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... is collected by insects for food. The latter variety of pollen is considered (anthropomorphically) as the plant's way of rewarding insects for carrying the fertile pollen to other plants. As in so many of Nature's remarkable adaptations, the two types of pollen are located in exactly the right portions of the flower to match the anatomy of the foraging insect. In the figure, a carpenter bee collects infertile pollen from the bottom of the flower while being dusted on the head and back by the regions of the fertile pollen. (Mori, Scott Alan, et al; "Intrafloral Pollen Differentiation in the New World.. .. ." Science, 209:400, 1980.) Comment. How can the flower, even over many generations, determine that only the ... from the upper portion is being used for fertilization and that the lower area of pollen may safely "be allowed" to become infertile? From Science Frontiers #12, Fall 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 61 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf012/sf012p04.htm
... in Plants," Scientific American, 257:76, September 1987.) Comment. Evolution, like beauty, must be in the eye of the beholder! At this point, we could easily launch into a lengthy harangue about why it seems highly improbable that a plant, through chance mutations, could hit upon just the right combination of form, color, odor, and flowering time to dupe an insect pollinator -- even with the aid of natural selection and a billion years. The point we wish to stress here is that the author of this paper sees the same facts and comes to diametrically opposite conclusions! Reference. Our handbook Incredible Life devotes and entire chapter to the anomalies of the plant kingdom. For further information, visit: here . This Orchid flower mimicks a female bee, thus encouraging pollination by male bees. From Science Frontiers #54, NOV-DEC 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 24 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf054/sf054b09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 80: Mar-Apr 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Great Wooden Well Of Kuckhoven While on the subject of ancient hydrological engineering, it is appropriate to mention a remarkable wooden well found in northwest Germany. Over 200 oaken planks have been discovered so far. These are up to 15 centimeters thick and 50 wide. Fairly large oaks had been cut and split with stone axes and then worked into planks. Mortises were cut in some way so that the planks could be joined. It is quite clear that the Neolithic peoples of the region were skilled carpenters. The size of the well, too, is impressive: it was more than 15 meters deep. The tree rings on the planks permitted very accurate dating: 5303 BC -- well over 7000 years ago. (Bahn, Paul G.; "The Great Wooden Well of Kuckhoven," Nature, 354:269, 1991.) From Science Frontiers #80, MAR-APR 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf080/sf080a02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Fungus Manufactures Phony Blueberry Flowers Mummy-berry disease is a fungus that preys on blueberries. It propagates itself by turning blueberry leaves into whitish, bell-like structures resembling true blueberry flowers. Bees deceived by this ruse land on the fake blossoms, pause for a moment to sip a sugary fluid (fortuitously) exuding from lesions on the leaves, accidentally pick up some fungus spores, and then fly off to true blueberry blossoms. The transferred spores infect other blueberry plants, causing them to produce white mummy-berries rather than blueberries. When spring comes round, the fungus-filled mummy-berries release the fungus to the leaves, and the cycle continues. (Anonymous; "A Fungus That Courts with Phony Flowers," Science 85, 6:10, September 1985.) Comment. The explanations usually served up for such remarkable adaptations are: (1 ) It is the product of chance and natural selection; and (2 ) The Creator made things this way. Are there not other possibilities? Perhaps the fungus somehow stole the blueprints for the flower from the blueberry's genome; i.e ., genetic endowment. After all, viruses are always subverting cell machinery. From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf042/sf042p12.htm
... Hers is the same amazed reaction expressed by most tourists who discover this piney pitstop of the paranormal, 50 miles south of Orlando. On a typical Saturday, up to 30 cars an hour line up at the top of the hill for their turn to drive down to the white line and drift back up." Not only cars roll up the hill. Farmers had to stop planting oranges in the area because visitors pulled them off the trees so they could watch them roll uphill. Skateboarders and cyclists also feel the pull of gravity in the wrong direction. Scientists who deign to investigate sites like Spook Hill usually end up by claiming them to be merely optical illusions. "If it's an optical illusion at work here, it's an odd one; a reporter applying a carpenter's level at about the hill's halfway point finds a slope up in the direction the cars are rolling. Joggers report they expend more energy running that way too. 'Spook Hill is most definitely a hill,' says Paulette Bond, a geologist at the Florida Department of Natural Resources." (Johnson, Robert; "Just Who, or What, Makes Cars Roll Up a Slope in Florida?" Wall Street Journal, October 25, 1990. Cr. J. Covey) From Science Frontiers #73, JAN-FEB 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf073/sf073g10.htm
... .Headquarters determined to do some very precise studies during the next 55 minutes to eliminate the possibility of prosaic explanations for the radar images. Excellent atmospheric conditions prevailed, and there was no possibility of false echoes due to temperature inversions. ". .. at 0005 hours the order was given to the F-16s to take off and find the intruder. The lead pilot concentrated on his radar screen, which at night is his best organ of vision. The F-16 is equipped with very sophisticated equipment, including chase radar, which is not fixed directly ahead of the airplane, but makes a wide search in an arc' of 90 degrees left and right of the nose... "Suddenly the two fighters spotted the intruder on their radar screens, appearing like a little bee dancing on the scope. Using their joy sticks like a video game, the pilots ordered the onboard computers to pursue the target. As soon as lock-on was achieved, the target appeared on the screen as a diamond shape, telling the pilots that from that moment on, the F-l6s would remain tracking the object automatically. "[ Before the radar had locked on for six seconds] the object had speed up from an initial velocity of 280 kph to 1,800 kph, while descending from 3,000 meters to 1,700 meters...in one second! This fantastic acceleraton corresponds to 40 Gs. It would cause immediate death to a human on board. The limit of what a pilot can take is about 8 Gs. The trajectory of ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf072/sf072g15.htm
... Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects High Social Order In A New Order When divers explore the coral reefs off the coast of Belize, they hear a an underwater sound like frying bacon. This sound emanates from the snapping claws of Synalpheus regalis , popularly called snapping shrimp. These diminutive crustaceans live in colonies in the channels of sponges. The individual shrimp in these sponge-sheltered colonies are not all alike. The noise-makers are the "soldier" caste, which wield big "fighting claws." The "workers" that care for the young lack the large claws. All of the young shrimp are produced by a single "queen" shrimp, who is substantially larger than the soldiers and workers. The snapping shrimp social order sounds a lot like that found in bee hives and termite mounds. The snapping shrimp are, in fact, "eusocial" like the social insects. They are the only known eusocial members of the Order Crustacea . Eusociality is considered to be at the apex of animal social organization. What forces have fostered its development in three diverse groups -- insects, mammals (the naked mole-rats), and now the crustaceans? How did the different castes evolve, especially the sterile castes? It must have taken a lot of random mutations to develop such greatly different body forms in a coordinated way such that colonies were continuously viable! Obviously, we have a lot to learn about these snapping shrimp. Are new colonies formed when sexual forms disperse, as with ants and termites; or are there "dispersive morphs" created ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 13 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf107/sf107p07.htm
... and the Brain BHI6 Phantom Limbs BHI7 The Puzzles of Pain BHI8 Differences between the Aorta Arch in Humans and Other Animals BHI9 The Varying Origin of Embryonic Arms BHI10 Humans and Embryonic and Juvenile Apes: Skeletal Similarities BHI11 The Inheritance of Acquired Skeletal Characters BHI12 Bone-Shedders BHI13 High Incidence of Extra Vertebrae among Eskimos BHI14 Subcutaneous Fat BHI15 Magnetite Operation of Internal Clocks Curiosities of Circulatory System Design Speech Associated with Canals in Skull Nervous-System Development BHO ORGANS BHO1 High Complexity and Sophistication of the Human Eye BHO2 Dearth of "Fit" Intermediate Stages in the Evolution of the Eye BHO3 Imperfections of the Human Eye BHO4 Vision-Chemistry Homologies BHO5 The Anomalous History of Human Color Vision BHO6 Utility of the Semi-Lunar Membrane of the Human Eye BHO7 Similarity of Human and Cephalopod Eyes BHO8 Similarity of Human and Bee Eyes BHO9 The Purposeful Emission of Sound by the Human Ear BHO10 Human Lobulated Kidneys and Indented Spleens BHO11 Correlation of Pineal Gland Activity with Magnetic Fields BHO12 Heart Rate Correlated with Birth Order BHO13 Periodicity in Deaths Due to Heart Disease BHO14 Lifetime Total of Human Heart beats Greatly Exceeds Those of Other Mammals BHO15 Skin Shedding BHO16 Thick Soles on the Feet of Infants BHO17 Brain Size Correlated with Intelligence BHO18 The Sudden Large Increase in the Size of the Human Brain BHO19 Morphological Differences between Normal Human Brains BHO20 Remarkable Capabilities of Badly Damaged Human Brains BHO21 The Existence of Electrical Brain Waves BHO22 Capabilities of the Human Brain Greatly Exceed Requirements for Survival BHO23 The Experimental Lack of Memory Traces BHO24 High Complexity and Sophistication of the Human Brain Brain Asymmetry in Musicians Detection of Rapid Motion by Blind People Heart "Music" Wide ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-biol.htm
