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How do squirrels know a good year?
The red chipmunk is a small squirrel living in the forests of North America. Her life span is about three years. It is therefore very important for her to have as many offspring as possible. When the harvest is poor, she usually has two offspring, but when the year is rich, she can fatten up to six. This squirrel has an amazing ability to know in advance what the harvest will be. They mainly feed on spruce cones. Scientists have discovered that the squirrel can tell in advance whether the pine cone will produce a lot or a few, and adjusts the number of young accordingly. How does he do it? Biologist Prof. Jaroslav Petr.
Was salt ever better than gold?
Salt over gold is a popular fairy tale whose popularity has undoubtedly increased further thanks to the film version of Once Upon a King. The story is familiar to everyone. Salt plays a key role in the food industry. But when did it all start? Did our ancestors already salt mammoth meat? Archaeologists have numerous evidences of salt mining. With prof. With Antonín Přichystal, we went to Hallstatt, Austria, where a salt mine with a history dating back to 1500 BC has been preserved. How was salt mined? Was she really over the moon?
First heart bypass
Leningrad surgeon Vasily Kolesov first undertook extensive research and training on dogs, and then on February 25, 1964, he performed the first coronary bypass, or “bypass” in Czech, when he connected a forty-four-year-old patient’s mammary artery to the coronary artery at the point behind the blockage. Until May 1967, he successfully performed five more such procedures, at least one of which was for an acute heart attack. He then published his results at the Cardiology Congress of 1967 in Leningrad. And he hit. The plenum even approved a resolution with this wording: “Surgical treatment of angina pectoris is impossible and has no future prospects.” How wrong they were back then! We recalled it in the column It happened this day, prepared by Ing. František Houdek.
Is it good to test drugs on mice?
You might be thinking “on what else?” Mice have been used for a very long time and it’s an established practice. On the other hand, mice are different from humans. What works for them can burn for a person. In recent years, efforts have been made to bring mice closer to humans by adding some human genes to them. Growing human organs or testing substances on other forms of life is also in its infancy. Prof. spoke about the issue. Václav Hořejší from the Institute of Molecular Genetics AV.
Can we measure a stegosaurus like in the movie?
Karel Zeman’s film Journey to Prehistory from 1955 is one of the jewels of world cinema. It’s not just about trick scenes, but above all about the exciting story of boys on a scientific expedition. Anyone who has seen him will surely remember the scene of him walking on the back of a dead stegosaurus. They measure him using steps and estimate the body length to be 8 meters. Is it right? Publicist and dinosaur expert dr. Vladimír Socha describes today’s idea of stegosaurs. How has it changed compared to the movie?
Are foxes solitary hunters?
Imagine a meadow at the edge of a forest. Five foxes move quietly in the grass. One raises her nose against the wind, the other has her ears pricked up. Animals create a wide circle around their prey. He creeps cautiously closer, then at a secret command all five strain their bodies to jump. And then? Five foxes butt heads in the air and the prey flees. No, foxes don’t really hunt in packs. How do they live? This is written about in the book About Foxes and People, published by the Grada publishing house. Anna Theimerová reads from it in Meteor.
