FOLLOW US: Wednesday, May 6, 2020 thehindu.in facebook.com/thehinduinschool twitter.com/the_hindu CONTACT US [email protected] Printed at . Chennai . Coimbatore . Bengaluru . Hyderabad . Madurai . Noida . Visakhapatnam . Thiruvananthapuram . Kochi . Vijayawada . Mangaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . Hubballi . Mohali . Malappuram . Mumbai . Tirupati . lucknow . cuttack . patna Organisms adopt dierent strategies to survive – some of these are Thorny devil so impressive that they may seem like superpowers straight out of The thorny devil is a lizard species adapted Strange but true ction. Read on to discover some of them... to the hot and dry condition of the Australian desert. The upper body of the thorny devil is covered by an intimidating Puersh array of spikes. There are grooves between Zombie ant fungus these spikes which help the lizard absorb The puersh is a slow and clumsy water from the sand that’s wet from the Ophiocordyceps swimmer but to make up for this morning dew or a recent but rare rainfall. unilateralis or shortcoming, the sh has an amazing Essentially, the lizard’s skin works like a zombie ant fungus is ability to inate its elastic stomach several paper towel, soaking up water from the a type of pathogenic­ times its original size. When threatened, a sand, and channelling it towards the fungus found puersh would expand its stomach and lizard’s mouth. predominantly in quickly gulp large amounts of water, thus tropical forest turning itself into a huge inedible ball. ecosystems. The Some species are known to open up their fungus has a unique hidden spikes as well. As an added way of spreading its protection, their body contains spores for tetrodotoxin, a substance more poisonous reproduction. It than cyanide. infects ants, Bearded vulture particularly carpenter ants, takes The bearded vulture is a rare raptor that control of its mind, inhabits the high mountains of the Alps in turns the host into a Europe. The scavenger bird which eats only zombie and uses it as the bones of the dead has an unusual habit a launchpad to of bathing itself in soil rich in red iron oxide. jettison its fruiting The iron oxide is believed to act as a sanitiser Sea cucumber body and spread its that protects the birds and their ospring spores. How does it against the harmful germs that they come The sea cucumber is a slithery, slimy ocean­ work? An ant going into contact with while feeding on carcasses. oor dweller that boasts some sort of a shape­ about its daily shifting ability. Thanks to its mutable routine may collagenous tissues, it can change its form into accidentally step on uid or sti and rigid. This enables the a fungal spore. The organism to pour itself through crevices in the spore, which sticks to Hairy frog ocean bed or become rock solid, while being the ant’s body, will chased by predators. start growing and multiplying within the ant. As the The hairy frog is a type of Central infection advances, the fungus will hijack the ant’s brain and African amphibian species that possesses start controlling its every move. As strange as it may sound, retractable claws on its hind feet. It the enthralled ant will be compelled to leave its nest one day unleashes its weapons only as a last line and ascend a nearby plant up to a point where the of defence. When the claws are ‘at rest’, temperature and humidity are right for the fungus to thrive. they lie completely within the esh of the The ant will then lock its mandibles around a leaf and die toe. It is not without reason that these days later. Then the fungus will grow a giant stalk right frogs are called Wolverine frogs. through the ant’s head. The stalk carrying a bulbous capsule full of spores will then rain down on other ants below. And the cycle continues. A QUEST c A LEISURE CORNER c Dig into the world of Science A treat to your imagination And learn about the method of no-till farming and what fossil water is... Through this column, we explore books that you What is no­till farming? What is fossil water? must read before you turn 17... It is a method It is freshwater that was of farming by created millions of years ago. Childhood is incomplete Goodies? Of course, one which crops are Also called paleowater, it is without the wonderful stories could do without getting grown without trapped in underground of Enid Blyton. From the caught in the Land of Topsy disturbing the aquifers. There are 37 major “Famous Five” and “Secret Turvy and Land of Dame soil by tilling. If aquifers containing fossil water Seven” to the “Malory Slap. So get ready to climb there is no all over the world. After Towers” and “Adventures of up the Faraway Tree! tilling the crop petroleum, it is the most the Wishing Chair”, Blyton It’s magical: Here’s what residue on the precious non­renewable fossil resource. has a story for every age to look forward to in the soil prevents The biggest of these are the Ogallala aquifer in the Great Plains of group. But her ‘The Faraway “Faraway Tree” books evaporation of the US, the Nubian Sandstone aquifer in North Africa, the North China Tree’ series is one that has ** Everything is upside rain water and Plain aquifer, the Arabian aquifer system that supplies Saudi Arabia universal appeal. Both down in the Land of Topsy more water inltrates the soil. There is better retention of and Yemen and the Indus Basin aquifer that sustains India and children and adults can get Turvy ­ the houses, the trees organic matter in the soil and nutrients are well recycled, Pakistan. caught up in the wildly and even the people, who thereby improving the fertility of the soil. It minimises soil The Ogallala aquifer is spread over an area of 450,000 sq. km under imaginative and fantastical walk on their hands. erosion and no ploughing means there is no airblown dust. eight Midwest states and stores around 3600 million cubic metres of tales that these books oer. ** In the Land of Do­As It is more protable as it does away with the labour, water. Since the climate in the region is arid, the aquifer has been What it’s about: Jo, ­You­Please, you can do irrigation and machinery associated with tilling. mined faster than it can be renewed. For many countries located in Bessie and Fanny come worlds on top of the tree. anything that your heart Tilling also damages ancient structures like burial water­scarce regions, it is the only available source of freshwater. For across an ancient tree in the Why you will love it: desires, but be careful it can mounds under the earth as archaeologists have found in the example, Libya is habitable because of ancient aquifers discovered under middle of an enchanted “The Faraway Tree” books be both a blessing and a U.K. the Sahara desert during the 1950s when prospecting for oil forest. The tree is so gigantic are a treat to your curse! It was Edward Faulkner's book “Plowman's Folly” which Recently­developed technology is helping to calculate the total that its top reaches clouds imagination. Who wouldn’t ** The Land of Marvels started the idea of no­till farming in the 1940s. No­till amount of fossil water available so that it can be equitably shared and that hold magical lands! want to visit the Land of has all things improbable. farming is widely practised in the US. Indian farmers started managed better. The European Space Agency's AQUIFER project uses Together with the tree’s Take­What­You­Want or No, we are not talking adopting the practice in the 1960s. In the Indo­Gangetic satellite images. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment unique inhabitants such as celebrate their birthday at about superheroes. Here you plains, rice­wheat cultivation is done using this method. In (GRACE) also uses satellites to detect the slight shift in Earth's gravitation Moonface, Saucepan Man the Land of Birthdays? Or can meet a fortune­telling parts of Andhra Pradesh rice­maize cultivation is done eld when water levels in underground aquifers change. and Silky the pixie, the eat to their hearts’ content in cat, a singing tree and a without tilling. (Content provided by Amrita Bharati) cousins explore dierent the tempting Land of ladder that goes on forever! A TAKE THREE c Three top picks from the world of sports... ARTIVITY Stokes’ half marathon to raise Ronaldo returns to Turin funds for health workers MILAN, ITALY: Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo LONDON, ENGLAND: England’s World Cup­ ew back to Italy on Monday after almost winning all­rounder Ben Stokes planned his two months in coronavirus lockdown in his maiden half marathon to raise funds for a native Portugal. charity and hospitals battling Ronaldo and his family landed in Turin the COVID­19 pandemic. Airport just after 10.20 p.m. local time, In a video message posted on according to media reports in Italy. The ve­ Instagram, Stokes said he time Ballon d'Or winner arrived by a private was inspired by three jet from the Portuguese island of Madeira men calling themselves Freiburg's Schmid prepares for and will spend two weeks in quarantine. the ‘Cricket Garden football's restart Juventus have recalled their 10 overseas Marathon Team’, who players as Serie A clubs were given the green ran full marathons in their PARIS, FRANCE: Freiburg midelder Jonathan light to return to individual own backyards, to run and Schmid said he is “not at all” afraid of training on Monday.