Adventure Ausrama Blog

New technology automates sexing of chicks. Fattening up male chicks is a waste of resources. Furthermore, having to manually check the sex of chicks that are sold to producers is a costly burden. There must be an easier way. In Europe a way of determining the sex of chicks while still in the egg will revolutionize the industry. Female chickens fatten up much quicker than males. Moreover, males do not lay eggs. It may be possible to on-sale the "rejected" eggs for production of egg powder. The new system is 95 per cent effective after the ninth day of gestation. The way male chicks are disposed of at present is not pretty: they are crushed alive by an industrial crusher. At first, Wouter Bruins of the Netherlands had the aim of ending this mass euthanizing. Now it is seen as a potential extremely profitable enterprise. Sexing can be done at the rate of 4,500 an hour. ◆ Technology by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Tys Countr y Amusing Animal Photos Odd Weird Thin...

Early European settlers were amazed by the emu.  Governor Lachlan Macquarie was so impressed that, in 1822, he sent two emus as gifts to the Governor-General of India, the Marquis of Hastings.  When Macquarie set sail from Australia back to England on the ship Surry, he wrote that voyaging with the passengers were "pets" that included six emus, travelling in roomy well aired pens  well-aired pens. The animals were to be given as gifts to friends and patrons of Governor Macquarie back in England. Unfortunately many of the pets, including one of the largest emus died on the trip. In l791 John Harris, who arrived in the new colony as a surgeon, wrote that emus were swifter than the fleetest of greyhounds. Emu eggs were described as dark Green with little black specks the of pins.  It is a little larger than goose eggs.  The emu is Australia’s largest bird standing up to 2 metres high. lt has wings but it can°t fly. lt can run really quickly around 50 kilometres pe...

Wasps enslave caterpillars. It could be seen as a genetics accident, though it appears to be a conscious decision by Someone out there. The wasps could not survive without caterpillars. If caterpillars all died out so would wasps. Parsitic wasps lay their eggs in all types of lepidoptera caterpillars. Both insects are so close in evolutionary terms that some wasp genes are actually in caterpillars. The reason for this is that 300 million years ago there was a common ancestor of Hymenopter, the insect order to which wasps belong, and Lepidoptera caterpillars. When eggs are laid inside the caterpillars, a large bracovirus is injected which supresses the immune response of Lipidoptera, so grubs are not killed off. They hatch and eat caterpillars alive! Sometimes caterpillars survive and develop into buterflies and moths with bracovirus DNA because it was picked up from wasps before injection into caterpillars. ◆ Genetics by Ty Buchanan   ◆ Adventure Australia Fun...

Australian and US Scientists have discovered how to unboil eggs. This is not the whole egg as you would see on your dinner plate : just egg white. Transport of egg white will be revolutionized, no more need to ship fragile whole eggs in their shells (egg white powder is available though not that useful in such a form) .  Laboratories will be using the protein as a base medium for research. A protein is added to pre-boiled egg white which untangles proteins thus allowing them to refold. The procedure is quick and cheep, cheap - sorry about the pun! It is a two stage process. First a substance from urea is added, then the remaining lumps are untangled using a special machine. Reconstituted egg white can be used in cancer treatment, cheese manufacturing and the farming industry. A patent has been applied for. There is always a catch, but that's life I suppose. ✴  Chemistry by Ty Buchanan ✴ http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustra...

Being overweight leads to heart disease but it can also cause osteoporosis. This is due to people cutting out vital elements in the diet in their attempts to lose weight. Dairy products are essential for strong bones. Yet milk, butter and cheese are precisely what it being disregarded in diet by 30 per cent of women. Another danger is the consumption of bread. An astounding 40 per cent of women have stopped eating this food that is calcium fortified.  It must be remembered though that bread has only been part of the human diet for 10,000 years.  It could be the cause of many humans "diseases". Research has shown that the real cause of weight gain is carbohydrates. Yes, it's as simple as that. People who only cut out sugar lose weight very quickly and maintain a low body weight thereafter. People concentrate on eating low fat diets even though research shows this to be the wrong thing to do. Look at movies made up to WWII. Actors and actresses and especially the extras ...

Coles and Woolworths promise no support for battery chickens and pork grown in like manner. They say they will only purchase from "green" suppliers. Is this being good citizens on their part? Well frankly, it is not. Controlling 80 per cent of the market they have the power to force low prices on more expensive production. We will see small operations go to the wall and a future oligopoly forming. When this is finalized, like in the paint market, buyers will have to pay the price offered by the few gigantic producers. For example, Bunnings has to take prices of the few paint manufacturers. Furthermore, there is nothing to stop backyard battery operations selling at weekend markets. Legislated changes have unintended consequences. The result will be more expensive eggs. This has to be the case. Higher costs mean higher prices overall. This is economic fact. Get ready to see cardboard signs nailed to front fences of houses selling "home grown" eggs. http:...

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...

Mussel sperm have to find the right egg. This is not as easy as it seems. When the eggs are released they can be scattered through ocean water or river. While mussels are attached to rocks, eggs and sperm are at the mercy of the elements. The eggs have to let sperm know that the eggs are available, so they send out a chemical message to attract suitable sperm. Many species release chemical signals. The message sent has to be differentiated to prevent fertilization by siblings. A test was done forcing sperm to fertilize chosen eggs. Only compatible matches gave healthy offspring. In a later test mussel sperm were observed to choose compatible eggs to produce health young. This is the first time chemical attraction has been observed in mussels. It shows how important compatibility is in many species. This brings into question the theory of gene pools where there is deemed to be no barrier to gene pairing. The idea that any male and female can have offspring no longer stan...

Baby turtles hatch all at the same time. This is no accident: they communicate with each other while they are still buried under the ground. Some eggs are deep down where it is cooler. Others are near the surface where the sun heats the eggs up. As hatching gets closer those further down speed up their development while those higher up slow down. University of Western Sydney researcher Ricky-John Spencer randomly collected turtle eggs then put them into two groups. One group was incubated at 25 degree Centigrade, the other group are 30 degrees. They were then all brought together and kept at the same temperature: they all hatched at the same time. Jessica McGlashan took a closer look. She brought a female turtle into the lab and collected the eggs the turtle laid. One half of the eggs were put into the incubator at 30 degrees, While the other half received 26 degree incubation. Some eggs from both temperatures were then put into one group in the incubator at the higher temper...

Law is just pedantic. Legal proceedings are to be undertaken to define the precise meaning of "free to roam" chicken. Can chicken roam freely when they are packed into barns? The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is arguing that the high population density of barn chicken prevents them roaming freely. Turi Foods, Baiada Poultry and the Australian Chicken Meat Federation are accused of misleading advertising. The court case could fall either way. There is no doubt television adds showing chicken wandering with large spaces between them are not showing the true condition. However, a chicken is free to move if another chicken moves out of the way first in normal barn chicken egg production. Of course free-range chicken supporters are in favor of the ACCC action. There isn't much doubt that the real truth about barn production is not being shown in the advertisements. Other products are also not telling the truth in advertising either and the ACC...

"I did have one very large egg." http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Funny Animal Photos

Australia has a rare turtle restricted to the Mary River in Queensland. The University of Queensland has concluded that global warming will seriously endanger this species. Eggs were collected and incubated at 26, 29 and 32 degree Centigrade. Young turtles from eggs incubated at the highest temperature stayed in shallow water because they had difficulty swimming. Life expectancy would be short for these young. Food is in deeper water and there is safety from predators. The Mary River turtle, Elesor macrurus , is classed as endangered. Numbers have been falling for several decades. Other dangers to their survival are eggs being collected to the pet trade and introduced predators such as dogs and foxes. It is suspected that other species of turtle are similarly affected. Circumstances for the Mary River turtle are particularly dire because nests are in shallow water which can be directly affected by a warming atmosphere. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.ty...

People expect treatment of animals to be free. This is a fact. That is why there is a high suicide rate for veterinary surgeons. The suicide rate for vets is four times higher than the rest of the population. In cities people take their pets to the vet when there is serious injury or illness or when an animal is at death's door. If their pet dies while being treated or operated on it is the norm, expected, that the vet will wave charges. And again, after a pet is put down it is deemed to be rude for the vet to charge a reasonable fee. Rural regions operate in a different way. Veterinary surgeons are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At lambing time they are rushed off their feet. Every farmer pays 3 months after service, so vets are in debt to the bank from the start. The days of paying with eggs are not gone either. Meat is often offered as payment. Why do people train to be vets? They obviously love animals, like the technical side of the job, or have community spirit. They ...

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...

You may not be responsible for aggressive behavior. New research shows that it could be caused by a chemical that strongly influences what you do, a chemical that you are not aware of. The Longfin squid lays its eggs each year in warm shallow water. Eggs are coated with a protein pheromone. When a male squid gets close to the eggs the chemical is absorbed and the sea creature attacks any other male squid in close proximity. It was thought that the cause of human aggression was in the brain which interacts with the body's physiological structure. This is now brought into question. Squid are complex, like humans. A similar protein pheromone is found in human seminal fluid. 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 ~~~~~ Science ~~~~~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .