The Cold War was only a decade old when the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States began. On October 4, 1957, the Soviets were the first to successfully launch a rocket into space with their launch of Sputnik 1, a basketball-sized satellite.
Approximately a week after Sputnik 1′s successful launch, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev suggested that another rocket be launched into space to mark the 40th anniversary of the Russian Revolution on November 7, 1957. That left Soviet engineers only three weeks to fully design and build a new rocket. The Soviets, in ruthless competition with the United States, wanted to make another “first;” so they decided to send the first living creature into orbit. While Soviet engineers hurriedly worked on the design, three stray dogs (Albina, Mushka and Laika) were extensively tested and trained for the flight.
The dogs were confined in small places, subjected to extremely loud noises and vibrations, and made to wear a newly created space suit. All of these tests were to condition the dogs to the experiences they would likely have during the flight. Though all three did well, it was Laika who was chosen to board Sputnik 2. Laika, which means “barker” in Russian, was a three-year old, stray mutt that weighed thirteen pounds and had a calm demeanor. She was placed in her restrictive module several days in advance and then right before launch, she was covered in a alcohol solution and painted with iodine in several spots so that sensors could be placed on her. The sensors were to monitor her heartbeat, blood pressure, and other bodily functions to better understand any physical changes that might occur in space. Though Laika’s module was restrictive, it was padded and had just enough room for her to lay down or stand as she wished. She also had access to special, gelatinous, space food made for her. On November 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome (now located in Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea). The rocket successfully reached space and the spacecraft, with Laika inside, began to orbit the earth. The spacecraft circled the earth every hour and forty-two minutes, traveling approximately 18,000 miles per hour. As the world watched and waited for news of Laika’s condition, the Soviet Union announced that a recovery plan had not been established for Laika. With only three weeks to create the new spacecraft, they did not have time to create a way for Laika to make it home. The de facto plan was for Laika to die in space. Though all agree Laika made into space and successfully lived through several orbits, there is a question as to how long she lived after that. Some say that the plan was for her to live for several days and that her last food allotment was poisoned. Others say she died four days into the trip when there was an electrical burnout and the interior temperatures rose dramatically. And still others say she died five to seven hours into the flight from stress and heat. However, she certainly did not live beyond six days into trip, because on the sixth day, the batteries in the spacecraft died and all life-support systems failed. The spacecraft continued to orbit the earth with all its systems off until it reentered earth’s atmosphere on April 14, 1958 and burned up on reentry. Laika proved that it was possible for a living being to enter space. Her death also sparked animal rights debates across the planet. In the Soviet Union, Laika and all the other animals that made space flight possible are remembered as heroes.
Cross breading animals can come up with some interesting new species. Have you ever wondered what an aligator brid, monky dog, lion kangeroo or wolf brid would look like? Mother nature tries to prevent this by making different species unable to mate and reproduce. Scientists have found ways around this by combining different DNA strans to produce some strange breeds. In this case the cross breading with done by an artist with some good photoshop skills.
Forest House is the perfect setting to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life; to experience the peaceful serenity of the forest; to nurture the soul. There are no clocks… no schedule… no agenda. The day is yours to relax… to explore… to do as whatever you want. Re-vitalize yourself in a place where time stands still. When we think about forest houses we have a picture of old, wooden and abandoned cabins. However, in today’s post you will have chance to see most beautiful forest properties starting from classical American wooden cabins, to traditional British houses with tached roofs, to modern design luxury residences that will take your breath away.
Free art from the rainbow spectrum: the color noise of the animals is not a freak of nature, but tough struggle for survival. Your colors will help fish, birds or lizards in the constant struggle for survival.
They shine and shimmer, which give skin, feathers and fur. The colors of several animal species is fascinating. Especially birds, butterflies and the inhabitants of coral reefs contribute their makeup on thick. Mostly as a message to friend or foe: Go away, I’m poisonous! Go away, this is my territory! Oh, sweetheart, look my beautiful spring dress!
The colorful robe disguise, cautions or lures. The colors are created by embedded pigments that absorb certain wavelengths of light and reflect others. In addition, there are structural colors, depending on the texture of a surface. Thus, the wings of a butterfly appear scaly under the microscope, peacock feathers resemble fins. In such structures, light waves are split and overlap – shimmering wings.
1 The Pyjama Slug
The Pyjama Slug does not need housing for their protection. I’m inedible!This warning announce their strict stripes in white, black and orange of the fish world in the Red Sea. In fact, the aquatic animal stores the stomach poisons of fire sponges.
2 The Rainbow Lorikeet
The bird life often intervenes in the paint pot, because beautiful feathers are well received in the marriage market. In the blue-yellow-red-green Allfarbloris the clown colorful cleaning is good also for protection. The nectar eaters from Indonesia and Australia appear from afar like exotic flowers.
3 The mandarin fish
Wavy lines in turquoise, yellow dots, blue fin: The mandarin fish is barely longer than a matchstick, but as a piece of jewelry Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons. Predators disdain the pretty boy because he is covered with a layer of mucus.
4 The Rotschenklige Douc
Red stockings, black pants, gray shirt, white Zutzelbart: In Vietnam Rotschenklige Douc is called with the pretty almond eyes and five-color langur. The primacy is one of the most colorful mammals.
5 The South American poison dart frog
The bluest body of South American poison dart frog’s screams enemies formally: Attention, poison! The message is not a bluff. The frog eats ants, contain toxic alkaloids, against which he is immune.
6 The Panther Chameleon
The Malagasy panther chameleon and his cousins are masters of color change, with bale the pigments abruptly in the color of their skin cells or spread. Particularly intense is the color game with great emotions such as aggression or lust.
7 The comet moth
A beauty elegant than many butterflies: The sunny yellow comet moth measures up to 20 inches and flutters just five days in the night sky from Madagascar – volatile and impressively like a shooting star.
With the lily of the valley “refined” wild garlic soup to the alluring, especially for children belladonna berry – the opportunities to accidentally poison, are manifold – also in urban areas. In cities you will find a plethora of toxic, often even potentially deadly plant species. They come from different genres vary, construction and Wirkmechnismen. The following are some of the poisonous plants that you can probably meet in Vienna.
Atropa
An unfriendly representatives of the Solanaceae is the nightshade . It contains in addition to atropine and scopolamine, which can lead to Dyregulation the autonomic nervous system, and a variety of other alkaloids of some high toxicity. Only three of the tasty berries can kill a child.
Datura Stramonium
The datura stramonium is also among the Nachschattengewächsen. How to find the belladonna alkaloids in Datura different, which can cause intoxication with hallucinations and loss of consciousness. Poisoning usually come through the intake of seeds, often in children or the abuse as an intoxicant before.
Solanum tuberosum
Also, the potato can be a problem. All above-ground parts of the potato plant and green potatoes are poisonous. This is attributable to the contained alkaloids, especially on the solanine. Poisoning have become limited by the use of modern varieties with reduced alkaloid content today.
Colchicum autumnale
A representative of the sometimes deadly Timeless plants is the autumn crocus . Your main poison Cholchizin leads to inhibition of cell division.Pharmaceutical use, it is primarily as a remedy for gout, while other alkaloids of the Autumn crocus can be used as chemotherapeutic agents against cancer. Poisoning are frequently confused with the edible wild garlic, but also by the overdose of gout preparations.
Taxus baccata
A similar mechanism as the Cholchizin the autumn crocus put the taxanes of the European yew tree on the day. They are also used in cancer therapy.Because of the red seed coat, it just comes in children repeatedly to poisoning by the often grown in gardens plant.
Conium maculatum
The spotted hemlock is one of the most toxic form of umbelliferous. Its toxicity has been fatal to many, probably his most famous victim was the Greek philosopher Socrates – he was executed with the “hemlock”. The functional mechanism of the main poison coniine is so far unclear, it exerts its effect on different parts of the nervous system. Poisoning usually come about through confusion with other plants.
Aethusa cynapium
Also an umbel is the dog parsley . Their venom from the group of polyynes, the Aethusin is found mainly in the roots, but in smaller doses throughout the plant. Poisoning are primarily about because she sees the garden parsley confusingly similar.
Digitalis
The thimble has a long history as a medicinal plant. The cardiac glycosides contained in it, including digitoxin and digoxin, are still used today as a means to treat heart diseases such as congestive heart failure. But away from the controlled medical use, the digitalis glycosides act highly toxic.Poisoning usually occur from use as a medicinal plant.
Convallaria majalis
Nice to look at, but dangerous is also the Maiglöcken from the family of asparagus plants. The toxic effect is due to a variety of toxic glycosides. As with digitalis can be with them in the correct dosage a curative effect on heart disease achieve. Poisoning usually arise from eating the plant, especially the red berries.
Phaseolus vulgaris
The common bean , or Fisole is highly toxic in uncooked form. The poison phasin, is a lectin. By cooking the beans long enough, the toxic effect can be canceled however.
Arum
Even the arum of the family Araceae is extremely toxic. It contains a huge number of toxins, including the glycosides Aroin, Aroinin and Aroidin. Just a few of the berries often encountered in gardens Gewächses can cause serious poisoning in children.
Daphne
The Daphne , a representative of the Seidelbastgewächse, with mezerein and Daphnetoxin contains two toxins. Please note that a poisoning also can occur through the skin, where the seeds are more toxic than the other plant constituents.
Helleborus niger
The contact with the snow rose can have unpleasant consequences. In addition it also contains various glycosides, like all members of the buttercup family, Anemonol. Contact with skin can cause lesions and local inflammation in consumption to disturbances of various organ systems.
Nerium oleander
Another commonly encountered in gardens poisonous plant is the oleander. The glycoside oleandrin contained in it can cause massive gastrointestinal and cardiovascular complaints. The risk of poisoning is far low than the immensely bitter taste makes eating.
The blue gas cloud NGC 2020 and NGC 2014 its red sister owe their appearance to the action neuentstandener stars.
Recording of the Very Large Telescope shows two regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which were created by young stars
Garching – From an “Odd Couple” says the European Southern Observatory (ESO), referring to the first two look very different-looking clouds of gas that are immediately adjacent to each other: The one appears as bright blue as the other is red. In fact, in both cases, the same forces are at work.
The two clouds NGC 2014 (red) and NGC 2020 (blue) are located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 163,000 light-years away, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Because of their relatively small distance, they can be much more detailed study than distant galaxies. So this recording stationed in Chile’s Very Large Telescope allowed a close look at the two gas clouds. The image is created according to ESO as part of their program “Cosmic Gems” (cosmic gems), which utilizes observation of ESO telescopes, which could not be used for scientific investigations.
Ruptured cocoon newborn stars
The Large Magellanic Cloud contains many nebulae and star clusters and active regions in which new stars are formed.The latter are also the NGC 2014 and NGC 2020 give their appearance. The intense radiation of hot, young stars ionizes the clouds and lighting them up – red, where most is hydrogen, blue for oxygen.
In addition, this act strong stellar winds emanating from young stars and carry out the gas on. In the case of NGC 2020 is likely a single, very hot star exerts its effect and have the blue cloud lent their bubble-like structure.
Researchers will now find out why: Strong relationship between man and dog encourages its empathy
Tokyo – Much is still unclear about the function of yawning and also to the “degree of contagion.” In general, however, it is brought into relation with empathy when someone is involuntarily led by the yawn of another person to emulate.The person must not even be present: Often enough already Images or merely the idea of a yawning man to even unlock your mouth before you know it.
Empathic or empathetic
Animals can be infected to varying degrees: for example, chimpanzees behave as we do. The footed tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria), however, is apparently “immune” – for this discovery, the Austrian researchers Isabella Mandl and Ludwig Huber received two years ago, the Ig Nobel Prize.
As for dogs, once again shows what a special relationship has been established between our two species: Because when dog owners yawn, can not cool their four-legged friends. You yawn with – and probably out of compassion, as a study by researchers at the University of Tokyo found.
That can infect dogs yawn, scientists already knew: A relevant study was published in 2008. Previously it was unclear whether this is due to a rudimentary empathy in dogs or, for example, is a type of stress response. Teresa Romero and her colleagues have now found that dogs can infect significantly more yawns from their owners than by strangers.This put to the assumption that it was an empathic response, the researchers write in the journal “PLoS One”.
The experiment
In the experiments, 25 dogs and their owners, people they did not know at first loud yawn and then the silent opening the mouth had been watching. Result: The animals were significantly more often infected by a real yawn as of a controlled opening of the mouth, the researchers write.Noteworthy is also been that the animals were significantly more likely to yawn at the sight of their owner as at the sight of strangers yawn. This shows that the contagious yawning in dogs was related to the degree of emotional closeness.
Yawning is often considered in dogs as a stress reaction. The researchers measured in their experiments but also the heartbeat of the animal and put it finds that no significant differences were evident here. The researchers see this as evidence is that at least that contagious yawning has nothing to do with stress
On the Chinese tropical island of Hainan, people have one of the highest life expectancies in the world: more than 200 of the 560,000 inhabitants of Chengmai are over 100 years old. At least three are even over 110 years old – of which there are fewer than 400 people worldwide.
About a century with lots of fruits and physical labor
More than 200 residents of the Chinese island of Hainan have lived longer than 100 years. Reasons for this are much fruit, physical work and an active social network.
A given of the Communist Party in Chengmai commissioned study identifies the following reasons for the phenomenon: “Hardworking, simple and generous, mainly vegetarian diet, proper food, sleep early and wake up early.”
The U.S. Age researcher Jennifer Holdaway writes mainly the agricultural character of the island, the high age of many of its inhabitants: “There is not much industry, the climate is good, they have plenty of exercise and the diet is healthy, they have plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and the soil is rich in trace element selenium. “
Chengmai consists of a number of villages with orange groves. Many locals live in unheated homes of a few dollars a day, the elderly suffered through wars and famines.
Li Aizhu is one of them: According card she was born in 1900, eleven years before the fall of the last Chinese emperor. Daily hobbles the white-haired man of her tiny bedroom to watch the ducks on her family’s farm.Government officials brought her a metal plaque that identifies them as “long-lasting fame.” Now it gets converted 63 euros monthly pension and free medical care.
“I have never done sports, apart from hard work in the fields,” says the 86-year-old Wang Kailu who lives in a simple hut with his wife Wu Aihe. The couple married claims to be the day after the surrender of Japan in World War II 68 years ago. Your one-story dwelling is barely furnished, for his small vegetable garden brings Wang water from a well.
Xu Yuhe, as reported 104 years old, is also Getreideschnäpschen their daily survival. “I drink alcohol every night, just a bit, warms,” smiles She Sheng, a 80-year-old reportedly 31 children and grandchildren.
Also an active social life is a key to longevity, as experts stress. The teahouse in Chengmai every morning full of old playing cards, chatting and listening to opera recordings from rattling speakers. “I come here every morning to make sport to watch opera and drink tea,” said Sheng, before they do on a yellow painted linkage gymnastics.
The researchers emphasize longevity is rare in rich areas. “If you live in a climate like this, they do not need much in order to feel comfortable,” said U.S. researcher Holdaway age. “A simple dwelling, a mosquito net, a couple of rattan chairs and other people with whom you can depend.”
The Highlanders 