My Science School

Sometimes it is hard to tell whether an animal is a lizard or not. Some lizards look like snakes, and some look a lot like worms.

There are three things that all lizards have. They all have eyelids that close, ears on their heads, and long tails. Most lizards also have four legs. But a few lizards, such as glass snakes and slow worms, have no legs at all.

Lizards are reptiles that live on the ground or in trees. Most live in warm, tropical regions, but some live in areas with cold winters. A lizard’s scaly skin helps keep moisture inside its body even when the weather is very hot.

Like other reptiles, lizards are cold-blooded. But like some warm-blooded animals, some lizards hibernate, or sleep through the cold winter months.

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Snakes have no legs at all, but they move very well without them! A snake can zigzag over the ground just about as fast as most people can walk.

Snakes are different from lizards because they have no ears and no eyelids. And to smell, a snake flicks out its tongue! Snakes use their good sense of smell to find their food.

Most snakes like their food alive. They eat many kinds of small animals - even other snakes. Snakes don’t chew their food - they swallow it whole. Their jaws are hinged like a pair of nutcrackers. For a great big mouthful, they can release the hinges and open their mouths very wide. In fact, a little garden snake can swallow a whole frog! The African egg-eating snake can swallow an egg bigger than its own head. And a big python can swallow a whole pig, hoofs and all!

Pythons curl themselves around their prey and squeeze it to death. Other snakes, such as vipers and rattlesnakes, have poison glands. Hollow teeth, or fangs, inject the poison into the victim’s body. Some kinds of cobras squirt poison at an attacker’s eye.

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Turtles and tortoises are reptiles with shells on their backs. Most can pull their heads, legs, and tails inside the shell for protection.

Many turtles spend a lot of time in the water. They can swim much better than they can walk. The sea turtle spends almost all its time in the water and has strong flippers for swimming. These turtles eat animals and plants.

Tortoises are turtles that live only on land. They have club-like legs for walking on sand, mud, or grass. The shells of most tortoises are tall and round, while the shells of many other turtles are flat to help them glide through water. Most tortoises eat plants.

Turtles don’t watch over their eggs before they hatch. Female turtles dig holes in the mud or sand. They lay their eggs in the holes, then cover up the eggs and go away. The warm sun hatches the eggs, and the babies dig their own way out.

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It’s the middle of the night in the desert. A small lizard lies almost covered with sand. Only its head sticks out. It is using the sand like a blanket to keep its body warm during the cool night.

When the sun comes up, the lizard crawls out of the sand. It moves very slowly because it is still cold. It lies on a rock for a long time, letting the sun warm it. When its body is warm enough, the lizard dashes off to look for food.

Lizards and all other reptiles are cold-blooded. Their bodies get just as hot or cold as the air or water around them. If their bodies get cold, reptiles can’t move well. If they get too hot, reptiles die. So reptiles must spend their time playing hide-and-seek with the sun. If they are cold, they lie in warm sunshine. If they are hot, they hurry into the shade.

A reptile that lives where winters are cold moves more and more slowly as cold weather comes. The reptile curls up in the warmest hole it can find. Soon its body grows cold and stiff. It cannot move at all. Only when warm weather returns can the reptile move again.

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Have you ever seen a big, fat frog? Did its bulging eyes and raspy croak make you laugh?

Have you ever seen a tiny garden snake zipping through the grass? Were you amazed at how fast it could travel with no feet?

Snakes and frogs belong to two groups of animals called reptiles and amphibians.

Amphibians and reptiles slither, scamper, hop, or swim. Some hiss, some croak, and some make no sound at all. Some amphibians have scaly skin that feels like tree bark. Some snakes have skin that feels like warm glass. Some frogs are slimy, but most snakes are not.

Amphibians and reptiles live all over the world - in woodland forests and rain forests, the Australian outback and the African plains, and maybe in your own garden.

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Suppose you found some eggs lying on the ground. Now suppose that some little creatures with scales hatched out of them. What kind of animal would they be?

Could they be fish? Fish have scaly skin, but fish eggs do not have hard shells. Besides, most fish lay their eggs in water. So they could not be fish.

Could they be birds? Birds lay eggs, too. But birds don’t have such scaly skin. So they could not be birds.

They must be reptiles. Only reptiles have scaly skin and lay their eggs on land. Alligators, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles, and tuataras are all reptiles.

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Did you ever swim wearing flippers? If so, you know that they help you swim faster. Flippers are like the webbed feet of ducks, geese, and swans. Webbed feet are like paddles. They push lots of water, so the bird can move faster.

Ducks, geese, and swans are all waterfowl. They spend most of their time in lakes, ponds, rivers, or the sea.

Different kinds of waterfowl have different ways of getting their food. Some kinds of ducks, such as mallards, wigeons, and teals, are known as dabbling ducks. To get food - water insects, snails, and water plants - a dabbling duck puts its head underwater. Its feet and tail stick straight up in the air. Swans feed this way too, but they eat mostly plants.

Ducks such as pochards, canvasbacks, and grebes are known as diving ducks. They dive underwater and eat mostly water plants.

Geese usually feed on land. They like grass, seeds, and plants. Their bills can clip off the tops of plants as neatly as a pair of scissors.

Colourful mandarin ducks often perch in trees when they aren’t swimming.

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Would you be able to grasp a tree branch with your toes and then fall asleep, without falling? No, because your feet are not made for living in trees.

Birds have feet that suit their way of life. Birds that perch on branches have toes that curl around the branch to give a tight grip. The grip is so tight that the bird doesn’t fall off even when it sleeps.

Birds that find their food in the ground have short, blunt toes like tiny rakes. They scratch the ground to turn up insects and seeds. Ducks, geese, and swans have feet like paddles to help them swim in water. Birds of prey, which eat small animals, have sharp, curved claws - just right for grabbing the creatures they hunt.

Climbing birds, like parrots and woodpeckers, have two toes pointing forwards and two toes pointing backwards. Cassowaries and most other fast-running birds have three toes on each foot.

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A baby swift is getting ready to fly. Ever since it hatched, its feathers have been getting longer. Its wings have been growing stronger. Now, the little bird is ready.

It hops to the edge of the nest. Even though it has never flown, the swift knows just what to do. It spreads its wings and pushes itself off the nest with its legs. Air pushes up on the swift’s wings and holds the little bird up. The swift begins to flap its wings. Feathers on the ends of the wings spread out and twist. This pulls air under each wing and pulls the swift forwards.

Now the little swift is tired. It lands by spreading out its wings and tail as a brake. Many birds can fly the very first time they try. Some birds, such as sparrows, need a little practice. They flutter weakly out of the nest. Before they can really fly, they hop about on the ground, flapping their wings for a few days.

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Snoring is nothing but the sound produced by the vibration of certain parts in the upper airways. When we sleep, our body muscles, including those in the upper airways, relax and the soft tissues such as the tongue, soft palate, uvula and tonsillar pillars become slack. Sometimes they relax so much that the upper respiratory tract partly closes and becomes too narrow for enough air to travel through to the lungs. When we inhale, the air hits these respiratory structures, causing them to vibrate and create the turbulent sound we call snore. The narrower the airway, the louder the snoring.

Anything that prevents you from breathing through your nose can cause you to snore. This can include congestion from a cold and allergies. Those who have enlarged tonsils, an enlarged tongue or excess weight around the neck are more prone to snoring.

Normal ageing can also relax your throat and tongue muscles, causing snoring. Snoring is also a symptom of sleep apnoea, a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts.

 

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Typeracer

The word "race" has been synonymous with "speed" since time immemorial. Similarly, the objective of the game is to improve your typing speed with accuracy. A paragraph is given and you need to type it out. This para can be a random para or a quote from a book. Letters that are capitalised should be typed the same way. There are two ways to play the game – at your own pace or enter a race with people from around the world. Ready, set, go!

10 Fast Fingers

This game is similar to the Typeracer. Here, instead of a para or a quote, you are given random words to type in less than a minute. Unlike Typeracer, you do not have to type capital letters in capitals. You can take a test on your own or compete with your friends to see who is the fastest. You can also join competitions hosted by people from around the world and see who's the fastest.

Typing War Master

This game puts to the test not just your speed and accuracy at typing, but also your concentration. Words fall from the skies in a bubble and you need to type them out before they hit the ground. The number of words that fall increases gradually as you progress through the game. When you enter, it might look like a Super Mario game set-up, but maintain your focus and type the words as fast as you can.

Keyboard Ninja

This game by typing.com is fun and simple to play. It has various levels of difficulty and lets you choose the keys from the part of the keyboard you would want to master. For example, if you choose the 'bottom row of the keyboard, you will be thrown random letters that appear in the last row of the keyboard. As these letters appear, you need to type them out before they fall off the play area. You will be given three chances in each turn.

Typing Ninja

As the name suggests, this game helps you type as fast as a Ninja moves. In this simple game, you need to type out random letters of the alphabet that fall from above. You can choose the speed and gradually increase it as your typing improves. It gives you details about your hits and misses and your accuracy levels. It also mentions the letters you missed the most.

 

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Imagine working in one of the coldest and most remote, but most breathtakingly beautiful, areas of the world. Armed with a crash helmet and climbing harness, you are slowly lowered into one of the ice crevasses of a surging glacier. Your mission: to examine the effect of climate change on the icy mass.

Sounds interesting, does it not? With glaciers around the world disappearing at an alarming rate and causing sea levels to rise, the hitherto obscure field of glaciology has now become extremely important. Glaciologists assess the impact of climate change, look for alternatives to sustain Earth's depleting resources, forecast avalanches and save the world, one glacier at a time.

What is glaciology?

Glaciology is a branch of environmental science that deals with snow and ice. More specifically, glaciologists study glaciers. They closely monitor the formation, movement of different kinds of glaciers such as alpine and arctic glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets and ice shelves.

A large part of the research conducted by glaciologists analyses how glaciers and ice caps move and change in response to climate change and how these changes, in turn, influence climate and the surrounding environment.

Required Skills

• Passion for mountains


• Adventurous spirit


• Research and analytical skills


• Scientific temperament


• Working knowledge of snow equipment


• Willingness to do field as well as lab studies


• Physical fitness to work in high altitudes for prolonged durations

Branches

• Study of glaciers


• Reconstructing past climates


• Hydrology: monitoring the melting of glaciers


• Avalanche study

What to study:

After graduating from the Science stream with Physics, Chemistry Biology or Geology you can specialise in glaciology and further work as research fellows at the following institutes:

NOTE: A PhD will help you excel in this field.

Where:

• National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa


• Jawaharlal Nehru University's School of Environmental Sciences/School of Geography, New Delhi


• Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru


• Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai


• Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment Research Centre, Chandigarh and Manali


• Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun offers glaciology training

What are the job prospects?

Glaciology can be a never- ending adventure as you get to work in a variety of locations such the office, lab and even in some of the most extreme places in the world such as Antartica, Greenland or the Himalayan peaks, where few dare to venture.

 Many government institutes conduct research on glaciers. You can join them as a research fellow or a scientist after completing your postgraduation.

Of late, plenty of opportunities have opened up in the private sector too. You can work with NGOs taking on projects on climate change, building avalanche- resistant structures, disaster management or framing environmental policies.

Did you know?

• In December 2020, the world's biggest iceberg, the size of a small city, broke in two in Antarctica and is on a collision course with South Georgia Island, a wildlife refuge in South Atlantic Ocean.


• In February 2020, a massive iceberg broke off Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier.

 

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Finding inspiration

Markus Zusak's parents, Lisa and Helmut, who had lived in Nazi Germany before moving to Australia, loved regaling him with stories about their experiences in Germany during World War II. One day at dinner, Lisa, who became the inspiration behind the characters of Liesel and Rosa Hubermann, narrated an incident that took place when she was six. She heard a noise that sounded like cattle being herded down the street. When she looked out, she saw people being taken to a concentration camp. Among them, there was an old man who couldn't keep up, and so a boy gave him a piece of bread. They were both whipped, one for giving the bread and the other for taking it. A young Zusak loved listening to these real-life stories and wondered about the lives of ordinary people in Nazi Germany. Later, it is these stories that helped him to write "The Book Thief”, which has been translated into over 40 languages.

The write start

Zusak began writing fiction at the age of 16. However, his first attempt at writing a story about a boy with a cyst on his head that could burst at any time-was not successful. By page eight, he abandoned the effort!

During his initial days of writing, he pursued a degree in teaching. Unfortunately, his first job as a teacher was not quite what he had imagined. It involved cleaning up the mess left behind by students rather than teaching them.

A success story

A loner as a child, Zusak was always drawn to characters on the fringes. And so he wrote about a 15-year-old boy Cameron, a semi autobiographical character, in his first book, "The Underdog", published in 1999. His next book, "Fighting Ruben Wolfe", dealt with the boxing matches he fought with his brother in their backyard. By then, his popularity had grown in Australia.

Despite his writing experience, Zusak was sceptical about his fourth work "The Book Thief”. He thought no one would ever read the book and so revised it 200 times. To his surprise, the book sold over eight million copies worldwide.

Popular works

“The Book Thief”

Published in 2005, 'The Book Thief' is a story of a little blonde girl called Liesel Meminger. She steals books and reading them helps her face the horrors of war with courage. In fact, the first words Liesel reads are those from an instruction manual on grave digging which she flicks from a graveyard. Later, a sick Jew hiding in her foster family's basement teaches her to read and write. The messages he leaves behind on his death embolden her to fight back the Nazi regime and pick up the shreds of life shattered by the war.

"Bridge of Clay"

Zusak wrote his next book 'The Bridge of Clay", nearly 13 years after “The Book Thief". Published in 2018, it depicts the plight of orphans. The story revolves around five brothers coming to terms with the disappearance of their father. Zusak had a hard time finishing the book as he could not decide on the right narrator. For six years a character named Maggie was the narrator of the novel, but upon revision was completely scrapped. Finally, he decided to make Matthew Dunbar the narrator.

 

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1. Took nearly two centuries to build

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was designed to be a bell tower for the Pisa Cathedral. Construction of the tower started in 1173. Workers had almost completed the third storey of the tower by 1178, when war broke out between Italian states. The war halted the construction for nearly a century, and work resumed in 1272. Again after 12 years, another war halted construction. Finally, the third stage of the construction began in the early 14th Century and concluded with the installation of the bell chamber in 1372.

2. The lean is accidental

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was never supposed to lean. It happened accidentally. The reason the tower began to lean is attributed to its weak foundation and the inexperience of the engineers. The tower began to sink when the second floor was being constructed. This was due to a three-metre foundation set in weak, unstable subsoil. The tower would have toppled over as construction progressed, however, the gap of nearly a century owing to the war helped the underlying soil to settle. To compensate for the tilt, engineers built the upper floors with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is curved.

3. Status: Currently stable

The tower continued to tilt nearly 0.05 inches per year, placing the monument in danger of an imminent collapse. By 1990s, the tilt of the tower was almost 5.5 degrees (15 feet) from the perpendicular. This led the government to take urgent measures to protect the monument. The tower was closed to the public and a team of engineers levelled the soil underneath the tower. Engineers also used anchoring mechanisms to rectify its lean. While this helped the monument stabilise, it did not prevent its continued lean. In 2008, engineers again tried to balance the foundational soil and for the first time since it was constructed, the continued tilt of the tower halted. Engineers stated that the tower would be stable for at least the next 200 years.

4. No bells tolling

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has seven giant bells at the top, one for each musical note from the major scale. While the bells are still around, they haven't tolled since the 20th century. This is because restorers and engineers were worried that their movements might make the tower lean more.

5. Not the only leaning tower in Pisa

As a result of Pisa's soft soil, the Leaning Tower of Pisa isn't the only building in the city that leans. The most popular building after the Leaning Tower of Pisa is the Bell Tower of the San Nicola church. Built around the same time as the Leaning Tower, this octangular bell tower also has a slight, but unmistakable tilt. Another popular building is the San Michele degli Scalzi, a 11th Century church, which tilts even more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

 

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Located in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district, Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve comprises Tadoba National Park and Andhari Wildlife Sanctuary. Maharashtra's oldest national park, Tadoba was created in 1955. Covering more than 600 sq.km., the area's topography supports diverse habitats, including open canopy grasslands, stony grasslands along small hillocks, semi-deciduous riparian forest, perennial and seasonal streams, wetlands, and agricultural lands. All these make the region ideal for several species of birds, animals and reptiles to call it their home. A study conducted a few years ago recorded the presence of over 250 species of birds, including five endemic to India and more than 15 categorised as "threatened” in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. The region also supports more than 70 species of butterflies.

Wildlife

Pochards, shovelers, teals, pintails, quails, francolins, grebes, pigeons, doves, nightjars, sandgrouses, swifts, cuckoos, malkohas, storks, herons, egrets, bitterns, cormorants, ibises, darters, stilts, lapwings, jacanas, terns, sandpipers, pratincoles, kites, eagles, harriers, vultures, buzzards, buttonquails, owls, owlets, hornbills, woodpeckers, barbets, parakeets, orioles, drongoes, fantails, shrikes, flowerpeckers, munias, swallows, martins, bulbuls, warblers, babblers, starlings, mynas and flycatchers are among the bird species found in the region. In addition to the keystone species, the Bengal tiger, the area is a habitat for mammals such as leopard, Indian wild dog, sloth bear, gaur, the Indian fox, rusty spotted cat, honey badger, small Indian civet and ungulates such as sambar, spotted deer, barking deer, nilgai and four-horned antelope. Reptiles from the area include marsh crocodiles, Indian python, common Indian monitor, terrapins, Indian star tortoise, Indian cobra and Russel’s viper.

Good news, but...

In 2019, a report released by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and forests said that Tadoba witnessed two-fold increase – from 86,557 to 1.73 lakh - in tourist numbers between 2012-13 and 2017-18. This also meant an increase in revenue - Rs. 6.78 crore from Rs. 1.75 crore, a whopping 280 % increase. Such revenues are crucial for the upkeep of the region. Another comforting factor is that the Reserve was one of the few in the country that saw an increase in tiger numbers a few years ago. This too has been encouraging news for tourism since increased tiger numbers could translate to increased sighting, and in turn, more tourists. However, increase in tourists may not always be good news. Here's why.

Only a few months ago did the government propose to offer ecotourism in the Reserve's buffer zone to boost local economy. Since the zone includes more than 75 villages, the step aims to rope them in for conservation activities and sensitise them to human-animal conflict. With their knowledge of the region, the villagers could become drivers, guides, etc. While this is certainly encouraging, it is not without concerns. Among the activities planned for ecotourism include those such as adventure sports. Since such activities require experts, villagers and activists are worried that gradually private players could take over the region, leaving behind locals to suffer, defeating the very purpose it hoped to achieve.

 

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