Month April 2021

PLANKTON

The sunlit surface waters of many oceans teem with life, most of it microscopic that drifts with the currents. The whole drifting community is called the plankton. It is made up of plant-like phytoplankton, which uses the energy of sunlight to make food from carbon dioxide and water, and zooplankton — animals that feed on both the phytoplankton and each other.

• DIATOMS The phytoplankton consists of microscopic organisms such as diatoms and cyanobacteria. Diatoms have shells of glassy silica that fit together like tiny boxes with lids, and they exist in a dazzling variety of forms. They thrive in cool seas, where they turn the water grey-green and often multiply into vast cloudy “blooms” that are visible from space.
• CRAB LARVA Among the members of the zooplankton are the eggs and young of animals that have very different shapes and lives when adult. They include the eggs of reef corals and infant fish, molluscs, and crustaceans like this crab larva. Drifting in the plankton provides them with food and helps them disperse through the oceans to find new places to live.
• CYANOBACTERIA Once known as “blue-green algae”, these simple organisms were among the first forms of life to appear on Earth, more than 3.5 billion years ago. They still flourish in the oceans where, like diatoms, they turn carbon dioxide and water into sugary carbohydrates.
• COPEPODS Many animals spend their entire lives as members of the zooplankton. They include the tiny shrimp-like copepods, which form dense swarms in many seas, providing food for shoals of fish and giant filter-feeding whales.
• ARROW WORMS These long, almost transparent animals prey on the other creatures of the zooplankton, including copepods. They are named for the way that they shoot forward through the water to catch their victims.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

All living things fall into one of five categories, or “kingdoms” — bacteria and protists (single-celled organisms), fungi, plants, and animals. The animal kingdom is made up of many groups of invertebrates (animals without backbones, such as insects) and a few groups of vertebrates, such as mammals. They all share the ability to move and sense their surroundings, and the need to find food.

1. INSECTS Small animals with hard external skeletons, all insects have six legs when adult and, in most cases, two pairs of wings. They include creatures such as butterflies, wasps, flies, and beetles. Many are very attractive, but some can sting, bite, and carry deadly diseases.
2. WORMS There are many types of worms. They include tapeworms, which live inside other animals, flatworms, and roundworms. Most familiar are segmented worms like the earthworms that burrow in soil, marine worms that live on tidal shores, and leeches.
3. AMPHIBIANS Soft-skinned amphibians, such as frogs and toads, lose body moisture easily. To avoid drying out, nearly all frogs live in damp places, often near a pond. Most lay their eggs in water or other damp places, and this hatch into fish-like young, such as tadpoles.
4. BIRDS These highly specialized, warm-blooded vertebrates are superbly equipped for flight, and some may stay airborne for most of their lives. They are the only animals with feathers, which stop them losing body heat, enable them to fly, and are often brightly coloured.
5. MAMMALS Like birds, mammals are warm-blooded, meaning they can control their body temperature. The females feed their young on milk. Most eat plants, but some, such as lions, are meat eaters. Humans belong to the mammal group.
6. ARACHNIDS The spiders, scorpions, ticks, and their relatives are eight-legged invertebrates with hard external skeletons but no wings. Spiders kill their prey with venomous fangs, and scorpions have stings in their tails, some of which are powerful enough to kill a human.
7. MOLLUSCS Most molluscs are soft-bodied animals that live in water and have protective shells. They include mussels, clams, and whelks. The only molluscs able to live on land are the snails and slugs. Octopuses and squids are also molluscs, but they are highly evolved, with well-developed brains and eyes.
8. CRUSTACEANS Like insects, crustaceans have hard external skeletons with several segments, and strong jointed legs. All are aquatic, apart from woodlice. They include tough-shelled animals like crabs and lobsters, as well as more delicate shrimps and water fleas.
9. MIRIAPODS Named for their many legs, miriapods have long bodies divided into segments. Centipedes have a single pair of legs on each segment, while millipedes have two pairs. Some millipedes have more than 90 segments, and more than 180 pairs of legs. Millipedes eat mainly dead material, but centipedes are speedy hunters.
10. FISH Fish were the first vertebrates, and the ancestors of all amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. They are perfectly adapted for life in water, which supports their bodies and provides them with vital oxygen. There are two main fish groups: those with bony skeletons, and the sharks and rays, which have skeletons of flexible cartilage.
11. ECHINODERMS Sea urchins, starfish, feather stars, and sea cucumbers are echinoderms, meaning “spiny skinned”. Their bodies tend to be wheel-shaped, with a central mouth. Feather stars trap food that floats through their feathery arms, but most searches for food on the seabed.
12. REPTILES Although cold-blooded like amphibians, reptiles such as snakes and lizards have waterproof, scaly skins that allow them to live in dry places such as deserts. Most are active hunters, and some snakes have powerful venom, which they use to kill their prey and for defence, if threatened.

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FUNGI

The mushrooms and other fungi that can appear overnight in damp places are not plants. They belong to a completely separate group of living things that feed on dead or living plants and animals. Each fungus forms a hidden network of slender stems called a mycelium, and the visible part is just the “fruiting body” that sprouts like an apple on a tree to spread the spores that grow into new fungi.

1. OAK BOLETE A typical mushroom has radiating gills beneath its cap that produce millions of spores. Other fungi, like the oak bolete, have spongy undersides that release spores from tiny holes, or are covered with spore-producing tufts.
2. TURKEYTAIL Fungi are vital to life because they break down and recycle dead organisms. The turkeytail grows on dead wood, rotting it down so the nutrients it contains can be used by growing plants.
3. DEATH CAP Some fungi are extremely poisonous if they are eaten. The well-named death cap has probably been responsible for 90 per cent of all known deaths from mushroom poisoning.
4. SAFFRON MILK CAP Many fungi grow around the roots of certain plants, and provide them with plant foods in exchange for sugars. The saffron milk cap, for example, always grows with pine trees.
5. PARASOL MUSHROOM Some fungi, like the penny bun and parasol mushroom, are good to eat. But if you are not an expert at identifying them, you could be poisoned by a killer like the death cap.
6. FLY AGARIC The fly agaric is one of the best-known “toadstools” — a word often used for inedible or poisonous fungi. The white scales on its red cap are the remains of a thin veil that covered the growing fungus.
7. PENNY BUN The root-like fibres attached to the stem are just a tiny part of the penny bun’s mycelium. This can cover huge areas. The mycelium of a single honey fungus can extend 150,000 sq m (1.6 million sq ft).
8. STUMP PUFFBALL Puffballs are named for the way the ripe fungi puff clouds of dust-like spores when they are kicked or hit by rain. Just one giant puffball can contain an amazing 7 trillion (7,000,000,000,000) spores.

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FRUITS

All plants produce fruits that contain their seeds. Some fruits are dry husks, but others are juicy and tasty. These attract animals, which eat them and carry the seeds in their stomachs. The tough-skinned seeds are not digested, but are scattered far away from the parent plant in the animals’ droppings, and grow into new plants. The fruits are cultivated types that have been specially bred for their size and flavour.

1. ORANGE An orange has very soft juicy flesh contained in many segments, which are enclosed by a hard rind. Each segment usually contains a seed, or pip. An orange is technically a type of berry, which develops over the winter from the single ovary of an orange flower. Green at first, it turns orange as it swells to full size.
2. BANANA The bananas that are cultivated in the tropics have been bred to be seedless, but the wild bananas of Southeast Asia have small fruits containing many big, hard seeds. They grow in bunches on large plants with huge leaves that sprout straight from the ground.
3. NUTS All nuts are large seeds, which the plant has equipped with a store of concentrated plant food. This ensures that the seedlings get a good start in life. The nut is surrounded by a hard shell, which is technically a fruit, but tough and fibrous rather than soft and juicy.
4. DURIAN To attract fruit-eating mammals, many fruits are fragrant. The Southeast Asian durian fruit is famous for its strong aroma, which some people like and others hate. Animals such as forest pigs and orang-utans seem to love both its smell and taste.
5. GRAPES Some fruits such as grapes grow as clusters of soft, edible, thin-skinned berries. Each berry has several seeds embedded in its flesh, although many cultivated varieties of grapes are seedless. Berries are often vividly coloured to attract birds, which have excellent colour vision.
6. PEACH The juicy flesh of a peach, plum, or cherry encloses a hard “stone” that contains a single seed. This type of fruit is called a drupe. The fleshy part is meant to be eaten, so animals spread the seeds, but some animals such as parrots can crack the stones and eat the seeds, too.
7. BROAD BEAN The edible part of a broad bean plant is its seeds, and its fruit is the entire pod. The wild ancestors of such beans do not attract animals. Instead, their pods dry up and split open with explosive force, so the seeds shoot out and are scattered on the ground.
8. TOMATO Not all fruits are edible. Some of the wild relatives of tomatoes are extremely poisonous. They include deadly nightshade, which is lethal to humans, although some animals can eat the berries without coming to harm. Tomatoes are also related to chilli peppers.

FLOWERS

Many plants produce beautiful flowers, often vividly coloured and fragrant. These intricate structures form the reproductive parts of plants and have evolved so that they attract insects and birds to sip the sugary nectar at the flower’s centre. While feeding, the insect or bird is dusted with pollen, which is produced by the stamens and contains the male sex cells. The pollen is deposited on the sticky stigma of another flower. This is pollination. A pollen tube then grows down the style to the ovary and fertilizes an ovule. This is fertilization. Some plants, such as grasses and many types of trees, rely on the wind to carry their pollen and their flowers do not need showy petals or fragrant nectar to attract animals. Since this is a less efficient system, they must produce far more pollen, which can fill the air and cause hay fever.

1. Flower Structure A typical flower develops inside a bud at the end of a stalk. When the bud opens, it reveals a ring of petals, each of which secretes nectar from its base. At the centre of the flower lie the male structures that produce pollen. These surround the female structures that hold the ovules, or egg cells. An outer ring of green sepals may protect the flower when it is in bud.
2. Carpel An ovary, a style, and a stigma form the main parts of a carpel. At the heart of the flower lie the ovules, enclosed in a case called an ovary. The top of each ovary extends into a style that carries a sticky pad called a stigma. The flowers of some plants have man carpels, each with their own stigma, but this lily has just one.
3. Stamen The tiny, dust-like pollen grains that contain the male cells are produced by stamens. These usually form a ring around the central carpel or carpels. Each stamen has a long filament, which supports a club-like anther that produces the pollen.
4. Transferring Pollen Insects such as butterflies often drink nectar from one type of flower. Hummingbirds do the same, because their bills are the right shape to reach the nectar. The bird and the insect get dusted with pollen in the process, and carry it directly to another flower of the same type.
5. Fertilization If a hummingbird sips nectar from this lily, it will pickup pollen on its breast feathers. If the bird visits another lily, the sticky central stigma may pick up the pollen. Each pollen grain then sprouts a long tube that grows down through the carpel to reach an ovule. The male cell moves down the tube to fertilize the ovule so it can develop into a seed.

Picture Credit : Google

TREES

Trees are the tallest, heaviest, and oldest of all living things. The Californian giant sequoia known as General Sherman weighs approximately 6,000 tonnes – 30 times as much as the biggest animal, the blue whale. The oldest living bristlecone pine tree, which also grows in California, is nearly 5,000 years old. Yet even these ancient giants can still produce tiny seeds that grow into new trees.

LEAVES Like all green plants, trees absorb sunlight through their leaves and use its energy to turn air and water into sugar. A tree’s leaves are its food factories.

COMPOUND LEAVES Most trees have simple leaves of various shapes, but some have compound leaves, made up of many leaflets. These either sprout from a long stalk (pinnate) or fan out from a single point (palmate).

NEEDLES AND SCALES Thin leaves make food efficiently, but they are easily damaged by hot sunshine or frost. So many trees that grow in very hot or cold places have thicker, tougher needles or scales.

FRUIT The flowers of some trees turn into juicy fruits that contain seeds. If birds eat the fruit, the seeds pass through them unharmed and are scattered far away.

TREE RINGS Every year a tree adds a layer of new wood to its trunk. If the tree is cut down, each year’s growth shows as a visible ring, so the number of rings gives its age.

FLOWERS All trees produce flowers, but some may not be obvious because they do not have colourful petals. Other trees, however, such as apples, have showy flowers that attract insects.

SEEDS AND NUTS Some trees have tiny seeds, but others produce the bigger seeds we call nuts. Animals eat them, but also bury and forget them, so they grow into new trees.

CONES Coniferous trees such as pines have woody cones that contain small papery seeds. When the cones open up in the sun, the seeds fall out and blow way.

DECIDUOUS LEAVES Many trees lose their leaves in winter, and grow new ones in spring. Before they fall, the old leaves lose their green colour and turn yellow, brown or even red.

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PLANTS

All green plants use the energy of sunlight to make sugary carbohydrate food from water and carbon dioxide in the air. This is why they grow well only in sunlit, moist places. The food fuels growth and is used to make cellulose — the tough, fibrous tissue that helps support all the various parts of the plant, from its stems and leaves to its flowers.

1. GERMINATION A bean plant begins life as a seed with two halves, called cotyledons. In spring when the weather is mild, the seed starts to absorb water through a minute hole in its outer coating (the testa). The seed swells and about three days later a root grows to hold the plant in place, and a shoot appears above the ground. This process is called germination.
2. ROOTS The plant’s roots absorb water from the soil. The water is used by the leaves to make food. The water also contains dissolved mineral salts, such as nitrates and phosphates, which are essential for growth.
3. STEM The strong stem of the plant supports its leaves in the sunlight. It also contains bundles of tubes or veins. These allow water containing dissolved nutrients to flow up from the roots to the leaves, and also carry sugary food from the leaves to other parts of the plant.
4. LEAVES The leaves are the plant’s food factories. They act like solar panels, as the green chlorophyll enables the plant to absorb the energy of sunlight and use it for photosynthesis – the process in which the plant takes carbon dioxide from the air, and combines it with water drawn up by the roots to make sugar. Oxygen is also produced in the process and released into the air.
5. TRANSPIRATION As sunlight warms a plant; water in the leaves is lost as water vapour, through pores called stomata. The leaves then take in water from the stem, which in turn draws more water up into the plant from the roots. The water carries nutrients from the soil with it.

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Can you imagine what it would be like if the mighty Iron Man starts spewing Shakespeare’s sonnets? Or if Hulk and Captain America face each other in a Shakespearean duel with swords? Well, you won’t have to wait too long to find out.

The superhero films are all set to be presented in a new avatar with a classical twist. Marvel Studios along with Quirk Books will be releasing The Avengers”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Avengers: Infinity War, and “Avengers: Endgame” in the form of Shakespearean plays. Titled “William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works, the plays will be released on September 28.

Immersing Marvel’s favourite team of superheroes into a Shakespearean world isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. In fact, viewers got a taste of it in the very first “Avenger” film in 2012 when Tony Stark aka Iron Man encounters the God of Thunder for the first time. Looking at Thor’s medieval clothes, Stark jests about indulging in some Shakespeare in the park. “Doth Mother know you weareath her drapes?” Stark famously asks Thor.

And it was actually this scene that inspired Marvel to come up with the unconventional collaboration. The studio wondered what would have happened if the most epic cinematic franchise of all time had been penned by the greatest playwright of all time?

What’s in store

According to the Marvel website, “William Shakespeare’s Avengers: The Complete Works” reimagines all four films as plays by the Bard of Avon, complete with authentic metre and verse, stage directions, and entertaining Easter eggs. Fans will also experience their favourite scenes, characters, and lines in a new way, through monologues and dialogue by everyone from Captain America to Groot (Tis !!).

Written by lan Doescher, the author of “William Shakespeare’s Star Wars”, the book will feature a two column layout and dozens of full-colour illustrations capturing the iconic moments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Who was William Shakespeare?

Born on April 23, 1564 Shakespeare was the son of a glove maker in Stratford upon-Avon. A small-town boy with only secondary school education, he grew up to become the greatest English-language playwright in the world. Love him or hate him, you just cannot ignore Shakespeare. His works have been admired by the world for hundreds of years and are part of the school curriculum.

And even though, the young minds might struggle to comprehend his Victorian English, Shakespeare’s stories continue to move us and remain relevant even today.

His life and achievements

Shakespeare had a successful career in London as an actor. writer. He was also part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men.

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories. He devoted the latter half of his career to writing tragedies. Some of his notable works are “Hamlet” “Romeo and Juliet “Othello”, “King Lear and “Macbeth”. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies.

A man of mystery

For a man who was so prolific with his pen.

Shakespeare did not leave much evidence of his life. No one knows for sure whether Shakespeare is one person or a group of writers using the name collectively. Nobody even knows if that’s how Shakespeare spelled his name: the only surviving examples of his handwriting are six signatures spelled in different ways. He is believed to have died at the age of 52 on April 23 1616.

OH REALLY?

• Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays for the theatre and over 150 poems! But the exact number is unknown.
• In the latter part of the 16th Century, Shakespeare disappeared from records for a few years! Historians often refer to this part of the writers life as the lost years.
• Plays in Shakespeare’s time were different from the ones we have today. There were no female actors. If the audiences didn’t like the performance, they would boo and even throw food at the actors.

 

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The Qutb complex in Delhi contains buildings and monuments from the Delhi Sultanate era. Amongst these is the Qutub Minar, built as a victory tower by Qutb-ud-din Aibak, who was once the Sultan of Delhi. The tower commemorates the victory of the Delhi Sultanate over the Hindu kings. Several monuments were added to the complex later by his successors and future rulers. Today, the complex is a popular tourist spot in the capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

1. Tallest brick minaret

Standing at 72.5 metres, the Qutub Minar is the tallest brick minaret in the world. It has a base diameter of 14.3 metres which reduces to 2.7 metres at the peak. The Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan is the next tallest brick monument at 62 metres. Interestingly, the Qutub Minar is said to have been inspired by the Minaret of Jam.

2. No more climbing to the top

There are 379 steps that lead to the top of the Qutub Minar. It was once allowed for the public to climb the stairs and catch a glimpse of the city from the top. However, on December 4. 1981, a power failure caused a blackout at the staircase, leading to a stampede. Nearly 300 to 400 people were inside when the blackout happened and in the rush to the exit. 47 people, mostly school children, were killed. Ever since, no one has been allowed to climb the monument.

3. The oldest mosque

The Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, which is part of the Qutb complex was commissioned by Qutb-ud-din-Aibak. It was the first mosque to be built in Delhi after the Islamic conquest of India. The mosque is one of the oldest mosques in the country and the oldest surviving example of Ghurid architecture in the Indian subcontinent.

4. Khilji’s incomplete dream

Emperor Alauddin Khilji of the Khilji dynasty enlarged the Quwwat ul-Islam Mosque during his reign. Post this, he wished to build a minaret of his own called the Alai Minar. This was to be double the size of the Qutub Minar. The construction of this minar was however abandoned after his death in 1316, and the 24.5 metre high first storey core of the minar still stands among the ruins of the Qutb complex.

5. The iron pillar

The Iron Pillar of Delhi is part of the Quth complex. It was constructed by emperor Chandragupta II and was erected elsewhere before being moved to its present location. The pillar is famous for the rust-resistant composition of metals used in its construction. Till date, the pillar has not corroded.

 

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Spanning 8,000 sq.km., the Galapagos Islands is an archipelago located in the Pacific Ocean. It is situated about 1,000 km from mainland Ecuador, the country it is part of. It comprises more than 100 islands, including a few that are inhabited. As much as 97% of the total area of the archipelago has been declared a National Park (human occupation in the region occurs in the rest of the 3%). The areas surrounding the region have been declared a marine reserve, and are one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. The region nurtures hundreds of plant species, a dozen native land mammal species, over 35 reptile species and nearly 3,000 marine species. It is home to unusual wildlife such as marine iguanas, giant tortoises, and flightless cormorants. The region today faces several threats, including unsustainable and illegal fishing practices. Such practices endanger both native and migratory species. So, to protect the islands, scientists, conservationists, and NGOS have been calling for the expansion of the current Galapagos Marine Reserve to protect an additional 4,00,000-odd sq.km.

Wildlife

Ducks, teals, pintails, shovelers, junglefowl, grebes, flamingoes, penguins, albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, tropicbirds, frigatebirds, boobies, cormorants, pelicans, herons, egrets, ospreys, crakes, hawks, gallinules, coots, stilts, oystercatchers, plovers, godwits, sandpipers, phalaropes, skuas, gulls, terns, pigeons, doves, cuckoos, owls, swifts, kingfishers, flycatchers, swallows, martins, mocking birds, warblers, and finches are among the several species of birds found in the Galapagos Islands. The mammals seen in the region include several species of whales, including killer whales, sperm whales, blue whales, and humpback whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, rodents, and bats. The reptiles include tortoises, sea turtles, marine iguanas, land iguanas, geckos, lava lizards, and sea snakes.

Did you know?

• It was the birds and animals in the Galapagos Islands that helped Charles Darwin come up with the ground, breaking Theory of Evolution”, dramatically altering the way humankind had perceived its own history till then.
• According to a 2019 study, the waters off the Galapagos Islands have about 10 times more alien marine invertebrates than previously recorded. It recorded as many as 53 non-native marine invertebrates off two islands in the archipelago. The number of such species known earlier was just five! Researchers are convinced there are certainly more such creatures in the region waiting to be discovered.
• While the Great Barrier Reef is perhaps the most popular for coral reefs, the Galapagos hosts its own share of such reefs too. However, the El Nino event in 1982-83 is said to have wiped out about 90 % of shallow-water corals in the islands. To add to the problem, there were El Nino events in 1997-98, and 2015 too. However, towards the end of December 2017, a reef project carried a study in the region, and made a delightful discovery that corals were thriving in some of the remotest islands of the Galapagos.
• In a study involving sperm whales and spanning nearly three decades, researchers discovered that “two clans dominated the waters near the Galapagos decades ago, but whales from across the Pacific basin”. For the discovery, the team studied distinctive communication clicks among sperm whales to track several cultural clans in the Pacific Ocean”.
• In 2016, scientists discovered that two subspecies of the songbird vermilion flycatcher-found only on the Galapagos Islands-were actually two species, and gave them two different names too. While one of them Pyrocephalus nanus is commonly found in the region, the other Pyrocephalus dubius was last seen in 1987, and is, sadly, perhaps, extinct. The study used “molecular data from samples of museum specimens.”

 

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