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A Fish with Three Hearts: Cuttlefish
It is said to be a royal among sea animals because it has blue blood, literally. And the cuttlefish has a large heart. Actually, it is not one but three hearts. And it is not even a fish but belongs to the same family as the squid and the octopus. They are called the cephalopods, which literally translated means head-foot. The blood of the cuttlefish is blue because of the huge amount of copper in it....
Do Bananas Grow on Trees?
You think bananas grow on trees? Wrong. They don’t, because the banana tree is actually a plant. It is probably the largest plant in the world. To know more, look at the banana trunk. Is it wood? No. There are layers of skin placed in circles. These layers are actually the lower ends of banana leaves. In other words, the banana tree is a clump of leaves! A banana plant At the top of the plant is a chunk of leaves looking like a palm tree....
An Organism that is visible from Space
The elephant is the largest land animal. The Blue whale is the largest sea animal. But however big these animals may be, they can not size up to the colonies built by tiny little sea creatures – the coral. The colonies built by corals are called coral reefs. Coral reefs can be as huge as big islands or even as big as a country! These reef-building corals are not single animals. A coral is a colony made up of many individual animals called polyps....
The Mysterious Case of the Neem Tree
For thousands of years, the neem tree has been a familiar friend to the people of India. A native of India and Burma, every part of this tree, from its root to bark, leaves and seed, has been used for medicinal purposes. It has been used to cure illnesses. It has also been used for preventing infection, or repelling insects that attack grains or people, like mosquitoes. It is very interesting that the neem’s botanical name, Azadirachta indica, has come from a Persian description of the tree....
The Magical Rainforest
Imagine a forest where the trees touch the sky. Due to enough rainfall, the trees grow huge and spread wide. Their tallest branches are so thick-leafed that they create a thick curtain. Even the wind does not find enough space to blow as it pleases. All there is in that forest is stillness. And it is very warm. The temperature could vary between 20 and 35 degrees centigrade. The climate is such that it is good for life forms of all kinds — from trees to animals, birds and insects....
The End of Living – The Beginning of Survival
The End of Living – The Beginning of Survival In 1854, the government of United States made an offer for a large area of Indian land and promised a ‘reservation’ for the Indian people. Chief Seattle’s reply is a most beautiful and profound statement on environment… How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?...
The Secrets of the Ocean Floor
It is one question that is not a quizmasters’ favourite: which is the tallest mountain on earth? The answer is bound to come fast and snappy – Mt Everest, at a height of 29,000 feet. But that is only on land. For, if you were to measure from the bottom of the ocean, the tallest mountain in the world will probably be Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It rises more than 15,748 feet under the sea and another 13,779 feet above it....
Can a Fish be an Amphibian?
The fish actually looks like it was cursed by a fairy to turn into a frog and the curse stopped working half way! It is called the mudskipper. Because it lives in swamps and estuaries with mud banks. An estuary is a place where a river meets the sea. It can crawl and jump over land too. It actually has a rollicking time jumping over mud! No wonder it is called the mudskipper! The mudskippers are probably the most land adapted of fish, and are able to spend days moving about out of water....
My Life – The Tale of a Butterfly
I am a little butterfly. My mother says I am very pretty like her. Now, I will tell you the story of my life. My mother is a real beauty. Her brown velvety wings have white spots on them. With her wings spread wide, she looks like a pretty flower. I am really proud of her. It was the month of October. My Life – The Tale of a Butterfly One day my mother flew over a milk-weed plant growing in a garden....
The Deadly King Cobra
Belonging to the family Elapidae, the name Cobra is popularly applied to African and Asian snakes that are capable of spreading long ribs in their necks into a hood when threatened. There are six species of cobras: the Naja, the south African ringhal (Hemachatus), king cobra (Ophiophagus), water cobra (Boulengerina), tree cobra (Pseudohaje), and shield-nose cobra (Aspidelaps). The Deadly King Cobra [Illustrations by Amarjeet Malik] The king cobra or Hamadryad holds a record length of 5....