was a follower of Lamarck, a French Biologist who came up with Lamarckism, or the idea that an organism can pass on traits that it develops during its life, to its descendants. These traits were thought to be passed on at the time of conception.

Lamarckism fell out of favour in the 1920’s when evidence that seemed to support the theory, was shown to have been tampered with.

Lysenko claimed to have developed a better agricultural system through Lamarckism, which the leaders of the Soviet Union felt better supported the ideology of Communism. Lysenko was placed in charge of agriculture and denounced biologists that suggested other systems might work better than Lysenkoism, particularly geneticists, many of whom were executed or sent to labour camps.

Genetics was eventually declared a pseudoscience and effectively outlawed, and this was rescinded only in the mid 1960s.

Today's interesting fact, has to do with Epigenetics.

Epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in appearance, or gene expression by mechanisms other than changes to DNA. Or in other words, how genes turn off and on from generation to generation. It has also been used to describe how genes turn on and off during the lifetime of an individual. In a foetus, genes switch on and off as the body grows.

It has been shown that when genes have methyl groups added to them, the action of that gene can be turned off or even have their actions changed.

While it was thought that these changes could not be passed on from one generation to another, its been determined that these changes can pass on through two or more generations. Changes the way that a set of genes work, that occurred to your grandparents, can show up in you and possibly your children.

The study of epigenetics is still in its infancy, but many are suggesting that the recent obesity epidemic might have at least some of its roots in the starvation of some of our ancestors.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Swarm Intelligence.

If you have watched a cloud of starlings, a swarm of ants, or a shoal of fish turning and moving, you might be forgiven for thinking that some form of intelligence was required. But it has been shown that simple equations can explain the behaviour.

Swarm Intelligence is shown however when a group of animals makes a decision that affects the whole group. Such as when bees swarm to find a new home.

But humans also can display swarm intelligence. Take a jar, fill it with beans, and then ask various individuals how many beans are in the jar, without letting them discuss their guesses. Apparently, more often than not, an average of the answer, is likely to be closest to the correct answer.

This only works when discussions are not allowed, as a percentage of the population seems to be able to sway others opinion, to such a degree, that the others will accept these opinions, without actually guessing.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Culture and how it affects those who live within them.

Culture affects much more than many people think. The way we perceive colour is determined by culture. The way we express emotions on our faces is determined by culture. The way we react to issues is determined by culture. There are apparently only two facial expressions that are innate, that everyone expresses. All the others are learnt by the culture we grow up in.

The way we perceive images is also affected. There is an interesting picture of two lines, with lines forming arrows at the ends. the two lines are both the same length, but depending on the culture we grow up in, determines if we see the one line larger than the other. Those raised in western cultures, will think one line up to 22% longer than the other. The San, African bushmen, shown the same image, correctly identify them as being exactly the same length, as do Australian Aborigines.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the largest and smallest living organism.

The largest one seems to be a fungus, known locally as the "humongous fungus", a honey mushroom. The mycelium of this fungus covers almost 1000 hectares of forest. DNA tests from portions taken throughout the forest has shown that it is all one creature

The smallest one (and note that it self replicates without outside help, in other words, is not a parasite) is a bacterium that is 200 nanometres in diameter. It was found in hot, arsenic filled mine effluent.

Today's interesting facts continue with spiders, specifically Huntsman spiders.

These are also known as giant crab spiders, wood spiders, and in south Africa, rain spiders because they often go into homes when it rains.

The Huntsman spider is found throughout the world, in tropical or semi-tropical regions and can be found in houses in colder climates.

The largest can have a leg span of almost a foot across. While not deadly to humans, they can bite and can cause minor swelling and local pain.

These spiders feed on insects, especially cockroaches, so should be considered benificial. They do not use webs, but hunt their food.

They have been found in Baltic and Dominican amber.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Spiders.

Tarantulas are very large spiders, and make popular pets. The largest ones, come with red hairs that cover their bodies. Not a lot of people know that you should handle these large creatures with care, as the hairs easily come off the spiders, and if they go into your or an animals eyes, can cause temporary blindness. If they go into the lungs, they can cause an allergic reaction and even foster an infection. These large spiders also have another trick up thier sleaves, it was recently discovered that their feet have web producing spinnerettes that help them climb, something that puzzeled some scientists given the weight of the spiders.

Newly born spiders fly to new environments, by climbing to the top of the highest feature they can find, then spin a fine thread of silk, which is picked up by the breeze. Eventually the thread will pull them up into the air, so they can settle as much as hundreds of miles from their birthplace.

I was specificaly asked how spiders get from one tree to another, to build their webs. I've seen this in action. Just as a baby spider spins its parachute, a larger spider intent on creating a large web will spin a fine thread into the air. Once it is picked up by the breeze, it poduces a thicker and sticker thread, followed by a thick but not sticky thread. When the thread catches on another object, the spider fastens the thread to what it is sitting on, as an anchor, then climbs the thread, and adds another guideline as it climbs to where the thread caught. Amazing to watch.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Honey.

Humans have been using honey for thousands of years.

Not to long ago, some honey in clay post was discovered in an Egyptian tomb.

It was found to be edible, showing that Honey stays edible.

Honey has been used to treat wounds. The ancients discovered that a layer of honey on a wound would usually allow the wound to heal without turning septic and festering.

This is partially due to the antibiotics that is found in honey, preventing bacteria from multiplying and partially from the sealing of the wound from the atmosphere.

My earlier post, was actually yesterdays. I fell asleep last night before I posted it.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Honey Bees.

Bees regulate the temperature of their hives by warming their bodies, through vibrating their flight muscles.

This can raise the temperature of the hive to over 47 °C (117 °F).

If a human's body temperature were to rise to this temperature, it would kill him (her).

Therefore, if you had a large enough ball of bees, you could kill someone, and not just from potential stings.

It would take the about 20,000,000 Honey Bees, or the contents of around 1000 medium sized hives, to do it though. The bees wouldn't be able to get close enough all at once, to a human to actually do it, there would be a awful lot of bees.

But it would only take around 50 jars of honey to supply the bees with the energy to do the feat, if it were possible.

Today's interesting fact has to do with water.

Specifically water bottled in plastic.

To understand the cost of bottled water, it has been estimated by various orgnaistions that to bring home the cost in oil, the bottles should be filled with a specific amount of oil.

How much, oil there should be depends on if the company estimating it is funded by producers of bottled water or not.

It can range anywhere from a fifth of a bottle to a quarter of a bottle of oil.

The cost doesn't just come from the manufacture of the bottle, but also to the filling of the water, the pumping of the water, the transportation of the water, and in many cases the filtration, of the water.

Some water is purified by removing everything except the water, and then adding specific chemicals to give the perfect taste.

Today's interesting fact has to do with food production.

Just before the end of the 1800's, the presindent of the British Assoication stated that England, and the rest of the civilised world, was in danger of running out of food.

Britain back then needed to import wheat, as there wasn't enough land to meet demand, considering yields were around 1.5 tonnes per hectare.

The way around the problem was the application of nitrogen fertilisers, which could more than double yields.

Guano from various islands and lands was harvested to produce these fertlisers and it was recognised that the supply of Guano would soon run out.

Fortunately for the modern world, Fritz Haber worked out how to systhesise ammonia from the air and water, which lead to the Haber-Bosh process and nitrogen fertlisers.

Over half of the nitrogen fertilisers used today are produced by this process, and without it, the human population would never have reached the levels it has today.

This need to produce nitrogen fertilisers to support our ranks may cause problems in the near future. Some esitmates, suggest that over 30% of the oil consumed today goes to producing the fertlisers required to feed the planet.

If plans to add the special nodes that contain the special nitrogen fixing bacteria to all our food plants do not come about, will the end of oil, result in starvation to humans across the planet?

This needs to be thought about by someone, because not a lot of people realise we are basically eating oil based products, as well as using it in our cars, air planes, plastics and to produce electricity.

Today's interesting fact has to do with pregnant women and an old wives tale.

Even today, pregnant women are told that if they have a curry, it will either induce the birthing process, or reduce the time it takes to give birth.

While there is some evidence that a hot curry can start the process, there has been no evidence the length of the process is reduced at all and the chemical compounds within the various spices also have another effect.

When a woman gives birth, her body produces various endorphins and chemicals that reduce the amount of pain she experiences during the birth.

Unfortunately the various compounds within the curry, stop the endorphins produced from stopping the pain.

So the result is, while a curry may help start birthing, it means the woman in question feels all the pain, instead of having the pain reduced, as she would normally.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Pike. This is a large carnivorous fish, called the Jackfish in some parts of North America and the Gar in others. It is found throughout the northern hemisphere.

Pike can grow to four feet in length, about 1.5 meters, and eat everything from fish, frogs, birds and other pike, ambushing their prey. Although it is considered a fresh water fish, it also can live in brackish waters, and has been seen eating herring on in salt waters.

In an attack it has been calculated that during its lunge for prey the Pike subjects itself to more than 10g of force, if only for a short distance.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with medications.

When someone is prescribed medications, some care is given to make sure that when multiple drugs are given, they don’t interfere with each other. For instance, if someone is taking Warfarin to thin their blood, they are told to not take Aspirin, or other drugs that also thin the blood.

Some years ago, when I was in the USAF Reserves, I worked as a Pharmacy Technician. Every time we handed out birth control, we had a script we followed, a little speach, warning the recipient that some medications, such as some antibiotics, some over the counter remedies, etc, would make their birth control ineffective, and as such they should take additional precautions if sex was planned. We also told them that if they were in doubt, they should discuss with the Pharmacist or their prescribing Physician. This seemingly little known fact has stuck with me, possibly because some of my colleagues were much younger than me, and they would ask me to talk to the women, as discussing birth control seemed to embarrass the younger men.

I’ve discussed this with Doctors, and all of them have told me that they mention this information when a prescription is first issued. I have in the past, looked at some birth control information sheets, and the information was also listed there. I don't know if it still is, but I'm sure a Google search will confirm that it happens with some medications.

Many women however, do get pregnant, because they don’t follow this advice, usually I suspect, because they forget the advice, something that I can understand, with the busy lives we all have these days. I known of many women who have gotten pregnant from this, but perhaps, after seeing it here, someone will not have an unwanted pregnancy?

Today's interesting fact deals with lizards.

I've covered before how some lizards have sex determining genes, and others use the temperature of their surroundings while they are in the egg to determine their sex. With those who use genes to determine sex, Lizards and snakes have ZW chromosomes. Those with ZZ are male, those with ZW are female. It has been long thought that lizards with the set of WW chromosomes, were both infertile and non-viable (e.g. they die in the egg), just as mammals with YY sex chromosomes are non-viable and die in the egg.

Normally, when birds or lizards reproduce parenthetically, all the young are male, as the young are only produced from doubling the chromosomes of the mother. Females couldn't be born.

But recently, however a Boa Constrictor, an India Python, has been found to have produced viable female young, with WW sex chromosomes. It is interesting that the Boa produced no male offspring, only female ones.

This is being studied now, and they are hoping to determine if the mother's offspring can produce offspring from mating with males. If they do, they should also be female. Only the Boa's grandchildren should produce males after mating.

I look forward for the next few years to find out the outcome.

Today's interesting fact has to do with mobile phones.

These minicomputers have changed our lives and have made connections to our friends, families and work ubiquitous.

To many, being without a connection to the world is abhorrent to think about. I've known people drive 30 miles to work, sit down at their desk, only to get up and drive home, just to pick up their phones from home.

One of the worst things that can happen to the modern individual, is for their battery to run out of power. This invariably leads to the unprepard to run around the office asking if anyone has a charger that can be used to charge their phone. I had a neighbour recently knock on the door to my flat, begging for a charger, as his wife had his in her handbag at her place of work, and wasn't due home for several hours.

A few years ago, the EU commission approached the companies that manufacture phones, to correct this situation, partially to stave off the potential electrical waste of thousands of tons of unused chargers, but also to make things simpler for mobile phone customers. I understand it was suggested that it was either the companies came up with a solution, or the EU could come up with a law to force it on the manufacturers. Most companies, if not all, have agreed that phones that are data-enabled, mostly 3G and 4G phones, will have this ability.

And it is this year, 2010, inter-chargeable mobile phones are supposed to be available to us, the consumer. I checked the other day, and while the 3G phones I looked at were charged by the mini-USB, most of non-3G phones I saw still had separate chargers.

This emphasis on 3G phones might cause us all problems in the near future. These data intensive phones use a lot of bandwidth. Many, in heavily populated areas, have commented on their phones cutting out, conversations dropped, data flow halted. This seems to be because while we have been buying these new 3G phones, the infrastructure is being overloaded. Indeed, for the 2012 Olympics, they are frantically increasing the infrastructure in and around the Olympic village and sports arenas, to handle the extra capacity that will be required.

Even so, there is likely to be issues, because as the analogue TV and Radio networks are still working, the bandwidth that the mobile phone companies want to take over, to increase their products connectivity isn't available. I read not long ago, that by 2013, many phones will not be able to maintain a signal, as the connections may end up being rotated between available cells.

The UK isn't the only country having this problem. In New York City, friends have reported they constantly lose connections, as have friends in Los Angles and other large cities.

So we may just need to learn, to do without constant instant communications, as more of these 3G phones are sold and used, unless the bandwidth issues are solved soon.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Chupacabras, or translated into English, the goat sucker.

La Chupacabras was first reported in Puerto Rico, as a cross between an monkey and a bat, a bald animal that sucked the blood out of it's prey, usually livestock especially goats, and was considered to be a vampire. It then migrated to mainland of Central America, changing from a bipidal creature, into a quadrapidal one. Its range now extends well beyond Texas and have been reported as far north as Maine, and as far south as Chile.

Over the years the remains of a number of these creatures have been found, often in such a decomposed state, it has been difficult to determine their identity. However, recent finds, have provided genetic material, as well as skin samples and it seems that the creatures are actually coyote or dogs with severe parasite infections, specifically that of mange.

I find it interesting that there are many diseases that seem to have been passed from domesticated animals to humans. Mange is one of the few diseases that has pass from humans, to two of our closest domesticated companions, dogs and cats. The mange parasite's closest relative is the itch mite, scabies, a parasite that infects humans. When a human is infected, the infection will often last months, however most humans develop an imuninity and cannot be infected again. Dogs have only developed the ability to build partial resistance to the mite so far, and the dog's relative, the coyte, doesn't seem to even have that, leading to massive and cripalling infections that leave the animals unable to hunt their normal prey, causing them to turn to livestock, which being penned together are easier for ill coytes to attack.

Today's interesting fact is a continuing note on Komodo Dragons.

There is speculation that the Komodo Dragons are the last remnants or descendants of a species that once lived in Australia and Indonesia, which were connected 900,000 of years ago. The large lizards in most of Indonesia and Australia disappeared around the same time that humans arrived. It isn't known of course, if these large lizards died out because of the climate change that was then occurring or if humans had something to do with their demise.

Komodo Dragons are one of the few lizards where the female of the species do not require a male to reproduce, or at least to produce male progeny. Komodo Dragons, like birds, and unlike crocodiles and many other lizards, have genes that determine the sex of their offspring. Instead of XY, Birds and Komodo Dragons have an ZW sex pair. Many lizards have their sex determined by the heat the eggs receive during development.

Female Komodo Dragons have the ZW combination whereas Males are ZZ. This is the opposite of Humans. When Female Komodo Dragons don't have males to fertilise their eggs, they effectively self fertilise, by somehow doubling the the chromosomes in the egg. Eggs that have a WW combination, the eggs are infertile and do not develop. If they have ZZ they are male. All young from parthenogenesis in Komodo Dragons have been male, which makes sense, as the female's eggs would either have W or Z, the second sex chromosome would normally be supplied in the male's sperm, as a W.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the Komodo dragon.

This very large lizard, lives on four main islands of Indonesia, Komodo, Rinca, Flores and Gili Motang.

It lives mostly on carrion, but also hunts and ambushes prey.

It is a very strong swimmer and has been found swimming more than six miles from land, and it has been suggested it may also catch and eat fish.

It was long thought that in ambushing large animals, a combination of bacteria in their saliva caused toxic shock in the attacked animals, which then incapacitated the animals, and allowed the Komodo dragons to finish their kills.

Recently, keepers of Bearded Dragon lizards, noticed that mice caught by their lizards died faster than expected. Someone did some study and noticed that these lizards had venom in their saliva and further study discovered they had venom glands. This prompted an expanded study, because up to that moment, the only venomous lizards were thought to be the Gila Monsters in the Americas. The study showed that Komodo Dragons, as well as many other lizards, also have venom glands, and this is what incapacitates the Dragons prey, not bacterial toxic shock.

Today's interesting fact has to do with cinnamon and type 2 Diabetes.

I was asked the other day by a work collegue, why I always put cinnamon into my Tea and Coffee.

The answer was quite simple, I don't want to add sugar to my drinks, and as our ancestors knew before sugar was widely available, cinnamon makes what ever it is added to taste sweeter. And for me, it sweetens my drinks just the right amount.

Also, I went on to explain, a daily dose of cinnamon, from a quarter teaspoon to a teaspoon, has been shown to help delay (and some studies have suggested may prevent) the onset of type 2 Diabetes.

In addition, it seems to reduce fasting blood glucose, as well as triglycerides and LDL (or bad) cholesterol.

From other studies it has been shown that tt doesn't seem to matter if the spice has been added to food or drink, or taken orally in a capsule or tablet.

So, I was asked, why don't doctors tell us about this?

I had to think about this question for a while before my memory dredged up the information.

Cinnamon comes from the bark of treas and bushes. The amount of active ingredients found in the bark is extremely variable, and depends both on the genetics of the tree, where on the tree the bark was harvested as well as how much sunshine the bark received. Which is one reason doctors may not prescribe it, quality control is important in medications.

Taking cinnamon in large amounts is not a good idea, as large doses of one of cinnamon's active ingreadiants, coumarin, can cause liver damage. Coumarin can also thin the blood, so people with bleeding disorders or on anti-clotting medication, should reduce their intake.

Which active ingredient, or combination of chemicals, is causing the affects noted in the above studies hasn't been competely identified.

It's been suggested in most studies that pregnant women should avoid excessive amounts, and while you can buy a concentrated oil of cinnamon, it is not intended for consumption and using it orally can depress the central nervous system.

So limiting yourself to no more than a teaspoon's worth a day is probably a good idea, at least until they determine what is causing the effect and how to standardise doses.

Myself, I'm going to continue having a bit in my tea and coffee, cause it tastes good.

Today's interesting fact has to do with modern photography.

When I went to school, Louis Danguerre was said to have been the father of modern photograpy.

However, a Joseph Niepce, a number of years before had developed created a process that, using bitumen and lavender oil on metal plates, created an image that could be used to produce prints. Unfortunately it took between 8 and 42 hours to produce an image.

Niepce died of a stroke in 1933 and left his notes to Danguerre who then worked out how to use silver, iodine vaper and mercury fumes to create a latent image.

Of course, pin hole camers have been around for a long time, the Greeks and Chinese had both invented them in the 4th and 5th centruies BC. Camera obscuras were used in the 6th century CE, in eastern Europe, and early Muslim scolars studied cameras as well.

Today's intersting fact has to do with movies.

There are those who are suggesting that back in 1928, Charlie Chaplin may have documented the first proof that time travel exists.

In the movie 'The Circus' an older woman is seen walking, holding something to her left ear as she talks.

Her gestures and behaviour looks almost exactly the same as now seen almost anyware on the planet while people talk on their phones.

She even seems to stop, in the middle of a sentence, as if she is listening to someone else.

While some suggest she had mental problems, her behaviour was not documented until after the invention of the modern mobile phone.

Does this mean that time travel really exists?

Continuing on insomnia today, it has been suggested by some psychologists that some owe their success to the condition. Because they can't sleep, they spend their time doing work that they wouldn't have had a chance to do.

Vincent Van Gogh might not have painted so much, Napoleon Bonaparte may not have created his empire, W C Fields and Groucho Marks might not have been as successful, Alexandre Dumas and Mark Twain might not have written as much as they did, Thomas Edison, Marilyn Monroe and Benjamin Franklin may not have invented as much in their lifetimes.

Speaking of Marilyn, I've read that she had a number of patents registered in her name, and that her monetary worth came more from her inventions than the movies she appeared in.

So insomnia, although a curse, can sometimes also be a blessing in disguise.

I had thought of a fact this morning that I didn't think that Nick knew, but he changed the subject on me before I could tell him the fact.

Still, I thought I'd include it here anyway.

Cordite was invented in the late 1800's and was used almost exclusively by the British in their small arms and many British bombs during WW1, at least until they had sufficent shortages that they had to switch the the American smokless powder for many of their munitions.

Cordite was not used for small arms in the US during WW1, but was often used with large munitions.

Cordite was used as a detonation device for the nucular weapon, Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.

But the subject has been changed to insomnia, a subject dear to my heart, as I do occasionally suffer from its effects.

Insomnia can be a sign or symptom of various medical and psychiatric disorders.

Insomnia can also be a condition, that causes other disorders.

Changes in the area where you sleep, the time you go to sleep, depression and stress can all cause the condition.

Insomnia is on the increase, with more and more sufferers turning to their doctors or various nostrums for help.

A recent study, has shown that blue light causes a section of the brain to help you wake up, whereas red light does the opposite and helps you fall asleep. This study has suggested that the recent switch to compact floresent lights in which is deficent in red light and with more blue light in the output, could be part of the reason for the increase, as the light would be waking our minds in the evenings, when we are preparing to go to sleep.

Todays interesting fact continues with WW1 and Homeopathy.

There are a many people who believe that Homeopathy doesn't work, and possibly just as many who believe it does.

However, during WW1, the American Homeopathy, the journal of American Homeopaths sent three military hospitals to France.

The hospitals were fully equipped and included medical, surgical, nursing and radiolological teams, as well as apparently, a pharmacy filled with the standard non-homeopath medication of the day.

Todays's interesting fact again has to do with World War 1.

During WW1 aproximately 9.5 million millitary men died. During the same time approximately 9.5 million military horses and mules also died.

Calvery was used in the begining of WW1, and were used with good efect until both the introduction of large machine guns, when thousands of horses died in what ended up as futal charges, and the introduction of trench warfare, where horses were no longer effective. Calvery charges did not die out completely and continued until the end of the war, where they were effective where large calaber weapons were not available.

Horses and mules were used as in support roles throughout the war, taking supplies and munitions to the front and wounded back. Thousands of these support animals died from gas attacks and other munitions.

Today's interesting fact has to do with World War 1. Nick likes World War 1 and has requested this subject today.

I remember reading some years ago, that while may people think that the causes of WW1 was the assanation Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, which because of treaties signed over the years, required the begining of a war. Indeed, when I was in school, that was exactly what I was taught.

But the article insisted that the real reasons were economic. Oil, had become an important commodity. Oil companies, and nations, had worked out that the need for oil would be paramount for years to come. The article suggested that it was only after Germany had been cut off from the oil fields in the countries they had invaded, that they had effectively lost the war, with the same occuring again in WW2, when Germany was cut off from it's oil supplies.

I don't know how accurate this is, but it is an interesting fact that others believe this to be the facts for the war.

Today's interesting fact has to do with our ancestors.

Bread has been used as a foodstuff for thousands of years. It is often thought that bread only comes from the flour of wheat. Wheat was first cultivated around 8000 years ago. But bread only requires a starchy flour. The use of Wheat adds gluten, but so does the use of Rye or Barley, although the type of gluten in these are different to the one in wheat.

But flour and bread has been created from many other starchy sources, the corms and fruit from the banana plant, various grass seeds, such as maize (corn) and rice, indeed almost any starchy source will allow you to create a type of bread. While the bread created from these materials doesn't rise as much as it does in wheat breads. It is the type of gluten in wheat that causes modern breads to rise as they do.

Until the Victorian Age, bread was made from oats and rye, not just wheat. Bread was used as plates and bowels, especially for the poor.

Today's interesting fact, again has to do with our ancestors.

The sequencing of DNA from a thousand humans from around the world, has thrown out some interesting results. For the most part, we have a very limited genetic diversity, with a few exceptions.

The additional sequencing of DNA from a Neanderthals bones has thrown light on some of these differences.

If you are descended from Europeans, you are likely been 1% and 8% of genes that seem to have come from one or more Neanderthal ancestors, depending on the articles you read. The genes identified do not match with genes found in the general populations of Africa or China.

This research has also identified that the Chinese also have a set of genes that seems to have come from another unidentified ancestor.

I find this fascinating, as this may partially support the idea of a multi-regional origin of modern humans, where ancestors of the modern human left Africa, and then mated with modern humans after they left Africa about 60,000 years ago.

The Recent Out-of-Africa model seems to be supported by more scientists at the moment suggests that modern man didn't leave Africa before that, or if they had, they had died out. The multi-region theory suggests that there was a merging of several different subspecies of humans creating our modern selves. One recent dig has placed modern humans in China 100,000 years ago has placed more emphasis on this possibility.

There are those of course, who will bridle at the prospect of having Neanderthal genes. The Neanderthal has been portrayed as a brutish lout, that was so hideous that no modern man or woman would want to have anything to do with them. They were thought to be unable to speak, to have no culture, unimaginative, no religion, forced to use substandard tools, and eventually out competed by modern man.

The mixing of our genes along with recent archaeological finds, possibly tells a completely different story.

For over 130,000 years Neanderthal lived in Europe and parts of east Asia. As species go, this is successful run. The latest finds, suggest that they looked after their infirm, may have had religion (often burying their dead with tools, flowers and food for the afterlife), and were far more innovative than they have been credited by popular culture, even using grindstones to create flour from roots for the making of bread.

When the Neanderthal was found in the 17th Century, it was decided that they had to be sub-human, brutish and images created of them showed this bias. Recently, using techniques used by the police on finding dead individuals, by using their skulls and recreating the looks of those individuals by skilled artists, Neanderthal images were recreated. When these images were placed in modern clothing, even scientists who were primed with the information that one or more images in a picture would be a Neanderthal, were unable to determine with any accuracy, the modern humans verses the Neanderthals.

This just proves are not as different as many suspected.

Today's interesting fact has to do with villages and the oldest found to date.

I'm not sure what defines a village verses a town. From what I remember a towns usually has a market or administrative function for surrounding villages, and villages are usually located in rural areas, but the term seems to have been blurred over the years, because I've seen villages that have all the attributes of a town, as well as being located in heavily populated areas.

As to the oldest, for some time the oldest seemed to have been one found in South America, which is over 14,000 years old. It seemed odd to me that South America, being allegedly settled long after other areas of the world, would have the oldest village, but recently in Israel they have found a village that is around 30,000 years old, and has been announced by the Israeli press as being the oldest found to date. This doesn't appear to be true however, as in Papua New-Guinea, the oldest village found to date is over 49,000 years old.

When you couple this with the oldest farm found to date, 14,000 years old, it makes you wonder if that area of the world, often considered backward, actually exported the technology that fuelled the development of humans throughout the world, although I'm sure that eventually we will find that farming of various foods have existed a lot longer than we currently believe.

In a follow on from yesterday's post, the plant that was farmed, was a type of banana. The species of banana was not one of the hybrids that we eat today where we eat a sterile fruit, but one where the corm, the base of the plant, is harvested. The corm is dried, ground into flour and made into a dough and then baked. This is done in various places in the world even to this day.

Today's interesting fact has to do with diet. Mostly because I'm constantly told to diet, but partially because we have been told that our ancient ancestors ate mostly meat and vegetables, without foods that are high in carbohydrates. This impression seems to have come about because archaeologists in the past have been too diligent to clean and sterilise both the tools they used as well as the artefacts they have found, without checking the embedded plant materials within or on the surface.

When I was a child, the scout troop I belonged to used to go on survival hikes. Our scout masters had made arrangements with certain farmers for the use of their woods and fields in our search for food. We were required to only find wild forage, and not allowed to raid local crops. We spent our time, searching for wild food which consisted of, roots, berries, fungus, leaves and the like, then preparing it what we found, getting it ready for our three meals. While we were taught how to create snares and traps, except for catching fish, we were not allowed to use what we had learnt for getting meat. Instead, we would be provided with a certain amount of eggs and meat, which were kept refrigerated by our scout masters and doled out every morning and evening to have with what ever we had found in the surrounding forests and fields.

One of the foods we ate, on a limited basis was the root of bull rushes, which we called Cattails. When foraging, you must be careful to leave enough behind to feed wild animals as well as to continue successful survival of the food source. The American Indians supplemented their diet with Cattails, drying the roots, then grinding them to create a flour, before making bread which was baked in fires and small bread kilns. The flour produced is high in carbohydrates and makes a bread that tastes very good to a small boy who has spent the day making the flour.

Recently in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic archaeologists found grindstones, that by identifying the plant material embedded on them were used to create flour from the roots of rushes and ferns. From the remains, these grindstones have been dated to have been last used over 30,000 years ago. So our European ancient ancestors were making flour and as other fragments confirm, bread. Instead of having just mastodon burgers and veggies, they may have even put their meat between two slices of bread. Which could put the sandwich's invention many thousands of years before the Earl of Sandwich thought of it.

Today is a follow on to yesterday's post. Been thinking about caring, why we care and what causes the caring and other 'morality' ideals. Recent scientific experiments have revealed that there seems to be a biological, an actual genetic reason for caring as well as, apparently, many of the other morals that most humans seem to have.

We've known since the 19th century that by removing a certain section of the brain, you can turn a conscientious, religious, good father and dependable worker into a antisocial, selfish, erratic worker, poor father, swearing individual. We know this because a construction worker had a large iron rod blown through his head, which removed this section. We know the areas of the brain that were removed, because we still have his skull. Recent developments with MRI scans have shown that these various areas of the brain, are responsible for religious feelings, dependability, being social, as well as caring for others. Not only have they identified the areas that are responsible for these morals, they have determined some of the genetic material (but not yet all) that turns these areas on and off.

Using virtual studies, where they show individuals specific scenarios, they've been mapping these sections of the brain and what goes on when people make decisions, such as saving five people at the cost of one person. They've shown that some people, such as serial killers, don't have certain sections of the brain working the same way as 'normal' people.

This brings into question mental competence. If a killer can show that the section of the brain that would normally prevent a 'normal' person to go out and kill indiscriminately, does that mean that they are not 'normal' and shouldn't be tried under 'normal' rules?

For instance they have identified specific alleles of genes that induce the production of serotonin in the brain. Now they have just started a test of injecting DNA fragments of these alleles into the brain of selected clinically depressed individuals, to see if they can alleviate depression in them. If this succeeds, and they eventually identified variants of genes that can turn on or off certain moral actions, what is to prevent the forced treatment of the individuals who are considered by many to be mentally and morally deficient?

As they have already determined the sections of the brain that induce religious feelings, could someone force a treatment on atheists to become religious or even the other way around. Should we be able to force anyone to change the nature of their brain and as such their beliefs?

Today's interesting fact was generated from yesterdays fact. Caring and when we develop the trait.

Very early apparently. New born babies, on hearing other babies cry will cry in response, and will stop when the crying stops. If an infant knows someone is crying or suffering, it will become distressed. As soon as they can move, babies will attempt to move to someone who is distressed and try to comfort, by stroking or handing over a toy or a bottle.

If we have such a response, even so early in life, when would our ancestors have developed the trait? As long ago as a million years ago?

Today's interesting fact has to do with our possible ancient ancestors, Homo Heidelbergensis. This species lived about a half a million years ago, and is thought by some to be the joint ancestors of Homo Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens.

They have recently discovered the bones of one individual who would have been about 45, who's spine was severely bent over and had slipped disks in his lower vertebra. There is no way that this individual could have done more than move around slowly and probably only with the use of a cane.

As there is no way this individual could have fed himself, he had to have been kept alive from the actions of the others in his tribe.

This coupled with the discovery of bones of a 12 year old child from the same group with skull malformations, this suggests that our distant ancestors were as caring as modern humans, and looked after their invalids and infirm as we do ours.

Still with Shipwrecks, but more like archaeology, which I'll be moving the interesting facts to.

Earlier this year, they found what they are calling one of the oldest shipwrecks found to date, over 3000 years old. It was off the coast of Devon and contained copper and tin ingots. What isn't know, is if the copper and tin was coming to Britain or if it was shipping to somewhere Europe.

The copper and tin would have been used for making bronze tools, weapons and possibly jewellery.

Today’s interesting fact is actually two. The first one, Nick already knew about, so I had to think of a second one. The first was:

The Lusitania was sunk during WW1 and is often attributed to being one reason why the US entered the War on the British side. The log of the German u-boat that sank the ship does show who sank the ship, even if there are conspiracy theories that suggest a British u-boat did the deed. However what isn’t very well known is that the ship was carrying munitions and explosives being shipped to the UK, and as such was a legitimate target that the German u-boat then rightfully sank. Apparently the Germans had the information that the ship was carrying the materials.

The second is:

Reed boats were used by the ancient Egyptians, the ancient South Americans, and there is evidence that they were used around the same time in West Africa, the Mediterranean, and Indonesia, and are still used in Peru, specifically Lake Titicaca. The Egyptians used Papyrus reeds, and others used locally sourced reeds.

The interesting thing is that the evidence from pottery, pictures, remains, as well as the boats that are made to this day, is that they look almost exactly the same. Thor Heyerdahl back in the late 60’s successfully took one, the RA 2 from Morocco to Barbados in the West Indies, over 6000 miles. Before he successfully did this archaeologists insisted that a reed boat would decompose and fall apart before such a voyage could be completed.

Still on shipwrecks. I meant to write this last night, but worked late last night and was so tired by the time I got back to my flat, I just fell asleep without turning on the PC. Fortunately I had already told Nick my interesting fact for the day, just didn't have the chance to inform any on-line readers. So here goes.

There is a cargo ship in the Thames Estuary that was sunk during WW2. It was carrying supplies to the UK and held over a thousand tons of high explosives (and low explosives) when it sank. That ship and the explosives are still there and could go off at any time, as it slowly rusts on the bottom of the estuary.

The anchor broke and it initially ran aground on a sandbar. Much of the cargo was removed, before it flooded and sank.

The condition of the ship is monitored, by the Coastguard, but because of an explosion during an attempt back in the 60's to remove explosives from a similar sunken ship, it was felt to leave things as they are.

It seems that various chemical reactions between the various elements of the explosives and the metals within the ship itself, makes the left explosives more reactive.

The last thing I remember, is that if it does explode, it will generate a large wave, and the every window in the local village will be broken and many buildings will be damaged.

Still on shipwrecks, today’s interesting fact has to do with the type of ship that gets sunk. Ships made of metal, with the sole exception of possibly aluminium; do not last as long as wooden ships once they reach the bottom of the sea.

Metal ships corrode in the sea, slowly turning into one metal oxide or another. The oldest metal ships on the seabed are rusting away and may soon only be identified by rust stains on the sea bed. Even these can disappear as metal ions dissolve into the water. As the oceans absorb more carbon dioxide from the air, the sea becomes more acidic and the process will intensify.

In addition, metal ships have different types of metal in them, which sets up electrical currents between different metals and increases the oxidation.

An aluminium shell, with no other metals, will last longer, because when a layer of aluminium oxide forms on the outside of the metal, which then protects the metal underneath, preventing further oxidation. However as most boats made from this material also includes other metals, the resulting electrical current created, will cause some damage from this type of boat.

Wood on the other hand, can last millennia, especially if they get covered by sedimentation. Witness the recent discovery of a Roman boat in Germany, which has been sitting on the sea floor for over 2000 years.

At great depths and in cold environments the dissolution of metal ships may be delayed, but Titanic, sunk deep in cold water, as been shown to be rapidly rusting away.

This morning Nick changed the topic he wanted me to cover to; Shipwrecks.

There are many shipwrecks in the worlds oceans. Many of them are from the first and second world wars. When these ships sank, most of them contained ship fuel oil, one of the most dirty fuels available at the time. All of these shipwrecks are in the process of degrading, slowly rusting on the bottom of oceans, harbours and seas. If all the oil was released, the amount that would go into the seas would rival that of the recent release in the Gulf of Mexico, by a factor of ten or more.

There are companies that are reclaiming this oil, but the process is slow and at the current rate many shipwrecks are not going to be emptied before they rust and release their toxic cargo.

Interesting Fact for the day.

Nick often gives me a topic to consider. The latest one is hot air balloons. After thinking about this over the past several hours, this is what I have dredged out of my memory.

Two Frenchmen in the late 1700's, pioneered the use of hot air balloons in Europe. They first worked out how to get lightweight bags to rise with hot air, and demonstrated it's use by sending three animals, one of which was a duck, I suppose because it could fly down if there were problems. Eventually they started making manned flights, at first tethered to the ground, but later without connections to the ground.

Hot air balloons have been around a lot longer than the 1700's though, having been in use in China for over 2000 years, as well as in India, Japan and Indochina, in the form of sky lanterns. The Chinese used them for signalling troop movements. There is evidence that they also used the balloons in conjunction with large tethered manned kites. Marco Polo commented on how the Chinese used manned kites to survey the surrounding waters by ships at sea. There is no evidence that the Chinese created manned balloons.

Sky lanterns are used in celebrations, festivals and other special occasions, throughout Asia.

Lately there has been pressure in the some countries to ban the use of sky lanterns. When they were made from rice paper and thin slivers of bamboo, these lights in the sky were completely biodegradable. However on landing, they have lately been causing fires in crops, fields and forests. Also modern sky lanterns are often produced with thin metal wires to hold the balloon into shape. These have been thought to be ingested by jet aircraft, causing damage to the engines, as well as by cattle, when they have fallen into pastures, causing damage to valuable livestock.

That's all for today. Later on, I'll be checking my facts and will post an update.

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The first documented balloon flight in Europe was demonstrated by Bartolomeu de Gusmão.

On 19 Sep 1783 Pilatre De Rozier launched the first recorded hot air balloon in Europe with passengers, a sheep, a duck and a rooster and the balloon stayed in the air for a grand total of 15 minutes. I remembered the duck, thought the sheep might be a goat, for some reason completely forgot the rooster, in my mind it was a pig.

The first untethered manned flight in Europe was on On 21 Nov 1783 by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes.

Zhuge Liang of the Shu Han kingdom, in the Three Kingdoms era (220–80 AD) used airborne lanterns for military signalling.

The Chinese did use manned kites in for spotting troop movements, and Marco Polo did record the use of a manned kite on a ship for checking the surrounding waters.

Hot air balloons might been used by people of the Nazca culture of Peru some 1500 to 2000 years ago, used as a tool in designing the famous Nazca ground figures and lines.

Sky Lanterns are under threat of legal action. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11265560

For the past month or so, I've been challenged to come up with an interesting fact that he doesn't know every day by one of my work colleagues, one Nick Myall. I entertain him and those near his desk, with bits of information dredged from my brain.

Because I read constantly, I have lots of odd bits of information bouncing around and I try to give him these facts, without relying on Wikipedia, Google search or any other websearch.

Because some of my audience are going on holiday, and they still want to hear these facts, at least facts as I remember them, I'm going to start posting these here, every day.