Parthenogenesis or Virgin Birth

Parthenogenesis (from the Greek παρθένος parthenos, "virgin", + γένεσις genesis, "birth") is a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male. It is a form of reproduction in which the ovum develops into a new individual without fertilization by a male.

Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some invertebrate animal species (e.g. water fleas, aphids, nematodes, some bees, some Phasmida, some scorpion species, and parasitic wasps) and some vertebrates (e.g. some reptiles, fish, and very rarely birds and sharks). Komodo dragons and the hammerhead- and blacktip sharks have recently been added to the list of vertebrates that exhibit differing forms of asexual reproduction.

The phenomenon of parthenogenesis was discovered in the 18th century by Charles Bonnet. In 1900, Jacques Loeb accomplished the first clear case of artificial parthenogenesis when he pricked unfertilized frog eggs with a needle and found that in some cases normal embryonic development ensued. Artificial parthenogenesis has since been achieved in almost all major groups of animals, although it usually results in incomplete and abnormal development. Numerous mechanical and chemical agents have been used to stimulate unfertilized eggs. In 1936, Gregory Pincus induced parthenogenesis in mammalian (rabbit) eggs by temperature change and chemical agents. No successful experiments with human parthenogenesis have been reported.

Parthenogenesis has been studied extensively in the New Mexico whiptail, of which 15 species reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis. These lizards live in the dry and sometimes harsh climate of the south-western United States and northern Mexico.

A parthenogenetic baby Komodo dragon, Chester Zoo, England

Recently, the Komodo dragon, which normally reproduces sexually, was found also to be able to reproduce asexually by parthenogenesis. A Komodo dragon at London Zoo named Sungai laid a clutch of eggs in late 2005 after being separated from male company for more than two years. Scientists initially assumed that she had been able to store On December 20, 2006, it was reported that Flora, a captive Komodo dragon living in the Chester Zoo in England, was the second known Komodo dragon to have laid unfertilized eggs: she laid 11 eggs, and 7 of them hatched, all of them male. Scientists at Liverpool University in England performed genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being moved to an incubator, and verified that Flora had never been in physical contact with a male dragon. After Flora's eggs' condition had been discovered, testing showed that Sungai's eggs were also produced without outside fertilization.

A bonnethead, a type of small hammerhead shark, was found to have produced a pup, born live on 14 December 2001 at Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska, in a tank containing three female hammerheads, but no males. The pup was thought to have been conceived through parthenogenic method.

It has been hypothesized that this reproductive adaptation allows a single female to enter an isolated ecological niche and by parthenogenesis produce male offspring, thereby establishing a sexually reproducing population. Despite the advantages of such an adaptation, zoos are cautioned that parthenogenesis may be detrimental to genetic diversity.

History of Unusually Named Places

1. Boring, Oregon

Boring is an unincorporated community located in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 212. It is approximately eight miles south of Gresham and about the same distance from Clackamas, both suburbs of Portland. The town is roughly twenty miles southeast from downtown Portland. The community was named after W. H. Boring, an early resident of the area. His grandson, W.H Boring, at age 91 was still a part of the community until 2002. Boring was platted in 1903 as "Boring Junction". The post office was established and named "Boring" the same year, and the builders of the interurban railway adopted Boring as the name of the community. The name "Boring" is embraced by locals, however, and found in many local businesses, resulting in many road signs that seem humorous to outsiders.

2. Why, Arizona

Why is a small unincorporated rural community in Pima County, Arizona, United States. It lies near the western border of the Tohono O'Odham Indian Reservation and due north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Southern Arizona. It is approximately thirty miles north of the Mexican border where Lukeville, Arizona, and Sonoita, Sonora, Mexico, border each other, and ten miles south of Ajo, Arizona. The population in Why at the 2000 census was approximately 113. The unusual name of the town comes from the fact that the two major highways, State Routes 85 and 86, originally intersected in a Y-intersection. At the time of its naming, Arizona law required all city names to have at least three letters, so the town's founders named the town "Why" as opposed to simply calling it "Y."

3. Whynot, Mississippi

Whynot is a rural unincorporated community in southeastern Lauderdale County, Mississippi, United States. Its history dates back to the 1840s.The area was first served by a post office called Whitesville, which was established June 23, 1852. The name was changed to Why Not December 30, 1852.

4. Loveladies, New Jersey 

Loveladies is a neighborhood and unincorporated area located in the northernmost portion of Long Beach Township, New Jersey. The area is on Long Beach Island, between Barnegat Light and Harvey Cedars. When the U.S. Life Saving Stations were established on Long Beach Island back in the 1870's, they were usually given names, and there was a great deal of discussion on what to name Station Number 114. It was finally named after an island in the bay owned by Thomas Lovelady, a hunter and sportsman. The small community has had several other names through the years. The railroad stop had been called Club House, and around the time of World War II it acquired the name of Long Beach Park. Then in 1952, the area officially became Loveladies, keeping the name originally given to the site.

5. Lonelyville, New York

Lonelyville is a small beach community located in the western end of Fire Island in the town of Islip in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Lonelyville has approximately 60 houses and is located between Dunewood and Atlantique. It is unclear when and why Lonelyville earned its name. However it appears that the name was already in use by the 1880’s when Captain Selah Clock built a four hundred foot pier into the ocean and established the Fire Island Fishing Company there. The pier remained standing long after Captain Clock’s fishing company shut down and became somewhat of a landmark for that part of Fire Island. The Hurricane of 1938 finally took what remained of the slowly deteriorating pier. As recently as August 2008, footings for the pier could be seen about 100 feet off the shore and submerged 20 feet under water.

A 1924 picture of "The Bottle"

6. The Bottle, Alabama

The Bottle, Alabama is a community located in the northern corporate limits of Auburn, Alabama. The Bottle is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 280 and Alabama Highway 147, five miles (8 km) north of downtown Auburn, and adjacent to the Auburn University North Fisheries Research Complex. The Bottle is named for the bright orange wooden replica of a Nehi soda bottle which stood in the location for nine years during the 1920s and 1930s.

Built in 1924, and billed as "the world's largest bottle", The Bottle (sometimes referred to as The "Nehi Inn") was built by John F. Williams owner of the Nehi Bottling Company in Opelika, Alabama. The Bottle stood 64-feet (19.5 m) tall, and measured forty-nine feet (14.94 m) in diameter at the base, and 16 feet (4.88 m) at the cap. The ground floor was a grocery store and service station, and the 2nd and 3rd floors were living quarters and storage. The neck of the Bottle had windows so it could be used as an observation tower where you could see miles of countryside. The "bottle cap" was the roof. Inside there was a spiral oak stairway. Fire consumed the Bottle in 1933, destroying the largest bottle in the world and ending an era of a gathering place for tourists and local men to swap yarns around a potbellied wood stove, BBQs and a party every Friday night on the balcony above the service station. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stopped briefly at The Bottle after visiting Auburn, as did Minnie Pearl. Even though the Bottle structure no longer exists, the name does and is still on Alabama maps listing the area as "The Bottle."

"The Bottle" today

Currently, in The Bottle's former location stands only an empty lot. The property was put on sale in 2005 by First Realty of Auburn. The land was purchased in early 2006 by The Hayley Redd Development Company.

The Bermuda Triangle or The Devil's Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared mysteriously. The Bermuda Triangle, also called the Devil's Triangle, is an imaginary area that can be roughly outlined on a map by connecting Miami, Florida; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the Bahamas, an island chain off the coast of the United States. Within that triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean have occurred a number of unexplained disappearances of boats and planes.

The Bermuda Triangle, a sinister sea as beautiful as it is deadly. Boats never make it home. Planes vanish from the sky. There's rarely a mayday, never a trace- just baffling tragedies that seem to defy any explanation. Over the years, swarms of theories have been proposed, examined, and, for the most part, thrown back.

The area known as the Bermuda Triangle is one of the two places on Earth where a magnetic compass does point towards true north, a phenomenon called compass variation. Navigators must compensate the amount of variation or the craft they are on will go off course. A region commonly called the "Devil's Sea" in the Pacific Ocean is the other area of compass variation.

In March 1918, during World War I, the USS Cyclops vanished in the Bermuda Triangle. That ship may have been a casualty of war, but the December 1945 disappearance of Flight 19, a training squadron of five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers, became the most notorious of disappearances associated with the Bermuda Triangle. The squadron left Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with 14 crewmen and disappeared after radioing in several distress messages. A seaplane sent in search of the squadron also vanished. Those two airplane disappearances were frequently cited as the Bermuda Triangle legend grew during the 1960s and 1970s.

Other aircraft that have disappeared in the area include a DC-3 carrying 27 passengers in 1948 and a C-124 Globemaster with 53 passengers in 1951. There are many other documented disappearances that occurred within the triangle. They include a four-engine Tudor IV air-plane lost in 1948, with 31 aboard; an American freighter, the SS Sandra (1952), which sunk without a trace; a British York transport plane, disappeared in 1952, with 33 aboard; a U.S. Navy Lockheed Constellation airplane, vanished in 1954 with 42 aboard; a U.S. Navy seaplane, 1956, with a crew of 10; a French freighter in 1970; and a German freighter, Anita, lost in 1972 with a crew of 32.

The first documented encounter in the Bermuda Triangle was by Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) who encountered mysterious lights and compass malfunctions on his first voyage through the area. Much of the Bermuda Triangle mystery was put to rest by a book titled Bermuda Triangle: Mystery Solved by Larry Kusche, a researcher at the University of Arizona. Kusche found many of the supposed mysteries of the Triangle either occurred in other parts of the ocean or in adverse weather conditions.

The Gulf Stream, which runs the length of the Bermuda Triangle, can quickly move debris from a boat or plane accident away from scene, eradicating any trace of the incident. The Bermuda Triangle regularly experiences weather conditions such as thunderstorms, waterspouts, and hurricanes that can be potentially lethal to any craft caught in their path. Recent satellite research has proven the rogue waves, single waves reaching 80 ft or higher, occur with relative frequency in open ocean areas such as the Bermuda Triangle. These waves can damage or destroy even the largest ships.

One of the most popular recent theories to explain the Bermuda Triangle involves an electromagnetically induced fog that wreaks havoc on passing ships and planes. Self-styled physicist John Hutchison claims to have accidentally created the electronic fog that supposedly plagues the Triangle in his apartment as part of a phenomenon he has dubbed “The Hutchison Effect.”

Facts about Strawberries

Strawberries, the small red fruits clad in scarlet red, dotted with tiny seeds and wearing green little caps, make one of the most deliciously attractive fruits on Earth! Some believe that the name hailed from the practice of placing straws around the growing strawberry plants. Other say that the name evolved around 1000 years ago from the word, 'strew' that means 'spread', applicable to runners that spread outwards from the strawberry plants.

Here are some of the interesting facts about strawberries.

 

• Strawberries are not fruits. They are enlarged receptacles of the flowers.
• Strawberries are a member of the rose family.
• Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside.
• The average strawberry has 200 seeds.
• Strawberries are the first fruit to ripen in the spring.
• There is a museum in Belgium just for strawberries.
• The United States is the greatest producer of strawberries. California has around 700 strawberry growers and it produces strawberries on over 20,000 acres of land every year. Surprisingly the entire land of the USA is considered to be fertile for growing strawberries.
• Spain followed the United States in the list of strawberry producers worldwide.
• Ninety-four percent of US households consume strawberries.
• Americans eat 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries each year plus another 1.8 pounds frozen per capita.
• Strawberries are low fat, low calorie; high in vitamin C, fibre, folic acid, potassium.
• Strawberries can reduce the risk of cancers and heart attacks.
• Italians call strawberries by the name ‘Fragola’
• Medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals to symbolize righteousness.
• The English and the French used strawberries to landscape their gardens. In the 14th century, Charles V of France had ordered 1200 strawberry plants to be grown in the Royal Gardens.
• It is believed that Madame Tallien, an important person in Emperor Napoleon’s Court, used to bathe with the juice of fresh strawberries.
• Some people believe that strawberries are symbol of Venus (Goddess of Love) and newlyweds were served strawberries.
• It is believed that if you split a double strawberry in half and share it with the opposite sex, you’ll soon fall in love.
• A survey has also revealed that those who love strawberries are of a fun-loving nature while those who hate strawberries are weird morons.

So you love strawberries or not!