Fossil Dating

Uranium and its compounds emit radiation at a constant rate independent of environmental conditions. Consequently, uranium is converted to lead in a highly predictable fashion. When the earth was formed, uranium was doubtless present as a component of all radioactive substances. By determining the relative quantities of lead and radioactive minerals in rocks, it was established that the greater the age of any given rock sample, the greater was the proportion of lead to radioactive materials. Calculation of the duration of the various geological eras has accordingly been based primarily on the half-life for conversion of uranium to lead. For example; it has been estimated that the Paleozoic (or primary) era lasted for about 300 million years. This method of dating is referred to as radio chronology.

Life in the Cambrian oceans:
The Cambrian period, this began some 600 million years ago is the first period in the Paleozoic era. Despite its antiquity, numerous traces of it have remained in the fossil record. We know that there were many aquatic organisms during this period, including the unicellular forms, algae and multicellular animals, such as sponges, coelenterates, worms, shellfish and crustaceans. When there is only single cell, it must perform all the vital activities like feeding, respiration and movement. However, several cells are grouped together in a single organisms, division of labour can take place, permitting greater efficiency. By developing this principle to an ever-increasing degree, animals have progressively achieved higher levels of perfection.
One dominant characteristic of many of the living organisms of the Cambrian period is bilateral symmetry, similar to the found in human beings: the body can be divided along the mid-line into two halves which are virtually images.
The Cambrian was also a very important period for the evolution of plants.

International Beverages:

Barley:


A cereal plant that is immeasurably old is Barley (Hordeum). Even in antiquity its grains (which contain starchy protein, sugars and fats) were boiled and roasted. Two-row barley is generally grown throughout the temperate zone of the world. It grows at high altitudes, in the Himalayan up to 4,000m above sea level.

Barley was known to the Asiatics at least 7,000 years ago. For the Egyptians and Romans, barley was less valued as a cereal. They did not grow it as a cereal but for its malt for making beer. In Rome, barley bread was provided for the poor, the gladiators and soldiers.

On the other hand, fermentation barley was popular. The grains are first allowed to germinate. The sprouts are then removed and the malt is dried. It is then crushed, mixed with warm water, boiled, cooled and beer yeast Saccharomyces is added and liquid is left to ferment. The fermentation process changes the sugar in the young into alcohol. It is allowed to mature for several weeks or months according to the strength and quality desired.

However, barley is linked to a much stronger alcoholic beverages—the well known Whisky. This drink of Scottish origin dating from 15^th century was, and still is manufactured by cereal mainly barley.

Good whisky is stored from 7 to 10 years to mature.

Green tea:

In addition to the Holly (Ilex aquifolium) which is used as Christmas decoration, there are several useful of this plant in South America, especially the mate shrub (Ilex paraguariensis). A tea prepared from its leaves is the daily drink of the people living in South America.

The dried, crushed green tea leaves yerba matte have smoky smell. Like true tea, it affects the nervous system, having a calming effect while sharpening the senses.

It contains sugar, traces of essential oil and vanilla.

Black Lemonade:

The American soft drink coca-cola is one of few drinks drunk all over the world. But while everyone knows what they are drinking and they do not always know what it contains. The name of the dark drink with its quantity of bubbles in instantly recognizable.

The basis of this soft drink comes from the seeds of a West African tree, the Cola acuminata. This tree and also the Cola vera and other sps are grown in the Brazil and Africa. The raw material for this drink is seeds often called nuts.

The seeds contain tannic acid, starch, proteins and sugar. The drink made from them is stimulating and refreshing. The chemical contained in coffee and tea bushes as well as coca bush, is natural insecticide.

Narcotics:

Betel:

South- East Asia provides another intoxicant. Here local people seek out the leaves of Betel (Piper betle). They spread the dampen leaves with quick lime from shells and snails. Then they wrap up in the leaf a piece of the betel nut, the fruit of palm Areca catechu.

There are 650 sps of the pepper plant growing in the Asian and American tropics. The ‘nut’ which is wrapped for chewing in the betel leaf, is the seed of the palm Areca catechu. The unripe seeds contain a red dye and brown tannic acid. Together, they color the saliva red and turn teeth black. By chewing the bitter tasting lump, a chemical is released. It stimulates digestion and alleviates tiredness.

Fiery water:

Spirit is a strong, intoxicating drink, which is very popular amongst white people. This strong form of alcohol, obtained from plums and other fruit. We find first mention made by Aristotle. The Arab physician Jabir, the father of alchemy, known also under the Latinized name of Geber, describes a distillation process and the manner in which the fumes of heated wine, when cooled turns into liquid.

The alchemists looked upon pure alcohol obtained through distilling as a most valuable “herbal quicksilver”. With the expansion of technology in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the production of spirits was also expanded. A quantity of kinds and brands, many of them still existing to this day, came into being. They were the result of the distilling of various fermented fruits such as apricots, peaches, grapes, apples, palm and rice wines, cherries rowan berries , juniper berries, raspberries, wheat and also honey and spices.

One of the well- known spirits is plum is brandy made from distilling of fermented plums.

Genetic variations The Royal Disease

On March 27, 1884, one of Queen Victoria's sons fell down some stairs at a yacht club in southern France.
The accident was minor; Prince Leopold suffered nothing more than a few bumps and bruises. But the 31-year-old Duke of Albany had hemophilia, a disorder that prevents the blood from clotting. His injuries triggered massive internal bleeding. Within 24 hours he was dead.
Leopold was the first of Queen Victoria's descendants to die of hemophilia; but he wasn't the last. Once science had revealed the cause of the disease it became clear why - though Victoria never suffered from hemophilia herself, she carried a genetic mutation that causes the condition and passed it on to several of her offspring.
Hemophilia is a perfect example of how genetic diseases and traits can run in families, popping up across the generations in ways that appear random - but in fact are quite predictable.

The X Factor
Hemophilia almost always strikes males, for reasons that become clear once the genetics of the disease are known. Blood clotting requires the proper functioning of a gene that lies on the X chromosome. Women inherit two X chromosomes, one from each parent; but men get only one X, from their mothers. In lieu of a second X, their fathers give them a Y chromosome, which contains the genes that confer maleness.
That means women always inherit two copies of the blood-clotting gene, one from each parent. If one is faulty, the other will do the job just fine. But men get only a single version of the blood-clotting gene. If that one happens to be faulty, there is no backup.
In Queen Victoria's case, both of her parents appear to have had correctly functioning blood-clotting genes. But due to a copying error during reproduction one of hers was dysfunctional. Such spontaneous mutations are uncommon, but far from unheard of - they pop up in about one person out of 50,000.
Victoria passed her deficient blood-clotting gene to only one of her sons - the unfortunate Leopold. But she also passed it to two of her daughters, Beatrice and Alice.

The Next Generations
Leopold, Beatrice and Alice had 12 offspring in all. Leopold's boys were unaffected, because they got their X chromosomes - and thus their blood-clotting genes - from their mother. But two of Beatrice's sons and one of Alice's inherited the faulty version of the X. Alice's son Frederick died as a young boy after smashing through a window. Beatrice's son Leopold bled to death at the age of 32 during a knee operation. Maurice, her other hemophiliac son, escaped a similar fate only because he was killed instantly by an exploding shell during World War I.
On the female side, Leopold and his sisters had four daughters who inherited the faulty X chromosome and spread it widely through the royal houses of Europe. During the early 20th century princes of Spain, Prussia, Russia and Great Britain suffered from what became known as "The Royal Disease."

What about the royals of today? Oddly enough, Victoria's deficient blood-clotting gene never made it beyond the fourth generation. By sheer luck, none of Victoria's great-great granddaughters in Spain or Britain inherited it. In Prussia she had only great-great grandsons. And none of her Russian great-great granddaughters ever had any children; all four were murdered during the Bolshevik revolution.

Your Family
When you and other family members join 23andMe, you can use our tools to trace the inheritance of genes in your own pedigree. You can compare yourself with siblings or cousins to see which genes you both inherited from the same parent or grandparent. Though few inherited traits are as easily traced through a family tree as hemophilia.
23andMe's Family Inheritance tools can certainly help you explore some of your own family's distinctive characteristics.

visit: www.23andme.com

Genetic variations The Story of Muggsy Bogues

When Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues was growing up, no one expected him to be an NBA star. At only 5' 3", Muggsy was short, putting him at a serious disadvantage in a league where the average height is 6' 7". But he ignored the naysayers, and went on to have a successful basketball career despite the odds stacked against him. During his 16-year career in the NBA, Muggsy became a fan favorite - a symbol of hard work, drive, and determination. "I always believed in myself," he told Hank Hersch of Sports Illustrated. "That's the type of attitude I always took out on the floor, knowing that I belonged; that with my talents, my abilities, there's a place for me out there."

The Genetics of Height

Height is determined partly by genes and partly by additional factors, such as whether a person had a healthy diet while growing up. But the genetics of height is complex. One recent study found that numerous genes influence a person's height [1]. The most conclusive study to date pinpointed an individual gene that influences the trait, but it accounts for only a centimeter of a person's stature - a tiny fraction of the total variation in human height [2]. As more studies are conducted, we will almost certainly discover more about the genetic basis of height.

Genetics is Not Your Destiny
The good news is, genetics isn't necessarily destiny. The story of Muggsy Bogues is a clear example of why genes alone cannot predict a person's effectiveness or success in a certain activity. Muggsy Bogues used his strengths - quickness, speed, and explosiveness - to his advantage.
When he was growing up, Muggsy and his friends practiced dunking using open-bottomed milk crates hung on the Baltimore playground fences. It was at high school where Bogues earned his catchy nickname, "Muggsy", a reference to his physical style of play.
Muggsy was a standout collegiate player at Wake Forest University, where he set an Atlantic Coast Conference record for assists. He was drafted in the first round of the NBA and led the Charlotte Hornets to the playoffs in 1992 and 1995. Following his NBA career, Muggsy went on to become the coach of a women's NBA team, the Charlotte Sting, where he was shorter than all of the female players he coached.
Muggsy's storied career demonstrates that with hard work and determination, you can beat the odds and accomplish your goals. As he once told the children's magazine Highlights for Children, "You can't dwell on what people think you can't do."

References:
[1] Visscher et al. (2007) "Genome partitioning of genetic variation for height from 11,214 sibling pairs." Amer J Hum Genet 81(5):1104-10.
[2] Weedon et al. (2007) "A common variant of HMGA2 is associated with adult and childhood height in the general population. Nat Genet 39(10):1245-1250.

Pheromone

Communication or transfer of information among animals is essential for their survival. Many animals have been studied for their unique and remarkable ways of communication. The bird songs have been heard by everyone; in the stillness of night cricket mating calls are easily audible. The humpback whales have been identified as world’s greatest singers and composers; the monkeys and apes have now been extensively studied for languages. The animals communicate by making gestures or facial expressions and postures for example; a dominant rhesus will walk confidently, sprawl, and carry the tail up. The animals can communicate mating willingness by exhibiting feathers, genitalia, barking, or sniffing each other.

Almost all animals in the animal kingdom communicate through chemicals produced by glands within the body. Hediger (1944) first reported the significance of odour in communication; this specialized communication includes smell or scent and pheromones. Exchange of information through pheromones or through scent is considered a primitive form of communication, because as animals evolved they depended more and more on other elaborate and much specific visual, auditory and vocal forms of communication, still he animals can communicate complicated messages through chemicals, they can mark and identify their territories, pathways, conspecifics, rivals, defeated animals, pups, and sexual partners through them. When chemicals are used for communication among conspecifiecs they are pheromones.

The role of body scent in human sexual behavior has attracted much attention. In 1971 Maclintock maintained notes on the menstrual cycles of 130 girls of a hostel and observed LEE BOOT EFFECT. i.e. synchronization in onset of their menstrual dates, the reason assigned was body smell. It has also been reported that a female living with a male, has relatively shorter menstrual cycle, because of body smell of male has an effect on female’s reproductive physiology.

Study of pheromones has given much information to perfume industry. Some of the popular perfumes contain animal scents!!!!!!!!

THE MYSTERIOUS POWER OF MAGIC....

Deadly nightshade: Atropa bella donna is a perennial tall plant found I deciduous woods and hedgerows. However, it contains highly poisonous substances.
        
            The Greek philosopher Theopastrus, wrote about deadly nightshade calling it mandragoras. It was an essential ingredient in the soothing ointments or salves of witches in the Middle Ages.
The most effective and magical part of deadly nighshade was the root. However, obtaining it involved great danger. Whoever wanted to get the thick root had to dig it up at midnight.

           The root was also worn against bare skin, to bring luck in card playing. The root could even promote love- if girl was carrying it she could charm whoever she wished.

           Sometimes, deadly nightshade was used against the bite of a mad dog. It was also given in powder form to horses to make them lively and give them a shining coat. In the countries of southern Europe, young girls drooped the juice of the berries of nightshade into their eyes to make them large and shining. Hence the plant’s Italian name bella donna meaning lovely lady.

THE MYSTERIOUS POWER OF MAGIC

The Witches’ kitchen: The entire Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) is highly poisonous. It contains chemicals which strongly irritate the nerve centre, expand the eye pupils, and induce delirium, hallucinations and visions. In the end they cause death.
          
           IN THE SUPERSTITIOUS MIDDLE AGES, the curative properties of henbane were suppressed by its ‘magic’ properties. Henbane became one of the chief compartments of the legendary magic healing ointments and love potions pocula amtoris. Witches, who it was thought existed in large numbers, spread the paste on their temples, under their armpits, and over the private parts of their bodies. The toxic paste made them fall into trances, in which they hallucinated. They thought they saw unbelievable events: they imaginated themselves flying through the air and they saw devils and made love Satan.
      
          When the age of witchcraft and devils came to an end in the 17th century henbane was more or less forgotten and was scorned as a dangerous toxic plant.

          Then in 1821, Frenchman Brendes discovered another chemical in henbane alkaloid hyosciamine. The plant is now a valuable raw material in the production of tranquilizing and sleep- inducing drugs, and in the treatment of nervous diseases and stomach ulcers.