New Threat To The World

Japanese fisherman with net full of jellyfish.

Maybe not many of us ever expected that the biggest threat will come from one of the most gentle creature without brain against human, whether we believe it or not, these notorious stinging creatures getting larger and larger in number every year and causing lots of damages in various ways. Sure we all know that human are the causes of this blooming jellyfish, but here we want to see what are the threat and what should we do.

The increasing of jellyfish population occurred much frequent over the pas few years and threatens other marine life populations that become the source of income for human. The fisherman in Southern Japan and South Korean are among fisherman affected badly by these jellyfish. When there are jellyfish in the net, all the fishes inside it are no longer suitable for human consumption. Anyway you can see how many jellyfish were caught in the picture above. So Japanese government keep on trying to improve the situation to help the fisherman.

Large number of jellyfish can cause many devastation in human activities.

Moon jellyfish that cause the closure of reactor in Sweden.

Box-jellyfish, one of the most venomous.

That’s only one part of the invasion problems. Some jellyfish equipped together with powerful stinger that can cause death when contact with human. These jellyfish are mostly transparent and some of them are very small to identify by swimmers. Even though not all jellyfish are harmful most of them still can cause painful stings.

One of the most dangerous jellyfish also known as box jellyfish is very small can cause death in short period of time. Box jellyfish native to Australia now had spread in many other areas in the world. These are the areas where human enjoying the beaches with their family and relatives. All we need to know jellyfish has nothing to do with human as we are not their source of foods.

Jellyfish life cycle.

Non stinger jellyfish.

There area many other species of jellyfish in the world.

In bigger scale jellyfish threat get more serious when few incidents had caused interruption in human activities. The closures of nuclear plants or power reactors caused by jellyfish invasion become more frequent all over the years. Some of the incidents include; Australia (937), Madras (1989), Philippines (1999), US Navy warships (2006), Scotland; Japan; Israel (2011) and also in Sweden (2013).

Throughout the world, scientists are trying to understand more about jellyfish not just to find an antidote for their stinger but also to learn how they grows in such large numbers. Jellyfish have different life cycle than from any other creatures. Jellyfish can stay in polyps’ stage for long time before producing the medusa (as the jellyfish that we know). So what triggering the production of the medusa and why it happens more often?

Purple-stripped jellyfish at Monterey Bay Aquarium that also studying on jellyfish,

Sea nettle jellyfish also in aquarium.

With the changes of environment caused by human activities that caused the alteration of marine population has resulted the blooming of jellyfish. The over-fishing, habitat destruction, pollution and many other activities had killed most of the creatures that prey on jellyfish. They are few other factors that increase the numbers of jellyfish, anyway if they have no prey anymore - their numbers will only get bigger.

It’s not hard to tell when the equilibrium of nature had been interrupted it will caused catastrophe. It will keep on going until the equilibrium comes to normal again. In this case, if we never restored the balance of nature - we will see some new species!

Ancaman Baru Kepada Penduduk Dunia

Nelayan Jepun dengan pukat tangkapan yang dipenuhi dengan obor-obor.

Mungkin tidak ramai yang menyangka bahawa hidupan yang paling lembuh dan kelihatan lemah boleh menjadi ancaman besar kepada dunia terutamanya manusia. Namun perubahan ini juga adalah berpunca kepada manusia sendiri yang menyebabkan mengapa populasi hidupan ini berkembang dengan begitu pantas dan hidupan yang dimaksudkan di sini adalah obor-obor.

Perkembangan populasi obor-obor adalah jauh lebih pantas sejak beberapa tahun dahulu dan mengancam populasi hidupan laut lain yang menjadi sumber makanan manusia. Inilah yang menimpa nasib para nelayan di Jepun yang menyebabkan hasil tanggapan mereka lenyap. Kejadian ini berlaku semakin kerap berbanding setiap 40 tahun sebelum ini. Pelbagai usaha dijalankan oleh kerajaan Jepun bagi membantu para nelayan tersebut.

Kumpulan besar obor-obor boleh membawa pelbagai kesan kepada aktiviti manusia.

"Moon jellyfish" yang menyebabkan penutupan loji nuklear di Sweden.

"Box jellyfish" dengan sengatan yang boleh membawa maut.

Kesan ledakan populasi obor-obor bukanlah setakat itu sahaja. Seperti yang diketahui, ia boleh mendatangkan bahaya sekiranya bersentuhan dengan manusia. Walaupun tidak semua spesies obor-obor merbahaya, sebahagian daripadanya boleh menyebabkan kematian. Bisanya juga menyebabkan kesakitan yang amat luar biasa - jadi adalah digalakkan supaya anda tidak menyentuh haiwan yang lembut ini.

Oleh kerana kebanyakan spesies obor-obor berwarna lutsinar maka ia amat sukar dikesan oleh manusia ketika bermandi-manda di pantai. Terdapat banyak kes yang menyebabkan kematian akibat disengat oleh obor-obor. Manakala bagi yang selamat juga terpaksa menanggung kesan bisa obor-obor yang amat menyakitkan. Apa yang pasti antara manusia dan obor-obor ini tidak berharap untuk bertembung kerana manusia bukanlah makanan bagi mereka.

Kitaran hidup obor-obor yang berbeza dengan hidupan-hidupan lain.

Antara spesies obor-obor yang tidak merbahaya.

Banyak lagi spesies obor-obor yang kurang diketahui oleh manusia.

Tetapi ancaman obor-obor bukanlah setakat itu sahaja. Gerombolan obor-obor pernah menyebabkan penutupan stesyen janakuasa seperti yang pernah berlaku di Australia (937), Madras (1989), Philippnes (1999), Kapal Perang U.S. (2006), Scotland; Japan; Israel (2011) dan juga di Sweden (2013). Jika diperhatikan ancaman gerombolan obor-obor menjadi semakin kerap setiap tahun menyebabkan usaha yang lebih serius perlu dilakukan segera bagi memahami fenomena ini sebelum terlambat.

Di seluruh dunia para saintis cuba memahami lebih mendalam mengenai obor-obor bukan sahaja untuk mencari penawar sengatannya malah juga untuk memahami bagaimana haiwan ini membiak dengan begitu pantas. Ini kerana obor-obor tidak membiak seperti haiwan lain, ia melalui kitaran hidupan yang unik dan menghasilkan medusa (tahap dewasa) pada masa yang sesuai dalam saiz yang sangar besar. Namun keadaan yang mengaktifkan pertukaran inilah yang menjadi antara perkara penting untuk difahami dan bagaimana ianya semakin kerap berlaku.

"Purple-striped jellyfish" di Monterey Bay Aquarium yang giat menjalankan kajian mengenai hidupan laut.

"Sea nettle jellyfish" kelihatan cantik ketika berenang.

Namun begitu kita tidak dapat menafikan bahawa pertumbuhan obor-obor yang luar biasa ini adalah diakibatkan oleh aktiviti manusia yang mengubah populasi hidupan laut dengan drastik. Kesan daripada penangkapan berlebihan, kemusnahan habitat, kesan pencemaran menyebabkan banyak hidupan yang menjadikan obor-obor sebagai makanan mengalami kepupusan. Maka hari ini obor-obor dapat hidup berkembang dalam jumlah yang jauh luar biasa.

Seperti yang kita ketahui alam berfungsi mengikut keseimbangannya, apabila salah satu daripada elemen mengalami gangguan, ia akan menyebakan elemen yang lainnya mengalami pertumbuhan ataupun mengalami kekurangan pula. Jadi untuk menangani masalah ini keseimbangan tersebut perlulah dikembalikan semula.

10 Inventions With Greatest Impact To The World

The blueprint of Wright Flyer.

All inventions are important but some of them lead to bigger changes in human lives than the other. In this article we are going to see for the 10 most important inventions that give biggest impact to how we living in this world today.

Printing Press (1950)

Print was invented earlier with slower and complicated process. Anyway printing press machine invented by Johannes Gutenberg 1440 not just allowed the printing works to be faster but also make books available at cheaper price. This is what contributes to any other knowledge to be spread exponentially.

Before printing machine was invented, the knowledge texts only available to few selected people. These materials prepared by selective people consist of monks and few learned individuals. With this invention however changed the whole Western Europe by 16^th century by mass produced texts with diversity of topics.

Telescope (1609)

Human always fascinated with stars in the sky but only with the invention of telescope that allow us to understand more about them. Even though invented earlier by Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani in 1611 the good quality telescope only produced later by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668 with his reflecting telescope.

Besides telescope another same optical apparatus that look at smaller objects also considered one of the most important inventions is microscope. Before microscope was invented no one knows that we living in the world with full of microscopic organisms that also have bigger impact in our lives.

Steam Engine (1712)

Even though steam engine no longer used today as how it’s been used before, most electricity generated by huge steam turbines to rotating it’s giant magnets. The steam machines evolve from the first machine produced in Egypt by Hero of Alexandria in the first century AD.

Steam engines were incredibly inefficient until few popular figures in steam engines come with better improvements such as Thomas Newcomen, James Watt and Matthew Boulton. Steam engines are the first machines that allow industrial practices to be implemented and created mass production of materials.

Plastic (1856)

Plastic is another invention have bigger impact to the world until today. Even though today we think the usage of plastics give negative impact to the nature, yet the invention of plastics creates many products at cheaper price. On the negative sides today we struggle to clean up all the plastics that float in the ocean and endanger their creatures.

Plastic was first invented by Alexander Parkes in 1862. A few years later American inventor John Wesley Hyatt came out with first synthetic man-made plastic. Today there are many types of plastics with different characteristics to allow many other materials to be produced with most of our household products contained plastics.

Telephone (1876)

Telephone was invented by two men separately and only one of them known as the inventor since he arrived at the patent office earlier. They are Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray in producing device that can transmit voice electronically.

Bell keeps on upgrading his invention that allows his invention to be more successful from any other inventor work on similar device. On March 10, 1876 he uttered the first word to his assistant Thomas A Watson: “Mr Watson, come here, I want you.”

If we look on how our phone works today, it will be far different than the first phone invented by Graham Bell, where today we have computer instead of phone on our hand.

Airplane (1903)

Airplane was another great invention in human history, while human already can fly with glider in short distance but not truly flying - without engine that provide enough force to keep on flying.

Orville and Wilber Wright also known as Wright Brothers were businessman with bicycle shop. It took them few years to develop Wright Flyer the first plane that flies on 17 December 1903 for 36.6 meters with its own engine. One year later Wilber flew and improved Flyer II for five minutes.

With advancement in aviation technology today the air travel not just become easier but also cheaper. Keep on travelling.

Television (1926)

Television is more complicated device with more electronics parts in it. Start with visionaries of the invention of such product to the invention of the product itself was not produced by single man. Television requires different discoveries by different inventors to further develop the fully functional television set.

First thought to be nothing good will comes out of it until to be one of the devices we can find in every home. The television becomes the most popular electronics in 21^st century that also used to spread ideas, commercials, news and entertainment.

Touch Screens (1965)

Touch screens was invented earlier by English engineer EA Johnson in 1965 that simplify the input device to computer. Anyway it took very long until touch screens technology to become cheaper to be able to use with smaller device such as smart phone.

There area to types of touch screen: resistive and capacitive. In the early introduction resistive touch screen was more popular, while today capacitive touch screen usage is wider. With touch screen the control of devices become easier, faster and more accessible by everyone.

GPS (1973)

GPS was technology developed for military usage to allow them to firing missiles accurately. It was developed by American Ivan Getting and Professor Bradford Parkinson on military request. Then the GPS network was proposed with network of radio transmitters with each having an in-built clock. That’s requires an atomic clock for high precision measuring of time.

GPS satellites were launched by the US military in 1978 and were used for military purposes only, public usage of this technology only available in early nineties. Originally there were 18 satellites in 1979 and 24 by 1988, that number is now closer to 30.

Internet (1960 & 1989)

The best invention that allows the acceleration of information to be transfer, share and to make it more accessible is the invention of internet. Anyway the invention of internet itself requires the platform of network system.

The invention of the network start as early as 1960’s when Advance Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of US Department of Defence created ARPANET. This network allows the communication between computers across the network.

While the internet as we know it today start with the invention of websites (the World Wide Web) that was invented in late-Eighties. It all start when the researcher at CERN called Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues develop a system that will allow user of the internet to access text-based ‘pages’. This is possible by the usage of HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), allowing communication between network servers and computers. They released the early web browser to the public in 1992 and the advancement of internet begun.

Those are among 10 best inventions that shape out our world today. There are many other best inventions, but these ten are inventions that allow the other inventions possible or inspiring it to happened. Well, we know it can’t be just 10, as we all have our own criteria of what best inventions is. Anyway, it is better to keep on inventing than just rather to talk about which one is the best than the other.

Bahan Tenunan Unik Sutera Laut (Sea Silk)

Serat byssus yang digunakan untuk menghasilkan sutera laut (sea silk).

Bahan-bahan penghasilan pakaian merupakan antara bahan penting yang sentiasa mendapat perhatian daripada Myrokan terutamanya sutera, sepertimana yang kita tahu, merupakan salah satu bahan terbaik yang diperolehi dari sumber alam. Sutera bukan sahaja dihasilkan oleh ‘ulat sutera’ namun turut dihasilkan oleh serangga-serangga lain. Tahukah anda salah satu sutera terbaik iaitu ‘sutera laut’ adalah dihasilkan oleh sejenis kerang!

Sutera laut (sea silk) merupakan antara bahan yang jarang digunakan dan ianya hanya dihasilkan di beberapa kawasan sahaja di dunia iaitu Taranto, Apulia dan Sardinia di Itali. Ia juga semakin jarang ditemui kerana proses penghasilan sutera ia adalah jauh lebih sukar jika dibandingkan dengan penghasilan sutera daripada ulat sutera.

Pinna nobilis di habitat asalnya di dasar laut. 

Pinna nobilis boleh mencapai sehingga 120 cm.

Sutera laut merupakan bahan filamen sutera yang juga dikenali sebagai “byssus” yang dihasilkan oleh hidupan “bivalve” mollusk untuk membantunya melekatkan diri di permukaan batuan. Adapun bahan yang digunakan untuk menghasilkan sutera laut adalah daripada byssus yang dihasilkan oleh sejenis kerangan yang dikenali sebagai pen shells (Pinna nobilis).

Sutera laut dahulunya dihasilkan di kawasan sekitar Mediterranean di mana hidupan Pinna nobilis boleh didapati sehingga kepada awal abad ke-20. Hidupan cengkerang ini mempunyai saiz yang agak besar dan mampu mencapai ukuran sehingga 120 cm (4 ft) panjang. Pada saiz ini ia mampu menghasilkan serat byssus yang mencapai sehingga 6 cm panjang. Melalui serat inilah benang sutera laut dihasilkan.

Sutera byssus yang amat halus.

Sarung tangan yang dihasilkan menggunakan sutera laut.

Chiara Vigo merupakan satu-satunya penghasil sutera laut yang tinggal!

Oleh kerana byssus yang dihasilkan amat pendek, proses pemintalan benang sutera laut memerlukan kemahiran yang tinggi dan memerlukan masa yang lama. Sehingga kini tiada barangan bersaiz besar dihasilkan menggunakan sutera laut ini melainkan barangan kecil seperti sarung tangan, bahan yang dikait dan beberapa barangan kecil sahaja.

Penghasilan sutera laut merupakan antara kaedah penghasilan fabrik yang hampir pupus dan usaha memeliharanya semakin giat dijalankan oleh pelbagai pihak bagi memastikan ianya tidak terus hilang. Sutera laut sememangnya unik kerana tiada siapa yang menyangka – sutera turut dihasilkan oleh hidupan air terutamanya kerang-kerangan.

Rujukan:

i) Production of sea-silk

ii) Sea silk

iii) Byssus

iv) Pinna nobilis