Once again, NOVA did not disappoint. I really enjoyed watching the "Rat Attack" special. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who has not yet had a chance to watch it, but I found the cyclical correlation between black rat populations and bamboo flowering fascinating. I was astonished to learn how quickly black rats could reportedly reproduce resulting in as many as 10,000 rats per acre. The problem is when the rats run out of bamboo fruits to eat, they turn to crops, causing widespread famine. With the new information presented in the documentary, farmers may be able to help prevent famine brought on by the population booms of black rats.
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This is a guest post by Martina Mustroph, one of Greta's top student writers for Spring 2007
Teens who routinely exercise (especially in organized activities like team sports
Almost everyone tries to lose weight at some point, but we are remarkably bad at it; most people quickly return to their original weight after cessation of exercise or resumption of a normal diet.
Baby rats, only 5 days old and still very much reliant on their mothers for food, can be artificially dehydrated by injecting them with a saline hypertonic solution. If a source of water is placed very close to the rat's snout, it will drink.
Thanks for the tip! That was a very interesting show, not only because it gave a good account of the analysis of the rat problem, but because along the way it gave a nice postcard summary of Mizoram and its people, rat biology, the life history and economic importance of bamboo, and basic reproductive dynamics. My son (10) enjoyed it very much, although he was a bit taken aback by the rat dissections.