Marvels of Medicine
Medicine has entered an exciting new stage. With today’s technology, doctors can now observe the human body working on the inside without cutting it open. Vaccines and genetically engineered viruses can help the body to repair itself., and some inventions can actually replace broken and damaged organs. Artificial parts include electronic ears, plastic stomachs, mechanical hearts, heart pacemakers and ceramic hips. Doctors today use carpentry techniques and stainless steel or plastic nuts, screws and bolts to hold broken bones together. Fifty years ago, these bones never would have healed. Skin, Kidneys, heart, liver, ova, sperm, lungs, corneas and bone marrow can be transplanted from person to person. Microsurgery rejoins the smallest blood vessels and nerves that have been cut in accidents.

Where did the pug dog originate?
The pug’s true origin is unknown, but it has existed in China, its earliest known source, for 1,800 years. A popular pet in Buddhist monasteries in Tibet, it next appeared in Japan and then in Europe. It probably was introduced into Holland by the traders of the Dutch East India Company. The name “pug dog” may have come from the dog’s facial resemblance to a marmoset monkey. This popular pet in the 1700s was called a “pug,” so the term “pug dog” distinguished the dog from the “pug” monkey.
A pug has a square, short compact body, either silver or apricot-fawn in color. Its muzzle is black, short, blunt, and square; its average weight is 14 to 18 pounds. The pug is often described by the motto “Multum in Parvo”—a lot of dog in a small space.

Which dogs are the most easily trained?
1. Border collie
2. Poodle
3. German shepherd
4. Golden retriever
5. Doberman pinscher
6. Shetland sheepdog
7. Labrador retriever
8. Papillon
9. Rottweiler
10. Australian cattle dog

Snow 

Is it ever too cold to snow?
No matter how cold the air gets, it still contains some moisture, and this can fall out of the air in the form of very small snow crystals. Very cold air is associated with no snow because these invasions of air from northerly latitudes are associated with clearing conditions behind cold fronts. Heavy snowfalls are associated with relatively mild air in advance of a warm front. The fact that snow piles up, year after year, in Arctic regions illustrates that it is too cold to snow.

How lovely! 

Why do cat’s eyes shine in the dark?
A cat’s eyes contain a special light-conserving mechanism called the tapetum lucidum, which reflects any light not absorbed as it passes through the retina of each eye. The retina gets a second chance (so to speak) to receive the light, aiding the cat’s vision even more. In dim light, when the pupils of the cat’s eyes are opened the widest, this glowing or shining effect occurs when light hits them at certain angles. The tapetum lucidum, located behind the retina, is a membrane composed of 15 layers of special, glittering cells that all together act as a mirror. The color of the glow is usually greenish or golden, but the eyes of the Siamese cat reflect aluminous ruby red.

Ponderer 

Flying
Birds fly higher, farther and faster than any other flying animals. Many species can span entire oceans and continents on their migrations. Birds are also the only flying animals that regularly use the wind as a source of lift. A bird’s wings are powered by two sets of muscles on the breast. In most birds, these muscles make up about one-third of their total weight. Muscle powers move the long, stiff flight feathers. Feathers at the wind tips, called primaries, propel the bird forward, while the rest of the wind generates the lift. The wings change shape as they beat up and down. They are broad and extended on the down stroke, but tucked in tight on the upstroke. Wings shape and how a bird lives are closely related.. Long wings are more efficient than short wings, but much harder to flap. Birds with long wings are usually soaring birds. Short-winged birds have less stamina, but can build up speed very quickly.