These terms are from The Hindu S&T, Nov.2012

  1. Cold Climate=Big Body size
  2. Migrantwatch and Seasonwatch.
  3. Bactrian camels and heavy-chain antibodies
  4. Ross Sea: Marine Protected Zone
  5. Lake Vida
  6. Chromatophores
  7. Hedonic Scale Method
  8. Brevetoxin-2
  9. Mock Questions

Cold Climate=Big Body size

  • For most species of animals, body mass increases the closer you get to the poles.
  • The bigger you are, the more fat you can store to help you get through the winter.
  • bigger animals have a smaller surface area-to-volume ratio, which helps reduce heat loss- a pattern known as Bergmann’s Rule.

Migrantwatch and Seasonwatch.

Two projects started by National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, (NCBS)

These projects are aimed at involving common citizen in scientific research.

Migrantwatch Seasonwatch
participants in this activity identify migrant birds and note down the first sighting and feed it into the online database: www.migrantwatch.in builds up baseline data about the flowering and fruiting of trees, to work on climate-season change from ecological angle. www.seasonwatch.in

Bactrian camels and heavy-chain antibodies

  • Two-humped camel
  • Found in cold deserts of central Asia. (China, Mongolia)
  • They consume eight times more salt than cattle and have twice the blood glucose levels of other ruminants, yet do not develop diabetes or hypertension.
  • They also produce unique disease-fighting proteins called heavy-chain antibodies, which interest pharmaceutical engineers.

Ross Sea: Marine Protected Zone

  • The Ross Sea, located in arm of the southern Pacific Ocean in Antarctica.
  • Ross sea is populated by seals, whales, fish, penguins and other birds.
  • Environment activists want to create Marine protected zones (MPAs) in Ross sea= where fishing would be totally banned.

Lake Vida

  • in East Antarctica
  • hosts some newly discovered microbes, 60 feet below ice.
  • Thus proving that where there is water, there is life.

Chromatophores

  • Right now, the lipstick colores are made using artificial chemicals.
  • These chemicals can cause allergy and even cancer.
  • Scientists have now found reddish-brown spores in squid skin that can be used for lipstick colors.
  • They are screening it for consumer acceptance applying hedonic scale method.

Hedonic Scale Method

  • Hedonic Scale is used in food science, marketing research where the respondents indicate the extent to which they either like or dislike for a particular product sample.

Brevetoxin-2

  • compound produced naturally by marine algae, currently under research.
  • can be used for Treatment of stroke.

Mock Questions

Q1 Which of the following is incorrectly matched

  1. Migrantwatch
 UN project of Tracking human migration patterns.
  1. Chromatophores
 found in Plant leaves, help in photosynthesis.
  1. Seasonwatch
 Project to build database of flowering, fruiting patterns in various seasons.
  1. Only 1
  2. Only 1 and 2
  3. Only 3
  4. All of them

Q2. Which of the following is correctly matched

  1. Two-horned Rhino
 India
  1. Two-humped Camel
 Mongolia
  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both
  4. None

Q3. Which of the following is correctly matched

  1. Hedonic Scale
 It stipulates that animals at colder regions have higher bodymass.
  1. Bergmann’s Rule
 Associated with Marketing research.
  1. Only 1
  2. Only 2
  3. Both
  4. None