January 18, 2015 Earth Science
More than anything else, preparing for severe weather requires common sense. The principal concerns presented by thunderstorms are lightning, high winds and power outages. Prior to the storm, unplug any appliances or other electronic equipment that you will not be…
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Symbiosis is a mutually beneficial relationship between two organisms that are completely unrelated. There are numerous examples of symbiosis in nature and many of them involve unicellular plants, called algae, living in cooperation with a wide variety of animals and…
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January 18, 2015 Earth Science
How to survive a tornado Tornadoes are one of nature’s most dangerous natural disasters – they’re unpredictable, deadly and destructive, and every year people die because they don’t know how to survive the storms or their aftermath. While there are…
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Giardia is the most prevalent protozoal infection in the human intestines. By its nature, it aggressively causes an infection in about 75 % of those exposed. It manifests itself with abdominal bloating, flatulence, nausea, vomiting and fatigue. It has been estimated…
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January 18, 2015 Earth Science
A heat wave may be the time to take a dip into a pool or sample an ice cream cone at a store. The heat wave is also dangerous; children and elderly victims can suffer it the most. Whenever there’s…
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I thought that this would be a simple question to answer but I soon got bogged down in definitions. A saprophyte is a kind of decomposer isn’t it? It turns out that the answer is anything but simple. Saprophytes are…
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Although the actual study of microbiology did not officially begin until the mid 1800’s people, unofficially, recognized that some small entity caused diseases and acted accordingly. Microbiology in Ancient Times People living in ancient times recognized the diseases were spread…
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January 18, 2015 Earth Science
When most of us hear the word eruption, we almost instinctively associate such images as smoking mountain tops and cascades of hot bubbling lava. However, there is another type of natural disaster in our midst that has somehow slipped public…
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Nearly everyone has seen mushrooms poking their frilled caps up through the litter in a forest, and probably many have assumed they were plants. They are not; they are the fruiting bodies of a fungus, and their sole purpose is…
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January 18, 2015 Earth Science
Limnic eruptions, or lake overturns, are a rare natural disasters where large quantities of carbon dioxide are released from deep lake water resulting in a deadly cloud of CO2 which suffocates all in its path. Thirty-seven people were killed as…
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