The Evening Standard (London, England) articles from March 2008

The Evening Standard (London, England) archives from March 2008

Panda Poop paper.(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Everyone loves pandas. They're cute, fuzzy, and their poop makes some super-duper products! The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center in Sichuan Province in China is turning tons of panda poo into wrapping paper, photo...

This month in Odyssey.(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... Some amazing science is coming from a most unlikely source--the waste we animals create as the end result of digestion. Or put more bluntly--from poop! Yes, it can be smelly and gross to analyze poop (scientists use names like dung, guano,...

Dirty diaper discovery.(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... Did you know that the number of all the human cells that make up your body is less than the number of bacteria cells that live in it? In fact, the bacteria outnumber your cells ten to one! And most of these little creatures live in your...

Cave of Wonders.(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Imagine creeping through the dark, a thousand feet below Naica Mountain in the Chihuahuan desert in Mexico. Suddenly, you stumble forward and find yourself in a room filled with sparkling crystals as long as school...

Jumping jaws!(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Just how does a long, slippery, snake-like moray eel force a struggling fish down into its stomach? Scientists always assumed they used suction like most aquatic predators, until an amazing discovery was published in...

Have a science snack.(Science Scoops)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sit down and get yourself a snack--a nice, crispy one! Do you have any idea how that cheese puff got so puffy? Or how those nacho chips got so crunchy? The answer is extrusion. No idea what that means? Never fear:...

Sloth sleuths and Dung balls: no matter what you call it--dung, guano, feces, or scat--"poop" is filled with scientific gold about our past.
March 1, 2008... In I994, I began my graduate work at the University of Munich to understand how and why DNA, molecules containing the genetic material of life, can persist in fossils that are up to thousands of years old. What novel techniques could I...

Probing poop for DNA.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Poop is a great source of DNA because it contains the DNA of the source (in sloughed off intestinal cells), the DNA of what it ate (plant or animal remains), and the DNA of any parasites it may have harbored. The...

Where does it go? The scoop on post-flush poop.
March 1, 2008... The atmosphere on the competition floor is tense. Teams country have gathered to battle for this year's national Hundreds of spectators surround a 15,000-square-foot for their home teams. But you won't find any of those teams bears, or other...

Behind closed doors.(High-Tech Toilets )
March 1, 2008... Hovered around a drawing board, top engineers pore over their plans. Their work is secret; no reporters or photographers allowed. Are they developing a new super computer or a super-efficient car? No, they're developing a... toilet! ...

Plumb crazy.(Activity to Discover)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Your toilet is the launching pad for a long, twisting journey through household plumbing, underground pipelines, and city sewers. Push the handle, then follow the flush through the plumbing below, helping your sewage...

The clean machines: dung beetles at work.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Poop tends to accumulate. Getting rid of it so our planet won't reek has always been a problem for humans, their dogs, and even birds and bugs. But one insect--the dung beetle--is a bug with a mission. It eats...

Smelly sewage solution.(Brain Strain)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ole Factori works at a sewage treatment facility. As you might imagine, his office doesn't smell very good. One day, Ole's boss brings him a puzzle--a 15 by x 5 array of letters. "Tell you what, Ole," the boss...

Much a doo-doo about dinosaur poop Karen Chin: the doo-doo detectives: in the United States, there are only about 10 people who qualify as being ancient poop scientist. Meet three of them here.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JUST WHAT DID DINOSAURS EAT? If we could go back millions of years in a time machine, we could answer that age-old question. But since we can't, paleontologist Dr. Karen Chin of the University of Colorado has...

Mysteries of ancient people poop: Vaughn Bryant and Kristin D. Sobolik.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] YES, THE CAVEMEN POOPED! They peed as well--but if the urine didn't sink quickly into the soil, the Sun dried it up within minutes. Today the fact that these ancient people used to pee is a scientific yawn. But, if...

Wealth of nations, tool of science--bird poop!
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Explorers have crossed oceans in hopes of finding it. Mighty armies have waged wars to win it. Guano, the nitrogenous waste from seabirds and bats, once provided farmers with a rich source of nutrients before...

Poop on parade.(Places To Discover)(The Scoop on Poop traveling exhibit at the Virginia Living Museum )
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CAN YOU IMAGINE your morn taking cattle clung and shaping it in her hands to waterproof your home? The women of the Masai tribe of East Africa do just that. Do you think a groom should present his bride-to-be...

The house made of gold.(Short story)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] URSULA HAD POOP THAT TURNED INTO GOLD, but no one wanted to touch it after they learned what it came from. That was very discouraging. She took the bus to the next town over, where they gladly gave her money for the...

Poop to the rescue! Yes, poop is helping to save out planet.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Experts estimate the average person excretes half a pound of poop a day. Multiply that by the number of people on the planet (6,602,224,175 and counting) and you have one gargantuan pile of poop. That could make for...

Star chart.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The monthly All-Sky Chart depicts the sky (minus the Moon) as it appears at 7 p.m. (your local time) on March 15. Useful all month (except for planet positions), the chart is also accurate for 8 p.m. on March 1 and 6 p.m. on March 31. To...

In like a lion out like a lamb.(STARGAZING)(Cartoon)
March 1, 2008... GREETINGS, GREETINGS, FELLOW STARGAZERS AND BOY, DON'T YOU JUST LOVE SPRING? I ESPECIALLY ENJOY THE SOFT MUTED STARS OF SPRING THAT ECHO THE GENTLE COLORS OF EARTH'S LANDSCAPE! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] YOU KNOW, I'VE ALWAYS BEEN...

Hairy tongues and a hungry galaxy!(Ask Dr. Cy Borg)
March 1, 2008... Dear Dr. B, How large is our galaxy? Mattias Lambert, Concord, NH Good question, Mattias. We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, which includes our Sun (a relatively small star), all of the stars you can see at night without a telescope, and...

You've got mail!(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] we reported that scientists had been able to closely examine Comet Wild 2, thanks to the NASA Stardust spacecraft. We asked you to think about whether comets, which have delivered organic material to Earth in the...

Everything you Need to Know About the World.(KIDS' PICKS)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Everything you Need to Know About the World by Simon Eliot (Thomas Dunne Books, 2004) Do you know what the word for poop is in Swahili? Ever wonder how some rock bands got their names? Or where the first hamburger came from? You'll find...

Catapulting caterpillars.(Animal Angles)
March 1, 2008... Having your house filled with poop is bad. Being devoured by predators is worse. For the silver-spotted skipper caterpillar (Epargyreus clarus), the two go hand in hand. Skipper caterpillars build shelters out of leaves. If wasps smell...