Hobbies And Interests
The Venus Flytrap Solution
Flies can be a nuisance, especially in the heat of summer months in seasonal climate regions or in subtropic zones. This is where the Venus flytrap comes in handy. You can grow these plants easily inside a terrarium by keeping the roots wet, providing full sunlight for a few hours a day, and using poor, acidic soil. The terrarium also provides higher humidity. The important thing is to keep the plant warm and moist.
It's not so easy to catch a fly and feed it to the plant; there's a better alternative. A local fishing shop should have maggots available. Pierce a maggot with a needle to keep it from moving too much and place it carefully, with tweezers, onto one of the open leaves. The tiny, sensitive hairs on the leaf will feel movement and close quickly over the maggot. Digestion takes about seven to 10 days, and then the leaves will open back up again.
How Plants Are Used For Paints
The henna plant usually grows in the Middle East in places such as India and Northern Africa. You can either obtain plants as they are or with the leaves already ground up into a fine powder. Henna is extremely useful as a dye for body paint and hair. When the leaves are crushed, lawsone molecules, also known as hennotannic acid, which is concentrated in the stalks attaching the leaf blades to the stems of the leaves, are released. Once the molecules are released and an acidic liquid is added to them, the resulting mixture bonds to the proteins found in the outer layer of the skin or hair, resulting in a natural body paint. You can see the effect for yourself and try a little body art by adding half of a teaspoon or so of lemon juice to a ceramic bowl containing 2 teaspoons of ground henna. The acidity of the lemon juice will cause the henna paste to turn brown, and after a few hours, it's ready to use on your skin.
The Pollen Problem
Pollen is everywhere. You've probably seen weather reports about pollen counts. The pollen count is the measurement of pollen in the air. The count is taken in a certain area at a specific time and is measured every day as grains per cubic meter. You can try your own pollen count at home by taking a microscope slide, coating it with petroleum jelly, and placing it outdoors for 24 hours, preferably near a lot of vegetation. Try to count the pollen grains under the microscope the next day and record the amount. You can perform the count on cold days, windy days, calm days, hot days or cold days to see how those factors affect the pollen count.
Poisonous Algae
While algae is beneficial for making biofuels, nutritional supplements and some plastics, when an algal bloom is created it can be hazardous to the water around it. An algal bloom is an over-abundance of algae in a small area -- usually streams and ponds. They choke the life out of these waters by growing and dying quickly, creating more bacteria and dissolving the oxygen content of the water. If there is too much oxygen loss, the insects and fish start to die.
You can simulate an algal bloom yourself by collecting some pond water in a glass jar and adding some small twigs and leaves that can decompose over time. During the next two to three weeks, using pH, nitrate and ammonia testing kits, compare the results with the indicators on the kits and record your results. Over the course of the experiment, view samples on microscope slides. You'll notice the amount of algae cells will increase, and the pH, nitrate and ammonia levels will rise.