Photograph by Paul Nicklen

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Sanddabs are just one of the many marine creatures inhabiting this underworld hidden treasure. "It is an opportunistic predator, feeding on a variety of crustaceans, as well as smaller fish, squid, and octopuses."Look very closely, as the name is derived from the sand dabs hiding within the ocean floor.

Photograph by Timothy G. Laman

Through the 19th century, the word "kelp" was largely associated with seaweeds that could be burned to obtain soda ash ( sodium carbonate). The word "kelp" was also used directly to refer to these processed ashes.

Photograph by Timothy G. Laman

Photograph by William R. Curtsinger

Bongo kelp ash is rich in iodine and alkali. Interesting enough, Kelp ash is used in soap and glass production. Until the Leblanc process was commercialized in the early 1800s, burning of kelp in Scotland was one of the principal industrial sources of soda ash . Alginate, a kelp-derived carbohydrate, is used to thicken products such as ice cream, jelly, salad dressing, and toothpaste, as well as an ingredient in exotic dog food .

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During the Highland Clearances, many Scottish Highlanders were moved off their crofts, and went to industries such as fishing and kelping . During the 1820s, when there were steep falls in the price of kelp, landlords wanted to create pools of cheap or virtually free labor, supplied by families subsisting in new crofting townships.

Kelp harvesting and processing was a very lucrative way of using this labor, and landlords petitioned for legislation designed to stop emigration. However, the economic collapse of the kelp industry in northern Scotland led to further emigration, especially to North America.

Fun Facts

Kelp Forest Sculpture in Art

Kelp has made it's way out of the waters and into the homes of collectors, restaurants, and aspiring artists. There is one man in particular that has taken this beautiful ecological marine life and transformed it into unique pieces of art.

Glass Sculpture by Jeff Burnette

Jeff Burnette is one of Canada's premier glass blowers. Burnette has been working with glass since 1979 and in this time has developed his own unique style. He is revolutionizing the glass blowing industry in Vancouver where his 2600 sq ft workshop is located.

Red tides can be deadly because some dinoflagellates produce poisonous substances called toxins. When a red tide occurs, the algae are so numerous that the amount of toxin in the water is concentrated enough to kill fish and marine mammals such as whales. Toxins also accumulate in the tissues of filter-feeding shellfish such as clams and mussels, making them poisonous. People who eat shellfish contaminated by a red tide can become ill and may die.

Dophins are considered so far, the most intellgent of all animals. This article will prove just that. The name comes from Ancient Greek, meaning " fish with a womb".

Dolphins need love too! Reproduction is performed belly to belly. And most dolphins stay pregnant for about 11 to 12 months and can go as far as 17 months! Ladys, can you imagine being pregnant that long? Unbelievably they even engage in homosexual ' sex '. And do mate just to simply have pleasure just like we do. Hope it feels as good for them as it does us! They are even known to mate with other species of dolphins, which is how hybrids are formed. In 1993, three hybrid dolphins were found beached off of the coast of Ireland. It is said they were a cross between Risso's Dolphin and the oh so famous Bottlenose. The down side of mating, the act can turn violent at times.

Dophins have many talents and skills. They have acute eyesight in and out of the water. And scientist have said that their hearing is superior to humans. They are social and live in pods of up to a dozen. Dolphins even form into superpods of thousands when in an area abundant with food. They are known to establish very strong bonds with one another. Sounds a little bit like us huh? Dolphins have also been seen protecting swimmers from sharks, by either swimming in circles around the person, or charging the shark.

Nap time is much different for these amazing creatures. They only sleep with one hemisphere of the brain and with one eye open. Why you ask? They still need to go up for air continually. The strange thing is, in captivity they will go into full sleep with both eyes closed.

There are many threats to dolphins' lives. Such include, the Bull Shark, Dusky Shark, Tiger Shark, and the Great White Shark. They are also prone to diseases and parasites. But us humans can damage them too. The Amazon, Ganges, and Yangtze Dolphins are known to be seriously endangered. But in 2006 studies showed no individuals in from the Yangtze species, making them extinct.

And for my last wonderful fact... dolphins have even been used in the military. They were used to find mines, and rescue humans.

Roots are where the plant takes in mineral ions from the soil. The rood structure is made to have a very large surface area by the branching of roots and additionally the growth of rood hairs.

Some of the main mineral ions absorbed are potassium, nitrate, phosphate and many others.

Due to the fact that the soil is often less rich in minerals than the root itself, active transport is required to absorb them.

There are various ways in which the ions can be absorbed into the roots. This includes diffusion of mineral ions, mass flow of water that carries the ions as the water drains through the soil and also with the help of fungal hyphae, which grow around the roots of plants and help with the uptake of minerals in a mutualistic relationship.

Stems

The leaves and flowers of a plant are connected to the roots by the stem. The stem transports minerals to the places where they are required using the xylem and phloem.

Stems also play a major role in the support of plants. The cells in the stem absorb water to develop a high pressure, causing the vacuole of the cell to press against the cell wall, causing the cell to become turgid. Certain cells also develop a cellulose wall. The xylem also helps with support, the cell walls become thickened and lignified.

In the centre of the stem is the pith, surrounded by vascular bundles, which are made up of the xylem, cambium and phloem. Surrounding the vascular bundles is the cortex, then the epidermis.

Xylem

The xylem is actually dead when mature. In mature xylem vessels, there are no plasma membranes present. This allows water to move freely through it. The cytoplasm and nuclei of the original cells in the xylem break down. Because of this the lumen of the xylem vessel is filled with sap. Within the lignin are ring-shaped structures, which are thickenings of the cellulose in the cell wall. These rings help with support. The outer cellulose cell wall of the xylem has many pores, which allow the water to pass through to other cell walls of leaf cells.

Water Transport

Water passes through the xylem in an unbroken column of water. Transpiration causes the water to be moved up the xylem from the roots to the leaves. This is called the transpiration stream. The movement of water through the xylem is passive. Heat causes water to evaporate from the leaves. The water lost from the leaves is replaced by water from the xylem vessels. A slight suction is created when the water is pulled out of the leaf, this is the cause of the transpiration pull. This pull causes a sort of chain reaction right down to the roots. The water is pulled upwards in a continuous stream. This stream is usually unbroken due to the cohesion of the water molecules because of hydrogen bonds, meaning they stick together.

Phloem

The phloem is where sugars and amino acids are transported. Unlike the xylem, the phloem is still alive and uses energy to transport substances. This is called active translocation. The phloem transports sugars and amino acids from sources to sinks, where they are unloaded. An example of a source would be the leaves, where photosynthesis occurs, or storage units such as tubers, roots or fruits.

There are four features that are present in many xerophytes:

The plants are structured in a way that the stems face vertically upwards. This allows them to absorb sunlight in the morning and evening, but not at midday when the sun is most intense.

The stems of the plant are covered with a thick waxy cuticle to prevent the loss of water vapour through transpiration.

Transpiration is also reduced because of spines, rather than leaves, which have a smaller surface area.

Unlike most plants, xerophytes have a CAM physiology. This involves the stomata open during the night, rather than during the day. This is because the nights are cooler, so less water will be lost.

Leaves are made up of the following tissues:

Palisade mesophyll: A dense tissue that is rich in chloroplasts. It is where photosynthesis mainly takes place. It is near the upper surface of the leaf to have the best access to sunlight.

Spongy mesophyll: Located on the lower side of the leaf. The cells are loosely packed together and contain few chloroplasts. This is the main location for gas exchange.

Stoma: A pore on the lower side of the leaf. It is through the stomata that carbon dioxide enters the leaf and hydrogen to exit (both through diffusion).

Guard cells: Two cells that open or close the stoma to regulate the gas exchange.

Upper epidermis: A layer of cells to form the upper surface of the leaf. Covered with a waxy cuticle to prevent water loss in the heat of the sun.

Xylem: Transports water

Phloem: Transports products of photosynthesis from leaf to where it is required. Together the xylem and the phloem make up the veins in the leaf.

Transpiration

Transpiration is the loss of water vapour through the leaves and stems. There are various factors that affect the amount of water lost. One of these factors is the opening and closing of the stomata. Abscisic acid is a plant hormone that causes the guard cells to close the stomata. Abscisic acid is mainly produced when the plant lacks water.

Besides the opening and closing of the stoma, there are a number of external factors that affect the transpiration rate. External variables are known as abiotic factors. There are four abiotic factors that affect transpiration.

1. Guard cells close the stoma in darkness, so much more water vapour is lost in the light (during the day)
2. For water to evaporate from the leaf, heat is required. Therefore the higher the temperature, the higher the rate of transpiration.
3. In a dry environment, more water vapour is lost. When the air around the plant is humid, the concentration gradient is not as steep, so less water diffuses from the leaf.
4. Due to the fact that air saturated with water vapour often form near the stomata, wind also plays a role in transpiration. When the wind blows across the surface of a leaf, the saturated air is pulled from the leaf.

Where is John Hurt when you need him? If he could perhaps just lean over these eggs he might get a nasty surprise but we would perhaps have a chance of identifying these eggs. Although the species is unknown this is a good starting point on our journey through insect eggs. At once a little scary but fascinating, it is difficult to believe that these will hatch in to something probably harmless to us. Fortunately, the eggs measure millimeters rather than meters so don't have nightmares!

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The Lacewing is a clever creature. It doesn't want the eggs it has spent time and a great deal of energy producing snaffled up by the first hungry bug that wanders by in search of a meal. So, the female extends a slither if silk and deposits the egg at the end. In this way the eggs can be kept out of the way of casual predators in search of a free meal. Come to think of it though, isn't every meal in the bug world free?

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Again an unknown species but the eggs look so much like tiny rolls of sushi that to not include this would have been a crime. The eggs do seem very exposed, however. It is a wonder that they haven't been eaten yet!

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The Australian mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus oviposits on still water. Although most of the insects featured here are harmless, this one most certainly isn't. This species can carry Murray Valley Encephalitis. It is also a vector of dog heartworm and is thought to be involved in the transmission of myxomatosis in some areas. Ew.

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Staying in Australia for a while, these empty Shield Bug eggs give a good idea how much the young must grown in order to reach maturity. Once hatched, the Shield bug will stick around the same leaf until it leaves as a fully grown adult. Some kids just can't fly the nest!

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The eggs of the Vapourer moth are joined by a Harlequin Ladybird. It is thought that Harlequins will eat insect eggs, so perhaps that is just what this one is doing. It could, however, just be passing by on its way to a certain Ball.

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More unidentified eggs, but at least the parent had the good taste to lay them on something as exquisite as a peacock feather. Quite what the young are expected to eat once they hatch (unless it is the egg shell) is anyone's guess. No doubt they have to make their way to a slightly more "des res" but one not quite so aesthetically pleasing.

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The eyes have it! Perhaps this is a way of warding off possible predators. A hundred eyes glaring at you might put would-be predators of a nervous disposition off their lunch altogether.

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Sometimes, though, camouflage is the best form of defense. These eggs go so well with the plant on which they have been laid that it would be difficult to spot them from much of a distance.

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An egg of the Cabbage White butterfly. Many find beauty in simplicity but for many the Cabbage White is the plainest of the plain in the butterfly world. However, the structure of its egg is nothing short of remarkable. It looks like some tiny eco-friendly skyscraper that should be inhabited by hundred of tiny members of Greenpeace.

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Take two, four times a day before eating. These eggs have a sheen and shape on them which is reminiscent of something a doctor might prescribe you. The gorgeous color gives the eggs a slightly unreal look, almost as if they have been industrially manufactured.

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Most people know the mantis - it is one of the most popular insects on the planet because of its alien appearance. The female has the reputation of devouring her mate after procreation, which only adds to the attraction. What is not known about the mantis, however, is that the female oviposits in to an egg sack. The sack forms an extra layer of protection for the shells and most certainly looks like something Sigourney Weaver and co might get stuck in while awaiting their fate.

A Papaya Fruit fly ovipositing on a fruit. If you look closely you can just about make out the milky white eggs. Again, if this was anything bigger than a centimeter in length, this would be a truly alarming animal. However, its tiny size is, to us, a massive relief!

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Another unidentified species, but it puts a whole new meaning in to the phrase "a bun in the oven". These eggs look uncannily like a tray of muffins, just out of the oven and cooling down before being put in to the baker's shop window.

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Here are the eggs of the Spined Soldier Bug Eggs. With the spines around the eggs and their metallic gleam, these look as if they are just about to explode! There is a good reason for the spines, however. They are to deter other insects from taking a bite. After the eggs are laid they stiffen and make them difficult to eat.

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Stink Bug eggs are green. Very green. They are like something that can be found in candy packets the world over. If there are "E" numbers in any eggs at all, it would be these. With a slightly retro seventies feel to them, these glow in the dark beauties might well have looked at home around the neck of a model tripping the light fantastic at Studio 54.

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These eggs, of the Hibiscus Harlequin bug, look almost like grapes ripening, without a vine. One or two of them have already hatched or been eaten by predators but there is a wonderful beauty to them which is quite lovely.

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A raft of mosquito eggs with the developing young inside. There is a small dot of "sap" on the top of each one which is in fact a pheromone. This picture was taken by lifting the eggs gently out of the barrel in which they were found and depositing them in a shallow dish of water. They look like tiny ink cartridges, lining up to be inserted in to a hundred fountain pens.

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The egg of the Hoverfly really does look like something out of a science fiction film. The silver grey coloring gives it an out of world feel that is utterly alien. Fortunately, the egg is only a few millimeters in length!

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The eggs of the harlequin bug are black and white and not the first mini sushi to be seen in this collection. The adult is multi-colored -like a splash of gasoline in a puddle so it is a little odd that the eggs should be so monochrome. There is a strange unearthly beauty to these eggs, however.

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They come in all shapes and sizes and are the part of a plant that makes the "food" for the rest of the plant. They can be simple, which means a single leaf blade. The leaf is then connected to the stem by a petiole. Examples of simple leaves are the oak and the maple. Fortunately for us, many leaves are breathtakingly beautiful and are a source of wonder at the amazing nature of, well, nature!

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A compound leaf on the other hand is when a leaf is made up of a number of smaller leaflets. These compound leaves can stop you in your tracks and often demand our attention simply because of their intrinsic, complex beauty. The leaflets are attached to the stem just like a simple leaf - by the petiole. Ash trees have compound leaves. Some leaves do not have petioles at all and are attached directly to the stem. This kind of leaf is known as a sessile leaf.

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Although leaves come in all shapes and sizes, they all have the same job! They are produced by a plant to catch light! They have openings so that water and air can come and go. On the outer surface of the leaf is a coating. This is called the cuticle and it protects the leaf, making it waterproof effectively! The cuticle also prevents water loss and protects the epidermis of the leaf.

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The food making process of leaves is called photosynthesis. This is when four things come together - water, carbon dioxide, light energy and the green pigment or coloring of the plant which is called chlorophyll. The leaf gets is food from this process, glucose, but we get something very valuable to us. Oxygen! The air that you are breathing right now was brought to you with the help of a green plant somewhere!

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Of course, plant organs such as fruit are much more nutritious than leaves, but many animals including humans eat them. We have to be careful, though, as some can be poisonous. Some animals eat only leaves and they are known as folivores. Obviously a plant doesn't much like having bits of it ripped off and chewed up by some dopey looking folivore, so many have evolved protection against this.

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Many leaves contain tannin, a chemical which makes the digestion of protein very difficult and which can taste pretty nasty! Some species of animals use leaves to hide from their predators. Some caterpillars will fold a leaf over themselves and use it as a hiding place. Other insects have adapted to look like leaves so they won't be noticed by their enemies. One, the katydid even sways from side to side, mimicking the movement of a leaf in the breeze!

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Whatever protection the leaf creates for itself, though, there are going to be some creatures that can't resist a good nibble! The poplar leaf above has been ravaged by a hungry visitor, who looks as if it was so taken with the leaf it didn't know which part to eat next!

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As well as coming in simple and compound the base of a leaf can come in many different shapes. They can be wedge shaped, otherwise known as cuneate or cordate, which means that they are heart shaped. When the leaf comes to a sharp point which is long, it is known as acuminate. When the tip is pointed but not very long then it is known as acute. There are many other names for the base of the leaf, depending on its shape.

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Some leaves get "hairy". It isn't a sign of plant adolescence, however, but these "hairs" which are properly known as trichomes can give a leaf more than eight degree of hairiness! These are known by a myriad of names (which can sometimes overlap) but various forms of trichomes are known as pubescent (short and erect!) scabrous (rough) and tomentose. Tomentose is when a leaf is densely pubescent, which is really quite a scary thought. Many leaves are, however, glabrous which sounds like a Shakespearian insult but means that they have no trichomes at all!

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The mesophyll is the interior of the leaf and is sandwiched between the upper and lower layers of the epidermis. This is where most of the photosynthesis will go on.

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The four leafed clover above shows off its venation perfectly - these veins are situated in the mesophyll and are the important conduits of important stuff! They are made up of xylem, which are tubes that bring water and minerals up from the roots.

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The other part of this amazing structure is the phloem which the sugar and sap out of the leaf after photosynthesis. The phloem is usually below the xylem and both are embedded in a tissue known as pith. Very pithy, I'm sure!

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A question that children ask all the time is why do leaves on trees change color in the Fall? Inside each leaf are millions of packages of color. Chlorophyll is contained in the green packages, xanthophyll in the yellow and the orange packages are carotene.

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During the summer the green packages are at their busiest. The chlorophyll catches sunlight so it can be used as energy. With this energy the plant can take water from the ground and carbon dioxide from the air. It uses a process to combine the two and turns it in to glucose. The glucose is food for the tree. The summer period is the warmest and as the chlorophyll is at its most active then, its green color effectively hides all the other colors.

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Water travels up the trunk and in to the leaves. When the weather becomes colder the tree knows that winter is on its way. It has to get ready to survive the cold period. A layer of cells grows over the water tubes. This closes them up and it means that no more water gets in to the leaf.

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The chlorophyll needs to water to produce energy. Without any it starts to disappear. The packages of xanthophyll and carotene come to the fore. So, in the fall these packages can finally be seen by them. So, what this means is that leaves don't turn color in the Fall. What really happens is that they simply lose their green.

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So, the xanthophyll and carotene explain the orange and yellow color, but why do some leaves go purple and red? Is the tree in an incredibly bad mood? When the cells in the leaf build that wall to keep water out there is sometimes another effect. The same tubes are used to carry the glucose around the tree so every part is fed, not only the leaves. Sometimes when the cells close up the leaf some of the glucose is trapped in the leaf. It can cause the sap to go purple or red and this is reflected in what we see.

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Without water the leaf eventually dies. The wonderful skeleton of the leaf exposes all the tubes that used to be so active. No need to worry though - the Spring will mark the return of new leaves and the cycle will begin again!

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As the pyramids were being built in Egypt those who lived along the Nile treated their water by using a siphoning system. The water would be placed in huge jars which would allow the sediment and mud from the river to settle at the bottom. Beautiful, fresh water would be the siphoned out of the top.

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Although we have a blue planet with around seventy five of it covered by water, a seemingly paltry three percent can be used to drink. People can live without food, if they have to, for more than a month. However, it is impossible to live for much more than a week without any water.

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Such is the importance of water that the bodies and senses become attuned to its proximity and its goodness. An elephant can smell water about four kilometers away. If you put a teaspoon of salt in your dog's water bowl, it will smell the difference and not take the water. Even humans prefer cold water to warm for differences other than pure taste. Warm water is much more likely to have harmful bacteria in it than cold.

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In the Middle Ages people used a lot less water than today. The average person then would use about five gallons a day. Nowadays, in the developed world the average usage is between eighty and a hundred gallons a day. The term "eavesdropper" was coined way back when. The eaves of a house would allow water to drip off the roof without touching the rest of the structure. Someone could hide underneath the eaves and not get wet. The water falling from the roof was called eavesdrop. Of course, being under the eaves meant someone would be right up close to the house, and so able to listen in to what was going on inside. Hence the term "eavesdropper"!

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Of course, we are generally cleaner than people were in the Middle Ages but that does not explain why we use so much more water than they did. However, when you take in to account that a modern toilet flushes away more than two gallons of water each time it is flushed and that a quick shower uses about twenty five, it all adds up. There may be a time in the not too distant future when people will look back on our time as one of unspeakable "luxury" in terms of water wastage. Some already do.

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If you are a practicing Catholic and are tempted to take and drink some holy water from a shrine of a church, reconsider now! Although the water may have curative powers in a strictly religious sense it is also a breeding ground for plenty of harmful germs. Quite often it is still for long periods and, in churches, many hundreds of people may already have dipped their fingers in it.

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There are a number of easy ways to save water without doing a great deal. One of those is to turn off the faucet while you are brushing your teeth. After all, the water is simply going down the plug hole while you brush, so why do it? A typical bathroom faucet can let about two gallons of water every minute flow away. Try putting in the plug while you brush - you may be surprised at the water you are inadvertently wasting!

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The same is true of toilets. Each time you flush that is a couple of gallons down the drain. One simple and safe rule is this! If it's brown, it goes down. If it's yellow, it's mellow. Simply putting down the lid after you have urinated and not flushing it until after a number of consecutive uses can save a huge amount of water. It goes against the grain for many but in the future you may well expect to be charged extra for this waste.

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Deforestation of the planet will cause us massive problems in the future as we depend not only for oxygen on our plant life but also for a large part of the water cycle. For example, an average beech tree will evaporate about seventy gallons of water each day. Think of a large tract of forest cut down and imagine how much water that takes out of the atmosphere. Think of deforestation and lack of replenishment of trees and even a fairly young person can do the math! Scary!

Including the tires it takes about forty thousand gallons of water to manufacture a new car. That's forty thousand gallons of water wasted before the motor vehicle even begins to emit its toxic fumes which further harm the environment.

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Planet earth has only a limited amount of water. That water keeps on going round and round in what is known as "The Water Cycle". If you are drinking a glass of water while you read this, then know that the water in your glass is millions of years older than you effectively! The cycle is quite complicated but can be boiled down in to five words: evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation and collection.

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Evaporation is all to do with the sun. It heats up the water in the oceans (or lakes or rivers - and body of water in fact). The water turns in to vapor or steam. It leaves the body of water and goes in to air in a gaseous state. Water can exist as a gas, a liquid and a solid. Can you think of anything else that can?

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When the water vapor in the air becomes cooler, then it changes back in to liquid and forms clouds. This is what is known as condensation. If you pour a glass of water on a hot day and watch it you will see water form on the outside as the glass. The glass doesn't have any holes - it came from the air around the glass. This is because the glass is much colder than the air around it and when water vapor in the air touches the glass it reverts to its solid state!

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Precipitation happens when so much water has condensed in the air that it is too heavy to be held up any longer. The clouds get heavy and water falls on to the earth. It can fall as rain, sleet, snow or hail depending on temperature and prevailing conditions at the time. So, although most people think of precipitation as rain, it is a little more than that!

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The water that falls back to earth does not have much choice where it is going to end up. It can fall on oceans or rivers or on dry land. When it ends up on the land it soaks in to the earth and becomes the "ground water" that is used for plants to grow and animals to drink. Otherwise, it will run over the soil and collect in to the oceans and other bodies of water. Then the cycle starts all over again!

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Water may be the most common substance found on earth but what we have now is only what we will ever have - and not a drop more! If you were to meet a water molecule and it could talk, it would tell you an interesting history. Even if the molecule only told you about the last one hundred years it would tell you that it spent ninety eight of those in the oceans. It will have spent around only twenty months as ice and about two weeks in lakes and rivers. As for free-wheeling around in the atmosphere, your average water molecule spends only a few days there every one hundred years.

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One trillion tones of water are evaporated by the sun every single day. However, even though this sounds like a huge amount only three percent of water is available to drink. There is a "water crisis" already in the world, which you will hear a lot more about in the future. Mass consumption, pollution and overpopulation are shrinking the amount of water available per person and as such will be a source of conflict in the years to come. What we take for granted now may be something we must ration in the future.

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Over the next twenty years it has been predicted that the water available to people will go down by as much as thirty percent. That is a frightening fact when you consider that at the moment less than half of the human population of the planet has enough fresh water for minimum hygiene standards. A child dies every fifteen seconds through water related diseases that can be fairly easily prevented.

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We can do our bit to conserve water by being careful in the ways we use it. Teaching our children that it is an important resource to be respected and not wasted will be key when it is their turn to take over the responsibility for the planet when they reach adulthood.

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When we think of the phrase, "Water, water, everywhere…and not a drop to drink", we need to take a second and third look at mankind's continuous search for water on Mars. We know with recently acquired proof there is water on this wonderful and mysterious red planet--we have seen it through images arriving from NASA's Phoenix digging for successful testing and we have seen it from images arriving from space that has shown evidence of such. This find has been so important that an additional NASA operational funding has been extended through September 30, 2008, adding five weeks to the original 90 mission days.

Why is finding water so important? It's not like we're going to rush off next week to Mars as we are running short down here on Earth-not like many of us did not see THAT coming as town and cities are on serious water rationing! Simply put-it is all about life. And life requires “liquid water”--life on Earth and possibly life on Mars--or even “somewhere out in space”.

The most important aspect of this little molecule of water is that it needs to be in a state of liquid in order to transport chemicals into and out-of cells. Things we have discovered-such as water ice and water vapor-do not have the ability we need to transfer these substances to any form of life. Proteins act as catalysts inside the cells of our body, with their proper functioning needing liquid water. But protein is not the only property important to life, as we know through our search for water.

The NASA Phoenix Lander is using a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe, and cameras to confirm the 2002 Mars findings regarding water ice on Mars. Being studied is the sky as well as the surface of Mars, using a Canadian laser beam instrument to observe the overhead clouds and dust, “which” according to the Canadian Space Agency is like using a 30-watt light bulb to offer the Earth a Martian laser show. Sounds pretty powerful to me!!

According to the latest NASA reports, Phoenix has completed a full-circle, color panorama of its surroundings at its landing site. “The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see,” said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager camera. “They help us plan measurements we're making within reach of the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale.”