5 results found.
... Rubberneckia The long-standing belief that unlimited rotary motion is impossible in animals has been shattered. It was, after all, a very reasonable assumption, because necks and other appendages turn only so far before bones and muscles begin to snap. Well, it seems that inside ter-mite guts there resides a single-celled animal with a head that rotates constant-ly 30 times a minute. Since none of its membranes shear during rotation, we must infer that membranes are basically fluid structures rather than solids as supposed. The animal, called Rubberneckia, has a shaft running the full length of its body plus a motor of undetermined character. To make Rubberneckia even more bizarre, thousands of tiny, rod-like bacteria occupy long grooves on the cell's surface. Like galley slaves, the bacteria row with their flagella to keep Rubberneckia moving -- a curious symbiotic relationship. (Cooke, Robert; "A Tale to Make Your Head Spin,: Boston Globe, March 20, 1984, p. 1. Cr. P. Gunkel) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 14 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf033/sf033p09.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Why are there no slave ant rebellions?Some ant species regularly raid the nests of other ants and carry some of them off into slavery. An oft-discussed question is: Why don't the slaves rebel or at least try to escape back to their home nest? There seems to be no evolutionary advantage in remaining in passive slavery promoting the fortunes of the slave-makers. The opportunities to run off and rebel are never taken. It would seem that slave-ant passivity is a marked disadvantage that has slipped through evolution's net. Regardless of the reason, an imbalance exists. (Gladstone, Douglas E.; "Why There Are No Ant Slave Rebellions," American Naturalist, 117:779, 1981.) Comment. Perhaps evolution just hasn't had time to redress the situation and even now is preparing clever mutations to rescue the slave ants; i.e ., improve their fitness. From Science Frontiers #16, Summer 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 141 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf016/sf016p10.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 107: Sep-Oct 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Irish In Iceland That the Norse colonized Iceland, Greenland, and even a bit of North America is not contested today. What is a hot issue on Iceland is whether today's inhabitants are predominantly Irish or Norse. The pro-Irish faction maintains that most Iceland settlers were Irish wives and slaves installed there by the Norse. The scientific basis for this claim is the distribution of blood types; specifically, types A and AB. In Iceland these two types are present in 19% of the populace. In Norway the figure is 30%, while Ireland weighs in with 18% -- matching modern Icelanders very closely. Modern Norse match other northern Europeans in this respect, not the Icelanders. Somewhat smugly, the pro-Irish faction notes that in Viking days the Irish had the highest literacy rate in northern Europe. And of all the Norse colonies, only the Icelanders recorded their history (the "sagas"). Ergo, the Irish exerted a strong influence in Iceland more than a millennium ago. Possibly, say the anthropologists, but small pox may have skewed the Iceland population figures. People with blood types A and AB are much more susceptible to small pox. The six devastating Icelandic small pox epidemics between 577 and 1061 would have hit Norse settlers harder than the Irish the Norse had brought along with them, thereby boosting the fraction of Irish in the modern Iceland populace. Whatever the scientific explanations ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf107/sf107p02.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 16: Summer 1981 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology More Fell Fallout Astronomy Grooves of Phobos Still Unexplained A Martian Ice Age? The Moon's Magnetic Swirls Earth-moon Fission: A Slight Hint Biology Hooray, Another "dangerous" Book! Blebs and Ruffles How Do Cancers Attract A Supporting Cast Plants Manufacture Fake Insect Eggs Why Are There No Slave Ant Rebellions? Geology Paradox of the Drowned Carbonate Platforms Geophysics Earthquake Lights and Crustal Deformation Psychology Belief Systems and Health ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 15 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf016/index.htm
... and Zuni Languages Pelgasian Language Welsh Words in the New World MAM MYTH, LEGEND, HISTORY St. Brendan and Prince Madoc Fu Sang (China in New World) Polynesians in the New World Aztec Origins Early Knowledge of New World Peopling of New World Arabs in New World History of Japanese Shipwrecks in New World Hawaiian Menehune Tales Precolumbian Contacts on West Coast South America The Mexican Messiah Prehistory of Japan Prehistory of Africa Fairies Myth Tales of the Deluge Sirius Mystery [MAK] Early Knowledge of Earth's Size Early Circumnavigation of Africa Early Knowledge of New Zealand "Little People" in Polynesia, Hawaii, North Carolina Ainu Legends Atlantis Legend Queras Indians/Southwest Celts in New World Quetzacoatl, Veracocha, Kulkulkan Legends of Whites in Polynesia Wakea: the Polynesian Prophet Norumbeha: a Legendary city Stories of Japanese Slaves in the Northwest Phoenicians in Mexico Henry Sinclair History Myths of Ancient Catastrophes Reports of Welsh Indians Blacks in New World [MAA] Legends of Cherokee Pygmies [MAA] Pre-Polynesians on Easter Island Precolumbian Whites on Northwest Coast Legends of Giants Pygmy Reports [MAA] Eden Story Maori-Origin Legends South Americans on Easter Island Prehistoric Whites in West Virginia MAP PLANTS, ANIMALS, DISEASES Elephantitis in Polynesia Diffusion of Plants and Animals throughout Oceania Maize in Old World Potatoes in Oceania Old World Shells in New World Cocaine, Tobacco, Other Drugs in Old World Oceania in New World Old World Cotton in New World Precolumbian Horses New World Shells in Old World Old World Chickens in New World Early Agriculture Easter Island Decline: Plant Evidence Sunflowers in Old World New World Hybrid Cotton Cowry Shell Diffusion Dyes, ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 6 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-arch.htm