"QUANTUM SHOT" #668 Link - article by Rebecca Leib and Avi Abrams
Be Different! and Stay Different - for 166 million years! This weirdest mammal has webbed feet, lays eggs and sweats milk
If you were to visit eastern Australia and/or Tasmania, you would find a rare and bizarre creature: the Platypus. From its birth, this little fella is entirely unique; the platypus is amongst the five extant species of monotremes - mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to young ones. Though a number of species have been found on the record (the fossil record!), the platypus is the only living member of its family, ornithorhynchidae, and genus, ornithorhynchus.
(photo manipulation via, original photo: Dave Watts, BBC)
"The platypus is a very ancient offshoot of the mammal tree, so it was 166 million years ago that we last shared a common ancestor with platypuses... and that puts them somewhere between mammals and reptiles, because they still maintain quite a lot of reptilian characteristics that we’ve lost; for instance, they still lay eggs." - the platypus genome code was recently cracked by the Comparative Genomics Group at the Australian National University (more info)
Half-Beaver, Half-Duck, Half-Otter, Half-... sorry, we're out of "half"s
More bizarre than its pedigree, is the platty’s looks. This creature is like a lot of animals and tools wrapped all-in-one, in a furry (and waterproof) exterior:
The platypus has a duckbill, a beaver tail and small otter feet. When on land, this little guy turns back the webs on its little otter front feet, revealing broad nails that help it walk. When in the water, a platypus swims forward with these same front feet. It uses its fat-filled tail as a rudder. The back feet of the platypus are used for it to brake and steer, like my first bike.
What's more, the platypus is also highly venomous!. The male platypus can deliver a poison through a fancy spur on its back foot. Though the female is also born with the ankle-spur (a classy edition to any fall collection), she does not carry or spurt venom. The male’s highly potent venom is made from a cocktail of proteins, three of which are unique to the platypus. Don’t worry, ladies and gents: this venom won’t kill humans, though it is powerful enough to kill smaller animals - even dogs. Though we can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re safe from death, a platypus’ poison will be excruciating to endure, and can also leave a victim incapacitated.
Platypuses are also known for a curious affectation called electrolocation. Monotremes are the only mammals that have this talent. Electorlocation is the ability to locate one’s prey using electric fields generated through muscular contractions. The platypus’ electroreception is the most sensitive of any monotreme. Why? Because it doesn’t use sight or smell to hunt. In fact, when the platypus swims, it closes its eyes, ears and nose:
(original unknown)
Instead of using these seemingly crucial senses, a platypus will swim to the bottom of a stream, dig around up in there, and lets its electroreceptors do some super sweet shock therapy on the odd fly, shrimp, worm or insect larvae. Yum.
I am the Walru... er, Platypus
And don’t get me wrong; a platypus knows how to have a good time. It must eat at least one quarter of its body weight each day, which means twelvish hours of huntin’, eatin’ and electrolocatin.’ When they aren’t foraging, a platypus makes sweet sweet love in the water so that the female’s one functional ovary can make some babies. When the babies have hatched in the platypus’ burrow, the female oozes milk for the little hairless babies to lick off. Literally.
Though platypuses (or, is it platypi?) have few natural predators, their encounter with larger and faster carnivores (such as a wild cat, a crocodile, even a snake) probably won’t lead to a second date, but a funeral.
And we want the platypus to live a long time - their life span in the wild is eleven years, while in captivity some have often lived to see their sweet sixteen. Though the platypus isn’t under immediate threat, let’s keep this fascinating little species alive and well - so we can marvel at its awesomeness for generations to come!
It's worth saying that these animals are extremely shy. When I saw one, it was from a lodge that overlooked a small dam, so the platypus didn't know we were there. An Australian present said in awe, "Ninety-five percent of Australians will never see one in the wild."
the plural of 'platypus' is correctly 'platypodes' although everyone in oz just says 'platypii' (yeah i'm an aussie) i lived in the country and has a family of platypus in the creedk behind my house. such beautiful animals!
You are correct about the proper plural of platypus. The same ending goes with "octopus" since that word, also, was of Greek origin. The "i" words (octupi, platypi) presume the words were originally Latin. RR, you were so lucky to live near a family of them - I've never seen a live one.
As a (former) Australian I am happy to see Perry the Platypus as the silent chick-magnet character on Phineas and Ferb and a worthy nemesis of the evil Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
They are common, not rare. There are some at my property and I have seen them in the day, even when having a party ! Water-birds peck at them to make them dive and drive up other food !
I would like to see your source for John Dees "flying " beetle. it is an oft repeated claim but the only proper description I could find of this is in a history of his life
For this play he devised a clever mechanical and very spectacular effect. Trygaeus, the Attic vine-dresser, carrying a large basket of food for himself, and mounted on his gigantic beetle or scarab (which ate only dung), was seen ascending from his dwelling on the stage to enter the palace of Zeus in the clouds above. One has only to think of the scenic effects presented by Faust and Mephistopheles at Mr. Tree’s theatre, for instance, to realise how crude and ineffective these attempts must have been; but thirty or forty years before Shakespeare’s plays were written, so unusual an exhibition was enough to excite wild rumours of supernatural powers.
From the diagram you print it does not look like something that could actually fly.
Also I think the present day robot makers must be missing something. They seem to be having huge problems getting autonomous robots to walk. Maybe they should try copying George Moores steam man! Although a closer examination of the literature shows "When he developed a head of steam he could walk, but only in circles, since he was attached to a horezontal radius arm" But hey why let the facts get in the way of a good story! Oh and why no mention of Faberges stuperb automata?
Droz, not Doz. I seem to recall the history of the chess player is actually quite a bit more complicated, and may not have been intended as a hoax originally, but I lack the time needed to check. Nice work!
You should also have a look at the automatons used in the Takayama festival in Gifu prefecture on Japan. I think they are around 400 years old and are quite impressive. There is one interesting one outside a restaurant that has a man "magic trick" with a box. Every time he lifts the box it reveals another item on the menu. It is powered by a water wheel which sits in one of the open drains that line the streets。I found a video of it here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxEUY0Y97Mw
I feel like the concept of "make it as thick as the earth to deal with gravity" suggests a lack of attention to high school physics.
Mass creates gravity, sure, but when we're not dealing with a nice, convenient, ball, you're going to have issues with exactly what direction gravity is pulling you. Hollow or not, you will be pulled towards the centre of mass. In the Dyson Sphere, that's the centre of the sun. With the disc it's a bit more of a complex math problem.
In response to Neil, the concept of the disc is actually much more complicated than high school physics allows, as does this article. Gravity on a flat plane is significantly different from that of a sphere, as it will always be perpendicular to the surface. See the wikipedia article on Alderson Discs for an easy-to-follow refernce. However, as you approach the sun, there would be a shearing effect as the sun's gravity competed with the disc's.
There's one more megascale structure from a more recent SF novel. It's not as large as the others but honstly? it's much more fun, and that counts, doesn't it? I'm talking about Karl Schroeder Virga structure - basically a hollowed-out baloon the size of a planet, filled with air. there's no gravity inside so you can fly in the air. You live on rocks that float inside the environment, or in floating cities built like small rotating halos / space stations. For light, you need a large artificial sun in the middle or have smaller artificial suns placed throughout the structure. There's probably less room for people inside one of these then there's on a regular planet the same size but You can make lots of similar structures from the material of one planet - provided you have air to fill all of them. Also, you don't need an impossibly high tensile strength like you need to build a ringworld. Lastly, if you live in such a structure you can fly by flapping your arm - that's just awesome.
The problem with the Gibraltar dam is that the water lost from the Med ends up in the oceans, raising sea levels and reducing land area around the world. The net increase in land area would be negligible, and some inhabited areas would be flooded. Someone didn't think it all through!
'Ringworld' is an awesome trilogy. It should be noted that its much 'wider than the planet' About a million miles across I believe between the 1000 mile high edges. Havent seen an illustration yet that accurately portrays this.
Megastructures like Dyson spheres and Alderson discs are recurring themes in science fiction; back in the seventies a similar article (with, alas, sketches rather than the fine illustrations in this article) was published in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact. i believe it, too, was titled "Bigger Than Worlds."
Very few images of Ringworld are realistic; there used to be some images created with POV-Ray that showed that at 93 some million miles from the sun, the even a million mile wide ringworld is almost invisible from the far side (which would be 186 million miles away).
Don't you just love the Daily Mail (or Bile Duct as it's called in our house). That's not Assange's secret hideout, it's a data centre used by hundreds of organisations. They really will print just about any old claptrap these days.
The Akira bike isn't a concept, it's a real-life version of a bike from the 1988 Anime movie of that name. There have been several versions of Kaneda's bike done, and the one shown is one of the best.
I like the dirty looking bike, the one that "came from a zombie apocalypse" type, it looks mean and vintage. And it really does have the theme of a zombie apocalypse type like of bike.
I love motorcycles with unusual engines: http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/v12_custom_kawasaki_2300cc/index.html http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2009/08/25/allen-millyard-builds-a-viper-v10-motorcycle/ http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2009/10/30/honda-cbx-v12-by-andreas-georgeades/
Pentru cei interesati de a vedea motoare de acest gen in 3D si pe coloana sonora semnata de daft Punk ... are sansa in Romania de pe 17 decembrie cand e premiera.
The "Kustom Combat" bike is a model, not a motorcycle. Poor research on some of these bikes, the dirty "apocalypse" bikes are called 'rat bikes'. Interesting pictures, but disappointing writing concerning them.
This is great time to read all the infornation ..i always like to read some good and informative blogs and this blog is also so good and helpful.thanks for taking time to discus this topic.
My friend was visiting in Albania, and saw the Lockheed T-33 some years ago. The Albanians said it was a spy plane, for the imminent American invasion of Albania......
Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, UK, houses the National Fire Training College, which used to be an RAF base. Near the fence on the North side there's the skeleton of a Hawker Hunter. Just looks like it was thrown into the woods. Quite eerie...
Great stuff - but the dH Vampire wasn't the first British jet fighter - that was the Gloster Meteor.
Dad was fighting in Burma when the Meteor started flying and remembered rumours of "A plane without a propellor, which whistled like a kettle". Which rumours he dismissed, as did most who heard them.
The MOTEL is not somewhere in Russia, but in Lithuania. I used to work with a company in Kaunas and travelled past it every couple of months. Trying to remember where it was ... it could also be in Latvia ;-) Anyway, touring from Estonia to Lithuania on E67 it is on your right at some point of this 600 km stretch.
"The chips are covered in a gummy capsule, and are edible after use."
"The chips are sold in packages just like candies."
Like gum with baseball cards. Could be done today... I smell lawsuit :) Nice idea though. RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) would love them and it would be the first Epeat (Environmentally Preferable) gold if you could eat the entire thing.
Given how often I lose pens, I'd be terrified of owning one of those pen computers.
Then again, I think once again design aesthetics is outstripping practicality. How many of these models give the tactile feedback of a regular keyboard?
|
7 Comments:
what stunning imagery, magical descriptions and an awesome creature.
i have a new favourite animal. absolutely spectacular.
It's worth saying that these animals are extremely shy. When I saw one, it was from a lodge that overlooked a small dam, so the platypus didn't know we were there. An Australian present said in awe, "Ninety-five percent of Australians will never see one in the wild."
the plural of 'platypus' is correctly 'platypodes' although everyone in oz just says 'platypii'
(yeah i'm an aussie)
i lived in the country and has a family of platypus in the creedk behind my house. such beautiful animals!
You are correct about the proper plural of platypus. The same ending goes with "octopus" since that word, also, was of Greek origin. The "i" words (octupi, platypi) presume the words were originally Latin. RR, you were so lucky to live near a family of them - I've never seen a live one.
Aww, I'd love to give one a cuddle...
And then scream for a few weeks afterwards while the venom works its way out.
As a (former) Australian I am happy to see Perry the Platypus as the silent chick-magnet character on Phineas and Ferb and a worthy nemesis of the evil Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
They are common, not rare. There are some at my property and I have seen them in the day, even when having a party ! Water-birds peck at them to make them dive and drive up other food !
Post a Comment
<< Home