Via Tales

Have I ever taken car of star fish? No, but always wanted to. another old post of mine.   Spending time at beach offers golden opportunity to enjoy the perfection of nature. Waves crashing against shore, gentle touch of water to your feet, sand covering the floor as far as your eyes can see, soothing sea breeze etc. When water washes the shore, it exposes range of sea creatures like crabs, shells, star fish and many more. If you find a starfish on the sea shore and wish to preserve it at home as a souvenir then here are few simple steps. ·    See that Starfish that you are going to preserve is deceased one. ·    Starfish has to be soaked in 70% isopropyl alcohol for about 2 days. ·    Then it should be dried completely in sunlight. To prevent curling of its arms while drying, paperweight can be placed on each arm. ·    Once starfish is dry, it can be placed in a dry area at home. As these creatures are very delicate, care should be taken...

Well,  my love for hotdog never fades. Funniest thing is, I hardly would have tasted a single hotdog, whn I posted this in my  friend's blog for first time. Ofcourse, I frequently ate  sausage, but dont even remeber getting hotdog bun or even ordering it in fast-food resturant. Fast forward now, hot-dog is our life saviour, when I and my husband are exhausted to cook dinner.  Hotdog is one of the famous, delicious,  but most misunderstood  food .The popularity of hotdog has been spread across the world over the years and has turn into icon of countries like United States. Hotdog has gained much popularity due to its association with sports especially baseball .   In the  United States of America July is celebrated as  National Hot Dog Month . They have also established National Hotdog & Sausage Council that conducts  scientific research on hot dog and sausage so that manufacturers and  consumers are benefited....

Well, this one I remember! Crazy idea to save a star fish found at Panambur Beach, Mangalore. Star fish looks pretty, May be I wanted to have a fossil of star fish. " Starfish or sea stars are the fascinating creatures with unique appearance. They are the members of class Asteroidea. Starfish like stars attract us but they are not actually fishes. These marine animals are echinoderms. There are over 1,800 species of sea stars, that vary in size, shape and color. Starfish contain hard plates made up of calcium carbonate beneath their skin. They contain special cells in skin that provide information about its surroundings.  Unlike fishes starfish use their tiny tube feet to move along. Star fish have water vascular system that is helpful in movement and predation. They pump sea water into the body through a sieve plate or madreporite, and this water fills the  tube feet of starfish. So movement occurs by extending the filled tube feet and also muscles within the tube feet retrac...

Another oldy goldy blog post of mine. I really dont know what made me write this article because I never tried Civet coffee, though I like to have cold coffee at times. Anyways here it goes: "  The aroma of the coffee itself can give you a feeling of warmth. Coffee lovers definitely enjoy the heavenly feeling while sipping the hot coffee in the chilling winter. Well.. there is a type of coffee with a fame of world’s expensive coffee. And that is Civet Cat Coffee or Kopi Luwak. “Kopi” is the Indonesian term for coffee.   Luwak   is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet in Sumatra. The retail price of this coffee is around US$800 per kilogram. Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Indonesian Archipelago Bali, East Timor.             Civet Cat Coffee has its origins from Indonasia. The history reaches back to 18th century the Dutch Colonialism in Java, Sumatra where Dutch prohibited...

Yet another one. Well,some emotional outburst would have created this blog post, probably something to do with me not getting results in pharmacology lab! Nevermind, if something better comes out of not so good situation, then thats good situation.  "Pleasure and pain are part and parcel of our life. Blending of the emotions like happiness, sad, anger glorifies the life.                 Tears have the primary function of cleaning and lubricating eyes. Tears shed down from eyes for different reasons. It may be reflex reaction like cutting onions or dust in eye; it may be during extreme emotions like grief, sadness or may be due to some underlying pathology.                 It is a well-known fact that we cry when we laugh hard...But why??? Most probable explanation is laughing hard creates pressure on nasolacrimal ducts. So tears canno...

Another old post. Yes, I was a biology student and had avid affection towards plants. But Mimosa was definitely not my favorite. Maybe a random search towards research based on Mimosa, to treat some diseases, made me curious about it!!! "Mimosa pudica L or touch-me-not plant has an unique phenomenon in its ability to close the leaves even for the slightest touch stimuli. Touch-me-not plant is also called by the names humble plant, shameful plant, sensitive plant etc. Mimosa pudica belongs to legume family. Mimosa is a short, prickly, perennial herb with branches growing close to ground. The generic name Mimosa is derived from the Greek in which "mimos" means to "mimic". Latin word "pudica", means "bashful or shrinking to contact". Nyctinastic & seismonastic movement During night leaves of Mimosa close up and reopen in the morning. This is called as nyctinastic movement or sleep movement. Leaves of Mimosa fold inward and droop for the sti...

Another old blog post. I wonder, why was I  creating articles about nature? Life seems really good when we appreciate things in nature. "  Chameleons are lizards belonging to family called Chamaeleonidae. When we think of Chameleons, the first thing that strikes to mind is their ability to change colors. Change of colour to camouflage!!! Not really!!! It’s a popular belief that Chameleons change the color to blend with nature and to hide from predators. But camouflage is not the primary reason for change in skin color. Changing skin color in Chameleons is associated with various factors such as their reactions to temperature, light, mood, aggression, health, mating behavior. Each chameleon species has its own color range. In general calm chameleons show green color. They exhibit darker colors like bright yellow to show their anger. It also serves the purpose of threatening others. Male chameleons when want to mate, show lighter, multicolored patterns.  Female chamele...