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June 2012 Competition

By Competitions

The 3 click competition 

Especially for those who don’t want to think too hard in order to win a fantastic prize!

Yes, I have ulterior motives. Call it an engineers approach to marketing. Click here (that counts as #1 click) to find out more and enter.

Is your clicking finger up to the challenge?

June 1, 2012
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Letting yourself go

By Animals

And now for some camel facts:

  • The hump is not a lump full of water, rather it’s fatty tissue. Having said that, due to the unique genes of the camel, they can convert the fat with air to produce about 1,111 gm water for every 1,000 gm of fat.  Wish I could do the same with my excess fat! I’d be rich.
  • Camels live for about 50-60 years
  • Arabian camels have one hump and Bactrian camels have two humps.
June 1, 2012
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Just horsing around

By Animals

Incitatus was Emperor Caligula’s (AD37-41) favourite stallion. He loved his horse so much that  he bestowed the horse with a marble stable, had 18 servants look after its daily needs, reportedly fed it oats with gold flakes and had a collar encrusted with precious stones. Incitatus’ fame does not end there. Caligula made him the first citizen of Rome and soon after made him senator.

May 30, 2012
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Fish Evolution: Take 2

By Animals

When I think of evolution, I think of small changes over millions of years, but not so for the hardy tomcods of the once heavily polluted Hudson river. Deadly PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were discharged to the river by General Electric Co between 1947 and 1976. This naturally had a deadly impact on the inhabitants, with the tomcod being hit quite hard, as they are filter feeders (PCB contaminants settle on the bottom river bed ). Their life span was reduced from an average 7 years to 2 years and many suffered from tumours.

However, they are fighting back and have evolved to be resistant to the toxin (unlike their counterparts in other ecosystems).  Studies continue into their mutated, toxin resistant genes. Refer to this LiveScience.com link for the related article

May 29, 2012
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Here Fido – Fetch!

By Dogs

And you guessed it, the topic for today is the boomerang.  Some boomerang facts you might not have known:

  1. Boomerangs are not solely native to Australia – Boomerangs have been found world-wide, including Egypt.  Our favourite pharaoh, King Tut possessed a few boomerangs, some  plated in gold – now that’s my kind of stick!
  2. Not all boomerangs are designed to return – there are two types: ‘returning’ and ‘hunting’. The non returning ‘hunting’ variety are typically used to knock down the prey and travel straight, rather than curved.
  3. The oldest ever found boomerang is about 30,000 years old and was found in a cave in Poland. It was made from a mammoth’s tusk
  4. The smallest boomerang to travel over 20m was weeny s a teeny-48mm
May 25, 2012
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Don’t argue with the laws of thermodynamics

By Pot Luck

So a little lesson in the wonders of thermodynamics….Obviously you are hard-core, because your eyes have not glazed over and you are still reading.

To put it simply, it helps to mathematically explain why a system will change from ordered to disordered over time.  The theory introduced the property known as entropy, which is used to explain the ‘amount’ of order.

The theory unfolded in the 1800s when scientists were trying to understand the maths around fluid dynamics – specifically to help engineers improve the efficiency of steam exchangers (such as old steam trains!) However, it has found application in physics and helps explain why ultimately everything (including the universe) will move from a state of order (low entropy) to disorder (high entropy).

My explanation is no where near as elegant as that of Professor Brian Cox.  For a succinct explanation (using a sandcastle!) watch this 2 minute video, taken from one of my all time favourite top 3 documentaries ever – The Wonders of the Universe

May 23, 2012
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