ScienceIQ.com

Why Don't We Try To Destroy Tropical Cyclones?

There have been numerous techniques that we have considered over the years to modify hurricanes: seeding clouds with dry ice or Silver Iodide, cooling the ocean with cryogenic material or icebergs, changing the radiational balance in the hurricane environment by absorption of sunlight with carbon black, blowing the hurricane apart with hydrogen ...

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TropicalCyclones
Astronomy

Will the Sun Shine Forever?

The Sun is a huge nuclear furnace. It operates by converting hydrogen into helium. In this process, which is called nuclear fusion, it loses mass and produces energy according to Einstein's famous ... Continue reading

SunLifetime
Biology

The Egg-citing Egg

How many chicken eggs have you eaten in your life? If it is any gauge, the per capita consumption of eggs by Americans is over 250 per year. Eggs are not only found on your breakfast plate, but in ... Continue reading

Eggs
Geology

Our Most Abundant Fossil Fuel

Coal is our most abundant fossil fuel. The US has more coal than the rest of the world has oil. There is still enough coal underground in this country to provide energy for the next 200 to 300 years. ... Continue reading

OurMostAbundantFossilFuel
Engineering

Dress Sizes The Scientific Way

In pre-industrial America, most clothing was crafted at home or by professional tailors or dressmakers from individual measurements taken of each customer. In the early Twentieth Century, the growing ... Continue reading

DressSizesTheScientificWay

Man-Eating Plants

ManEatingPlantsWhat's for dinner? A bowl of salad greens, corn on the cob and strawberry shortcake for dessert. And it's not just us, most animals and insects love to munch, crunch and dine on plants. But there is a small group of plants that has turned the dinner table and eats us, well, not exactly people, but small mammals, frogs, lizards, and insects. I'm of course talking about carnivorous plants. From the well-known Venus Flytrap to the exotic Cobra plant, these are truly weird plants.

Carnivorous plants occupy a very small ecological niche. Most of them live in areas where the soil is lacking the basic minerals that plants need to grow and propagate. Most plants make food for themselves through the process of photosynthesis. They absorb water and nutrients through their root systems, take in carbon dioxide, and use sunlight to create carbohydrates and sugars that are used for food. Certain nutrients are key to a plant's success in making food. If these are lacking from the soil, it is hard for plants to grow and reproduce. Habitats such as marshes and swamps are too wet to fix minerals in the soil. Even some drier soils are mineral deficient. Carnivorous plants didn't have to look far to find what was missing from their diets - animals are in ready supply. There was only one problem, how do you catch an animal when you move in slow motion?

Carnivorous plants developed several ingenious ways to do this. First, create some bait to lure the animal. Most do this by secreting sweet, sugary liquids, or wafting alluring smells into the air. Second spring a trap. A Venus Flytrap does just that. Tiny hairs act as triggers. An unsuspecting insect comes in contact with these hairs and the leaves snap closed. Other plants create a deep pitcher filled with water to drown the prey. An insect falls in, but can't get up the slippery, sticky sides. Now that the prey is caught, the plant uses secretions to digest the victim. What they can't absorb through their roots, they absorb through their leaves. Think of that next time you bite into a celery stalk.