NATURE

Big snow in Montreal

2007-03-03T21:55:00.000-05:00

There are the cars on the street in Montreal.

Snow covered the cars

2007-03-03T21:48:00.000-05:00

Look! We can't see the cars almost! Big snow!

GLOBAL WARMING

2007-02-24T12:15:00.000-05:00

With increasing global economic development, it is important to deal with the issue of global warming. More and more greenhouse gases lead to the global temperature rising. The main reason is
that greenhouse gases, such as CO2, accumulate in the atmosphere and catch heat that normally would exit into outer space.
Global warming causes many changes, such as flood, heat waves, hurricane, rising sea level. Meanwhile, it also hastens species extinction and causes a lot of diseases.
We should protect our earth, our environment.

2005-09-03T09:35:00.000-04:00

Has there ever been a nuclear-powered automobile?
In the 1950s, Ford automotive designers envisioned the Ford Nucleon, which was to be propelled by a small atomic reactor core, located under a circular cover at the rear of the car. It was to be recharged with nuclear fuel. The car was never built.

2005-08-06T20:29:00.000-04:00

long car

2005-08-06T20:24:00.000-04:00

F1-car

2005-07-23T17:45:00.000-04:00

red car

2005-07-23T17:44:00.000-04:00

blue car

2005-07-23T17:42:00.000-04:00

yellow car

2005-07-23T17:36:00.000-04:00

Which colors of cars are the safest?
Tests at the university of California concluded that either blue or yellow is the best color for car safety. Blue shows up best during daylight and fog; yellow is best at night. The worst color from the visibility stand point is gray. In another study by Mercedes-Benz in Germany, white ranked the highest in all-around visibility, except in situations of completely snow-covered roads or white sand. In such extremes, bright yellow and bright orange ranked second and third respectively in visibility. The least visible car color in the Mercedes-Benz test was dark green.

2005-06-25T15:48:00.000-04:00

Robot farmers
In the age of steam, some people predicted that farmers would be able to put their feet up; steam-powered robots would do all the heavy farming work. Two hundred years later, tractors and harvesters are fast and efficient, but these machines still need to be operated by farmers.

2005-06-25T15:46:00.000-04:00

Helicycle
In 1936, Igor Sikorsky’s helicopter became the first practical machine to hover in the air. It caught the imagination of Daniel Gumb in 1945, who invented the personal helicopter based on the design of a motorcycle.

2005-06-25T15:43:00.000-04:00

Anti-gravity underwear
This 1878 cartoon illustrates the effect of Thomas Edison’s anti-gravity underwear. If this ingenious idea had become a reality, wearers would have beaten the Wright brothers in the race to become airborne.

2005-06-24T08:32:00.000-04:00

Watch out!
In the early days of motor cars, pederstrians and cars were always at odds in the battle for the roadways. The car above was a fanciful invention that vacuumed up "jaywalkers" who strayed onto the road.

2005-06-24T08:24:00.000-04:00

Toothbrush
This simple invention, which originated in china, has been the subject of continual "imporovements." This design by Luis Reinold in 1941 may have been good for brushing the back of your teeth!

2005-06-24T08:05:00.000-04:00

Up and over
In the early 1900s, many railway systems used single tracks. This patent from 1904 shows how an express train could drive over the top of an all-stations train and doule the number of passengers on the ine. But imagine being a passenger!

2005-06-21T17:59:00.000-04:00

It Might Have Been!
The history of invention is full of brilliant, yet crazy ideas. Can you imagine what life might be like today if Thomas Edison had developed his idea of anti-gravity underwear, or if Alexander Bell had persisted in trying to invent a talking fire alarm rather than a telephone? Inventions inspire people to think of the future and its possibilities, but trying to predict the success of inventions and how people will react to them has never been easy. The first motor cars had to travel through towns at walking pace behind a man carrying a red flag because they frightened people and horses. People thought that motor cars would never replace the horse and buggy. In the 1950s, the president of IBM predicted that, at most, no more than one computer per country would ever be built! The computer endured, but other inventions had a short life. This collection from the past 200 years shows you just what might have been.

2005-06-18T09:14:00.000-04:00

TRANSGENIC PIGS
The heart of a pig is similar in shape and size to the human heart. People and pigs, however, have very different genes. Scientists in England have developed a virus that carries human genes into pigs. This makes it possible for the human body to accept the heart of a pig in a transplant.

2005-06-18T09:09:00.000-04:00

CHANGING GENES
Every living cell has spiral-shaped deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), discovered in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson at Cambridge in England. The DNA is made up of genes that control how the cell works. Biotechnologists have learned how to after the genes and change living cells.

2005-06-15T17:33:00.000-04:00

CAT scan
Some of the names used for new medical inventions are as complicated as the names of the diseases they are used to diagnose. Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT scan) converts X-ray pictures into high-resolution video images. These scans can show even small differences between normal and abnormal tissue. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI) was invented in England and the United States in 1973. By 1981, NMRI scanners, which use radio waves to produce cross-sectional images of sort tissue, could take three- dimensional pictures of the inside of the body.

2005-05-29T10:34:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-05-20T18:49:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-05-20T18:48:00.000-04:00

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

2005-05-14T17:09:00.000-04:00

Snow

2005-05-14T17:04:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-05-14T17:03:00.000-04:00

How lovely!

2005-05-14T16:46:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-05-04T10:36:00.000-04:00

Ponderer

2005-05-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

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.

2005-04-26T10:57:00.000-04:00

Take a picture for me!

2005-04-26T10:51:00.000-04:00

Flying in form
Geese often fly in a V formation on a long flight. The bird in front does much of the work needed to fly through the air, and the other birds benefit from this. When the bird in front tires, another takes its place as leader. It is a little like walking in freshly fallen snow. This is hard work, but if you can walk in already made footprints, it is less difficult to forge your way through the heavy snow.

2005-04-22T17:08:00.000-04:00

Squirrel

2005-04-22T17:05:00.000-04:00

Spring comes!

2005-04-19T13:37:00.000-04:00

hello

2005-04-19T13:05:00.000-04:00

dream...

2005-04-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

I'm tried

2005-04-19T12:45:00.000-04:00

Do dogs and cats have good memories?
Dogs do have long-term memories, especially for those whom they love. Cats have a memory for things that are important to their lives. Some cats seem to have extraordinary “memories” for finding places. Taken away from their homes, they seem able to remember where they live. The key to this “homing” ability could be a built-in celestial navigation, similar to that used by birds, or the cats’ navigational ability could be attributed to the cats’ sensitivity to Earth’s magnetic fields. When magnets are attached to cats, their normal navigational skills are disrupted.

2005-04-14T19:15:00.000-04:00

Do all cells have a nucleus?
Red blood cells are the only cells in the human body that do not have a nucleus. As a result, they cannot divide and so are produced in bone marrow at the rate of 140,000 per minute. They exist in the body’s circulatory system for about 120 days before being destroyed in the liver.

2005-04-13T17:04:00.000-04:00

How much DNA is in a typical human cell?
If the DNA in a single human cell were stretched out and laid end-to-end, it would measure approximately 6.5 feet (two meters). The average human body contains 10 to 20 billion miles (16 to 32 billion kilometers) of DNA distributed among trillions of cells.

2005-04-12T16:52:00.000-04:00

Biorhythms
There is little, if any, scientific support for this theory, which claims there are three precise cycles that control human behavior. These are: a physical cycle of 23 days; an emotional cycle of 28 days; and an intellectual cycle of 33 days; Hazardous critical days are proposed to occur when two or more cycles intersect.
In contrast, biological rhythms such as activity cycles, feeding cycles, and sleeping cycles, are well-known. They vary from individual to individual and most are tied to the 24 hour rotation period of the Earth. Biological rhythms are real; biorhythms are a hoax.

2005-04-05T17:39:00.000-04:00

Biotechnology
We use biotechnology to alter living things. It gives us the power to create new animals, plants, foods, medicines, materials and even machines. People have used biotechnology for thousands of years to slowly breed new plants, animals and microorganisms that make cheese, bread, beer, yogurt and wine. Today, modern biotechnology could speed up this breeding process by altering the genetic material deep inside living cells. Scientists have already created bright blue carnations, and tomatoes that ripen on the vine without getting mushy. Biotechnology’s potential is enormous. We can even use bacteria grown in laboratories to digest oil to clean up oil spills. The next hundred years will be an age of exciting “bio-inventions”.

2005-04-01T12:06:00.000-05:00

Sleep2

2005-04-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

Sleep1

2005-04-01T11:56:00.000-05:00

How is the age of a dog computed in human years?
When a dog is one year old, it is about 15 years old in human years. At age two it is about 24, after ago two, each additional year is multiplied by four.

2005-03-27T16:13:00.000-05:00

How are seedless grapes grown?
Since seedless grapes cannot reproduce in the conventional way that grapes usually do (i.e., dropping seeds), growers have to take cuttings from other seedless grape plants and root them. Although the exact origin of seedless grapes is unknown, they might have been first cultivated in present-day Iran or Afghanistan thousands of years ago. Initially the first seedless grape was a genetic mutation in which the hard seed casing failed to develop—the mutation is called stenospermoscarpy. One modern seedless grape commonly bought today is the green Thompson seedless grape, from which 90% of all raisins are made.

2005-03-27T16:08:00.000-05:00

Tranquil

2005-03-27T15:53:00.000-05:00

What is a five-in-one-tree?
These very curious trees consist of a rootstock with five different varieties of the same fruit—usually apples—grafted to it. The blooming period is usually magnificent with various colors of blooms appearing on the same tree.

2005-03-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

Hehe,this is fallen leaves

2005-03-22T13:05:00.000-05:00

Red leaves

2005-03-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

Yellow leaves

2005-03-22T12:57:00.000-05:00

Orange leaves

2005-03-22T12:38:00.000-05:00

Why do tree leaves turn color in the fall?
The carotenoids, which are responsible for the fall colors, are present in the leaves during the growing season. However, the colors are eclipsed by the green chlorophyll. Toward the end of summer, when the chlorophyll production ceases, the other colors of the carotenoids (such as yellow, orange, red, or purple ) become visible. Listed below are the autumn leaf colors of some common trees.

2005-03-14T12:20:00.000-05:00

What is the tallest tree?
The tallest tree ever measured was the Australian eucalyptus (Eucalyptus regnans) at Watt River, Victoria, Australia. In 1872 it was reported to measure 435 feet (132 meters) tall and it was most likely over 500 feet (152 meters) originally. The tallest living tree is coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in Redwood national Park, California, named the National Geographic Society. In October 1991 it was measured at 365 feet (111 meters).
What flowers are designated as symbolic of each month of the year?
January ----Carnation

February ----Violet
March ----Jonquil

April ----Sweet Pea
May ----Lily of the Valley

June ----Rose
July---- Larkspur

August ----Gladiola
September ----Aster

October ----Calendula
November ----Chrysanthemum

December ----Narcissus

2005-03-04T12:43:00.000-05:00

Winter

2005-03-03T15:29:00.000-05:00

Autumn

2005-03-03T15:28:00.000-05:00

Summer

2005-03-03T15:24:00.000-05:00

Spring