Colin+McLean

__COLIN MCLEAN'S WIKI!!__  Pistol Shrimp??

Pistol shrimp are a very interesting type of shrimp that have an interesting way of catching their prey. Pistol shrimp have two types of claws, one is an ordinary pincher, but the other is a big pincher that they use like a gun. There are over 600 types of species in the pistiol shrimp in the family, but they all have a "pistol claw". A claw that is used as a gun? I know it sounds crazy but it's true. What they do is cock their claw like a pistol, wait for prey, then they snap their claw shut, sending off a blast of bubbles that momentarily reach the tempurature of the sun when they collapse, making a shock wave that stuns or kills their prey. To read more about pistol shrimp go to : []

(2008). The Pistol Shrimp- Sonic Weaponry. Retrieved from []

Watch the video below!! media type="youtube" key="XC6I8iPiHT8" height="340" width="560"




 * Fungus kills resistant mosquitoes-[[image:http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:M3mGeYbUSS97-M:http://www.allphaseext.com/images/no_mosquito.jpg width="122" height="87" caption="external image no_mosquito.jpg" link="http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.allphaseext.com/images/no_mosquito.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.allphaseext.com/GFA.html&usg=__QcUha3YC366MGHMlS3qGW-RYosU=&h=265&w=370&sz=72&hl=en&start=4&um=1&tbnid=M3mGeYbUSS97-M:&tbnh=87&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dno%2Bmosquitoes%26hl%3Den%26um%3D1"]] **

A killer fungus may break the chemical stalement that is hampering anti-malaria efforts! These days, mosquitoes are becoming more and more resistant to insecticides. In theory, when we spray two types of insectides at the same time postpones resistance, so when the bugs resist one, the other kills it. **BUT** this technique doesn't work because the enzymes mosquitoes use to stop one insecticide, helps stop the other one from working too. Entimologist Bart Knols and his colleagues at Wageningen University in thr Netherlands found out that a fungus could kill the mosquitoes that resisted the insecticides. This should greatly decrease the number of mosquitoes that carry malaria.

Fungas kills resistant mosquitoes. //New Scientist//,

Stem cell therapy may offer hope for acute lung injury

There have been researchers at the university of Illinois at the Chicago college of medicine that say adult stem cells from bone marrow can prevent acute lung injury, based on the succesful procedure of it on a mouse. Acute lung injury (ALI) is responsible for approximatly 74 500 people a year in the U.S.A alone, and there are no drugs available at any hospitals for it. Here is a discription of what happens in ALI from []: In ALI, the layer of cells that forms the lining of the blood vessels surrounding the lung's air sacs is damaged, allowing fluid to leak in and fill the sacs. Repair of these breaks in the endothelium, or lining, is complicated by the fact that endothelial cells are long-lived, says Kishore Wary, UIC assistant professor of pharmacology and lead author of the study. Turnover of new cells takes as long as two to five years, and few of the precursor cells needed for replacement circulate in the body at any given time. When they injected a mice with a compound that causes ALI with the purified and cultured Flk and CD34 stem cells, the progenitor cells were able to repair the lung injury, prevent fluid build-up, and finally led to an imporved life for the mouse.

university of Illinois, Initials. (n.d.). //Stem cell therapy may offer hope for acute lung injry//. Retrieved from http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2009/10/28/stem_cell_therapy_may_offer_hope_for_acute_lung_injury.html

Head Rushes

Have you ever been laying down, and when you got up you felt dizzy? If yes, it was most likely a headrush! In a non scientific way, a head rush is when blood ruches form one part of your body to the other when you stand up really fast after laying down, causing you too become very dizzy, and sometomes blacking out. In a bit more specific way a head ruch is when you experience dizziness, dim vision, lightheadedness, and on occasion blacking out after laying down or squatting due to a brief fall of blood pressure. These symptoms happen because when you are in these positions, your blood can pool up in your ankles, and when you stand up quickly, it will try to spread out the blood throughout the body, sometimes causing these symptoms. If this happens to you, try getting up slower next time!

Leong MD, Kristie. (2009, May 22). //What Causes a head rush?//. Retrieved from http://healthmad.com/health/what-causes-a-head-rush/

Common Animal Calls

Researchers at Florida and Oklahoma state university show that the call of hundreds of species of insects, birds, fish, frogs, lizards and mammals that can be predicted with simple mathematical models. Here's an article from a scientist talking about the subject: "Very few people have compared cricket chirps to codfish sounds to the sounds made by whales and monkeys to see if there were commonalities in the key features of acoustic signals, including the frequency, power and duration of signals," said James Gillooly, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of biology at UF's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of the UF Genetics Institute. "Our results indicate that, for all species, basic features of acoustic communication are primarily controlled by individual metabolism, which in turn varies predictably with body size and temperature. So, when the calls are adjusted for an animal's size and temperature, they even sound alike."

University of Florida (2010, January 6). From crickets to whales, animal calls have something in common. //ScienceDaily//. Retrieved January 8, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/01/100105195246.htm

Did you know?...

I am a fan of very random facts, and biology has a lot of very random facts.. Did you know... code -If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months, and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat up one cup of coffee.

-A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

-Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

-Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

-On average, people fear spiders more then they do death.

-The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

-A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.

-The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight, and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

-Polar bears are left handed.

-The flea can jump 350 times its body length. That's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

-A cockroach will live 9 days without its head before it starves to death.

-The male praying mantis cannot copulate while it's head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

-Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

-Butterflies taste with their feet.

-Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

-Starfish don't have brains.

code
 * //Fascinating facts from biology//. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pctechnician.com/biology.html ||

THE MOOSE

The Moose it one of my favorite animals. They look, funny, and they taste good... whats not to like. I thought I'd pay my respects to the moose by making a wiki post about them. Also, watch this video. It's NUTS!! If your gonna learn anything from this, it's don't have real animals for mascots, or stay the heck away from moose media type="youtube" key="qe5wVeEChTw" height="344" width="425"

Kingdom: Metazoa Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetartiodactyla Family: Cervidae Genus: //Alces// Species: //alces//

The Female matures sexually in 18 months..It looks like the guys are a little bit immature as it takes them 3-4 years to mature sexually. If a Moose fells threatened, or is protecting it's young in can run on land at a speed up to 35mph, and up to 6 mph in water.

//Biology of the moose: alces alces//. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nature.umesci.maine.edu/forensics/moose.htm

The True Studs... Fruit Flies

I wouldn't underestimate these little guys. They can't really do much, but when it comes to a true mans game, they're the king of the ring. Fruit flies produce coiled sperm that stretches out to 2.3 inches (over 20 times the size of an average fruit fly)!! That right; that over 1000 times the size of a human being. Scientist don't know why, or how this is possible, but to get that kind of energy, they must have some kind of sexual advantage!