Food for Fungi

  Fungi cannot make their own food. They use food that was made by green plants. They get their food from the things on which they grow.
  Bread mold takes food from the bread. It uses food that was made by wheat plants. Fruit molds use food that was made by the fruit trees.
  Some mushrooms take their food from the soil. They use the plant and animal materials in the soil.
  Mushrooms that grow on dead logs get food from the wood. They use food that was made by the tree when it was growing. Mushrooms that grow on a live tree use food that is made by the tree.
  Yeast plants do not grow until they are put into some kind of food. When they are added to bread dough and put in a warm place, they grow. They also grow in fruit juice. They use food that was made by green plants.
  In one way, fungí are like animals. They depend on green plants for their food.

What caused the explosion in Tunguska?

Tunguska is a sparsely populated region of forests and swamps in central Siberia. On June 30, 1908, Tunguska was the scene of one of the most powerful explosions on Earth, an explosion whose cause remains a mystery.

On that morning of 1908, a flash of fire illuminated the skies of Tunguska. A pillar of smoke was observed 400 kilometers away, and the roar of the explosion was heard 800 kilometers away. Even in Europe, the sky lit up at night thanks to the dust thrown into the atmosphere by the Tunguska explosion.

Many years passed before Russian scientists went to study the Tunguska region. In 1927, a Russian expedition made preparations to visit this remote region. Although 19 years had passed since the explosion, the signs of its tremendous strength still remained in a vast area.

Around the center of the affected area, the trees were fallen to the ground as if they had been cut down by the explosion. Many trees were burned to the ground. An area of more than 2,500 square kilometers had been devastated by the explosion, so scientists believe that the destructive force was equal to about 30 million tons of TNT.

Russian scientists first believed that the explosion at Tunguska had been caused by a huge meteorite that exploded into the Earth's atmosphere. But the first Russian expedition, and three that followed, presented no evidence that a meteorite had caused the explosion.

So what caused this powerful explosion? Most scientists now believe that it was caused by a small comet that hit the Earth, even though no comet had been observed in the sky around the time of the explosion. However, other scientists have suggested that the explosion could have been caused by a UFO explosion!

One thing is certain, both the site and the explosion are themselves a mystery. Although the explosion felled thousands of trees, killed countless reindeer and other animals, and destroyed some houses, it did not result in a single human death!

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What's called an artesian well?

In an artesian well, water springs from the ground by itself, without the need for a pump. The name comes from Artois, an area of France where this kind of well was first used. The Latin name for this region was Artesium.

Rainwater penetrates the earth until it reaches a layer of rock or soft sand. The water in this layer is under great pressure from the rock layers over it.

When a well or a fracture in the rock breaks through to the water table, the water flows forcefully upwards through the well to the surface, and can be used as drinking water.

Some desert oases are artesian wells.

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Where is the strangest house in the world?

 In the late 19th century, Sara Winchester moved to an ordinary home in San Jose, California.

For some reason, the wealthy woman began adding an additional room to the house each year. By the time she died in 1922, the house already had 160 rooms, covering six acres.

Most of the rooms in Mrs. Winchester's house were never used. Some were a few inches wide. The stairs led nowhere, and the windows opened over the white walls. The eight-story house was built with three elevators, 48 chimneys, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, and miles of secret corridors and lobbies.

A special room was also erected that was entirely dedicated to the thirteenth. It had thirteen windows, thirteen doors, thirteen lights, etc.

Winchester Mansion is today a museum, open to anyone who wants to see the strangest house on Earth!

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How is seawater desalinated?

The world faces a growing demand for water. In areas of scarce rainfall, such as the Near East, the natural water supply is insufficient. One answer is to desalinate seawater.

From the 4th century B.C. a method was known for this, when Aristotle discovered that by boiling seawater, the steam was free of salt.

The simplest desalination plant is a still where water is boiled and steam is condensed. A solar still can be improvised by placing a glass dome over a saltwater pond. The water is heated, then evaporated, condensed into the glass and finally drained into collection channels. A still of just under 1m² can produce 4-5 litres of drinking water per day.

A much larger alembic is required to desalinate usable quantities of water. The water is first heated above its boiling point in a pressure chamber so that it does not boil. It then flows into a lower pressure chamber, where part of the water is instantly converted to steam. The water that did not boil in the first chamber passes into the second, slightly lower pressure chamber, where it partially evaporates and condenses.

A modern desalination method, called reverse osmosis, is more profitable than the one described. It consists of using plastic membranes with tiny perforations, which allow water molecules to pass but not salt molecules. The membranes are placed in tubes, and the salt water is passed through them, pumping it under pressure. The desalinated water then drips out of the tube.

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Natural body coats

An effective insulator is needed to maintain body temperature in an icy climate. Mammals have hair or fat that isolates their bodies, but humans lack the necessary fat and their body hair is relatively scarce, so it is necessary to protect themselves with clothing.

Mammals are characterized by two types of hair. The longest, protective, is erectile: erectile when the animal is afraid or angry, as in the neck of dogs. Underneath, the shorter hair is soft and dense, and retains air close to the skin. The air is a bad conductor of heat, so the trapped layer receives heat from the body and keeps the animal warm.

When it rains or if the animal gets into the water, the outer coat becomes tangled and forms a waterproof layer, which prevents the shorter hair and skin from getting wet and losing their insulating properties. When it stops raining or the animal comes out of the water, a simple shake removes the water retained in the body.

By taking advantage of qualities such as wool, man can imitate what mammals do. Clothing close to the skin traps the air, which is kept warm and creates a protective layer. Raincoats prevent clothes from getting wet and losing their insulating properties.

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Air Conditioning

   A means of controlling the temperature, moisture, movement and purity of air. Changes in these affect human comfort. They also affect some industrial processes.
   High temperatures and moisture levels are extremely uncomfortable. Invariably they make us feel hot and sticky. They also make it difficult for the body to control its temperature. Usually sweat evaporates and cools the body. If humidity is high, sweat cannot evaporate.
   Man has experimented for centuries with ways of controlling air conditions. There were many ideas, one of the simplest being to hang wet mats over doorways. This cooled the incoming air. But it also moisturized it and that is not always a desirable thing.
   None of the many other systems really did the job. It was not until refrigeration techniques were developed that modern air conditioning standards could be achieved.
Temperature and moisture also affect materials like cloth, paper and certain metals. When printing on paper, or weaving cloth, these air conditions must be kept constant. In the manufacture of delicate instruments, such as those used in spacecraft, conditions must be controlled to protect fine metal parts from rusting and corrosion.
   Air conditioning can be used either to reduce or to increase heat and moisture. However, it is usually concerned with cooling and drying. That is mainly what we will consider in this article.
   In most air conditioning equipment, a refrigeration system is used. A cooling chemical, such as the gas Freon, begins at room temperature. It is condensed by pressure, and this makes it hot. This excess heat is blown away by a fan and the Freon turns into a liquid at room temperature. It is then fed through a fine nozzle into an evaporator where it returns to its gas form. In the course of evaporating it absorbs heat. This process is repeated continually.
    A fan blows air over the evaporator chamber. The air loses heat, which it gives up to the evaporating Freon. It also loses moisture, which condenses on the surface of the chamber. The cooler and drier air is then filtered to remove impurities, such as dust, pollen or smoke, and pumped into the room that is to be air conditioned.
   Most air conditioners can be adjusted to make air hotter and more moist if required.
   The first effective air conditioning machine was invented by Willis H Carrier in 1902. He used it to solve problems that were occurring at a colour printing plant in New York. Paper stretches when it is moist and shrinks when dry. This meant that a sheet could change size between one application of ink and another of a different colour. Thus air conditioning became a necessity rather than a convenience.
   Since then air conditioning has become common in cinemas, public buildings, private homes and even in automobiles.

The Weather

    Hurricane "Flossie," in September, 1956, left 50 billion tons of water on the eastern coast in less than three days. Floods cause hundred of millions of dollars of damage each year across the country. There is an average of 593 tornadoes, and 6000 hail, lightning, wind, and thunderstorms each year. No wonder that everyone talks about the weather!
   A good idea of the weather can be formed by observing different weather conditions each day. These are the temperature of the air, the humidity, the direction and speed of the wind, the amount of clouds, and any rain or snow. The one element of weather hardly noticeable is the air pressure. But this is one of the most important, since daily changes in all the other elements depend on pressure changes. All these elements must be considered together to give the current conditions of the atmosphere which is called weather.

Gaucho world

   Gaucho is the Argentine cowboy and folk hero. Most gauchos were mestizos, of mixed Indian and Spanish blood. They nourished on the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay from about 1750 to 1850. During this period wild cattle and horses ran free on the pampas. The gauchos hunted them with lasso and bola. The tough rangy cattle were valued chiefly for their hides. The horses were traded or were broken in to become the swift mounts of the gauchos. Although trade with foreigners was prohibited by Spanish law, a brisk commerce developed between the gauchos and English, French, and Dutch traders. With the fencing in of the pampas in the 19th century, the gaucho gradually disappeared. However, like the American cowboy, he continued to live in literature, art, and music.

What is a fungicide?

   A fungicide is a chemical substance used to kill small primitive organisms called fungi. Fungi cause many plant diseases, such as wheat rust and Dutch elm disease. They also attack many animals, including man. Common examples of human fungus infections include ringworm and athlete's foot. Certain fungi, particularly molds, damage leather, paper, foods, fabrics, and other plant or animal products.
   Fungicides are available in a variety of forms, depending on their use. Salves and ointments are widely used for fungus infections of the skin. Fungicides for crops are available in three forms: liquids, wettable powders, and dusts. Both liquids and wettable powders are mixed with water and are either sprayed directly on the plants or used to drench the soil. Dusts are applied to plants by dusting machines or are used to coat the plant seeds. Although fungicides destroy fungi, they do not harm the plants or animals on which they are applied. Plant fungicides are also harmless to any animals that may eat the treated plants.
   One of the most widely used plant fungicides is bordeaux mixture, whose components are copper sulfate and calcium hydroxide, or slaked lime. Solutions of sulfur and lime are also used extensively as plant fungicides. Ferbam, an iron compound, is often used in orchards, and a zinc compound called zineb is used on many fruits and vegetables.
   Animal fungus infections are frequently treated with various compounds of sulfur and iodine. Large doses of neomycin and other antibiotic drugs are also used in the treatment of fungus diseases.

What is the Blarney Stone?

Kissing the Blarney Stone

   If a person says a great many pleasant things that he doesn't really mean, someone may say, "Oh, he must have kissed the Blarney Stone." The Blarney Stone is a stone high in the wall of Blarney Castle, an ancient, ruined castle near the city of Cork in Ireland. The date 1446 was carved into the stone. Long ago the idea spread that if a person kissed the Blarney Stone he would become very clever at saying flattering things.
   No one believes now that the Blarney Stone has any real power. But every year many tourists go to see the castle. Some of them kiss the Blarney Stone just for the fun of saying that they have done so.
   Kissing the Blarney Stone is not easy. First a person must climb to the very top of the castle. Then he has to be held so that he can hang upside down over the stone railing there. Many people decide to be satisfied with kissing some other stone in the wall.

What is functionalism (architecture)?

   In design, functionalism is the concept that objects or buildings should be planned in accordance with their actual uses, rather than for the sake of appearance. In a functional design the utilitarian requirements of a building or an object are not concealed by ornamentation. The modern practice is to keep the decoration a secondary factor and to make it-harmonize with the uses of the object or structure. To a large extent, modern architecture and the design of modern furniture and other objects are based on the principles of functionalism.
   The well-known functionalist motto "Form follows function" was originated by the late -19th-century architect Louis Sullivan. His approach was adopted and further developed by his student Frank Lloyd Wright and by such noted architects as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier. Each has designed buildings of great geometric simplicity that integrate function with appearance.

What is fumigation?

   Fumigation is the use of gases, vapors, smoke, or fumes to drive out or kill harmful organisms. Fumigation is used to rid houses, office buildings, and warehouses of insects, mice, and other pests.    In agriculture it is used to destroy worms, insects, weeds, and fungi in the soil.
   Usually the area to be fumigated is sealed off and filled with a poisonous substance called a fumigant. The most widely used fumigants are gases, but liquids or solids that readily give off poisonous vapors are also used. Soil may be fumigated with applicators that inject a liquid under the surface. Common fumigants are formaldehyde and cyanide or chlorine compounds.
   Many fumigants are explosive, some are harmful to plants, and most are dangerous to inhale or swallow. Fumigants often are most safely handled by trained exterminators.

Fountain of Youth

   The Fountain of Youth is a fabled spring said to have the power of restoring health and youth. When the New World was discovered, popular opinion placed the fountain's site sonewhere in the Wets Indies. Therefore the conquistador Juan Ponce de León readily believed a Caribe Indian legend of the rich island of Bimini, he renamed it Florida. However, is search for the Fountain of Youth was unsuccessful. His second expedition to the "island" of Florida ended in his death at the hands of hostile indians.

Buffalo Bill facts

    A century ago there were no western movies and television shows to watch. But when Buffalo Bill's (William F. Cody, 1846-1917) famous Wild West show came to town, the people could crowd into a big circus tent and see real Indians and cowboys of the old West. Indians in war paint riding bareback on their western ponies and shouting war whoops thundered into the ring. Behind them came buckskinned cowboys shooting as they rode. Buffalo Bill himself was the star of the show. He performed amazing tricks with his guns.
   William Cody was born in Iowa, but his family soon moved to Kansas. When he was only 14 he was hired as a rider for the Pony Express. He learned to know the Great Plains well. He knew both the land and the Indians who lived on it. Before long he became a scout for the army and helped fight the Indians.
   Buffalo Bill got his nickname because he killed so many "buffaloes," or bison. When the Kansas Pacific Railroad was being built across the plains, young Cody agreed to furnish the workmen with meat. In one year he killed nearly 5,000 bison.
   In 1883 he gathered many Indians and cowboys together and started his Wild West show. People liked it so much that he traveled about with it for many years.
   The town of Cody, Wyo., was named for Buffalo Bill.

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What is a Fraternity?

   A fraternity is a society, usually at an American college or university. The word "fraternity" comes from the Latin frater ("brother"). Fraternities are also called Greek-letter societies because most of them have Greek mottoes and use the first letters of the words as their name. Some fraternities are social in nature, and others are professional or honorary. Fraternities may be for men or women or both. Women's fraternities are usually called sororities. Many social fraternities are national organizations with many local chapters, and include both undergraduate and alumni members.

   Membership in social fraternities is by invitation. In most colleges that have fraternities, there is a rushing period during which each fraternity invites freshmen to parties. From these a fraternity chooses a number of pledges and assigns them many tasks to prove their interest and to determine whether they would be good members. At the end of this hazing period the successful pledges are initiated into the fraternity in a secret ritual that includes an oath, a special handclasp, and the receipt of a fraternity pin.

College fraternities now stress campus activities far more than secrecy. They compete in sports and academic work, support candidates in college elections, and may give scholarships to members. Fraternities have been criticized, however, as being snobbish and discriminatory. Many people think that members have too little contact with persons of different backgrounds. The National Interfraternity Conference was formed in 1909 to maintain standards and consider reforms, and reforms have been made by many individual fraternities and local chapters.
Honorary and professional fraternities also have national and local organizations, in which membership is based on academic achievement. Phi Beta Kappa is an honorary society that accepts those who have a high general scholastic record, and Sigma Xi accepts those proficient in the sciences. Members of Alpha Omega Alpha belong to the medical profession, and Tau Beta Phi is for engineers.

   The first fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Its purpose was originally social, but it later became honorary. The pattern for modern social fraternities was set by three groups founded at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., in 1825 and 1827.

   Most of these early fraternities began as literary and debating societies that gradually expanded their activities and spread widely in the 19th century. By 1950 there were 60 social and more than 100 professional fraternities in the United States. Recently high school students have formed fraternities, but these organizations are not recognized by colleges and have been declared illegal by many states.

The Romani people (gypsies)

    Fortunetellers' are often dressed as gypsies. Sometimes they are real gypsies. For telling fortunes is one of the chief ways in which gypsies, wherever they are, make a living.
   Gypsies are nomads. They wander about from place to place. No one knows much about their early story. About 600 years ago tribes of gypsies wandered into Europe from Asia. Perhaps in the beginning they came from India. They are dark-skinned and black-haired like the people of India. And their language makes scientists think that they came from India. But the early gypsies said that they came from Egypt. "Gypsies" is short for "Egyptians."
   In Europe the gypsies kept on wandering, moving northward in summer and southward in winter.    They traveled in wagons pulled by horses. At night they built big campfires and sang songs around them.
   The gypsies were soon famous for their horse trading and their for tune telling. Some of them were good smiths, too. Some earned money by mending pots and pans. And some were good musicians. Many composers have used gypsy tunes in their music.
   The lives of the gypsies seemed to be very happy and carefree. Many other people wished that they could live as easy a life. But the gypsies were not always well treated. They sometimes had to steal to get enough food. People began to be afraid of them. They were even driven out of some countries for a time.
   From Europe some of the gypsies wandered to the Americas and to Australia. In all their wanderings they have kept very much to themselves. They also cling to their own customs and their own language. Their language is called Romany.
   There are thousands of gypsies in the United States now. As they wander about they now usually use automobiles instead of horses and wagons. Many of them spend the winters in cities. With their gay clothes and bright jewelry they are easy to tell from other people.

Charles Gounod

   Charles Francois Gounod, 1818-93, French composer, was born in Paris. His father was a painter, his mother a pianist, and from her he received his first musical instruction. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1836 where his teachers were Halévy, Paer, and Lesueur, all operatic composers. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1839, as a result of which his interest in the music of the church developed, and the stage was set for the lifelong struggle in Gounod's soul between the sacred and the secular, the mystical and the worldly, a struggle apparent in much of his creative work. Returning to Paris via Austria and Germany, he became organist of the chapel of the "Missions Etrangeres," wrote considerable religious music, and even considered entering the priesthood. However, about 1850 he was commissioned to compose an opera, Sapho. Several others followed before he achieved a real success in 1859 with Faust, upon which his fame still chiefly rests. Herein is the struggle between the flesh and the spirit set forth with especial clarity. La reine de Saba, Mireille, Romeo et Juliette and others followed at intervals, during which time Gounod was also producing masses, oratorios, and other sacred music. Among these are Messe de Sainte Cecile, Messe du Sacre Coeur, The Redemption and Mars et vita. Though praised by Saint-Saens, this music, according to most critics, tends toward monotony and heaviness.
   Among the many honors bestowed upon him, Gounod was made a member of the Institute de France in 1866 and grand officer of the Legion of Honor in 1880. He continued to compose until his death at St. Cloud, though he was content in his later work to use methods he had used repeatedly before. His music is sweet and melodious, often for too extended a period without the relief of contrast and dramatic intensity.

What is a Gas?

   GAS is a substance which in physical properties is similar to AIR. Gases show little or no cohesive force and may be thus differentiated from liquids and solids. Heating any substance reduces the cohesive force, and theoretically, it is possible to change any substance to a gas by bringing it to a sufficiently high temperature. In general usage the term, gas, is limited to those substances which have the gaseous form under usual conditions of temperature and pressure. The prime physical characteristic of a gas is that it uniformly fills any vessel in which it is placed regardless of the vessel's shape or size. Liquids conform to the shape of the vessel only so far as they can fill it, and are bounded at the top by a liquid surface. The shape of solids is independent of that of the container.

Parthenogenesis

   Parthenogenesis is a type of reproduction in which a new organism develops from an egg which has not united with a sperm. In animals, it occurs naturally in rotifers, a type of worm, in BEES and APHIDS, and in water fleas. Some algae and fungi also reproduce parthenogenetically. Eggs of many invertebrates and of frogs have been developed without fertilization through artificial stimulation of the eggs by pricking, shaking, and changing the kind of solution they are in. Occasionally parthenogenesis occurs naturally in all major groups of animals except the vertebrates and echinoderms and in all plants except mosses and liverworts.
   Parthenogenesis is the sole means of reproduction only in a few aphids and parasitic insects. In other groups males are produced periodically, usually in the fall. They fertilize eggs which are capable of surviving the winter. These eggs in turn produce females which reproduce parthenogenetic females until the next fall.