Notes Caught In Passing
Some things that you may have missed in the news:
(1) Hatchery-raised salmon may present a hazard to the decreasing number of wild stock populating the northern Pacific. According to Fred Andersen of the Alaska State Department of Fish and Game, the more robust natural stock of salmon are being driven out by their domesticated cousins, and, although numbering less, are being caught at an equal rate. This means that fewer of the wild and vibrant stock are returning to their spawning grounds.
(2) It has been argued for years whether the Moon was captured from orbit or torn off as a part of the earth. In actuality, the Earth and Moon are a dual-planet combination, unique in the solar system. The Moon is moving away from the Earth at the rate of about an inch a year, slowing the Earth's rate of rotation. Kirk Hansen of Shell Development Company argues in an August, 1983 issue of Science that due to relative velocities the Earth and the Moon could never have been connected.
(3) Ever since Icarus departed on his ill-fated flight to the sun, mankind has relished the notion of being able to fly. Many of nature's creatures are designed for flight, and are prepared for it. A man's arms, however, as Icarus found out, do not have the necessary amount of square footage to support his body regardless of how fast he may flap away.
This percentage can vary widely from the bumblebee to such large birds as the blue heron, and nature makes the accommodating landing gear fit the situation. Alan Lightman, in the October issue of Science 83, makes the point, for instance, that the great blue heron has long slender legs for wading and must fly slowly in order not to break them on landing. Consequently, herons have a relatively large wing span and correspondingly low wing-loading. Pheasants, grouse and ptarmigan, on the other hand, maneuver in underbrush and would find large wings cumbersome. To remain airborne with their relatively short and stubby wings, the shorter-winged birds must fly faster, but have thicker and sturdier legs on which to land.
