Belly Button - key to sports success

Close your eyes. Imagine a sprinter. What do you see?

African origin, dark coloured, long legs and robust, vigorous muscles.

Ok. Another one. Imagine a swimmer. What do you see?

Essentially Caucasian, well streamlined physique.

Ever wondered why some athletes dominate on track while others in the swimming pool? Apparently, scientists have unravelled this mystery. It's the belly button stupid!


According to the study, the factor that influences the perfomance is the location of belly button, body's centre of gravity. Among West African-origin runners, the center of gravity is 3 cm higher than whites. This gives them a 'hidden height' advantage on the track.


"Locomotion is essentially a continual process of falling forward, and mass that falls from a higher altitude, falls faster" according to Prof. Andre Bejan who led the study at Duke University.

However, in the pool whites have the advantage because of 'longer torsos'. "The swimmer who makes the bigger wave is the faster swimmer, and a longer torso makes a bigger wave. Europeans have a three-percent longer torso than West Africans, which gives them a 1.5 percent speed advantage in the pool" he said.

Image Credits: Wikipedia

A Frog and the Princess

"Before you find your handsome prince, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs." - Dutch Proverb

We all have heard the story about the frog who upon being kissed by the princess magically transforms into a handsome prince. I bet many other frogs rode out of their holes that day to fancy their chances.

However they were not so lucky, some had to contend with spending the night on the princess's pillow while others had to endure being smashed against the wall.

I am not sure if the frogs were all males, just imagine the princess's disgust when she discovered that her frog-to-be-charming-prince evolved into a princess! Not sure if she had a prior information on gender-identification of a frog. The frog-princess could even consider suing the Princess for gender-based discrimination. Gay right activists could raise a furore over this - take to the streets, march in parades and who knows what.

Meanwhile, biologists at the University of California had a mind of their own. They have managed to turn male frogs into female just with the sprinkle of some holy water. The holy water here contains 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) of Atrazin (a widely used Herbicide). The converted-females have since then mated with other males and produced eggs despite being born a male.

The princess now needs to think twice before kissing a frog =)

Image Credits: Wikipedia

Artiodactyls

Artiodactyls fall under the Class Mammalia and Order Artiodactyla (even-toed ungulates). This order is characterized by either two or mostly four hoofed toes on each foot. They contain around 200 living species. Some of the most common animals that we come across daily fall under this Order. Examples : deer, cattle, goats, sheep, camels, giraffes, hippopotamus and pigs.


In Artiodactyls (artios - even + daktuloes - toe) the plane of symmetry of each foot passes between the third and fourth digits. Essentially their body weight is borne by the third and fourth digits. First digit is usually lost and second and fifth are minor. This is in contrast to Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates) where the plane of symmetry runs down the third toe; notable examples include zebra, horses, asses and rhinoceroses.

Artiodactyls are diverse - found in almost all continents except Antarctica and Australia. They contain the fastest moving animals like deers to the slow movers like hippos. They majorly live in open habitats but some of them dwell in forest too. Cool ones like hippos hang out in 'aqua'!

Sources:
Wikipedia
University of Michigan Museum of Zoology website

Walkers crisps got crispier!

Walkers crisps got even more crispier! The company is the first to put carbon footprint figures on its products.

Carbon Footprints
Carbon footprints - which measure the amount of carbon (other GHG emissions) produced to directly or indirectly support any activity in equivalent tons of CO2 have become a bench mark. For eg. when you buy an Walkers crisp, carbon has been burnt during its production,packaging, transportation etc. Therefore the overall Carbon Footprint of a crisp is calculated by summing up all the carbon expanded during its lifetime.


In recent times carbon footprints have wielded great significance with its effect on increasing world temperatures and resulting climate change. 72% of the totally emitted GHG (Green House Gases) is CO2. Carbon footprints therefore measure the contribution of a product towards Global Warming. Countries like US, China, Russia, Japan, India and Germany have the largest CO2 emission levels with US also leading in the per capital CO2 emissions.

Walkers Carbon Footprint
Carbon trust on the behalf of Walkers have calculated the carbon footprint of a standard packet of Walkers Cheese and Onion crisps. They have taken into account various stages in the life cycle of a Walkers Crisp starting from sowing of potato and sunflower seeds to disposing of the packet. The final carbon footprint calculation is 75g.



The stages involved in calculation :

1. Raw Materials : Potato, Sunflower and seasoning.
2. Manufacture : Producing crisps from potato.
3. Packaging.
4. Distribution.
5. Disposal of the packets.

Certainly a commendable step towards the future of this planet!

Image credits: Walkers

Most polluted places..

Here's a list of world's top 10 polluted places according to a new study published.

1. Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Potentially 275,000 affected
2. Linfen, China; Potentially 3m affected
3. Tianying, China; Potentially 140,000 affected
4. Sukinda, India; Potentially 2.6m affected
5. Vapi, India; Potentially 71,000 affected
6. La Oroya, Peru; Potentially 35,000 affected
7. Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Potentially 300,000 affected
8. Norilsk, Russia; Potentially 134,000 affected
9. Chernobyl, Ukraine; Potentially 5.5m affected
10. Kabwe, Zambia; Potentially 255,000 affected

It is interesting to note that developing countries like India, Russia and China figure most prominently in the list assembled by the Blacksmith Institute, a US-based independent environmental group. Click here for the entire story.

Blue for boys, Pink for girls..

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions."
- Pablo Picasso

Ever wondered why men prefer blue and women pink?

A marketing gimmick? No... blame it on evolution ! Researchers from University of Newcastle say that pink may have helped women gather ripe fruit, or pick healthy mates. Whereas blue signals natural preference for a clear blue sky and good water source!



In an experiment, 208 young adult men and women were asked to select, as rapidly as possible, their preferred color from pairs of colored rectangles. While the universal favorite color appeared to be blue, when shown a spectrum of hues from red through blue and green to yellow women preferred red.

So next time, remember the color of rose you intend to present to your lady!

Why are ducks the funniest animals?

"For millions of years, In millions of homes,
A man loved a woman, A child it was born,
It learned how to hurt and it learned how to cry,
Like Humans Do!"

thus sang David Byrne in Look into the Eyeball.



But human nature has intrigued researchers, thinkers and philosophers alike over centuries. Some researchers have gone a step ahead and "created" a new discipline called Quirkology. It uses scientific methods to study quirky human behaviour.

Degrees of Quirkiness

1. Whether local suicide rates are related to the amount of country music played on radio?

2. Do vegetables have personality? ( Lemons are seen as dislikable, onions are stupid, and mushrooms are social climbers )

3. Are people named Bob more likely to have a rounder face?

4. Why ducks are the funniest animals?

and so on..

Quirkology - the book!

Prof Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire has written a book on it titled "Quirkology" which explores "the curious science of everyday life, including the psychology of lying, love, and laughter".

He even invites you to participate in future quirkology experiments here !

Incandescent light bulbs are out..

Global Warming has a (welcome) victim in the good ol' "incandescent light bulb".

The Australian government plans to phase out Australia's 87 million standard light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs by 2009 or 2010. The Howard govt. wants consumers to pay $5 for an efficient compact fluorescent bulb rather than 50 cents for the wasteful incandescent variety that have lit up households for 125 years.



Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the expensive bulbs will pay for themselves within a year by reducing household electricity bills by up to 66 per cent and eventually cutting Australia's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by four million tonnes a year.

The move has received support from environmental groups and opposition parties. Australia ranks among the highest 1, 2 per head emission of GHG and is also the first country to initiate such "reforms".

Mr. Howard said, "We need to take practical measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

But it is difficult to see why he refuses to sign the Kyoto Protocol setting Greenhouse Gas reduction targets, instead requiring energy-hungry developing countries like India and China to help combat climate change!

United States, the largest emitter of GHG in the world has been the biggest culprit so far by obdurately refusing 1, 2 to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. But there are signs of some change 1, 2 in the outlook of the Bush Administration, already under immense pressure from nations and environmental groups.



With the world temperatures rising and its effects becoming all too visible 1 , 2 the efforts to reduce GHG emission are on a high now. Richard Branson, owner of Virgin brand, recently offered a prize of $ 25 million to anyone who can reduce billion of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.

Hope sanity and good sense prevails, so that our beautiful earth - remains as ever beautiful!