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Author: Andrei Mihai andrei@zmescience.com Designer: Tibi Puiu tibipuiu@gmail.com ZME Science www.zmescience.com 2011 ZME Science. All rights reserved. The written content of this e-book is owned under ZME Media (www. zmemedia.com). ZME Media doesnt retain copyright for the images and graphics used in this work. The e-book can be freely used, distribuited, copied, printed or shared as long as no alteration comes to the content or to the source from which it originates. Under no circumstances is this e-book to be commercially distribuited. Wed like to thank our faithful readers, to whom this book is dedicated, for standing by and faithfully supporting us for all these years. If you found our book entertaining please consider sharing it with a friend. Special thanks to Spike Matthews, Rajini & Anjana Rao, Nikole Sturm and Francine Pereyra.
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INTRO .................................................................................................................1 Girl Suffering From Syndrome X Doesnt Age, Remains An Infant.............................2 Meet The Worlds Only Immortal Animal .................................................................3 Big Pharma Spends More On Advertising Than Research ........................................5 9 Reasons Why There Wasnt Stress In The Good Old Days.....................................6
BAYERS HEROIN ............................................................................................................................................ 6 BOEHRINGER & SOEHNE ................................................................................................................................. 6 OPIUM - NOT JUST FOR NEWBORNS ............................................................................................................... 7 COCA WINE .................................................................................................................................................... 7 AMPHETAMINE INHALERS ............................................................................................................................... 7 OPIUM FOR ASTHMA ...................................................................................................................................... 8 DRAGEES ANTISEPTIQUES AU MENTHOL ......................................................................................................... 8 MRS. WINSLOWS SOOTHING SYRUP .............................................................................................................. 8 COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS ...................................................................................................................... 10
8 Totally Awesome Natural Phenomena You Probably Didnt Know About ...............11
MAELSTROM ............................................................................................................................................... 11 FIRE RAINBOW ............................................................................................................................................. 12 WATER SPOUTS ........................................................................................................................................... 14 THE HONDURAN RAIN OF FISH ...................................................................................................................... 16 MOONBOWS ................................................................................................................................................ 18 PENITENTES ................................................................................................................................................. 20 SUPERCELLS................................................................................................................................................ 21 ICE CIRCLES................................................................................................................................................. 23
The Sky Burial ...................................................................................................34 7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You....................37
Japanese Sea Lion ....................................................................................................................................... 37 Desert Rat Kangaroo ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Phantom shiner ............................................................................................................................................ 38 Labrador duck .............................................................................................................................................. 38 Quagga ........................................................................................................................................................ 38 Tasmanian Wolf ............................................................................................................................................ 39
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INTRO
The world is just such an awesome place; what happens on our little planet is fascinating, remarkable, and unique in so many ways that it surpasses, without a doubt, even the most imaginative movie or novel. What you are about to see and read will not take you to another world, but show you just how incredible our own one is, and how things that you never would have thought possible take place even in your backyard. Whats so incredible about it? So many things that it would take a lifetime to name just half, so Im gonna stick to just a handful here: amazing landscapes and animals, bizarre phenomena and things youre gonna have a hard time believing about society thats what youre going to find here. ZME Science is not a science journal, and it is not our intention to publish scientific studies. This is in no way a comprehensive list and shouldnt be treated as one, but hopefully, this selection of articles and images will open your eyes, make you go Wow!, or maybe both. It will also help you discover new things, the kind of things that dont get broadcasted on TV, and major newspapers or websites almost never write about; the kind of things that get the talk going during the coffee break, because theyre just so freaking awesome! Oh well, I said too much already, go see for yourself what this is all about.
INTRO
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Why doesnt she age? Howard Greenberg, 52, asked of his daughter. Is she the fountain of youth?
The same question (among many others) has been asked by scientists, but no answer has been found until now. What they do know however is that her case is unique, an opinion also shared by her doctor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine pediatrician Lawrence Pakula.
Many of the best-known names in medicine, in their experience had not seen anyone who matched up to Brooke, Pakula said. She is always a surprise.
However, even though she is not aging, it seems that her body is developing as independent parts out of sync. If you were to look at photos of Brooke, she is unchanged, and theres no indication that she would be in fact getting any older, and as far as everybody knows, if this continues on, she has no reason to die. Her condition has baffled doctors so, that without a better solution, they just named it Syndrome X. But the mystery about her gets
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even deeper. She suffered from numerous health problems, including seven perforated ulcers, a seizure and a stroke. When she was five, she had a mass in her brain that caused her to sleep for 14 days! Doctors diagnosed the mass as a brain tumour and said there was nothing they could do, but after the 14 days, she just woke up and the mass was gone, with no fully satisfying explanation in sight. Brooke Greenberg is without a doubt one of the most interesting people on the face of the Earth, but she didnt choose the life she has, and she should by no means be turned into a lab rat. However, her body probably yields extremely valuable information, so researchers are still studying some of her analysis, in the hope of understanding more about aging, and why not, immortality. Speaking of immortality...
The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth. (c) Peter Schuchert
Let your imagination fly ! But wait, if youre thinking McLeod, you couldnt be further from the truth. What you have to do is think small; not microscopic, just big enough to
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see with your naked eye. Turritopsis nutricula is the name, and immortalitys the game - this hydrozoan is considered by scientists to be the only animal (or living organism for that matter) that cheated death. Every living thing has to die at some point; thats just the way it works, right? Wrong! First, a bit about our Turritopsis nutricula (lets call it Joe, shall we?) and his family: hydrozoa are a huge class of predatory animals that live mostly in saltwater, closely related to jellyfish and corals. Most species include both a hydroid and a medusoid stage in their life cycle, although not all of them do. But enough about boring hydrozoans, lets get to ours; what Joe does is he reaches sexual maturity, makes little Joes, and then reverts completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage. But wait, hes even cooler than that: when theyre young theyve got only several tentacles, but at a mature stage, they get to 80-90 of them, which they lose when they revert. Theyre able to return to polyp stage due to a cell change in the external screen (Exumbrella), which allows them to bypass death. As far as scientists have been able to find out, this change renders the hydrozoa virtually immortal. If you ask me, it would be really interesting to find out if Joe has memories from his past life, or if he just starts of brand new each time. Im not sure how useful that would be, but it sure would be fun to find out. Im not sure how you would go around finding that though, and maybe more effort should be put into something else. Lets take medicine, for example; numerous promising developments have been made in the field, but a definitive cure for cancer or AIDS is still pretty far, and theres also the problem with viruses becoming more and more aggresive. You should know that a big part in the development of new treatments and drugs is played, of course, by drug companies; and thats not all you should know about them...
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COCA WINE
Believe it or not, wines with cocaine were not uncommon by any standards. Metcalf Coca Wine was one of the famous brands and everybody who drank it said it will make you happy, and was also good as a medicinal treatment (I bet it was). Maltine Coca Wine was also used a lot in the U.S., especially in New York, where it was made. It was recommended for health reasons a glass after each meal; and for the children, just a half glass of course, because we wouldnt want to get them high... oh, I mean drunk. Out of all the coca wines out there, without a doubt, the most appreciated was the Mariani Wine. It was so good, that pope Leo XIII never left the house without a bottle of it. He loved it so much that he even awarded the producer with Vaticans Gold Medal.
AMPHETAMINE INHALERS
Benzedrine (racemic amphetamine) inhalers were available in the U.S. until the mid 50s, and they were so appreciated that even airlines gave them to passengers to treat discomfort when the plane was taking off and landing. It was also proclaimed that more than 10 million Benzedrine inhalers had been distributed
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in the first 7 years it was released, which means they sold even better than mister McDonalds hamburgers.
Its not clear how effective the treatment was, but at least, the National Vaporizer Vapor-OL (opium) Treatment no. 6 for asthma (as it was called) provided a unique way of smoking opium. You had a pretty volatile liquid that went in a sort of frying pan, heated by a small kerosene lamp placed under the pan.
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I remember when I wrote this article, it absolutely blew my mind! To think that just 50 years ago, heroin, cocaine, even opium were perfectly normal; and we wonder where all the good artists are nowadays. And cocaine wine, now thats something to crank up the party... but the pope?! Who would have guessed that... oh who am I kidding, popes did some pretty messed up things along the way. Anyway, I really dont want to talk about religion lets move on to something better. How about Mother Nature? If you ask me, her awesomeness cannot be described in words. Did you know for example that the biggest tsunami ever recorded was over 500 meters tall? It was as big as about 120 elephants standing on top of each other, and almost twice as big as the Eiffel tower. Or that when Krakatau erupted, the ash it sprayed into the atmosphered circled the whole Earth, twice? And I could go on like this for hours, but lets narrow it down a bit...
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When you hear a name like maelstrom, you just know its about something wicked. Introduced in English by Edgar Allan Poe from the Nordic languages, where it came from the Dutch word maelstrom (maalstroom in modern spelling), it literally means crushing current, which is quite a very good description. A maelstom is basically a very big and powerful whirlpool, a free vortex; a free vortex with quite a downdraft. The first described maelstrom was Moskstraumen, which is caused by a very powerful tidal current.
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Both Poe and Jules Verne depict it as a giant vortex that leads to the bottom of the ocean where it is in fact a crossroad of underwater currents. Well... they were a bit off, but still, its quite a view to catch.
FIRE RAINBOW
The term fire rainbow is a bit misleading; the correct term is circumhorizon arc, which
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can really impress your friends while having a beer but its kinda hard to pronounce, so were gonna stick to fire rainbow. This type of rainbow is basically an ice halo formed by ice crystals located very high, in the cirrus clouds. This huge flamboyant lovely display of colors is really not as rare as you might think, and how often it appears depends mostly on location, and especially latitude. For example, in the US it can be seen several times a summer each year in the same place, but in Central or Northern Europe its very rare.
Of course, this rainbow is not formed the way classic rainbows are formed. Light passes through the hexagonal ice crystals via a vertical side and leaves through the nearest horizontal bottom face. If their alignment is just right, it makes the whole cloud shine rainbow-colored, displaying this delightful set of colours, as you can see for yourself.
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WATER SPOUTS
Waterspouts seem to be taken out of the Captain Planet series. You know, earth, wind, fire, all that? Well, here its all about wind and water actually, because a waterspout is in
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fact a really intense columnar vortex (not necessarily a tornado) that takes place over a mass of water and links it to a cumuliform cloud.
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Most of the time, they are weaker than land tornadoes, but some are extremely big and bring the water upward with immense speed and power. They can actually be tornadic or non-tornadic. The non-tornadic ones are way more common and less dangerous, with winds being slower than 70 mph (30 m/s). Tornadic waterspouts are similar at their core to a tornado, but they add huge masses of water to the show, making it a scenery hard to forget. The even rarer cousin of the waterspout is the snowspout (or icespout). They are basically a very rare type of waterspouts that form at the base of a snow squall. There have only been six (!) pictures taken of such an event, so theres not really much we can give you here.
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Each year, between the months of May and July a dark clouds appears in the sky, followed by a massive thunderstorm, it rains a lot, the whole nine yards. It all lasts 2-3 hours, at the end of which people go out on the street where they find hundreds of living fish on the ground; yeah, they eat them. There arent any clear conclusions, but a theory thats accepted sometimes is that the strong winds and waterspouts take the fish from 200 km away. However, a significant number of scientists claim they are not sea water fish, but fresh water fish that swim from a nearby river to an underwater current, and some fish stray from the current and appear on the ground. But heres the good part: National Geographic sent a team to investigate this, and they found that the fish arent located in any surrounding bodies of water. Because they are blind, scientists hypothesize the fish live deep in underground rivers. Far out !
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MOONBOWS
Weve all (probably) seen rainbows, at day. But how many of us have seen rainbows at night? Yeah, this can actually happen, due to the light reflected by the moon (thus moonbow, or lunar rainbow or white rainbow). Of course the light coming from the moon is much, much fainter than that emitted by the Sun, so as a result, so is the formed rainbow; most of the time, its even hard for the human eye to separate the colors there.
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The biggest chance you have of ever seeing a moonbow is when the moon is full (or almost full), when its the brightest, but there are other conditions required. The sky has to be very dark (close to black), and, of course, there must be rain falling opposite to the moon.
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PENITENTES
These sharp ice spikes can only be found at high altitudes. Ice (or snow) formations that take the form of blades or spikes varying from a few centimeters to 2 meters (or even more) have fascinated researchers since Darwins time, as he was the first to ever describe them. He had to squeeze his way through such a field and was the first to notice they generally follow the direction of the sun. But how are they formed? The mechanism of their birth is a bit complicated, and it relies on a process called differential ablation. For penitentes to form, the dew point has to be below freezing. As a result, the snow will sublimate, which requires more energy than melting.
The geometry of the surface provides a positive feedback mechanism for radiation, which is trapped by multiple reflections, creating hollows. These hollows, combined with wind that increases the dew point temperatures, provides the right conditions for the
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SUPERCELLS
Supercells are rotating updrafts within severe thunderstorms; theyre dangerous, big, and bloody scary.
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A supercell can be defined as athunderstorm with a deep rotating updraft (mesocyclone). (c) MIKE HOLLINGSHEAD / SOLENT
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They can appear anywhere in the world given the right meteorological conditions, but most of the times they appear in the Great Plains of the US, last generally 2-3 hours and they sometimes split in 2, with the two resulting storms going in opposite directions. The supercells usually produce huge amounts of hail, torrential rainfall, strong winds, and substantial downbursts and they are often carriers of giant hail. Scientists have given quite an interest in supercells, because, as you could have guessed from the pics, theyre really dangerous. Really.
ICE CIRCLES
Ice Circles are pretty much what youd expect from them. However, theyre very rare, appearing only in slow moving waters from cold climates such as Northern Europe or America, but some have also been spotted in Britain, including a huge one bigger than 3 meters. There are two types of ice circles. Here are the general necessary conditions for the first type to form.
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No rain and temperatures below 0 Celsius for several days near a slow river bend. Thus, the water creates a force that is called rotational shear and breaks a chunk of ice, twisting it around and grinding it to the surrounding ice, turning it into a perfect circle. The second type is perhaps even more spectacular. Also called ice pans, these formations are surface slabs of ice that form in the middle of the river, and not on its side. Theyre explained by sudden shifts of temperature. As the water cools off, it gives away heat that creates frazil ice (randomly oriented ice needles loose in the water). These ice particles can, of course, form an ice pan, and if the lake has enough frazil ice and the current is slow enough, the ice pan can reach the sizes that baffle people and even become a hanging dam. Words fall short when it comes to describing these wonders of nature, and we definitely need a reminder sometimes of just how small we are; but this doesnt mean that man cant create amazing things on the contrary, we have all the inspiration we need, and you can bet the human race is gifted with inventivity and work power. Even more, we dont necessarily need technology to create something brilliant, and if youre not convinced, these artifacts will definitely convince you. Keep in mind however there is still a lot of controversy surrounding some of them, and I would bet my acoustic guitar that at least one or two arent for real, but still, its worth giving it a thought or two.
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In June 1936 (or 1934 according to some accounts), Max Hahn and his wife Emma were on a walk when they noticed a rock with wood protruding from its core. They decided to take the oddity home and later cracked it open with a hammer and a chisel. Ironically, what they found within seemed to be an archaic hammer of sorts.
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A team of archaeologists checked it, and as it turns out, the rock encasing the hammer was dated back more than 400 million years; in this case the hammer itself would normaly have to be older. Additionally, a section of the handle has begun the transformation to coal. Creationists, of course, were all over this. The hammers head, made of more than 96% iron, is far more pure than anything nature could have achieved without an assist from modern technology.
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According to Professor Michael Edmunds of Cardiff University, who led the team studying the mechanism:
This device is just extraordinary, the only thing of its kind. The design is beautiful, the astronomy is exactly right. The way the mechanics are designed just makes your jaw drop. Whoever has done this has done it extremely carefully. He added: in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa.
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other data has led to some speculation. In fact, the ancient egyptians were well aware of the principles of aviation. Was it simply the toy of an affluent Egyptian child? Did it serve some kind of ceremonial purpose? Regardless, the object has few realistic bird traits. With its vertical tail, resembling that of an airplane or glider, it resembles no known bird. Scientists came to the conclusion that it couldnt be effective as an aircraft due to lack of technology, but it could have in fact been a glider.
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the unusual block of coal discovered 124 years ago which contained a metal cube that couldnt have formed naturally within the lump, and many more such things
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The Nazca drawings (or lines) definitely have something otherworldly about them. Discovered in 1930 when the US inaugurated two new commercial lines they cover 450 square km and some measure more than 200m in length. They depict lines, geometrical figures, animals and figures that we havent entirely figured out yet (many believe them to be constellations). Whether made for the gods or for some other reason,
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its obvious that they were meant to be seen from the sky. Scientists have had trouble trying to figure out how they could have been designed and created without somebody directing the work from above. We can only marvel at these amazing figures and continue to wonder how and why they were created by people called the Nazca.
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The city of Nan Madol was built between 200 B.C. 800 A.D., on a coral reef near Micronesia. It consisted of about 100 artificial islands made from huge basalt blocks and connected with viaducts. From the start, it dazzles us with a mix of the bizarre and grandeur and from the start it seems incongruous; 250 million tons of offshore basalt in the middle of nowhere. How were these huge blocks quarried, transported, and placed in the perfect spot? Even by todays standards, it would an impressive engineering feat. Additionally, the reasoning behind its
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development remains a mystery. Archaelogists have few clues as to what happened to the civilization responsibile for its creation.
Near the city of Cuzco, more than 3500 meters above sea level, these amazing walls first fascinated the Spanish conquistadores. They were astonished to discover these structures constructed by natives, who, according to them, were ignorant and lacked the ability of logical reasoning required to create such wonders. They are in fact 3 concentric walls, the average being roughly 360 meters in length and 6 meters in height, made from limestone blocks that weigh about 300 tons each. The engineers didnt use mortar or any other kind of cement to bind the walls, but instead they packed the materials so closely that even a sharp knife cant be wedged between 2 blocks. Scientists have tried to achieve this at a much smaller scale and have failed in their efforts to replicate the tight joints of the Sacsayhuaman walls.
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First of all, it has to be said that this once common burial practice in Tibet is pretty hard to digest for our civilized world, and theres a big chance youll find the pictures shocking. As adepts of Buddhism, Tibetans believe the single most important part of a person is its spirit, and after death, there is no reason to preserve the body, which is just a hollow vessel. Also, from a more practical point of view, wood is quite scarce and the soil is really rocky, making it hard to dig a grave. Thats why, after somebody died, the corpse was cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop where vultures feed off of it or it just decomposes. My first impression when I first heard of it was quite severe; but thinking about it better, it does seem to make sense. I mean, digging a grave would be extremely hard and impractical, while finding enough fuel or wood for cremation would be practically impossible. Also, the spiritual meaning is not hard to understand, if you just take a step outside the western ideology. The deceased is providing food for a part of nature, which is a proof of generosity, one of the most important things in Buddhism. The Tibetan name for this ceremony is jhator, which literally means giving alms to the
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birds.
Sky burial and open cremation may initially appear grotesque for Westerners, especially if they have not reflected on their own burial practice of embalming. For Tibetan Buddhists, sky burial and cremation are templates of instructional teaching on the impermanence of life. (unknown)
It appeared grotesque for the Chinese government too, who prohibited it from 1950 to 1980. To this day, westerners, while sometimes allowed to witness sky burials, are not permitted to film or take pictures of the procedures. The full procedure is quite expensive, and for those who cant afford it, simply placing the deceased on a high rock is the an option.
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The ceremony takes place in light spirit, as the rogyapas (monks) who perform the ceremony talk to each other as when doing any other physical labor. There are different ways to do this; basically beating the body and bones together to a pulp is not uncommon, while some witnesses reported breaking the bones and cartilages with sledge hammers. The vulture in this ceremony is nicknamed the Eurasian Griffon, and even with its big appetite, it cant eat all that its being offered, because in some places there are even a few sky burials per day.
I have had very interesting discussions regarding this ceremony and numerous valid points of view were taken. Please share your opinion, I would love to hear what you think about it The Eurasian Griffon I was telling you about earlier almost became extinct, but it ultimately survived, and with a lot of care and patience it is now being reintroduced into other habitats; however, other species werent so lucky. There are countless species that disappear, never to be seen again. Countless species of animals are extinct forever, and we will never see them again, or never see them at all...
7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You
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7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You
Japanese Sea Lion
Believed to be extinct since 1950, the Japanese Sea Lion lived in the coastal areas of the Japanese Archipelago and the Korean Peninsula. Weighing up to 450 to 560 kg and reaching lengths of 2.3 to 2.5 meters (the males; females were smaller), they preferred sandy open beaches, but they sometimes used rocky areas for breeding too. Harvest records from Japanese commercial fishermen in the early 1900s show that as many as 3,200 sea lions were harvested, and in total about 17.000 specimens were killed, enough to cause their extinction.
7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You
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Phantom shiner
This elusive species of fish was once endemic to the Rio Grande basin and ranged from central New Mexico to southernmost Texas. Not too much information is available about them, and they were only spotted irregularly and only several times. The last known specimen was recorded in Mexico in 1975.
Labrador duck
The labrador duck was never common; its believed that this species of duck has been extinct since 1875. Its also believed that it was the first bird to be extinct in North America since 1500. It was also called the Pied Duck and it fed on small molluscs. Its extinctions is quite a mystery, because it was not sought much by hunters. Still, humans are still probably responsable for its extinction as they caused the decline in mussels and other shellfish on which they are believed to have fed in their winter quarters, due to growth of population and industry on the Eastern Seaboard; this meant that the duck had no food left, and was practically hopeless.
Quagga
The Quagga was a subspecies of the plains zebra which lived in great numbers in South Africas Cape Province and the southern part of the Orange Free State. It got this name as an onomatopoeia, being said to resemble its call. The quagga was the first extinct creature to have its DNA studied although the only live photographed member was the Regents Park Zoo mare in London.
7 Animals That Lived Along With Your Grandparents But Not With You
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Tasmanian Wolf
Its believed that the Tasmanian Wolf has been extinct for about 65 years. Despite its appearance and its popular name, this animal was not in fact a species of wolf, nor was it a dog, which it also resembled. It was actually a marsupial the largest carnivorous marsupial in recent times and was closely related to the kangaroo and the wombat. Its extinction is attributed solely to human activities.
Caspian Tiger
Caspian Tigers lived in China, Tajikistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Turkey, being the westernmost subspecies of tiger. Its believed that they became extinct in the late 1950s, though there have been several alleged sightings of the tiger. Being the third largest species of tiger ever to walk the face of the Earth, it still couldnt resist the massive hunting parties which killed them for their fur. While planning a massive land reclamation program in the beginning of the 20th century the Russian governments worked heavily to eradicate the Caspian tiger. Having no room for the tiger in their plans, the Russian army was instructed to exterminate all tigers found around the area of the Caspian Sea, a project that was carried out very efficiently. Three cheers for the Russian government.
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Linfen, China
Potentially Affected People: 3,000,000 Source of Pollution: Automobile and industrial emissions The Shanxi Province in which Linfen is situated plays a crucial role in Chinas huge and ever growing coal industry, which amounts to two thirds of the nations energy. But everything comes at a price: inhabitants claim they literally choke with coal dust in the evenings. The extremely high quantities of pollution are taking a serious toll on the health of Linfens inhabitants, especially the children. Its at least conforting to hear, though, that Linfen plans to shut down 160 of 196 of its iron foundries and 57 of 153 of its coal
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producing plants and replace them with cleaner more efficient plants; important words here: plans to.
La Oroya, Peru
Potentially Affected People: 35,000 Source of Pollution: Heavy metal mining and processing The problem with this mining city is easy to guess People have been exposed to lead, copper, zinc, and sulfur dioxide for almost a century now. Ninety-nine percent of children living in and around La Oroya have way more lead in their blood than acceptable. Sulfur dioxide concentrations also exceed the World Health Organization guidelines by a factor of ten and the vegetation has been destroyed by sulfuric acid rain.
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Norilsk, Russia
Potentially Affected People: 134,000 Source of Pollution: Major nickel and related metals mining and processing
Initially founded as a slave labor camp, this Siberian industrial city is the northernmost major city of Russia and the second largest city (after Murmansk) above the Arctic Circle. Here the snow is black, the air tastes like sulfur and the night landscape seems taken from one of Tolkiens novels. The local population is severely affected by the air quality where air samples exceed the maximum allowable concentrations for both copper and nickel. It also houses the worlds largest heavy metals smelting complex.
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Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Potentially Affected People: 300,000 Source of Pollution: Cold War-era chemical weapons manufacturing As weird as it may seem, Norilsk is probably not the most polluted city in Russia. Until the end of the Cold War, Dzerzhinsk was among Russias principal production sites of chemical weapons. Even today, its one of the most important chemical manufacture places in Russia. The city was also home to a leaded gasoline factory. About a quarter of the people there work in chemical factories. For men, the life expectancy there is 42, and for women 47.
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Chernobyl, Ukraine
Potentially Affected People: Initially 5.5 million, now disputed numbers. Source of Pollution: Meltdown of reactor core in 1986 Pictures are too shocking and words cant express how much damage the meldown of that reactor core has caused. Undoubtedly the most polluted city in the world, the nuclear tragedy caused a huge number of deaths and millions of mutations and problems for people only in the surrounding areas. Even today, twenty years later, the 19-mile exclusion zone around the plant remains uninhabitable due to the meltdown that was more than 100 times more powerful than the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some estimate that more than 100 tons of uranium and other radioactive products, such as plutonium, could be released if there is another accident. Chernobyl is also thought to contain some 2,000 tons of combustible materials.
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Thank you!
Well I honestly hope youve liked it, folks! But hey, if youve made it this far, it probably wasnt so bad, was it? But now you tell me, how was it, really? Did it leave you any different than before reading it? Has it broadened your perspective, or did it make you feel tiny? If it ignited your passion, spread the wings of your imagination, impressed you, disgusted you, made you go WOW!, if it tore the walls of your perception, then, my friend, you have made me a happy man. This is not the best book in the world, it most definitely has a lot of flaws, but if it moved you, than it served its purpose; and for that, for letting us reach you, we would like to thank you, and we would like to ask you something: Dont be a prisoner of yourself! This is our world, take a look and see what happens in it; and guess what, its the same world we wake up, drink coffee and have breakfast, the same world we go to school or work in - and what a world it is! Hopefully, weve shown you a small fraction of that, in all its splendour. If youre a long time reader of ZME Science then you almost definitely know this, and if not, youve probably found out already: we make mistakes. We dont intend to be perfect, because we know we cant do it. Were just a bunch of students, not native English speakers, trying to do our best and make the world a better place, one post at a time; and were constantly trying to improve, every single day. For this we would like to thank you, because its you guys that do this. Its you who support us, and ask for more and more from us. Whether you like it or not, you guys play an important role in our lives, and hopefully, we can give everything back - tenfold. Heres Andrei Emilian Mihai and Tiberius Puiu, thanking you, and hoping youll be with us for time to come ! Oh, and by the way, if you like this, dont like this, or if you have something to say, wed be thrilled to hear from you! Also, if you guys like it, you can bet theres gonna be a sequel!
Thank you!
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