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The San Diego Union-Tribune


Daily discoveries for the scientifically bent

November 27, 2008


It's an insurance policy for the worst possible outcome.

– Mohamed Nasheed, president of the island nation Maldives, on plans to buy land in Sri Lanka, India or Australia for a new homeland if sea levels continue to rise. The Maldives - 26 inhabited atolls in the Indian Ocean - are home to more than 300,000 people. The highest natural point in the country is just 7 12 feet above sea level.


If you wrote down the first letter of the name of every country in the world (there are 192 to 195, depending upon the source), you would see that every letter was represented more than once except for two letters, and one letter not used at all.

Which two countries can claim to be the only ones whose names begin with one of two singular letters? And which letter isn't used at all?


In Iowa, a 10-year-old boy recently discovered the fossilized remains of a plesiosaur apparently killed 74 million years ago when a stony meteorite more than 1 mile in diameter and weighing an estimated 10 billion tons hit what is now Pocahontas County at 45,000 miles per hour.

Dubbed the Manson Impact after the name of the closest town, the striking meteorite produced the energy equivalent of 10 trillion tons of TNT, instantly igniting anything that would burn within 130 miles of impact and probably killing most animals within 650 miles, say researchers.

Among the victims, it appears, was the plesiosaur, a carnivorous marine reptile. Said one investigating paleontologist of the reptile's demise: “The thing came up for air and got a lungful of hot glass shards. Pretty much the most catastrophic day you could have.”


Eat 'em, but don't dis them. It is not true that domesticated turkeys are so stupid that they will look up at rain in puzzlement until they drown.

First, turkeys have monocular vision. Their eyes on the sides of their heads, which gives them a greater field of vision to spot predators. It also means that if they wanted to look up, they would turn their heads sideways.

Second, while wild turkeys are considered to be pretty smart birds, there is no neurological evidence to suggest they (or birds in general) possess the degree of abstract intelligence to be interested in something as mundane and amorphous as rain.

On the other hand, it's true domesticated turkeys sometimes die in rainstorms, often from exposure but sometimes from panic. Because the birds typically spend much of their life indoors, they may become frightened in an unfamiliar rainstorm, panic and be suffocated to death in a stampede for shelter.

To their credit, though, they apparently knew enough to try to get out of the rain.


Oman and Qatar. W.


In Portugal, it was thought that a husband could ease the labor pains of his pregnant wife by lifting and turning a tile taken from a church roof.


65: Percentage of California native trout, salmon and steelhead species projected to be extinct within the century, if current trends continue

7,200: Tons of biohazardous waste produced daily by U.S. hospitals

1 in 6: Chance that a person worldwide lacks adequate drinking water due to socioeconomic conditions

Sources: California Trout; Kalorama Information; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome


This week in 1922, Egyptologist/adventurer Howard Carter entered the antechamber of Tutankhamun, sensing he was on the cusp of a monumental discovery. However, it would take several more months before Carter entered the sepulchral chamber and found the Boy King.


The shortfin mako isn't the scariest shark in the ocean, but it's arguably the fastest, capable of speed bursts reaching 50 miles per hour. That ability, say researchers, isn't just due to the mako's abundant and powerful muscles, though they no doubt play a role. Credit the shark's skin as well. According to Amy Lang and colleagues at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, tiny scales on the mako's skin bristle when it swims fast, creating tiny wells like dimples on a golf ball.

The result is a reduction in drag as water flows over the raised scales. Researchers found that whirlpools formed in the cavities between the scales, creating vortices that buffered the shark from the water and prevented a turbulent wake that would create backward pull.

The discovery could lead to more effective torpedoes or underwater vehicles from which, presumably, one could continue to admire mako sharks.

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