DO YOU KNOW

What are Microplastics?

     A great amount of plastic is accumulating in the world’s oceans, arriving there through rivers and lakes and gutters and storm drains. All of these are situated on land but empty the rubbish dumped into them into the oceans.

     Plastic floating in the oceans gets broken down into pieces. Some pieces are so tiny that they are barely visible; those that are less than 5 mm in length are called microplastics. One type of microplastic, however, is made in our factories. It is called a microbead. Microbeads are tiny bits of plastic that are used as ingredients in products for a variety of uses, including health care. Body washes, face scrubs and even some toothpastes may contain microbeads.

     As our bathroom water too ends up in the ocean, so do the microbeads. Microplastics are extremely harmful to fish, seabirds, turtles and other marine life because if they are ingested, they cause intestinal injury or accumulate in the stomach of the eater, causing grave digestive problems. Some animals do not directly eat microplastics but they eat fish that eat microplastics and so they too end up with an accumulation ofmicroplastics in their bodies. Thousands of marine mammals are killed each year after eating microplastics, which they mistake for food.

     With plastic creating havoc all over the globe, even in the farthest reaches of the planet, we should be cautious as to how we use this useful but potentially dangerous polymer. Even carelessly throwing away a plastic straw after use can have undesirable consequences. The straw could find its way into a gutter and then to the sea and eventually contribute to the premature death of some sea animal on the other side of the world.

DO YOU KNOW

 What is a Moonbow?

A rainbow is produced when sunlight is refracted by water droplets in the atmosphere, but what happens if water droplets reflect and refract moonlight? We get a moonbow. 

Moonbows are much fainter than rainbows because of the lower intensity of moonlight (which is of course, reflected sunlight), and their colours are too faint to be perceived by the human eye. They appear a ghostly white. However, the colours can be seen through photography. 

FIRST MAN TO CYCLE AROUND THE WORLD

Thomas Stevens 

The first man to cycle around the world was Thomas Stevens who set out on his journey on 22 April, 1884 from San Francisco, at the age of 29. 

He rode a penny-farthing, a cycle with a huge front wheel. Arriving in New York some months later he boarded a ship that took him across the Atlantic to Europe. Disembarking at Liverpool, he began the second leg of his journey which was to take him through England, France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and finally to Istanbul, gateway to Asia. In Turkey, he had to outrun mobs of people who wanted him to teach them cycling. 

Arriving in India, through Afghanistan, he cycled down the Grand Trunk Road in scorching heat. Admirers and well-wishers helped him along the way with cooling drinks till he reached Calcutta where he took a ship for HongKong. 

His journey through China was a nightmare because the Chinese distrusted foreigners, especially whites. Chased by mobs and hit by stones, he arrived shaken but in one piece at Shanghai. From there he took a ferry to Nagasaki, Japan.

His bicycle journey ended when he reached the port of Yokohama on 17 December, 1886. A ship took him across the Pacific back to San Francisco from where he had started. He had circumnavigated the globe on his penny-farthing!

DO YOU KNOW

Who is the ‘Davis Cup’ named after?

The Davis Cup is a prestigious international men’s tennis championship, run by the International Tennis Federation.

An extremely popular tournament, it is described by its organizers as ‘the World Cup of tennis’. It is named in honour of American politician, Dwight F. Davis (1879–1945), one of its founders, who designed the original tournament format and contributed the first trophy.

The tournament originated over a century ago as a contest between the USA and Great Britain. It was conceived in 1899 by four students of Harvard University, including Dwight F. Davis, who challenged the British to a tennis competition. 

The first match (between USA and Britain) was held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Massachusetts in 1900. Although conceived as a two nation contest, within the next 5 years the tournament expanded to include Belgium, Austria, France and Australia. 

Originally called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge, it soon came to be known as the Davis Cup, after Dwight Davis’s trophy. The toppers in the Davis Cup are the USA, who have won it 32 times, and Australia (the winner on 28 occasions). India has never won the tournament till date, but has been the runner-up thrice, in 1966, 1974, and 1987.

INSPIRING STORY OF ARTHUR ROBERT ASHE JR

 Why me?

     Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a First-ranked professional tennis player and the only African-American male, ever to win the US Open, the Australian Open, and the Wimbledon - the three Grand Slam singles titles.

     Arthur started his game with a puny physique and his coach Johnson helped fine-tune Ashe's game and taught him the importance of racial socialization through sportsmanship, etiquette and the composure that would later become an Ashe hallmark. 

   To have hailed from times when racial discrimination was at its peak, it is no normal 'attitude' that Ashe carried along to become the inspiring Superhero. In 1979, despite his active lifestyle, Ashe suffered a heart attack and underwent quadruple-bypass surgery. His return to tennis was stalled by the onset of recurring chest pains, causing him to officially retire in April 1980.

     In 1983, Ashe had to undergo a second round of heart surgery, during which he received a blood transfusion to expedite the recovery process. In 1988, Ashe was hospitalised once more, this time after experiencing paralysis in his right arm. After much testing it was discovered that Ashe was HIV positive, the belief being that he contracted the virus during the second heart bypass surgery in 1983.

     Wanting to be the master of his own destiny, he chose to reveal the news himself rather than let the newspapers do it for him. From all over the world, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: “Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease”? Ashe's spontaneous reply to the “WHY ME” was: 

   “The world over, 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi-final, 2 to the finals… When I was holding a cup, I never asked GOD 'Why me?' And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?"

      No wonder that this attitude of 'Why me' for all the right reasons put Ashe truly on a different league. Ashe became a vocal campaigner for AIDS awareness. He set up both the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. He died on 6th February 1993 from AIDS-related pneumonia when he was just 49. The US Open honoured him in 1997 by naming their new primary show-court, and it is still the largest tennis stadium in the world, in his honour. Ashe was truly unstoppable and certainly an only one of his kind.

AMAZING ANIMAL WORLD

 Kangaroo Rats

 

   Water is an essential for the survival of humans. Without it, we cannot stay alive for a long time. However kangaroo rats have a unique ability to stay without water for years, almost their entire lifetimes. These fascinating creatures are found in the deserts of North America and are 8 to 14cm long with a large head, short forelimbs, long hind limbs. Their tail is as long as their body, and they spend most of their time in burrows to avoid sweating. They have a pouch on their cheeks to avoid store sweating. 

     Kangaroo rats search for food only when the temperature falls, which usually happens in the evening or at night. They eat seeds, leaves and other vegetation growing around them and the water that is needed for their body is received through the food they eat. 

    Interestingly, Kangaroo rats have larger kidneys compared to other rat species. Kidneys help in taking out the waste from the blood and transforming it into urine. Also, kidneys remove the extra water from their waste and pump it back into their body, thus allowing them to survive without drinking water for an extended period. 

DO YOU KNOW

Why baby deer has spots?

     Baby deer, also known as spawn, has white spots on its fur for two main reasons: camouflage and communication. The white spots on fawn's coat help to camouflage it in its surroundings, making it harder for predators to see the deer. The spots break up the fawn's shape, making it look like it's part of the sunlight peeking through the trees. This works well when fawns are very young and need extra protection from predators. The white spots on a coat can also be used for communication. The mother deer can use the spots to identify her fawn from a distance, even in low light. The spots can also help spawns to stay close together when they are grazing, as they can see each other's spots even when they are a little distance apart.