How do polar bears disguise themselves? Detailed answer

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How do polar bears disguise themselves? Detailed answer

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How do polar bears disguise themselves?

They cover their black nose with their white paw, don't they?

Nice, of course, belief, but, unfortunately, completely unfounded. And they are not left-handed. Naturalists have observed polar bears for many hundreds of hours and have seen no evidence of careful "nose-covering" or "left-footedness."

Although polar bears really like toothpaste. We regularly hear about polar bears venting their energies in Arctic tourist camps, knocking down tents, trampling equipment and gear, all for the sake of sucking on a tube of Pepsodent.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why a large concrete "prison for polar bears" was organized in the town of Churchill in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Some of the "prisoners" serve there for several months before they are released back into society: embittered, reformed, unemployed. Formerly the morgue of a military base, the prison block is officially called "Building D-20". "Bear bullpen" can accommodate up to twenty-three "guests" at the same time. Polar bears don't eat anything in the summer, so some "prisoners" don't get fed for months. They are kept in a "cell" until spring or autumn - the time of the hunting season for polar bears - so that after their release they immediately go fishing, and not wander around the peaceful Churchill.

The very first known polar bear in captivity belonged to the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II (308-246 BC). The bear was kept in the private zoo of the monarch in Alexandria. In 57 AD, the Roman poet Siculus Titus Calpurnius wrote of polar bears being set against seals in a water-filled amphitheatre. Viking hunters caught polar bear cubs in the following way: they killed the mother, skinned her, laid them out in the snow and grabbed the cubs that came to lie on her.

Scientific names can be somewhat confusing. Ursus arctos is not a polar bear, it is a brown bear. Ursus means "bear" in Latin, and arctos is the same "bear" but in Greek. It is the Arctic that is named after the bear, and not vice versa; it was the "land of the bears", where the bears lived and where the big bear in the sky was pointing - the constellation Ursa Major. And the white (aka polar) is Ursus maritimus, that is, "sea bear".

The constellation Ursa Major has been recognized as a bear by a range of peoples and cultures, including the Japanese Ainu in the east, the American Indians in the west, and ourselves in the middle. And although the polar bears are born, literally, under the Big Dipper, according to the zodiac they are all Capricorns, born in late December - early January.

The brown bear belongs to the same species as the grizzly - that is the name of the brown bears living in North America. Male and female bears in English are called boar and sow, that is, "boar" and "pig", although they have the same relation to pigs as koalas to seals. In fact, the closest relatives of bears are dogs.

Author: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is gold for fools?

If you are a prospector and are looking for gold, then for you the answer to this question is as important as the difference between huge wealth and immense poverty. Many miners have stumbled upon what they thought was gold, only to find, after analysis, that their hope of riches had vanished like smoke.

What is known as "fool's gold" is actually iron pyrite. Since this yellow mineral is also dazzling, it can easily be mistaken for inclusions of native gold in the rock. Another reason for error is that gold is often found in the same places as ferruginous pyrite. Native gold is often found in quartz veinlets or in massifs of ferruginous pyrite. Water and wind carry away quartz and pyrite, and gold is weathered from the rocks.

This means that the stone around the gold nuggets is washed out, leaving almost pure gold nuggets. Nuggets are washed away by water to the bottom of the valleys, and they are mixed with sand and gravel. In this form, gold is called alluvial, or loose. The first gold found by man was loose. But gold is often found in ores of other metals. Silver ore almost always contains some gold. Often gold is also found in copper ore.

Gold is found even in sea water! Its content, however, is so small compared to the total volume of water that no one is able to extract gold from sea water. However, the oceans are so vast that the total amount of gold they contain is estimated at 9 tons.

Chemists of the future will have to solve a very interesting problem - to extract gold from sea water.

Test your knowledge! Did you know...

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3D ceramic tableware printer 04.04.2014

There are printers that work with sugar and food coloring, using these components as consumables to create edible confectionery masterpieces. 3D printers have also been created that use both various types of plastic and metal powder to be sintered and layered to give the final shape. However, until recently, ceramics was not available as a material for 3D printing devices.

The process of manufacturing porcelain products is accompanied by long processing and drying in special installations under the influence of high temperatures. The creation of even simple samples of porcelain utensils or dishes requires the attention of several technologists and goes through certain basic stages.

Students from the University of Bristol decided to correct this misunderstanding and, under the guidance of Professor Stephen Hoskins, created a XNUMXD printer that works with clay. This printer is able to create a full-fledged blank for heat treatment, which will later become a familiar ceramic cup, plate or original figurine. The presented samples of products in the video look very worthy:

Some clarity needs to be made: in fact, ideas for clay printers have been around before. The same company 3D Systems demonstrated at the beginning of this year the CeraJet device, whose functions include the manufacture of ceramic dishes. There were other prototypes of 3D printers, but they all had one thing in common: due to the type and structure of the consumables used, the products did not have sufficient reliability and quality. Simply put, it was not possible to create durable cups that would not differ in any way from dishes made by the classical manufacturing method.

As for the 3D Systems CeraJet, although this printer model is capable of printing dishes, it still formally appeared later than the project of Mr. Hoskins and his wards. About a year ago, the first working sample of a 3D printer was already demonstrated, so the professor, his colleagues and students deservedly received the title of pioneers in this field.

Of course, the key stages of the technological process itself have not changed significantly. The printer takes on the main task - giving the clay product the necessary initial shape, in order to proceed to the subsequent glazing and firing of its parts. Transferring a virtual model to a full-fledged clay blank requires a lot of time, but now the production of porcelain items will become available even at home. True, with an amendment, but the fact that the buyer has a large apartment, because the overall size of a 3D printer for ceramics is comparable to a washing machine.

The composition of the base material with which the presented device "prints" was created and patented by Professor Stephen Hoskins. The main one is clay powder, which, connecting layer by layer, turns into a solid figure. The device, according to its authors, should attract the attention of designers and artists, as well as major manufacturers of various ceramic products.

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