Pollution - an old ancestral legacy

By Bhaswati Ghosh; Illustration by Shinod AP

 

If you thought today's pollution and environmental damage was just as old as the coming of industrial factories, smoke and chemical waste, you were wrong. A recent report in the journal 'Science' says that environmental pollution is as old as human existence itself, though industrialisation certainly hastened the process.

The report is based on a study consisting of the combined research of 19 scientists across four continents, who found that the diversity of marine life was among the first to be affected. Entire species of animals were killed. This created an imbalance in the ecological chain as certain species decreased rapidly while some other species increased their numbers.

The list of hunted sea creatures as far back as 10,000 years ago, is impressive: sea turtles in the Caribbean, sea cows off the Australian coast, and sea otters near Alaska. Since the sea animals came ashore regularly to lay eggs, they were an easy catch.

While there's no getting away from the fact that "modern" forms of waste and pollution have led to much higher levels of environmental degradation, today's generation can take heart from the fact that they are only following in their ancestors' footsteps - and learning to be a step ahead of them!

The extent to which we have overtaken our predecessors becomes evident from these alarming facts:

• Over India, dust particles are found at a height of over 20,000 feet above the ground.
• In the bodies of Indians, DDT is present in almost twice the quantities present in those of Americans, which in turn is twice the level found in those of the British.
• Lead is present in the Pacific Ocean as well as in the air above it, in amounts many times the pre-industrial level.
• It is impossible to take a 50-gallon sample of water from the sea anywhere in the world without finding measurable amounts of man-made radioactivity.

The Secrets of the Ocean Floor

By Chitra Padmanabhan; Illustration by Shinod AP

It is one question that is not a quizmasters' favourite: which is the tallest mountain on earth? The answer is bound to come fast and snappy - Mt Everest, at a height of 29,000 feet.

But that is only on land. For, if you were to measure from the bottom of the ocean, the tallest mountain in the world will probably be Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It rises more than 15,748 feet under the sea and another 13,779 feet above it. The total comes to more than 29, 527 feet.

There are such deep trenches in the deep sea that a mountain like Everest could disappear into them without a trace! (A trench is a long, narrow, steep depression in the ocean floor).

But, as US marine scientist Cindy Lee Dover points out in her eloquent book, ‘Deep Ocean Journeys: Discovering New Life at the Bottom of the Sea’ (1996), the seafloor is the "largest and least known wilderness on our planet. We know more about the surface of Mars and Venus and the back side of the moon than we know about the seafloor."

And that is a real tragedy, as she points out. For, there is reason to believe that every process that is taking place on the ocean floor tells us about the processes that were responsible for the shaping of the earth’s surface as we know. "If we are to understand the geological forces that shape our planet, we must understand the geological processes expressed by features on the seafloor, says Dover.

The scientist has travelled to the depths of the ocean to explore the various kinds of complex creatures living in the deep waters near volcanic vents that could function as models for sites where life might have originated on earth.

The statistics she gives are startling: that the lava produced by underwater volcanoes in a year is enough to cover an area four times the size of Alaska with one metre of lava! More than one million volcanoes occur in the Pacific Ocean Basin alone, but less than one per cent of these volcanoes have been studied and monitored. That means, less than one per cent of the planet’s seafloor has been mapped, explains Dover.

That is why, most of the fauna belonging to the deepwaters are not familiar to even scientists. Many of them perhaps do not even have names. But the richness of these deep-sea ecosystems can rival that of the tropical rainforests.

Some of the names given by scientists to freshly discovered animals are really funny, says Dover. Among them are the spaghetti worms, named as such because of their resemblance to the eatable. Found in a tangle, it is often difficult to make out where one ends and another begins! Just like spaghetti, one might add.

At the time of the book’s publication, Dover was working as a visiting investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, a pioneer in deep-sea research since the 60s.

Who or What is a Gladiator?

By Ritu Asthana; Illustration by Anup Singh

It all started in ancient Rome. The most brutal sport that has ever existed in the history of the world was the fights between gladiators. The 'sport' traces its roots to the custom among the Etruscan people, a civilisation in Italy that existed before the Roman civilisation. At the death of the master of the house, servants would duel to the death for the right to follow their owners in death and provide help and company.

The first 'gladiatorial games' were 'offered' in Rome in 264 B.C by sons of Junius Brutus Pera in their father's honour after he had died. A gladiator was either a professional fighter or a slave, trained to entertain the public by engaging in combat with another person.

Gladiatorial combat soon became a very popular form of public sport. People began to offer these 'games' and the number of matches. While the earliest gladiatorial combat consisted of three matches, a century later, Titus Flamininus offered 74 matches lasting over three days!

At first the fights were confined only to funeral ceremonies, but gradually they became the chief amusement of the Romans and were held in huge arenas.

Early gladiators were prisoners of war or slaves or condemned criminals but soon free citizens became gladiators hoping to win fame and fortune. With the popularity of these games, the State assumed greater control, and gladiators were trained in imperial schools. Under a manager, a troupe of gladiators could be sold or hired out, and wealthy citizens hired many as bodyguards.

In Rome, the fights were first staged in the markets and then in the Forum, where temporary stands were erected. Amphitheatres (open air theatres) were constructed so people could watch these games. The largest of the amphitheatres was the Amphitheatrum Flavium, or Colosseum, which was inaugurated by Titus in 80 A.D. that could seat as many as 50,000 spectators.

Called the games or circus, the spectacle was usually staged for Caesar and Rome. On the day of the games, the gladiators were ceremoniously led in and paraded around the arena before presenting themselves at the emperor's podium. The gladiators wore splendid armour of gold and silver.

After the parade, there was a mock battle with wooden weapons to build up the appetite of the spectators. Then the fight was begun in earnest with a variety of weapons. Wounded gladiators could lay down their shield and raise the left hand to plea for mercy where it was left to Caesar to decide his fate. As patron of the games, it was Caesar who made the final decision, although it often was necessary to appease the whims of the public.

Caesar decided based on what the public wanted - a thumbs up sign and the gladiator's life would be saved. If they held their thumb down the victim was killed.

Victors were awarded crowns or a palm branch and whatever prize money that had been set before the start of the games, as well as any money awarded by the crowd.

With the passage of time, the Romans got bored with even those 'mild' battles and invented new spectacle like women gladiators. However, Emperor Septimius Severus outlawed the practice.

Increasingly, the fights became more and more bloody. Gladiators were set to battle with lions, tigers and other wild beasts. There were many efforts to stop these cruel sports. Thankfully in 326 A.D., Constantine abolished the games and the remaining schools closed by Honorius in 399 A.D. But gladiatorial combats continued, in one form or another, until 404 A.D., when Honorius finally prohibited them altogether.

Teen inventors

Teen Inventors
Stories of creativity and problem solving for teen inventors
	Magnification of Velcro Fabric
Teen Inventors • Teen Inventors and Creativity • Back to Teen Inventors  Related Resources • Patent Points To Ponder • What is a Patent Search? • Understanding Inventing - Common Questions about Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights • Inventing 101 for Students As a potential teen inventor do you think of an invention? Many inventors report stories of every day events that triggered them to think of some problem in a new way. The inventor of VELCRO® reported that he thought of the invention while removing burrs from his pet's fur after walking in the woods. You may recall Eli Whitney's story of watching a cat pull feathers through a cage -- it was how he thought of the invention now known as the cotton gin.  A less well-known story involves Catherine Ryan, who invented locking nuts to hold bolts in place. Her inspiration was how her own wedding ring kept getting stuck on her finger. She saw that if something in the nut could expand after a bolt was placed inside a nut, it would hold the two together. Other inventions come about when their inventors try to think of uses for things - vulcanized (heated) rubber for tires came about that way. Have you heard of "yellow stickies" (PostIt®)? They were the result of a "failed" adhesive experiment which was too weak to market, until the chemist figured out that a weak adhesive had good uses too. Many times you can come up with a solution for a problem (or find a problem that fits your solution!) by either "turning a problem around" or selecting two or more things at random and using them to "seed" new ideas. What does "turning a problem around" mean? It means looking at it from a different angle or thinking about it in a new way.  Example 1 - instead of thinking of shoes as protecting your feet from the ground, think of using something to protect the ground from your feet.  Example 2 - instead of thinking about how you can carry kumquats home from a store, think of how they can come to you - by delivery or growing your own - or do you need kumquats at all? Carefully define a problem. Focus on what you are trying to do in the first place - instead of simply how to do things. If you focus on methods, "i.e. "I need a way to use a computer to count apples", you may not identify a more basic problem - "I need to have about 1000 apples to sell every week" and miss a better solution. Of course many patents issue on novel uses of things so don't just throw away an idea because it doesn't fit the rules - just how could you use a computer to count apples? Try changing the question - start it with a different word - who, what, where, when, why, how, etc. Change your perspective on a problem - looking for something is not at all the same as finding it, and putting something away is very different from getting rid of it.  Think about something in an unexpected and way that expresses your creativity. Describe doing something in words for something entirely different - search and rescue your toys; turn your closet into a menu of clothes; or feed a thought.

Why are zebra striped?

Why are Zebras Striped?
By Ritu Asthana; Illustration by Anup Singh



As a child I was always full of questions. I remember asking my parents why zebras were striped or why did giraffes have such a long neck. Most of the time the answers were elusive and I used to be very irritated. I could never get the right answer to satisfy my curiosity. I now realize why my parents could not give me a concrete answer. You see I happened to be in the same dilemma when my three-year-old daughter asked me the same question! I was faced with the difficult task of giving her half-baked answers or finding the right answers this time.

The most obvious question to ask about zebras is why are zebras striped? Unfortunately nobody really knows the answer. Looking at zebras in the zoo, the striped pattern seems very conspicuous and could hardly be thought of as protective.

Zoologists believe the stripes on a zebra could be one of several reasons. It could be basically for camouflage very much like the military fatigues. The bold wavy lines of a zebra blend in with the tall wavy grassy plains of Africa where these animals live. The bold stripe may even serve to break up the shape of the Zebra. If a zebra is standing still in such surroundings, a lion, its chief predator, may overlook it completely.

It doesn't matter that the zebra's stripes are black and white and the grass are dusty brown or green, because the lion is colour blind!

However this may benefit an individual zebra in some situations but is it likely a large zebra herd would be able to escape a lion's notice? This is exactly where it helps the zebra most. Zebra herds are very large but they stay very close to one another.

When all the zebras stick together in a herd, the pattern of stripes blends in with the stripes of the zebras around it. This is confusing to the lion! All it can see is a large, moving, striped mass instead of many individual zebras. The lion has trouble picking out individual zebras and it's harder still for the lion to recognize which way each zebra is moving!

Each zebra pattern is unique like a fingerprint. Also like a fingerprint, the patter varies from zebra to zebra and no two zebras are exactly alike. What is truly amazing is that zebras can recognize other zebras from their body stripe! A mother can instantly spot her colt in a herd!

There are three species classified according to the variations in the arrangement of the stripes - the Imperial or Grevy's zebra, the Plains or Common zebra and the Mountain zebra - and several subspecies. The mountain zebra is the smallest of these averaging only four feet. It has silver-white stripes with black markings that extend to every part of the body except the stomach and the inner part of thighs. Plains zebras travel in large herds and are pale yellow with broad black stripes. This specie has several variations: some have stripes down to the hooves while the lower legs of the others are solid white without any stripes.

Do you know that people of Africa think of zebras as black animals with white stripes whereas people outside Africa consider them as white animals with black stripes! Black stripes or white, the fact remains that zebras are extremely unique and are among the fastest and most graceful of runners in the African bush land.

Midget Inventors

Mighty Midget - Stories of Famous Inventors
How Did They Think of That? - For Midget Age Group
	Fountain pens invented by Waterman
Stories For Midgets • Midget Inventors - How Did They Think Up That? • More Mighty Midget Stories Midget Resources • Back to Midgets • Understanding Inventing - Common Questions about Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights • Inventing 101 for Students Would you like to be an inventor? Many inventors find things that happen in their daily life that cause them to think of some problem in a new way. The inventor of VELCRO ® thought of his invention while removing burrs from his pet's fur after walking in the woods. Eli Whitney watched a cat pull feathers through a cage -- it was how he thought of the invention now  known as the cotton gin. Watch your pet play with a toy. How does your  pet move the toy? What happens to the toy? Would the toy be better if it was softer? harder? stretchier? What else could you do with the toy?  Other inventions come about when their inventors try to think of uses for things - vulcanized (heated) rubber for tires came about that way. Have you heard of "yellow stickies" (PostIt ® )? They were the result of a "failed" adhesive experiment which was too weak to market, until the chemist figured out that a weak adhesive had good uses too. Try recycling something. "Invent" another use for a plastic bottle, bottle caps, and rubber bands - can you make a musical instrument? Many times you can come up with a solution for a problem (or find a problem that fits your solution!) by either "turning a problem around" or selecting two or more things at random and using them to "seed" new ideas. What does "turning a problem around" mean? It means looking at it from a different angle or thinking about it in a new way. Here are two examples of this: Example 1 - instead of thinking of shoes as protecting your feet from the ground, think of using something to protect the ground from your feet.  Example 2 - instead of thinking about how you can carry kumquats home from a store, think of how they can come to you - by delivery or growing your own - or do you need kumquats at all? A burr inspired VELCRO Carefully define a problem. Focus on what you are trying to do in the first place - instead of simply how to do things. If you focus on methods, "i.e. "I need a way to use a computer to count apples", you may not identify a more basic problem - "I need to have about 1000 apples to sell every week" and miss a better solution. Of course many patents issue on novel uses of things so don't just throw away an idea because it doesn't fit the rules - just how could you use a computer to count apples? Try changing the question - start it with a different word - who, what, where, when, why, how, etc. Change your perspective on a problem - looking for something is not at all the same as finding it, and putting something away is very different from getting rid of it. How can you keep your socks from getting lost in the wash? What happens to socks when you wash them? Where do socks get lost? When do socks stay together? Think about something in an unexpected way. Describe doing something in words for something entirely different - search and rescue your toys; turn your closet into a menu of clothes; or feed a thought. "Lesson Plans - Innovative Thinking" has more ideas on inventive thinking.