Nature

Natures art

9/13/2018

Two years ago I started this blog to share the beauty I find in unexpected places … in nature … in the human spirit … in highways and back roads. Come with me today into shady corners and exposed rocky outcrops where the small things live. Into a world often bypassed, a world of surprising colour, of other-worldliness, of strange textures and intriguing shapes … an understory of oddity and intriguing beauty ... contemporary art as only nature can paint it.

You’ve probably passed it by a thousand times, this fascinating ecosystem that inhabits almost every type of surface and survives everywhere form the tropics to Polar Regions … the world of lichen.

Supposedly it was Beatrix Potter whose fascination for drawing fungi and lichen led her to be the first to propose that lichen was a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae. This strange ‘dynamic duo’ of the plant world, is so intimately interconnected that they appear as one single organism. It’s mostly a happy marriage, the algae's photosynthesis producing the sugar and carbohydrates, which the fungi needs and the fungi providing a safe shelter for the algae.

Together they cover approximately 8% of the entire surface of the planet, are considered one of the oldest living things and currently about 25,000 species have been identified. It has no roots, stems or flowers, grows no more than 1mm each year and can live for several centuries.

Imagine a miniature world where tiny animals find shelter amongst its canopy, animals that become food for spiders and insects, which in turn feed birds. It feeds elk, moose and reindeer in the depths of winter and also desert dwelling animals who scavenge the rocks searching for sustenance. It’s a vital part of the food chain.

But it’s so much more. It can invade bare rock and secrete acid that breaks down the rock to create soil. It extracts nitrogen from air and makes it available for plants. Birds use it to line their nests and squirrels, their burrows.

And man has used it in so many different ways. Some lichen has been found to have antibiotic and anti-viral qualities. Others are being researched for unique sun blocking properties after they were taken into space in 2009 and exposed to the full force of the sun’s radiation for 15 days with no harmful effects.

Lichen has also been used for tanning, clothing, brewing, perfume making, even poisons. It has been used widely for dying wool and silk, beautiful, rich natural dye. Harris Tweed’s characteristic orange colour was traditionally produced using a dye extracted from rock dwelling lichen.

No doubt it was part of the artist’s toolbox in early centuries as he milled all his own paint from nature before the industrial revolution introduced another way.

I love the way lichen splashes itself across the landscape with such vivid abandon. I love its quirky beauty. It reminds me that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, that it defies all expectations and preconceived ideas. Often it is small and we miss its wonder. Sometimes beauty is whimsical and mysterious and surprising. Sometimes it challenges me to look deeper and see beyond the external to the heart of things.

And it reminds me that we need each other, that in mutuality we can create even greater beauty.

Be open to the amazingly complex and unique world of lichen and be surprised by its beauty and diversity ... its all around us waiting to be enjoyed.

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Fighting superbugs

3/21/2018

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In 1989, Japan’s Shinkansen Bullet train had a problem. It could travel approximately 170 mph but every time it emerged from a tunnel, it did so with a supersonic boom. In densely populated residential areas this was unacceptable. Enter Eiji Nakatsu, the general manger of the technical department. Eliji was a bird watcher.

His knowledge of birds and their abilities brought to the table design possibilities that science and technology alone could never have invented. The new prototype had the wings of an owl, the body of a penguin and the beak of a kingfisher. It travelled 10% faster, used 15% less electricity and stayed under the 70-decibel noise limit in residential areas.

Using the natural world to solve global problems isn’t new, but its gaining momentum and it now has a name all of its own. Janine Benyus, coined the word, Biomimicry in her book, Innovation inspired by nature. She is a consultant to business and government on how to solve global problems by observing nature. She believes that people who design our world often have little understanding of the natural world. Bringing a biologist to the table can often helps solve the problems.

Certainly that's what CSRIO scientist, Dr Janet Newman is discovering in her research into the fight against superbugs. And that fight has led her to a most unexpected place — the dirt edges of the riverbanks of Eastern Australia. She hopes that the egg-laying, duck-billed, otter-footed, beaver-tailed platypus holds the secret to finding a new way to kill harmful bacteria that have built up a resistance to antibiotics.

Although the platypus is a mammal, it lays eggs and its young are born with virtually no immune system. It has no nipples, so secretes milk onto small pads on the underside of its body for the babies to lap up. Of course that can be a dirty business in a riverbank, which is what got scientists intrigued and keen to find out if the milk had special antibacterial properties.

Collecting a sample of milk involved creeping through a river, trapping a platypus and gently stimulating milk production to collect a small amount of the precious milk. From the sample they were able to extract a protein that has antibacterial properties and identify its structure, allowing them to make a synthetic version that they can reproduce.

The protein shape “Is particularly unusual, and it hints that the protein may be killing bacteria in a different way to most bacterial substances.” Dr Newman said. Now the goal is to identify just how it works.

Who knows what other secrets the shy platypus may hold. Native to the Eastern coast of Australia, it’s an intriguing animal. Folds of skin cover their eyes and ears to stop water entering and the nostrils close with a watertight seal so finding food under water relies on its bill.

The bill is covered with acutely sensitive electroreceptors, which pick up minute amounts of electricity emitted by the muscle contraction of aquatic invertebrates. This acts as a sixth sense for the platypus.

Its fur is unique too with 600-900 hairs per square millimetre, more than polar bears. It traps a layer of insulating air to keep the platypus warm and waterproof. They can consume their entire body weight in food within 24 hours and they are crepuscular (active in twilight) and evening.

The male platypus has a poisonous spur on their hind legs, a poison deadly enough to kill a dog. Australian scientists are now investigating if platypus venom could hold the key to Diabetes treatment and the signs are positive.

There is still so much in nature we don’t understand, so much still to be discovered and so many secrets to unlock which could help solve the increasing problems of our modern world.

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Its a hoot

2/7/2018

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My grandson asked me to write a blog about owls, so I took up the challenge. Now owls might not be your thing but please read on, you might be surprised.

Maybe you first met an owl in the Hundred Acre Wood, an owl who liked to share his wisdom with Pooh, Eyeore and Piglet and spelt his name, Wol. Or maybe you remember some wise old owls talking late into the night discussing the state of things in the land of Nardia, in The Silver Chair, by CS Lewis. But if you’ve never met an owl before, let me introduce you.

Owls are mostly creatures of the night, which probably explains why we don’t meet them too often. However, I often have the dubious pleasure of the company of a Boobook owl who sits on the power lines outside my bedroom window and hoots monotonously into the night.

And then there’s the Powerful Owl I’ve seen on a couple of occasions in the bush opposite my house, probably because its home to their favourite food, possums and sugar gliders. He’s the largest owl in Australia and has a small head for such a very big owl. One year a couple nested and we got to meet baby Powerful Owl.

There are known to be 216 species of owls in the world. Unlike other birds, owls have forward facing and completely immobile eyes. To compensate, they have 14 vertebrae in their neck rather than the usual seven. This enables them to turn their heads 270 degrees as they hunt for prey - extreme motion that in humans would cause blood flow interruptions or arterial injuries. But here's the amazing thing.

Scientists have discovered that owls have a blood-pooling system that collects blood to power their brain and eyes when circulation is cut off. They also have alternative blood vessel routing and types of air cushioning that prevents rupture during violent movement of the head.

Like humans (and unlike most other birds), they have binocular vision – able to see with both eyes at the same time, giving three-dimensional vision so they can judge the distance to their prey with great accuracy. They have three eyelids. The upper eyelid lowers for blinking, the lower eyelid closes up for sleeping and a third eyelid closes diagonally across the eye to keep the eye clean.

But one of their greatest attributes is their ability to fly and flap silently. Scientists have recognised this for centuries but had never been able to discover how, until the use of high resolution microscopy revealed the answer.

Professor Nigel Peake of Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, explained, “the flight feathers on an owl’s wing have a downy covering. In addition to this fluffy canopy, owl wings also have a flexible comb of evenly spaced bristles along their leading edge, and a porous and elastic fringe on the trailing edge. No other bird has this sort of intricate wing structure … it serves to reduce noise by smoothing the passage of air as it passes over the wing – scattering the sound so their prey can’t hear them coming.” The curvature of owls' wings also helps them fly slowly and silently.

This discovery has opened the door for new ways of designing wind turbines to make them quieter, without a noticeable effect on aerodynamics. The race is on with enormous possibilities. Currently wind turbines are heavily braked to minimise noise, this could mean higher speeds, more electricity and less noise. Research is now underway to also use this knowledge to make planes and drones quieter, but that is at least 20 years away.

Not all owls are nocturnal some are diurnal (active during the day), including Northern Pygmy owls which are only six inches long. And thought to be the largest owl in the world, the Blakiston Fish Owl, has a wingspan of 2 metres and spends much of his time wading in the shallows, hunting for prey.

So not all owls live in trees. There are Burrowing Owls that take up residence in discarded squirrel holes. They can fly as well as using their long legs to run and capture prey.

And speaking of legs, owls have three toes or talons pointing forwards and one backwards but they can rotate one of the forward pointing talons to the back to better grip their prey. Some owls have feathers on their feet to protect them from the cold.

Did I mention that owls can hear up to 10 times better than humans? They can locate their prey in total darkness, using only their hearing. Each ear is slightly different and positioned with one ear a little higher and more forward than the other. The owls' face works in a similar way to humans' outer ears - collecting and directing sound toward the inner ears.

A Tawny frogmouth - often mistakenly thought to be an owl

I'm in awe of the design and minute detail that comes together to fit an owl for the purpose for which it was created. I love the challenge it affords scientists to see how this masterpiece of nature can help solve some of the problems of the present age.

It's all there in nature - the sources of healing, the engineering solutions and even the aerodynamic and architectural answers, if only we have the eyes to see and the curiosity and wonder to explore.

And something you don't see every day, an owl floating on a sea of ice.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/563782300468953/permalink/847651752082005/
This video was taken on 1/20/18 by Gary Cranfield on lake Ontario

NB. One owl is an awesome thing but when you get a group of owls, it’s said you have a ‘parliament’. In Greek mythology, the owl is the symbol of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, so I guess that means that parliament is thought of as the seat of wisdom … well possibly in the land of Narnia but not, may I say, the parliament of today.

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Natures art

Fighting superbugs

Its a hoot

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