Adventure Ausrama Blog

One evolved feature in an animal can affect another feature. Of course, the environment is the main factor in determining which feature wins out. Some animals have developed hibernation to survive harsh winters, but this can affect foetal development. Bears in particular are born very small because of a short pregnancy due to hibernation. Pandas have this trait even though they do not hibernate. They carry the genes for hibernation, though it is not expressed. Oddly, panda cubs are born weaker than other bears. Adult pandas are 900 time larger than their newborns. This ratio is higher than other bears, though polar bear have a ration of 400:1. Mammals generally have a ratio of 26:1 overall. It seems that baby pandas are born prematurely as the norm. Their bones are underdeveloped. This is making survival of the species difficult. Without help from humans the species would have become extinct. Keywords: panda, science, bears, species, birth, news, animals, pan...

The echidna is on the list of Australiana. A particular native mammal is everywhere in Australia. It is the great adapter. The ubiquitous echidna is its name. The Short-beaked Echidna, Tachiglossus aculeatus, is even found in the Australian Alps.  Like the anteater its has a long nose, but that is where the similarity ends. They both eat ants. The echidna has no teeth. In some ways it is like a hedgehog, using spines for defence. They have developed a way of safe mating. The male digs a trench. The female get in as does the male. The male carefully lifts the female's tail and while lying on his side pushes his tail underneath her. No harm is done by the spines. Offspring feed by licking up milk that oozes from the mother's milk patches. They do not have nipples. Babies are born without spines. The mother pushes them away when the spines begin to grow at seven weeks. She feeds on ants and continues to return every five days to feed the young. ◆ Aust...

Things have been falling from the sky for centuries. The usual things are frogs and fish. However, some odd things fell to earth in times past. A Roman era pillar was seen to settle gently on the ground. Unfortunately, this was not proven as fact. It could have happened, though. Apparently, spiders covered farms in the Southern Tablelands. They have been appearing there for some time now. The occurrence has only just been announced. Threads from the webs is what people usually see, not so much the spiders themselves. You have to look closer to see the tiny spiders floating along with the webs. This happens all over the world. We just don't notice the arachnids sticking up their rear ends, pumping out silk and floating off into the blue yonder. It has a name:  ballooning.   Spiders do this as a group taking off from an isolated spot and landing in another. The weather has to be in a specific condition for this to take place. Small spiders and babies of l...

The time when women choose to have babies has changed through history. At the beginning of the 20th century, Doctors told women to wait until they were at least 24 to become pregnant, because it was known that giving births earlier resulted in "damaged" babies due to the lack of medical knowledge at the time.  Waiting too long, however, also resulted in fertility problems. Of course, much of this advice went by the wayside as lack of reliable contraception led to birthing at a younger age anyway. The Great Depression put a real "stymie" on women choosing to have children in their twenties. Lack of income reduced interest in sex and men told their wives to not fall pregnant. At least this is what we are told. War in the late 1930s saw all of this self-control fall away as couples fell pregnant with the view that one could be dead tomorrow. Even in 1942 a doctor said people were selfish and wanted creature comforts more than childr...

There are some people out there with some weird obsessions. Are they obsessive compulsives who are forcing their "sickness" on others? Maybe this is the case. Former Labor Minister Gary Johns is calling for government to tie unemployment benefits to taking the contraceptive. It may be okay to get rid of excessive welfare payments for having babies, but just stopping income for having a child - that is stupid. In a country where population growth by Australian born is declining, it is counter productive. This man is obviously bitter inside. He has an axe to grind and is pestering others to go along with it. Unfortunately for him few are taking much notice, apart from me with this article. With caring costs for the elderly going through the roof, children could be needed to look after the aged. Sex and conception are not rational things. They just happen. Gary Johns' assumption that people will only have offspring when they have a job is stupid. Th...

A man got pregnant in Australia - laugh, laugh, laugh! But you may be surprised to know that it actually happened, many times. Fifty four men have fallen for a baby since 2013 to be precise.  It is perfectly legal here. Now, in Australia one can choose which gender can be used on public records. This has been the cause of records showing male births. Patients are people who are born female and continue to keep their reproductive organs while living as a man. All of the 54 people who have had babies in Australia are transgender, originally being born as a women. One of these was actually 64 years old. The births were covered by medicare. A few did choose to have abortions. Of course some groups have slammed the whole concept as being against nature. ✴ Health by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com/atom.xml . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

It is not work in general that is causing a decline in women giving birth at a young age. It is specifically temporary jobs that are responsible. In Australia part-time and casual employment has boomed over the last decade as employers see it as a way to keep costs down. Many work extra hours for no money at all, afraid of losing their jobs. Women working full time can afford to pay for child care, or at least for critical periods when they are working. Such career women are having children before they reach the age of 35 years. There is a myth out there that it is these career women who are starting families at an older age. Oddly the effects of not working full time changes the behavior of women in the high socieconomic group as well. They may be able to afford childcare from a financial "nest egg", but it is the state of mind about not working enough and not having sufficient income for a family. Financial security in regard to income is essential for women ...

Mothers keep the DNA of their children in their system for a lifetime, particularly the genes of male offspring.  The DNA resides in the mother's brain.  It is not know what the overall effect is on a woman.  It was found, however, that presence of male DNA reduced the incidence of Alzheimer's. All mammals exchange DNA in this way.  It is called fetal microchimerism and has bad effects as well as good.  While improving disease resistance it can lower autoimmune reactions. Until recently humans were not known to have microchimerism, though other animals such as rats did.  Autopsies on middle aged deceased woman found male DNA spread throughout the brain.  A 101 year old lady had DNA present even at her advanced age. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . ....

For many years we have heard nothing but good things about test tube babies, how they are strong and grow faster, etc. Maybe the "authorities" are telling us what we want to hear, with women choosing to have children later in life. Older women having babies had their age taken into account when measuring birth defects. If they smoked this was also given a mathematical allowance. This could be distorting the true picture. There has been a change in the way the "art" of test tube babies is done. Today, an individual sperm is injected into an egg. In the normal fertilization process only the fastest, healthiest sperm is successful. Evaluation of babies shows that birth defects occur in "injected" babies at a rate of 10 per cent. This compares to 6 per cent for naturally conceived babies. Couples who choose the older form of freezing embryos had normal rates of healthy babies. The attempt to get more embryos by injecting sperm, ICSI, seem...

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Women are putting off having babies until they have established a career. This is not good for the child. A woman in her prime is more capable of providing the nourishment a baby needs. Bottle feeding from birth is a poor alternative. The baby does not get the antibodies the mother has and there is the danger of obesity - too much nourishment of the wrong kind. Human babies are not calves. Older mothers rely on IVF and freezing of eggs. There has been a rush for egg freezing in recent years. Doctors don't even need to advertise the service, though many do. Women in their early twenties see it as "insurance" for putting off having a family. There are problems, however, in relying on frozen eggs. The success rate is low. Just under half do not give birth from eggs frozen for 10 years. It is unfortunate that some are making a business out of providing a service that will disappoint many women who have left it too late to have children. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspo...

How could the experts get it so wrong. For many years we were told that Australia should populate or perish. The Bureau of Statistics has released data showing that 296,00 births occurred in 2008. This is 10,000 more that 2007 and 1971, earlier record years. The fertility rate for women is high at 1.97 babies for every female. Tasmanians are really getting on with it (must be the cold climate) with a fertility rate of 2.24. Hot Darwin had a lower rate of 1.76. Not only are women having more babies, but the proportion of women in the population is rising. And the reason for this increase is financial. The Government pays $5,000 to a woman to have a baby. Women are getting pregnant in some cases just to get the money. If they want a big ticket item they see this as the way to get it, irrespective of the lifetime cost of bringing up a child. Another thing is that women who have put off having babies are now reaching the point of no return where they must act or never have children. http:...