How long do they live ?

Marine clam-200
Giant tortoise-150
Human-122
killer whale-90
Sea anemone-80
Asiatic elephant-78
American alligator-66
Blue macaw -64
Horse -62
Chimpanzee-56
hippopotamus   -54
slow worm-54
Beaver-50
Bactrian camel-50
Grizzly bear 50
Blue whale-45
Boa constrictor-40
Domestic cat-34
Lion-30 
Pig -27
Common Rabbit  -18
Queen ant-18
Giant Centipede-10
Millipede-7
House Mouse-6
Bed bug-6 months
Common House fly (Male)-2 weeks 

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BIOMIMICRY

BIOMIMICRY:

Credit: wikipedia

Biomimicry is a field in which scientists, engineers, and even architects study models and concepts found in nature, and try to use them to design new technologies. It as a design principle that seeks sustainable solutions to human problems by emulating nature's time-tested patterns and strategies. Nature fits form to function, rewards cooperation, and banks on diversity. For instance, the Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe, is the country's largest commercial and shopping complex, and yet it uses less than 10 percent of the energy consumed by a conventional building of its size, because there is no central air conditioning and only a minimal heating system. The design follows the cooling and heating principles used in the region's termite mounds.

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Robots that walk on water

Earlier a   robot made of ultralight carbon-fiber can stand or slowly walk on water. The principle it uses is borrowed from insects -- surface tension tends to prevent the water's surface from breaking, and the robot's legs from sinking in.

 Recently  the first bio-inspired microbot is capable of not just walking on water but jumping up and down on the water's surface like the insect, a study shows.

Qinmin Pan and colleagues from Harbin Institute of Technology and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, reported a number of advances toward tiny robots that can walk on water.

However, even the most advanced designs, including one from Pan's team last year - can only walk on water. Pan noted that real water striders actually leap, the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces reported.

Pan's group looked for novel mechanisms and materials to build a true water-striding robot, according to a Harbin Institute statement. The weight of the microrobot is equal to that of about 390 water striders, one might expect that it will sink quickly when placed on the water surface," the report noted. Instead, the mechanical creature stands effortlessly on water surfaces and also walks and turns freely

Making a jumping robot is difficult because the downward force needed to propel it into the air usually pushes the legs through the water's surface.

Using porous, super water-repellant nickel foam to fabricate the three supporting and two jumping legs, the group made a robot that could leap more than 5.5 inches, despite weighing as much as 1,100 water striders.

In experiments, the robot could jump nearly 14 inches forward -- more than twice its own length -- leaving the water at about 3.6 miles per hour.

The study authors report that the ability to leap will make the bio-inspired microrobot more agile and better able to avoid obstacles it encounters on the water's surface

Credit:American chemical society NEWS

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Two Headed Snake

The two-headed monsters of myth, as a matter of fact, have a basis in reality. Two-headed snakes are very rare odd creatures but not unheard of, and one two headed snake recently found in  zoo in southern Ukrainen .

"Polycephaly is a condition of having more than one head. The term is derived from the stems poly- meaning 'many' and kephal- meaning "head", and encompasses bicephaly and dicephaly (both referring to two-headedness). A variation is an animal born with two faces on a single head, a condition known as diprosopus. In medical terms these are all congenital cephalic disorders.” - Wikipedia

A two-headed snake has gone on display at a zoo in southern Ukraine.
The "Skazka" (Fairy tale) zoo in the Crimean city of Yalta on the Black Sea said Wednesday that the albino California Kingsnake has two heads that think, react and eat separately, though one is more passive than the other.
Dmytro Tkachov, a zoo worker taking care of the snake, said he puts a barrier between the heads when feeding the snake lest one eats the other.

The snake will be on display at the zoo until mid-September.

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Bread can be used as contraceptives

Some women believe bread, cling film and chicken skin can be used as contraceptive, a poll by a healthcare giant has revealed

The survey of 1,000 women aged 18 to 50 unearthed a number of misconceptions about family planning.
One in five detailed bizarre methods of contraception including eating garlic or using bread, plastic wrap or chicken skin as a barrier method.
The poll, carried out by Opinion Health for drug manufacturer Bayer Schering Pharma, also found a number of misunderstandings about the contraceptive pill.
Half of those surveyed wrongly thought that taking the pill long term could cause infertility, and 10% said that it would always take a number of years to regain fertility after coming off the medication.
More than a third thought that the greatest risk of getting pregnant while taking the combined contraceptive pill occurred in the middle of a pack, when in fact it is at the beginning and end.
The combined pill contains oestrogen and progestogen.
Dr Annie Evans, Women's Health Specialist at the Bristol Sexual Health Centre, said: "It is not surprising that this survey has uncovered how widespread contraceptive myths still are in this country, given that Britain continues to have the highest unintended pregnancy rate in Europe, with as many as 50% of births being unintended.
"It is vital that women are made aware of the facts, using the credible sources of information available to them."

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how to control blood sugar

Adopt a proper and healthy diet

New study has revealed that using lifestyle interventions on top of existing
drug treatments can help controlling high blood sugar levels.

A team at University of Otago has provided intensive dietary advice to improve blood sugar control in diabetics - even though they're on what is regarded as the best available medication. The study divided 87 high-risk diabetes patients into two groups.

Both received optimised medical care, but patients in one of the groups also received regular one-on-one dietary advice from a dietitian.
Lead investigator Dr Kirsten Coppell said that at the end of the study, measures of glycaemic control were found to have significantly improved in the group receiving the advice.
The group also recorded an average weight loss of 2 kg and a 3cm reduction in waistlines.

"Achieving good glycaemic control is a crucial goal in managing diabetes, as it can prevent long-term complications such as kidney failure, heart disease and blindness.

Before the widespread introduction of anti-diabetic drugs, the key focus in diabetes care was on diet and lifestyle.

"Our research indicates that while this earlier approach has tended to be forgotten in this modern age of a 'pill for every ill', it still very much has its place in diabetes management," Dr Coppell said.
Rather than focusing on a strict diet, nutritional advice in the study was tailored to match each individual's socio-economic and cultural circumstances.
It involved things like encouraging smaller meals, reducing unhealthy components in their diets while eating more fruit and vegetables.

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Protein that prevents spread of cancer

In a major breakthrough that might increase the survival rate of cancer patients, an American research team has identified a protein which inhibits spread of affected cells to other parts of the body from a carcinogenic tumour.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have isolated a protein called prosaposin which stops metastasis or the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body, by blocking the growth of blood vessels.
Assistant Professor Randoph S Watnick here found that metastatic tumours prepare landing places in distant organs for their migration, by secreting certain proteins that encourage tumour growth and attract feeder blood vessels.
Now, he and his colleagues show that non-metastatic tumours secrete a protein called prosaposin -- which inhibits metastasis by causing production of factors that block the growth of blood vessels. "Prosaposin, or derivatives that stimulate p53 activity in a similar manner in the tumour stroma, might be an effective way to inhibit the metastatic process in humans," says Watnick in his findings, which were published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences during the week of June 22.

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