The Science in Losing Weight

Nowadays, many people are countering weight gain by eating less. However, weight loss from diets does not mean permanent weight loss. In fact, people who have undergone diets usually find that their weight springs back up right after the diet.

So why is this so?

First of all, fat is just a means for your body to store energy from the food you eat. When you eat less, you are slowing down your metabolism (rate your body uses up energy from your food), because frankly, you would be less active being hungry all day. The only positive thing is, with less food in your system, less fat will accumulate in the body. However, once the diet's over and your intake of food becomes normal again, fat will build up in your body a lot faster than before as you cannot metabolise fat as fast.

So, the way I recommend you to counter weight gain is to become more active and exercise more often. Not only will it burn up the energy reserves (fat) in your body, it will also make you stronger and give you a bit more confidence. Most importantly, fat will accumulate slower in your body as you will have a higher metabolism.

Some other great tips:

• Chew More, Eat Less
• Stand Up Straight

Leafy and Weedy Seadragons

Weedy Seadragon

There are many amazing animals out there with astonishing camouflage capabilities. The stick insect and the mimic octopus are great examples. Two animals that caught my attention are the Leafy and Weedy Seadragons.

The Leafy and Weedy Seadragons are found in reefs off the coasts Australia and are closely related to seahorses. They are elusive animals that feed on tiny crustaceans, zooplankton, and sometimes small fish and shrimp. The Leafy Seadragon can grow up to 24 cm while the larger Weedy Seadragon can grow up to 45 cm.

Leafy Seadragon

Perhaps what's most amazing about these creatures is their outwardly appearance, especially the Leafy Seadragon. With its many leaf-like outcroppings on its body, and its floating-like way of swimming, the Leafy Seadragon greatly resembles a floating piece of seaweed. Mixed in with a bunch of real seaweed, the Leafy Seadragon is almost indiscernible.

Like seahorses and pipefish, male seadragons nurture and protect the eggs until they hatch. Infant seadragons are completely independent afterwards. It is estimated that only about 5% of the infants survive.

3D without Glasses - How the Nintendo 3DS works

Nintendo's new 3DS is quite an impressive device. Unlike any of the other handheld gaming devices out on the market, the 3DS allows users to play games in 3D, without the glasses!

Nowadays, we know that to watch 3D, we have to wear those bulky glasses that sag over the face. However, the innovative 3DS uses a completely different technology to let the images burst out of the screen. The device uses what's called a parallax barrier LCD screen developed by Sharp. This technology has been around for a few years before but have never really been commercialised as the 3D effect is lost even at minutely differently viewing angles. However, on a small screen such as the DS where usually only one person is looking at the screen at a time, it does not pose a huge problem.

The 3D effect is achieved by the brain meshing up two different images sent to the left and right eye. Because the 3D glasses have different lenses for the left and right eyes, the 3D effect is achieved. What a 3D display does is that it uses an overlay over the LCD display that sends the different images to the different eyes. Thus, the screen acts as the 3D glasses.

Sharp's parallax display is basically a 3D display that can be turned off to display 2D images. For the more technical among us, here's a picture explaining further how the display works.

Goby helps Blind Shrimp

The shrimp goby and the pistol shrimp share a very special relationship. Biologists call it a symbiotic relationship where different species help each other to survive. In the case of the shrimp and the goby, it is an amazing one.

The pistol shrimp are very apt at creating and maintaining burrows in poor sand conditions where parts of the burrows often collapse. This provides a safe haven for the shrimp goby. In return, the goby acts as an early warning system for the almost blind pistol shrimp. This is achieved by a constant physical contact between the shrimp and the goby. The shrimp will always try to keep an antennae on the goby to receive signals from the goby if there is a threat. The goby also signals the shrimp when it's safe to go outside.

One puzzling aspect of the relationship is how the shrimp and goby choose their partners. There are much speculations and the best possible explanation right now is that the shrimp uses its more developed chemical senses while the goby uses its sight to seek out a partner when they are young.

Cabbage, Broccoli, and Brussels Sprouts the Same Species?

Brassica Plant

Did you know that cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts are the same species? They are derived from the Brassica plant that farmers in the past have grown for food. Broccoli and cauliflower was the result of breeding Brassica plants with thick clusters of flowers. Cabbage and Brussels sprouts are the result of breeding Brassica plants with thick clusters of leaves. The roots are also believed to be the ancestor of the modern tulip.

Don't believe me? A definition for what makes a species is that they cannot interbreed. However, as an example, broccoli and cauliflower can breed, resulting in broccoflower.

These plants are all examples of the result of artificial selection where farmers select for favourable traits in a population of organisms and the resulting population will eventually have more and more of that trait. This can also be seen in dogs and horses.

Another great example is the modern corn. Its ancestor is a wild plant called the teosinte that have only about ten or twenty kernels on one cob.

The World's Largest Flower - Rafflesia

The Rafflesia is the world's largest flowering plant. It resides in the rainforests of Bengkulu, Indonesia, Sumatra Island, Malaysia, Borneo, and Singapore. Being such a gigantic flower, you would think the scent it produces will be quite pleasant. However, the Rafflesia actually gives off a smell very similar to rotting flesh. It is believed that this scent attracts flies but other unwanted creatures.

The Rafflesia is a parasitic plant that mostly grows on the Tetrastigma grape vine. It does not produce any visible stem, roots, or leaves. The Rafflesia also does not have chlorophyll, feeding mainly off the nutrients of its host. Even so, the Rafflesia is still considered a vascular plant.

The many species of Rafflesia plants are currently considered endangered species. With tropical forests in SouthEast Asia dwindling, the plant is becoming extremely rare. There have been many conservation efforts by environmentalists such as attempts at preserving the forests of Borneo and Sumatra and also attempts to recreate the environment of the species in a bid to stimulate the recovery of the population. Since the flowering buds of the Rafflesia are used to help mothers who have recently given birth to recover, overcollection of this medicine are also harming the Rafflesia plants. To help counter this effect, farmers who have Rafflesia plants on their property are encouraged to save the flower and charge a small fee for tourists who would like to look at this rare plant.

Terror Bird - Dinosaur-like birds

The "Terror Birds" (Titanis walleri) were the predominant predators during the Miocene period. They were giant flight birds (up to 3 meters tall) that roamed South America for about 50 million years.

The Terror Birds distinct feature was its enormous beak. Some fossils of the bird show a beak size that is about 46 cm (18 inch). It had a curving hook at the end, much like a modern eagle's beak. At that time, this beak would have been the perfect biological weapon. According to some scientists, one well-aimed strike from this beak would have killed almost anything at the time.

The Terror Birds, being a predator, were also quite fast. It is estimated that they ran as fast as modern day giant birds like the emu and rhea.

The closest living relative of the Terror Birds is believed to be the 80-cm tall seriemas that also resides in South America.

The Secretive X-37 - Unmanned US Spacecraft

The Boeing X-37 OTV (Orbital Test Vehicle) is an unmanned spacecraft similar to the space shuttle in appearance that made its first flight on April 22 of last year. The flight lasted for 225 days and the OTV successfully landed on Vandenburg Air Force Base on December 3 of that year.

The OTV is powered by solar energy during its orbit. It features new thermal protection technology, avionics systems, and an autonomous guidance system.

The OTV has generated much controversy. Amateur astronomers have claimed that they have spotted the spacecraft in orbit and states that the course the spacecraft is on brings it over hotspots around the globe such as Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan. The China Dailynewspaper picked up the story and stated that the X-37 is raising concerns of a space arms race.

Right now, the X-37 is already well on its way orbiting the planet on its second mission. It launched on March 5 this year in Cape Canaveral.

Physalia - A Floating Ecosystem

The Physalia is a gigantic ship dreamed up by world renowned Belgium architect Vincent Callebaut. Callebaut had this idea after the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen that shone some light on global water issues. The ship is meant to travel Europe's rivers cleansing the waters along the way. How it does this is through a special paint found on the hull. The paint is a solution of titanium hydroxide that neutralizes pollutants by absorbing ultraviolet rays, thus enabling a reaction that breaks down these harmful substances.

This ship will supply its own power. As it sails along the rivers, it draws power from water movement and sunlight. Solar panels on the roof capture the sun's rays while turbines under the hull transform water movement into electricity. The roof will also act as a garden of sorts with trees and other greenery.

The Physalia will also act as a floating museum and a tourism spot. Tourists can visit temporary exhibits of the museum and settle in a submerged lounge that, as Popular Science coined it, could easily pass as a London nightclub. Also, scientists studying aquatic ecosystems could live on the ship and work in the dedicated "Earth Garden" lab.

Two New Species of Stingray Discovered

Biologists have discovered two new species of stingray in the Amazon rainforest. The x-ray image seen above is of a preadult male of the Heliotrygon gomesi species. The other species found is the Heliotrygon rosai.

Because of their distinct round shape, the two new species are informally called "pancake stingrays". The specimens of the new species were mostly found in Rio Nanay, near Iquitos, Peru. This new discovery brings the count of the neotropical stingray genera from two to four.

The new stingrays are quite rare and according to biologist Nathan Lovejoy, a member of the team that discovered the species, it took quite a while to collect enough specimens of the species to accurately describe them.

The most important part of this discovery is that it shows we have not fully explored the vast Amazon forest and that there are many more secrets to uncover.

(Our Amazing Planet)