What is it?

Terminalia catappa is a species of tropical tree that grows in Asia. It is widely believed that placing the dried leaves of this tree in your aquarium (especially with Betta fish) causes the animals better health and therefore longer life.

Alternative Names

Indian Almond leaf, Ketapang, Wild Almond, Badamier, Java Almond, Amandier de Cayenne, Tropical Almond, Myrobalan, Malabar Almond, Singapore Almond, Ketapang, Huu Kwang, Sea Almond, Kobateishi, West Indian Almond, Umbrella Tree, Amandel Huu Kwang, Kottamba

Benefits

Unsubstantiated claims of a reduced presence of fungus, boosted immune system and helping skin problems in fish are also reported.

The leaves do contain several flavonoids (like kamferol or quercetin), several tannins (such as punicalin, punicalagin or tercatin), saponines and phytosterols. Due to this chemical richness, the leaves (and also the bark) have long been used in different traditional medicines for various purposes.

It is also thought that the large leaves (7-10″ long) contain agents for prevention of cancers (although they have no demonstrated anticarcinogenic properties) and antioxidant as well as anticlastogenic characteristics.

In fishkeeping the leaves are also used to lower the ph and heavy metals of the water. It has been utilized in this way by Betta Breeders in Thailand for many years. Hobbyists across the world also use them for conditioning the betta’s water for breeding and harding of the scales.

Studies of rotting plant material (see bogwood) have shown that the organic material releases minerals as beneficial fungi and bacteria decompose it. This provides food for infusoria which in turn shrimps and fry enjoy eating as a natural diet.

Does it work?

Scientific sources of the benefits of Indian almond leaves to humans are few and far between. Certainly chemical analysis of these leaves show a high degree of variety of chemicals. We can find no similar scientific studies on the benefits of this leaf in aquariums.

Perhaps similar benefits may also be seen if you were to use standard bogwood in your aquarium. Bogwood is well known at lowering pH and reduces the toxicity of metals. Which is an aid to lowering the presence of fungus and certain species of bacteria. The organic matter is also as a food source for catfish like Plecos and is a natural food for infusoria which invertebrates like shrimp and other small fish feed off.

The tannins and other chemicals which are dissolved in the water by the decomposition of organic material is called Blackwater. There are many companies selling Amazon and African blackwater bottles. So Indian almond leaves may simply be Asia’s equivalent.

Certainly aquatic animals evolved alongside trees growing next to them. Tree leaves falling in and decomposing will have released dozens of trace minerals that the animals will have naturally absorbed. In an aquarium these chemicals will be missing so it seems sensible to assume that adding these chemicals via blackwater or bogwood will potentially restore this imbalance. The trick is to obtain the same species of plants that grow in the wild animals locale.

Failing that, other plants like Green tea, Tree spinach, Dock leaves, Cranberrys, etc. are all well known for their health benefits. Oak leaves are often used in aquariums as an alternative.

Purchasing the leaves

The leaves are not generally sold commercially in aquarium shops, though there is one product we’ve came across – Bio-Leaf by Degen Discus. eBay and AquaBid often have sellers of these items. So we recommend you look there. The leaves are not expensive.

• The leaves should be evenly brown on both sides with no signs of fungus mould (light grey patches). Give the leaf a rinse in tap water to remove any possible lingering pesticides, etc. before you add it to an aquarium is a prudent move.

• Keep any unused leaves in an air and watertight container away from light and heat will ensure that any unused leaves will keep for at least 4-6 months.

Indian almond leaves and Betta fish

There appears to be word-of-mouth speculation of this leaf being used by far eastern aquarists for hundreds of years to harden the skin and increase the health of this fighting fish after bouts of fights.

Dosage

Assuming an average 6-10″ (15.2-25.4cm) long leaf, you use one quarter of this for every 4L (1.1 US G.) litres for Bettas or 1-2 leaves per 50L (13.2 US G.) for other species. Leave them in the tank for around 15 days in a filter bag or let them lie loose, they will sink after 2-3 days. Expect the water to tint slightly brown with the tannins.

• Remove any active carbon before adding them. Afterwards carbon may be used to remove the tannins but this may impact on their benefit.
• Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 5th Oct 2009
• 
  

Scientists create liquid lens on a chip

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they’ve created tunable fluidic micro lenses that can focus light at will while remaining stationary and can be fabricated on a chip.

The Pennsylvania State University research engineers said such fluidic lenses can be used for many applications, such as counting cells, evaluating molecules or creating on-chip optical tweezers. The lenses might also provide imaging in medical devices, eliminating the necessity of moving the tip of a probe, they added.

The researchers, led by Assistant Professor Tony Jun Huang, said conventional, fixed focal length lenses can focus light at only one distance and the entire lens must move to focus on an object or to change the direction of the light. Fluidic lenses, however, can change focal length or direction in less than a second while remaining in the same place.

“We use water and a calcium chloride solution because they are readily available and safe and their optical properties have been well characterized,” said Huang.

The research that included graduate students Sz-Chin Lin, Michael Lapsley, Jinjie Shi, Bala Juluri and Xiaole Mao was reported in a recent issue of the journal Lab on a Chip.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 18th May 2009

Scientists find source of carbon lava

ALBUQUERQUE (UPI) — U.S. and French scientists say they have discovered the origin of carbon-based lavas erupting from a Tanzanian volcano.

The researchers, led by the University of New Mexico, analyzed gas samples collected from inside the active crater of Tanzania’s Oldoinyo Lengai volcano — the only volcano that is actively producing carbon-based lavas. The geochemical analyses revealed a very small degree of partial melting of minerals in the Earth’s upper mantle is the source of the rare carbon-derived lava.

Although carbon-based lavas, known as carbonatites, are common, the Oldoinyo Lengai volcano, located in the East African Rift in northern Tanzania, is the only place on Earth where they are actively erupting. The researchers said the lava expelled from the volcano is highly unusual in that it contains nearly no silica and greater than 50 percent carbonate minerals. Typically lavas contain high levels of silica, which increases their melting point to above 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit. The lavas of the Oldoinyo Lengai volcano erupt as a liquid at approximately 1,004 degrees Fahrenheit.

The research by the scientists from the University of New Mexico, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego and the Research Center for Petrographics and Geochemicals in Nancy, France, appears in the journal Nature.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 18th May 2009

Marine organisms found in

ancient amber

The researchers believe the discovery will deepen our understanding of these now extinct species (Source: Laboratoire géosciences Rennes)

Scientists have discovered a menagerie of perfectly intact marine microorganisms trapped in tree resin at least 100 million years ago, according to a new study.

The unexpected find in the Charente region of southwestern France pushes back by at least 20 million years the period when a type of single-cell algae called diatoms are known to have appeared on earth, say the study’s authors.

The study, carried out by the National History Museum in Paris and the National Centre for Scientific Research in Strasbourg, appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

But the finding creates a mystery: how did sea creatures wind up trapped in a glob of resinated amber that oozes out of trees?

The most likely scenario, the scientists conclude, is that the forest producing the amber was very near the coast, and that the tiny organisms, which also included primitive plankton, were either carried inland by strong winds or flood waters during a storm.

“This discovery will deepen our understanding of these lost marine species as well as providing precious data about the coastal environment of western France during the Cretaceous Period,” which spanned from 145 to 65 million years ago, say researchers.

It also challenges certain theories about the evolution of these organisms, and vindicates the research of molecular geneticists, says study co-author and National History Museum scientist Jean-Paul Saint Martin.

Using “molecular clocks,” biochemists move backward in time to figure out at what point in the evolutionary process certain plant and animal species split off into different branches.

“We had no record of these microorganisms over a period of 20 million years. These fossils have filled that void in the most extraordinary manner,” Saint Martin says.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 13th May 2009

Seagrass link to seahorse upright

posture

Seahorses evolved their upright posture some 25 million years ago, thanks in part to an expansion of vertical seagrass habitat, Australian researchers have found.

Associate Professor Luciano Beheregaray of Flinders University and Dr Peter Teske of Macquarie University report their findings in the journal Biology Letters today.

Seahorses are unique fish with a horse-shaped head and a habit of swimming upright.

Beheregaray says it has been hard for scientists to work out when exactly seahorses evolved to swim upright.

This is because there are only two known fossils of seahorses – the oldest dating back to 13 million years – and no link between these and horizontally-swimming fish had been found.

“When you look back in time, you don’t see intermediate seahorse-like fish,” says Beheregaray.

But, he says, there are fish alive today that look like horizontally-swimming seahorses and these could provide clues as to when seahorses evolved to be upright.

Pygmy pipehorses

Beheregaray and Teske compared the DNA of seahorses and other species from the same family to find out which was the closest living relative to seahorses.

“The pygmy pipehorses are by far the most seahorse-like fish on earth. They do look like the seahorses, but they swim horizontally,” says Beheregaray.

He and Teske used molecular dating techniques, which relies on the accumulation of differences in the DNA between the two species to work out when they diverged.

The researchers used the two existing fossil seahorses to calibrate the rate of evolution of DNA in their molecular clock.

And they discovered that the last common ancestor of seahorses and pygmy pipehorses lived around 25 to 28 million years ago.

Seagrass habitat

Beheregaray says at the time that seahorses arose during the Oligocene epoch coincided with the formation of vast areas of shallow water and expansion of seagrass in Australasia – where Teske has previously showed seahorses first evolved.

Seagrass was the perfect habitat for an upright-swimming seahorse, which could camouflage itself in the vertical seagrass blades, he says.

The horizontal-swimming pygmy pipehorses, by contrast, thrived in large algae on reefs and didn’t have the need to evolve the upright posture.

“The two groups split in a period when there were conditions favouring that split,” says Beheregaray.

“It’s like us. We started walking upright when we moved to the savannahs. On the other hand, the seahorses invaded the new vast areas of seagrass.”

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 13th May 2009

Giant trilobites had complex

social lives

The trilobites grouped together to molt, much like modern-day horseshoe crabs (Source: Geological Society of America)

The discovery of giant trilobites in northern Portugal reveals the once ubiquitous marine creature mated en masse and used its numbers for protection, say European researchers.

The new find, published in the current issue of the journal Geology describes giants that grew to 90 centimetres in length, the largest ever found.

Trilobites once roamed the sea floor, but were wiped out in the Permian-Triassic extinction, 250 million years ago.

These marine arthropods, typically less than 8 centimetres long, are distant relatives of modern-day lobsters and spiders.

The researchers, led by Dr Juan Carlos Gutiérrez-Marco from the El Instituto de Geología Económica in Madrid, Spain, discovered trilobites from 15 genera in 465-million year old rocks in Arouca Geopark in northern Portugal.

They found a complete specimen 70 centimetres in length and others whose tail remnants indicated they grew to up to 90 centimetres long.

Most of the trilobite species they collected have been found elsewhere in Western Europe, but never before of such giant size.

Their size was probably an adaption to the polar waters where they dwelt, say the researchers.

“Metabolism of invertebrates is slower in cold water, so it takes longer to reach adulthood and they also tend to live longer. Also if you are bigger you are better able to deter a predator attack,” sasy co-author Dr Diego García-Bellido, also of the El Instituto de Geología Económica.

Molt together, mate together

The researchers found clusters of trilobites with up to 1000 individuals, indicating they grouped together to molt, much like modern-day horseshoe crabs.

The researchers assume that like horseshoe crabs, the trilobites may have also mated en masse. The hormones that instigate molting are related to those that induce sexual reproduction, says García-Bellido.

Several trilobites in the deposit were also found in burrows and under the shells of larger organisms, where they may have hidden after molting as their soft bodies made them more vulnerable to predators.

The trilobites are believed to have died when the stagnant seawater became oxygen-depleted, which also helped their preservation as fossils, the researchers say.

Spectacular find

Palaeontologist Dr John Paterson from the University of New England in Armidale, describes the find as “spectacular”.

“It’s really exceptional in that you rarely find trilobite fossils complete,” he says. “Mostly you find a piece of the head or the tail, so to find them in congregations where there are many complete individuals is astounding.”

Paterson says his own research in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia has shown that trilobites grouped together during the Cambrian era about 520 million years ago, when the diversity of life really kicked off.

“You’ve got a better chance of survival if you are [molting] in a group as you’ve got less chance of being picked off yourself.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 13th May 2009

Tsunami may have hit NYC area 300 B.C.

NEW YORK (UPI) — Scientists are postulating a huge wave — a tsunami — slammed into the region that is now New York City about 2,300 years ago.

The researchers say they’ve found evidence of a powerful ocean wave dumping sediment and shells across Long Island and New Jersey, and depositing wood debris far up the Hudson River, the BBC reported Monday. Further testing will be done to rule out other possible causes for the upheaval, such as an unusually large storm, the British network said.

Steven Goodbred of Vanderbilt University said sediment core drillings turned up large gravel, marine fossils and other materials dating to about 300 B.C. The evidence seems to rule out a storm, pointing instead to massive wave action, he said.

“If we’re wrong, it was one heck of a storm,” Goodbred said.

What would have caused the rare Atlantic Ocean tsunami is up for conjecture. The most plausible idea so far is an undersea landslide, the BBC reported, but one research group suggests an asteroid may have been to blame.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 9th May 2009

Lithium in drinking water may boost mood

LONDON (UPI) — Japanese researchers say low levels of lithium found naturally in some water systems may help prevent suicides.

A study at Oita University in Japan, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found natural lithium levels ranging from 0.7 micrograms to 59 micrograms per litre in 18 communities in southern Japan, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

Researchers found the suicide rate was significantly lower in communities whose water contained larger amounts of lithium.

High doses of the naturally occurring metal are used to treat bipolar and mood disorders.

The findings have led some researchers to call for further study to consider the public health benefits of adding lithium to drinking water supplies, the newspaper said.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 4th May 2009

Study: Fish may feel pain much like humans

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (UPI) — A U.S. researcher says he has developed a test that suggests fish can feel pain and they react to it much as do humans.

Purdue University Assistant Professor Joseph Garner and Janicke Nordgreen, a doctoral student in the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, attached small foil heaters to goldfish and slowly increased the temperature.

Half of the fish were injected with morphine, and the others received saline. The researchers believed those with the morphine would be able to withstand higher temperatures before reacting if they actually felt pain. However, both groups of fish showed a response at about the same temperature.

But later observed in their home tanks, the researchers noticed fish from each group were exhibiting different behaviors.

“The fish given the morphine acted like they always had: swimming and being fish,” Garner said. “The fish that had gotten saline — even though they responded the same in the test — later acted different, though. They acted with defensive behaviors, indicating wariness, or fear and anxiety.”

Nordgreen said those behavioral differences showed fish can feel both reflexive and cognitive pain.

The scientists said their findings could raise questions about slaughter methods and standards of care could be revisited to ensure fish are being treated humanely.

A paper detailing the finding appears in the early online issue of the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science.

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 3rd May 2009

Fiddling With The Earth’s

Thermostat

WORLD TEMPERATURE CONCERNS

Scientists, including Obama’s science advisor, get tied in knots over geoengineering.

Oil and gas are so deliciously tempting that humans are having no success in slowing down global warming the way scientists agree we should, by going easy at the fossil fuel buffet.

So like surgeons who use liposuction to deal with obesity, scientists are considering ways to deal with the consequences of our unhealthy carbon diet. They are thinking about blowing soot into the stratosphere, hanging sunshades in space and sprinkling the oceans with fertilizer to create blooms of carbon-sucking phytoplankton.

These approaches are aimed at cooling the earth by either allowing less sunlight in or letting more heat bounce back to space by removing heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide. The big idea–fighting or reversing atmospheric changes with large-scale tinkering of the earth–is called geoengineering, and it’s tying scientists in knots.

President Obama’s science advisor, John Holdren, got twisted up himself last week. In his first interview since he was appointed, he mentioned to the Associated Press that he and the administration had discussed geoengineering approaches. Holdren later had to write an e-mail clarifying his position in response to fears that he and the administration were considering planning something specific. They aren’t.

“I said that the approaches that have been surfaced so far seem problematic in terms of both efficacy and side effects, but we have to look at the possibilities and understand them because if we get desperate enough it will be considered,” Holdren wrote.

This highlights why geoengineering is such an extraordinarily touchy scientific subject and why there is such deep ambivalence in the scientific community about it. Almost no one thinks that humans should be trying to change the atmosphere on a global scale. But then again, aren’t we already doing that by removing carbon from the ground in the form of fossil fuels and depositing it in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide on a massive scale? And what if we don’t solve the problem in time?

TOO HOT??

What complicates things is that the scientists who are most concerned with the pace of global warming and the destruction that might ensue are the ones who are forcing themselves to think about radical solutions. It terrifies them because they know better than anyone that the climate is massively complex and that unintended consequences lurk everywhere.

Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen, best known for his work on ozone depletion, has advanced the idea of injecting sulfur particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from earth. James Lovelock, a hero to early environmentalists who proposed the Gaia hypothesis, has advocated placing long, vertical wave-driven pipes in the ocean that would pump nutrient-rich water to the surface to fertilize algae that would consume carbon dioxide.

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 16th April 2009