Whales

All of us at least once we have read or have read the story of Pinocchio , the wooden puppet of Collodi's story , which is eaten by a whale , as did the unusual , not so much for the puppet who came to life , but what concerns what a whale can ingest . By now everyone knows that these whales feed on krill, very small animals that are captured through the baleen plates , which filter the water literally . With this blast from the past want to talk about whales, or rather of the order Cetacea , the two sub orders, Mysticeti and Odontoceti . In this post I dedicate myself to Mysticeti , what we all know as whales, but we take a step back , as we are talking about is of aquatic animals , but we must not forget that they are mammals.The history of evolution has taught us that life originated about 360 million years ago, in the Devonian , in an aquatic environment , and the earliest forms of fish evolved more slowly colonized terrestrial environments , thanks to their ability to capture the ' oxygen in the atmosphere. The terrestrial vertebrates colonized the land , and we are talking of the great dinosaurs, extinct, to one of the theories in vogue , because of a meteorite. After this catastrophic event survived only small rodents, with great adaptability, which gave birth to the largest group of mammals . One of them slowly " came " back to the aquatic environment . This led them to have more morphological changes in order to live in an aquatic environment , we are talking about Mesonychidae , animals like dogs , who were still adapted to the terrestrial environment . From this family we remember the kind of Mesonyx , which gave rise to an evolutionary line that led to Hippos and cows. About 50 million years ago developed the first organisms in the order of Archoceti , primitive cetaceans , which had significantly lower legs , while the front legs are modified into flippers , more suited to swimming, the compression of the skull. Since these forms of extinct have evolved Odontocetes ( eg dolphins ) and Baleen ( eg whales ) , which differ by the presence of the teeth in the first , and the nose, as in the second there are two breathers .
With Misticei mean those animals are commonly known as whale ch . Aristotle was the first to understand that they were mammals, many remember him now because they are marine mammals ! To date, we find two families , the first ones whales ( Balinopteridae ) , large animals , the greatest that ever lived on earth, so much so that a three year old child could walk into a his aorta , have a relatively reduced , in fact only go up to 150 tons , a dorsal fin not very big. Include the blue whale 

(Balenoptera musculus ) , minke whales 

(Balenoptera acutorostara ) the smallest , the humpback whale ( Megaptera Maegaptera ), the largest , the latter also famous because often it is found in the presence of bumps along the body , which limestone formations are made ​​by the parasites, the Barnacle . The humpback whale limbs are longer than the entire animal kingdom , in fact, their dorsal fins can reach a length of 5 meters. The second family is that of balenidi ( Balaenidae ) , small animals , aged between 12 and 18 meters , with more stubby shape , a maximum weight of 100 tons. Here we find the right whales ( Eubalaena glacialis and Eubalaena australis) , who live in the ' Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean . Corneas have calluses on his head, too, are parasitized by parasites , crustaceans commonly called the " whale lice " . A characteristic of these the splendid animals is their ability to take advantage of the wind on the " swimming sailing " using their large tail as a sail. The Greenland whale ( Balaena mysticetus ) , which has the longest baleen of the whole family. Other members are the gray whale ( Eschricthius robustus ) , the Caperea ( Caperea marginata ) .

Thanks Margherita Hack

This post is all for a great woman, a single person who, with his intellect, his vivacity , his mental acuity has given very, very much to science , but not only , even ordinary people , not those of science ,. I'm talking about Margherita Hack, world-renowned astrophysicist , but also known for its secularism in Italy , his being always vegetarian , his being fond of animals , for civil rights , for his environmentalism ( he used the bike up to nearly ninety years of age)
Born June 12, 1922 , he lived his youth in Florence , then came the dark period of Italy, during the Fascist era , where he attended the gymnasium School and says she jumped maturity thanks to the war , then joined the faculty of letters before but the first lesson was bored and ran into the secretary to change course , he chose physics , matter who loved since high school . She was fortunate to have great teachers , last year went to visit the observatory of Arcetri .Scrive : - " it was thanks to these series of randomness that the stars went for the first time in my life. I've never been one of those girls that you melted of romance under the firmament , but in order to dodge the dusty abyss of bad books in which he wanted to drag prof. Tieri , I preferred to raise the nose in the air and give the opportunity for a science that until then had had no particular importance in my life : astronomy "
That's how he embarked on the road astronomical . Strictly for the record prof. Tresi was his teacher that he wanted her to do a thesis laboratory but not on old books of 1800 yars , but you obviously after a week " declined " the offer .
His scientific career stat is high quality , It was the first Italian woman to direct the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste for 23 years, worked in America, for NASA , ESA .
Of you I have always loved his mental acuity , his stubbornness , his sobriety on his way to speak Florentine , his ever present smile . I only regret not to have known anything, not even when she came to Milan in the presentation of one of his books. His books I read them all , some read multiple times , such as " my life by bike ."
This post I wrote a few months after his death, but remains an icon for me to follow, to be admired. Hello Margaret.
Rewrite some more or less famous quote :
• From the ethical point of view it is heartbreaking to think of what suffering the animals are subjected , real cars from meat, bred to gain weight quickly , to reproduce rapidly in crowded conditions , to meet the throat of the man who thinks the master of all other species , when in fact it is quite possible to live without meat, like myself , vegetarian since birth
• Walk me wrong, cycling vo ' better. It is a less strenuous. Until recently pedaled often , obtaining balance, desire to do and will
• The fault of Eve was that of wanting to learn , experiment , investigate on its own merits the laws that govern the universe , the earth, your body, to reject the teaching top-down , in a word Eva is the curiosity of science against the passive acceptance of the faith ...
• Astronomy taught us that we are not the center of the universe , as we have thought long and as someone wants us to think even today. We're just a tiny planet around a star very common. Ourselves, intelligent beings , we are the result of stellar evolution , we are made of matter of the stars

Equal protection

As well as animals, plants also have their own immune system is also complex as nostro.Non fact that everyone knows the famous "aspirin", whose active ingredient is acetyl salicico, comes from a compound that plants exploit for their defense for thousands of years as salicylic acid or other components such as, for example, ROS, reactive oxygen compounds. were born But when these defensive systems? Pamela Ronald, University of California botany and Brucer Beutler, geneticist Script Research Institute, published a study in Science which state that the innate immune system of plants and animals works the same modo.Ma take a step back, what is the innate immune system? and what differs from that acquired? The innate immune system mediates the first protection against infections, usually consists of epithelial barriers, through specialized cells and substances near naturally equipped with antibiotic power, also potentiates the work immunity acquisita.L 'immunity acquired instead, provides a slower response but more specific, is mediated by antibodies (produced by B lymphocytes) and by T lymphocytes

 The researchers, with a study that lasted 15 years, they found an amazing similarity in the way in which these two kingdoms difendono.I researchers examined the nature of the protein receptors that recognize and attach to antigens encouraging response immunitaria.Nonostante the species-specificity of the proteins have found rich regions of leucine, amino acid important for binding antigenico.Inoltre, once recognized the intruder, in a similar manner both plants and animals, lal trigger immune response with the same proteins, those of the non-complex kinase RD.Ecco another proof of the fact that all living beings are derived from a common ancestor, even if one were needed.