Cleaning Up, Using Ammonia by Scott LaFee - Eureka! on Creators.com

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Cleaning Up, Using Ammonia

When Archaea, an ancient line of bacteria, were first discovered 30 years ago, it was thought they existed only in extreme environments like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or hot springs like the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park (pictured).

But researchers at the University of Washington say they recently found the bacteria thriving at the bottom of a Seattle Aquarium tank, where it was happily digesting ammonia.

The twin discoveries are notable for a few reasons. First, ammonia is a biological waste product that's toxic to animals, but Archaea and other microbes use it to build new cells. The finding that Archaea thrives in ordinary marine conditions suggests the bacteria play a bigger role in the planetary nitrogen cycle, helping to convert ammonia in the ocean into nitrates that can then be consumed by phytoplankton, which are one of the first rungs of the oceanic food chain.

The Archaea research presents practical possibilities, too: The bacterium might be used to boost a soil's nitrogen content without fertilizers or employed in sewage treatment plants.

BRAIN SWEAT

According to the smart folks at Mensa, only one other word can be made from the letters of INSATIABLE. What's the word?

PRIME NUMBERS

1 in 250,000 — Odds of an 885-foot asteroid named Apophis striking Earth on April 13, 2036, down from earlier projections of 1 in 45,000

Source: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

BANALITIES

'TRUE FACTS'

In 2008, keepers at Britain's Sea Life Centre announced a study to determine whether octopuses use particular tentacles when faced with a complex situation.

(A sort of the right-handed versus left-handed question). To test their eight-armed cephalopods, the researchers provided the octopuses with Rubik's Cubes.

JUST ASKING

What do you plant to grow a seedless watermelon?

THE GEEK ATLAS

The HP garage

37 degrees, 26 minutes, 35.05 seconds north, 112 degrees, 9 minutes, 17.32 seconds west

Popular mythology has lots of high-tech companies arising out of lowly places like garages. Apple, for example, reportedly started in Steve Jobs' parents' garage in Los Altos, Calif. The Google founders spent formative time in a Menlo Park, Calif., garage.

But long before either, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began designing high-tech gadgetry in a rented house and garage in Palo Alto, Calif. HP is now the largest technology company in the world, with more than $100 billion in annual revenue.

In 2000, the Hewlett-Packard Co. bought the house at 367 Addison Ave. and restored it five years later. The house and garage are now a California State Historical Landmark.

PATENTLY ABSURD

What father hasn't wished at times that his kids would just get off his back — literally. And so, there is the "dad saddle," patented in 2002. The contraption consists of a wide belt with two dangling stirrups, one on each side. Junior climbs aboard, holding on around Dad's neck. No reins or spurs required.

WHAT IS IT ANSWER

A strawberry achene. These are the tiny, hard, seed-like objects embedded in the juicy, edible flesh of the fruit. In fact, the true fruit of the strawberry plant are its numerous achenes. The tasty part of the strawberry is an "accessory fruit," the large, fleshy receptacle of one flower.

Similarly, the seed of a sunflower is an achene; the shell is the wall of the fruit, and the true seed lies within.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.