Buying genetic pets; Exploding sap trees; Non-blinking cows
Q: My daughter brought the following
website to my attention:
http://www.genpets.com/faq.php.
It purportedly will market "genetic pets" in the near future. Could this all be
true? Or is it a very elaborate joke? Akhlesh, University Park,
Pennsylvania
 Genpets
Series 01 — are they alive? Photo
courtesy of sculptor Adam Brandejs, copyright, used with permission.
A: The website elaborately markets "living, breathing
mammals" with "blood, bones, and muscle" created through "zygote micro
injection." According to the site,
these pets "are grown in assisted breeding lab farms" and make
wonderful pets.
Is it true? No. Is it a very elaborate hoax? Not exactly.
The site is a protest about
where genetic engineering may be taking our society. Buried deep in the
Genpets site is a link to the sculptor's portfolio and a
description of the
'pets.' Adam Brandejs creates the 'genetic' pets
from plastic, latex rubber, polyurethane foam, microchips, motors, paint and
paper. He sells the robotic creatures for $1200, and displays them in the
V-Gallery in Basel Switzerland, and elsewhere.
"I'm not against bioengineering," he says. "I'm hesitant towards where
and how and by whom the technology will be used."
Further Reading:
We do not
understand cloning. How does it work? How is it done? WonderQuest
FAQ, Genpets
The art
and sculptor of Adam Brandejs
Q: Do sap trees blow up in the winter? And
how? Brendon, Fairborn, Ohio, USA
 An
exploding tree, hit by lightning. Photo courtesy of NOAA.
A: On April 1, 2005, All Things Considered warned their listeners
about maple trees with sap flowing within: "An untapped tree is a time bomb ready to go off."
Sounds of an
enormous explosion then drowned out the speaker's voice. But
— the program was an
April Fool's joke.
Sap trees don't blow up in the winter, at least due to the pressure of the
sap. Sap pressure is somewhat less than
root pressure, and root pressure is only about two tenths of an atmosphere.
Thus, the pressure that sap can exert is too small, compared with the tree’s
wood strength, to rip apart a tree.
Barks of trees (maple included), though, have been known to burst in
extreme cold, and crack like a gunshot, as plummeting temperature causes the wood
to contract.
The winter of 1968 to '69 was bitterly cold in north central Washington
State. Wally and Shirley Loudon lost half their orchard that winter.
"We saw 47 below on our porch, and we didn't look again," Shirley told
Good Fruit Grower Magazine. "I would hear these bangs and I blamed it
on the house expanding or contracting, or whatever, from the cold, but it was
the trees exploding. It was the bark bursting, and you could hear it."
Half their trees died.
Also, trees can explode if lightning strikes them. The current surges
through sapwood, boiling sap and water in the conducting channels. The
resulting steam can blast off bark and wood. An older tree, rotting at the
core, can explode. The conducting path for the lightning lies not in the
sapwood but in the core's moisture. In this case, the return
path of the lightning can crack the tree along its length and literally blow it
apart.
Further Reading
Why don't untapped maple trees explode? PhysicsForums.com
Tree, nature's
lightning rod, West Virginia Lightning
Freezes are becoming a distant memory, Goodfruit Grower Magazine
Q: I've heard that cows can't blink. Is this true? Robert,
Edinburgh, Scotland
A: That's not true; cows blink just as we do.
By the way, sharks can't blink. They have three eyelids. The
upper and lower lids don't move, so the shark can't blink. They can and
sometimes do slide the third inner lid (a thin, tough, translucent membrane)
horizontally across each eye to protect the eyes, especially while eating.
Further Reading
Farming: metabolic problems in cows, 2farm.co.nz
Do
sharks blink, San Diego Natural History Museum
(Answered Feb. 27, 2007)
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