The Blue Planet (earth) from the eye of science.

As we leave the shrouded mysteries of Venus behind us, we find ourselves presented with what could only be described as the most beautiful sight in the entire solar system. Sparkling before us is a bright blue gem of dazzling complexity. Delicate white clouds dance above its surface of brilliant blues, greens, and browns. This is the next stop on our tour, the planet Earth. It is the third planet from the Sun, and it is our home. Only slightly larger than Venus, Earth is the largest of the four terrestrial, or rocky planets. There are two very important factors that distinguish this planet from all others in the Solar System. First, it is the only planet known to contain liquid water on its surface. It is the availability of this water that gives rise to Earth's second unique feature. It is the only known planet to support life!

Features of Earth

Earth is a rocky world that is still very much alive and active. Volcanic activity continually creates new land and Earthquakes frequently reshape the landscape. Earth's surface is constantly changing. The crust is divided up into several "plates" (somewhat like a cracked eggshell) that float on a sea of molten rock. Where these plates collide, the land is thrust upwards to create enormous mountain ranges. The tallest of these mountains, Mt. Everest, rises 29,028 feet (8850 m) above sea level. In some places, one plate sinks underneath another forming deep valleys and trenches. The deepest of these, the Marianas trench, plunges seven miles (11 km) beneath the sea. Uneven heating of Earth's atmosphere, combined with its rotation causes complex weather patterns. Wind and rain gradually erode the mountains and create vast sandy plains. Even though the planet was bombarded by asteroids and meteors throughout its early history, erosion has wiped out most of the craters. Some can still be found, however. Meteor crater in Arizona is over a mile (1.6 km) wide and almost 600 feet (183 m) deep. It is believed that large meteors may have caused mass extinctions throughout Earth's history. One of these may have been responsible for wiping out the largest animals that ever lived - the dinosaurs. Although the planet may seem calm and tranquil now, its surface is highly active and ever changing on the wider geologic scale of time.

Sperm Whale in the deep sea.

The sperm whale, known to science as Physeter macrocephalus, is the largest of the toothed whales, which includes other members such as the dolphin and killer whale. These whales get their name from the oily fat, known as spermaceti, which is contained in their large heads. It is because of this substance and the oil from the whale's blubber that these majestic animals where viciously hunted by whaling boats. In older times, sperm whales were known as common cachalot, which was an old French word for "tooth". As with all whales, sperm whales are mammals and require air to breathe. They are one of the deepest diving mammals in the world, and are able to stay underwater for up to two hours before coming up for air.

The sperm whale can grow to a length of 67 feet (20.5 meters) and weigh over 63 tons (57,000 kilograms). Sperm whales are one of the most sexually dimorphic of all the whale species, meaning that the males and females differ greatly in size and weight. The males are generally 30% to 50% larger than the females. The whale's large head accounts for up to two-thirds of the animal's total length, and it has the largest brain of any animal in the world. Unlike most other whales, which have smooth skin, the skin on the back of the sperm whale is rough and wrinkly. In fact, it has been compared to that of a prune by many whale watchers. The sperm whale does not have a pronounced dorsal fin on its back. Instead, it has a series of ridges, the largest of which resembles a small hump. The color of these whales is usually a uniform gray, although they sometimes look more brownish-gray in sunlight. White albino whales have sometimes been observed in the wild.

Pakistani girls defend their right to education.

Pakistani girls are aghast at the destruction of schools in the Waziristan region. “The nihilistic Taliban are bent on taking the country back to the stone age,” laments Shazia Orakzai from Peshawar. “These barbarians don’t even care for theri own mothers and daughters. They do not respect the womb that gave them birth.” The girls of the land of the Indus are watching in horror as their country slowly falls prey to the obscurantist ideology of the terrorists. “We must do something, we can’t just stand by and twiddle our thumbs,” asserts Maria Maqbool, a fourth class teacher from Lahore.

The whole of Pakistan is furious over the denial of womens education in the tribal areas. While schools have been closed across the country, the women of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas bear the brunt of the Taliban’s reign of terror. Taliban have been known to blow up schools and even kill female teachers. “We resolve to resist these brutal oppressors and continue with our lives,” writes in Sarah Khan from Bannu, a town just next to Waziristan.

Much depends on the success of the Pakistan Army in Waziristan. With the destruction of the Taliban strongholds in FATA, the people (and especially the females) of the region are sure to breath a sign of relief. Education of females in developing countries is a must to fight poverty, but much work needs to be done in Pakistan where the majority of girls still can’t read and write.

How to make our city a better place to live?

We usually complain about the living conditions in the city, but in fact we don't even try to improve them. There are a lot different possibilities how to make our town a better place for us. First of all, we can try to reduce the pollution of the environment, noise and the rate of crime. The worst problem the inhabitants of the city meet is the pollution of the different kinds. To solve this problem the cooperation with the City Council will be required. Some steps should be taken to inform people about the positive aspects of recycling. We should also try to reduce the number of rubbish we produce each day. What is more, the City Council should press the factories boards to equipped chimneys with filters to prevent emissions of harmful substances. We should think about environmental friendly technology of producing energy. The solution may be the building of mills.

Most of us complain about smog and noise made by trucks, cars and tramways. Instead of driving your car to work, try to commute. In this way you avoid traffic - jams and the air pollution will be lower. The public transport should be improved. The buses or tramways should run more often and they should be more comfortable. As far as the noise is considered, some protective glasses walls should be built nearby the biggest street in the city. What is more, the trucks shouldn't be allowed to drive in the city center.

Apart from pollution and noise there is also another problem. I mean the increasing rate of crime. For the situation we all take the responsibility. Often we don't react when we are witnesses of vandalism, because we are afraid. We should support the further train of policemen and insist on installing cameras in the most crowded places. What is very important, every time when we see something wrong we have to react.

At the end I would like to pronounce that all of us can try to make the city a better and safer place to live. The living conditions depend in a large degree on us and our attitude.

How to Keep Yourself Healthy.

Holistic health, should be seen from an integral point of view, taking into consideration several aspects such as :

Nutrition. We should always get an adequate nutrition, it is necessary to have a balanced combination of the following elements : Minerals, Vitamins, Proteins, Carbohydrates, Fats, Fibers, Pure water, Oxygen, Sunlight
A good combination of these elements provides the correct nutrition that the body requires.
Positive attitude. It is essential to keep stress low. These keeps the immune system in good condition which produces as a consequence, good health. Stress, on the other hand, tenses neck and back muscles which causes some vertebras in the spinal column to move and dislocate provoking a series of disorders.
Spinal Column. Keeping the spinal column in good condition is important to optimum health. Correct posture, sleeping on a good mattress, and keeping stress low, plus correct nutrition are required factors for maintaining the skeletal system in good health.
Exercise. Exercising daily is also am essential factor for good health, Exercise stimulates the organs like the heart and joints, and in general, activates the whole body, giving vitality even to the farthest cell.
Hygiene. Hygiene for the body is as essential to good health as the other elements. Taking a bath or shower everyday, scrubbing your skin with a gentle loofah or body scrub 2 times a week, brushing your teeth and flossing, cleaning the colon periodically, as well as fasting, which eliminates toxins in the organism, are necessary factors to maintain good health.

Vampire Squid

The vampire squid, known to scientists as Vampyroteuthis infernalis, looks like something that swam out of a late-night science fiction movie. But in spite of its monstrous name, its is a small creature, growing to only about six inched in length. The vampire squid is an ancient species and is a phylogenic relict, meaning that is is the only surviving member of the order Vampyromorphida. It is a unique member of the cephalopod family in that it shares similarities with both squid and octopuses. In fact, it was originally and mistakenly identified as an octopus by researchers in 1903.

The vampire squid has large fins at the to of its body that resemble ears. These fins serve as its primary means of propulsion as it literally flies through the water by flapping these fins. As with other squid, it can also use jet propulsion to move by expelling water through a specialized siphon jet located just under its mantle. The vampire squid has a very gelatinous form, resembling a jellyfish more than the common squid. It can swim surprisingly fast for a gelatinous animal, reaching speeds of over two body lengths per second. It also has the largest eyes relative to its body size of any animal. Though it is relatively small, growing to a length of only about six inches, it has globular eyeballs about the size of those of a large dog. These large eyes can appear red or blue in color, depending on the light. The vampire squid's eight arms are connected with a webbing of skin, which makes it look more like an octopus than a squid. When threatened, the squid can draw its arms up over itself and form a defensive web that covers its body. Each of the eight arms is lined with a single row of suction cups and rows of soft, fleshy spines known as cirri. It is these spines, along with the cape-like webbing and red eyes that give the vampire squid its unusual name. Located inside the vampire quid's webbed arms can be found a pair of retractable sensory filamnets. These filaments are similar to the two long tentacles found on other squid species. Also located within the webbing are two powerful beak-like jaws. These jaws are as white as ivory and are strong enough to crush the shells of crustaceans. The squid's color ranges from jet black to pale red.

Swine Flue

Experts say that the steps you should take to shield yourself from swine flu are not much different than those you might take to ward off seasonal flu.1. Don't touch your faceAbove all, keep your hands away from your eyes, mouth and nose, all of which serve as pathways for the virus to enter your respiratory tract, says Allison Aiello, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor.2. Wash your handsIf you must touch your face, scrub your hands, getting under the fingernails and inside all crevices, for 20 to 30 seconds with hot soap and water beforehand, Aiello says. "In addition to dislodging dirt that may contain virus particles, soaps contain surfactants [the primary components of detergents] which can damage the lipid [fat] protecting virus particles," she explains. Soap should therefore be effective against all flu viruses.3. Use a hand sanitizerNo sink nearby? Then use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, Aiello advises. About a quarter-size spot, rubbed all over the hands until the sanitizer evaporates (usually 10 to 15 seconds), should do it. Alcohol can inactivate viruses by destroying the structure of their proteins, she notes.
4. Cover your nose and mouthWhen someone sneezes or coughs, liquid droplets packing flu viruses can travel as far as three feet (one meter) through the air and descend on your nose or mouth, so it's best to maintain at least an arm's-length distance when talking to someone who shows signs of infection, says Louise Dembry, director of epidemiology at Yale–New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. And to protect others, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and clean your hands afterward, she says, noting that viruses can remain infectious for hours, if not longer, when they linger on the skin or other surfaces such as keyboards and subway poles.5. Consider buying a mask in case you need it in the futureFrom press photos, it seems that Mexico's entire population has donned surgical masks, but the verdict is still out on how effective they are in stemming the spread of flu, according to Aiello. Some research suggests that masks—either the surgical variety or respirators called N95's specially designed to filter out water droplets containing viruses—reduce the risk of contracting the flu or other respiratory pathogens by as much as 80 percent, but research by Aiello's team suggests that masks do little unless used in conjunction with diligent hand washing.According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is "extremely limited" data on the effectiveness of face masks and respirators for blocking flu spread in communities. The agency suggests, however, that people consider using them when it's impossible to avoid "crowded settings or close contact with others" in areas where swine flu transmission has been confirmed: face masks for crowded places and respirators for situations that involve close contact with people who have respiratory infections (caring for a sick family member,

swine flu

As the number of H1N1 cases continues to climb in the U.S., researchers are collecting more and more data on the spread of the pandemic flu and getting a clearer picture of its victims — who is most vulnerable to H1N1, how the most severe cases progress and which risk factors tend to contribute to life-threatening disease. That data is now helping public-health officials identify some critical H1N1 trends, which may enable them to treat patients more effectively and hopefully control the disease as it peaks in the coming months.
The latest study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a snapshot of 1,088 H1N1 cases in California that were severe enough to require hospitalization — or resulted in death — between April 23 and Aug. 11 of this year. Experts at the California Department of Public Health, who led the study, say their findings are largely in line with the growing body of data on the worldwide pandemic flu, confirming, for instance, that the 2009 H1N1 flu disproportionately affects younger patients. The California research team found that the median age of hospitalized H1N1 patients was 27, much lower than the median age of seasonal-flu sufferers.
While H1N1 infection results in mild or moderate disease in most patients — indeed, the most severe cases account for a small proportion of overall infections — a subset of patients are harder hit, the data show. And in those patients, the disease can often quickly become life-threatening. "The major point of our findings is that there has been a lot of perception that this is a mild disease, and a lot of people may be ambivalent about vaccination," says Dr. Janice Louie, a public-health medical officer at the California Department of Public Health and the study's lead author. "But for those patients who were hospitalized, 30% required intensive care. This is something that clinicians should be aware of when patients walk into their clinic or office with signs of flu."

Fangtooth fish

Looking like it just swam out of a horror movie is the amazing fangtooth. Known scientifically as Anoplogaster cornuta, this menacing creature haunts the deep waters of many of the world's oceans. The fangtooth gets its name from its rather impressive looking teeth, which are actually the largest teeth of any fish in the ocean when taken in proportion to body size. Because of its unusually grotesque appearance, the fangtooth has earned the nickname "ogrefish". It is also referred to by some as the common sabretooth.
Although the fangtooth may look like a true monster, it is actually a small fish, reaching a maximum length of only six inches (16 centimeters). It has a short, deep body and with a large head and mouth. The head contains numerous mucous cavities separated by serrated ridges. These cavities are covered over with thin skin. The body of this fish is covered with small, prickly scales, and its color varies from black to dark brown. It has very small eyes that are set high on the head. To compensate for relatively poor eyesight, the fangtooth has developed an unusually prominent lateral line which helps it to sense movement and vibration from the surrounding water.

Undoubtedly the most noticeable characteristic of this species is the teeth. They are so large that the fangs on the lower jaw actually slide into specially formed pockets in the roof of the mouth when the jaw is closed. These pockets extend into sockets on either side of the brain. These teeth become a formidable weapon as the fangtooth hunts squid other small fish. Because its eyesight is not good, many researchers think the fangtooth hunts by a process known as chemoreception, where it essentially must bump into something edible as it searches the dark waters. It is believed that these fish migrate to upper layers of the ocean to feed during the night and then return to the murky depths during the day. If a fangtooth wanders too close to the surface, it risks becoming a meal for larger fish species such as marlin or tuna.
Fangtooth reproduce by laying eggs that hatch to reveal tiny plankton-sized larvae. Their spawning frequency is not well known, although it has been observed between June and August. As the larvae eventually grow into the juvenile stage, they look completely different from the adults. They are light gray in color with long spines on their heads. They also have larger eyes and slightly smaller teeth. This difference in appearance initially caused scientists to assume that it was a different species entirely. Unlike the adults, the juveniles feed by filtering plankton from the water using specially formed gill rakes. These gill rakes disappear as they reach maturity. The juveniles begin to resemble the adults when they reach a size of about three inches. At this time they begin to descend down to deeper waters. Scientists still do not know how long they live.
The fangtooth is found throughout the world in temperate and tropical ocean regions including the waters off the coast of Australia. It is one of the deepest living fish species yet discovered. These fish are commonly seen between 600 and 6,500 feet (200 - 2,000 meters), but have been observed as deep as 16,000 feet (5,000 meters). The pressure at these great depths is intense and the water temperature is near freezing. The fangtooth is more robust than other deep water species. Researchers have been able to keep them alive for months in captivity in spite of the vast differences in temperature and pressure.