Writing at the library
` I have about fifteen minutes to do this. Now, what should I write first? Well, it is true - my car is now in my own personal possession. I can drive it myself! Whenever I want!
` What else? Hmm. I was just checking my backed-up Yahoo account. I found some neat biological discoveries on the web from that. My fun science stuff!
` First of all, in Scientific American, Dr. Matthew Harris discovered that birds can grow crocodile-like teeth all by themselves. This mutation has not been seen before because it usually results in death. This observation was taken on a dead embryo.
` In the past, scientists had to add mouse genes to chickens, and that resulted in them growing molars. But now, we know that they can grow teeth themselves - through this mutation known as 'talpid' - they usually just die from it.
` Harris has also engineered a virus that mimics the mutation that can cause chickens to temporarily grow teeth.
` Also, a 164 million year-old mammal fossil called Castorocauda lutrasimilis was quite large, considering that it lived in the Jurassic Period! Indeed - it probably weighed about a pound!
` The name Castorocauda means 'beaver tail' and lutrasimilis - I think - means 'similar to an otter'. Accordingly, it had a beaver-like tail and an otter-like body. Also, seal-like teeth.
` Well, the computer's telling me it's about to kick me off. See how much I suck when I don't have time to write?
Posts
5 comments:
Actually I think this post explains it pretty well....
` You are right, sir! Wackmobiles are people who are so gullible and/or paranoid that they become a source of entertainment!
` On the other hand, Spurious Brainchildren describe those pieces of my own creative work that have been born out of wedlock.
` I can't say I've ever tried to deceive anyone with my writing, artwork, etc. so far, though my occasional lack of creativity tends to result in bastardizations of some kind or another.
I read somewhere that birds have the genes to produce teeth but the genes are expressed only in the presence of bone—and there's no bone in a normal birds' beak!
I hope you have more time to write in the near future.
` That reminds me... I recall reading something about these scientists who added some kind of biological material to birds' beaks to make teeth grow.
` Bone, perhaps?
Post a Comment