Save Trees

There were trees on our planet much before the animals or we appeared. They formed huge forests which covered the land and filled the atmosphere with life-giving oxygen. And yet, we human beings are thoughtlessly cutting down trees. Each person in India is responsible for the cutting of 7 trees per year from the year he is born. The poor do it for building houses and carts, and for burning as fuel. The rich for houses, furniture, paper etc. If you multiply your age by 7 and simply plant that many number of trees, you will have replaced what you have used. The best way to do this is to take the seed of every fruit you eat and put it in a pot. When it becomes a sapling, plant it in the ground and look after it. Fruit trees, pipal and neem trees save the lives of thousands of creatures which depend on them for food, shelter and fresh air. Trees act as dust collectors. Average dust collection ranges from 1.44 to 5.35 grams per sq. metre of leaf surface. Trees give us Oxygen to breathe. A pipal with a crown spread (the area covered by the top of the tree) of 162 sq. metres releases 1712 kg of oxygen and absorbs 2,252 kg of carbon dioxide per hour. A 500-metre wide green area can reduce sulphur dioxide by 70% and nitrous oxide by 67% Trees also.... Provide us shade Cool the air as moisture evaporates from their leaves Reduce noise pollution Prevent erosion Protect the water table Keep the environment clean Provide shelter to birds and animals Offer a range of medicines for treatment of diseases Finally, make the world a beautiful place to live in Monsoons are the right time to plant trees. Go ahead and plant as many as you can. "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."- Warren Buffett "The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb

Tail Talk with Maneka Gandhi

Smart at Math   Many people would say that humans are better than animals because we can count and calculate. But research shows that all animals can do the same and use these calculations for survival. Research at the University of Tokyo, Japan, showed an Asian elephant named Ashya’s skill at addition. When a trainer dropped three apples into one bucket and one apple into a second, then four more apples in the first and five more in the second, the elephant recognized that three plus four is greater than one plus five, and chose the first bucket. Ashya- Asian Elephant Alex- African Grey Parrot During an experiment Alex, the African Grey parrot was presented with blocks in differently colored sets of two, three, and six. When researchers asked Alex which colour group had five blocks, he answered with the label, 'None'. Alex had never been taught to use 'none' to indicate an absence of a quantity— he had an understanding of 'zero' without ever being taught about it. Cormorants are used by Chinese fishermen to catch fish. When they have caught seven fish they are given the eighth as a reward. In one experiment it was observed that, once they had caught seven fish the birds refused to move again until they were allowed to eat the eighth fish. They ignored an order to dive and sat motionless on their perches. Other birds that had not caught seven continued to catch fish as usual. Cormorants - Chinese fishermen Chimpanzee Wildlife experts have noticed that male chimps attack other male chimp intruders only when they are three against one and are sure of winning. Otherwise they remain silent. In an experiment two rhesus monkeys were shown  35 sets of images on a screen. Each picture contained a different number of different objects, for example, one triangle, two bananas, three hearts and four apples shown in  random position, colours and sizes . When the monkeys touched the pictures in ascending order up to nine, they received a prize. If they made an error, a new trial began with different pictures. The monkeys could manage very well. The Tunisian desert ant can navigate its way in the desert. This tiny creature wanders across the desert sands for fifty meters until it stumbles across the remains of an insect, bites off a piece and takes it directly back to its nest – a one millimeter hole. How does it find its way back? Human mariners and lunar astronauts navigate by charts, tables, measuring instruments, and mathematics. The tiny desert ant has none of these. Which means that they calculate the horizontal projection of the distance traveled, estimate the slopes, multiply the traveled distance by the cosine of the angle of inclination to work out the ground distance. Desert Ants If you want to find the world's greatest mathematician, just visit the ocean or look up at the birds in the sky. Nature has given many animals and plants built-in mathematical abilities that are truly remarkable.