Archive for January 30, 2019

How do seagulls drink saltwater?

For anyone currently whiling away their time at a beach (with a laptop and Internet connection, I guess), this question might occur to you. How do gulls, those birds so adept at stealing your sandwich or even invading your hotel room through an open balcony, drink saltwater?

Gulls, and many other charadriiform birds, have supraorbital glands (also called nasal or salt glands) that help regulate the ionic balance of their blood, according to Britannica Online. While some salt is processed by the kidneys, the excess runs through the glands, which are positioned in grooves of the skull, and trickles out through the nostrils. Other animals also have salt glands, including sea turtles, crocodiles (crocodile tears) and sharks.

Interestingly however, saltwater isn’t the gulls’ drink of choice. If they have the opportunity, or if they’re trying to conserve energy, they’ll stick to easier-to-process freshwater. It got me thinking about our own versions of salt glands — no, certainly not our kidneys, they’re lightweights when it comes to salt. I’m thinking of desalination plants, energy-intensive operations that turn saltwater into fresh. Read more

Water Garden Ideas

Water gardens are not a modern garden idea. Using water in gardens is part of an ancient tradition originating in India and the Middle East, where fountains and pools provided a soothing antidote to the stifling midday heat.

Gardeners for the great houses of the aristocracy in England and France later adapted these ideas for use in more northerly climes, realizing that the presence of water can be a beautiful and restful addition to a garden in any climate. Read more

Water Safety Tips

You and your family can have fun and still be safe around water by following the guidelines from Dr. G:

  • Avoid alcohol and drug use before and during activities in or around water or while supervising children.
  • Choose swimming areas that are supervised by trained and certified lifeguards and obey all rules, posted signs, and warning flags.
  • Rip currents are a deadly ocean occurrence. The best way to get out of a rip current is to float on your back until the current stops pulling you, then swim parallel to the shore until you are past the current, then return to shore. Never swim directly into the current.
  • If you don’t know the water depth, avoid diving; a feetfirst entry is safer than headfirst.
  • Wear a properly fitted personal flotation device (life jacket or vest) when boating, water skiing, or using a personal watercraft, regardless of the distance to be traveled, the size of the craft, or your swimming ability.
  • If planning to scuba dive, obtain appropriate training and certifications, heed safety recommendations, and learn the signs and symptoms of decompression illness (joint pain, rash, numbness or tingling, weakness, paralysis, impaired thinking, shortness of breath or coughing, and dizziness or loss of balance).

Read more

Europa Leaked Water Into Space, and NASA Accidentally Flew Through It

Europa, one of Jupiter’s many moons, is hiding a secret beneath its icy crust, but humanity is closer than ever to cracking it.

This NASA illustration shows the Galileo spacecraft after it cruised through a plume bursting from Europa (foreground). Jupiter’s in the background. When water vapor is vented into space, the resulting plume becomes ionized. As the plume interacts with the magnetic field, it causes a characteristic “blip” in the magnetic field

Thought to possess a vast subsurface ocean of liquid water, the fourth-largest Jovian moon is a tantalizing place that could have all the right conditions for extraterrestrial life. In fact, NASA is currently designing a devoted mission, called the Europa Clipper, to possibly reveal its habitable potential. But scientists didn’t need a new spacecraft to make this ground-breaking discovery; they studied old data from a spacecraft that was exploring Jupiter in 1997. That’s according to a May 2018 study published in the journal Nature Astronomy. Read more

Fix Faucet Leaks

A leaky faucet is a common household water waster. A steady drip at the rate of one drop per second wastes 192 gallons of water in a month! The first step in fixing a leaky faucet is to identify the faucet type. Faucets are divided into two basic types: compression faucets and washerless faucets.

Compression faucets, sometimes called stem faucets, always have two handles, one for hot water and one for cold water. When the handle is turned on, the stem rotates. The threads cause the stem to rise, moving a rubber washer away from the faucet seat and allowing water to flow. Then turning the faucet off, you can sometimes feel the rubber washer being squeezed against the faucet seat to stop the flow of water. Read more