FD: v5 (First Timers)

ANNA’S HUMMER: The male Anna’s Hummingbird has an unusual mating ritual. It makes two sounds–a bloop and at the bottom of a dive and a zit-zit sound as it hovers after the dive.

ANNA’S HUMMER:  Scientists thought the hummers were making the sound through their chest feathers.

ANNA’S HUMMER:  The male Anna’s Hummingbird makes the sound by spreading its tail feathers at the bottom of its dive.

ANNA’S HUMMER:  The Hummingbird’s routine starts with it flying straight up 100 feet into the air, then turning and diving straight back down.

ANNA’S HUMMER:  This fanning out of the tail feathers causes its tail feathers to vibrate rapidly and make the loud chirp. 

ANNA’S HUMMER:  When the scientists separated some of the feather barbs and stopped parts of the wing feathers from hooking to each other, this stopped the feathers’ ability to make the sound.

DOLPHIN HYDRODYNAMICS: Dolphins can jump between 16 and 20 feet out of the water even though they weighs more than 5000 pounds.

DOLPHIN HYDRODYNAMICS: There are probably monitors of some sort in the tail fluke of the dolphin which keep the tail exactly flat when the dolphin jumps.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: Human hemoglobin has 574 amino acids in the correct order.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: Human Titin protein has 3,435 amino acids in the correct order.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: mRNA is a copy of part of the DNA The coded snake-like mRNA floats from the ribosomes in the nucleus to the DNA.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: Chlorophyll protein–which is found in red blood cells–holds 4 oxygen molecules with exactly the right amount of grip.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: Titin sounds like Saturn’s largest moon Titan! It’s a humongous metal bar-like protein used in our muscle cells.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA: After a protein is folded, it is shipped with others in a huge Santa-Claus-type sack across the cell to the places where it will be used. It is transported by proteins that “walk” called kinesin proteins.

AMINO ACIDS AND DNA:  The ribosomes folds the amino acid chain into 3-d proteins like the muscle protein actin myosin or spiderweb proteins. It’s a bit like folding orgami–but light years more complex.