Birth Control

Queen Anne's Lace was used for birth control in ancient Greece. Recent studies have confirmed that Queen Anne's lace has post coital anti-fertility properties and the plant is still used today for birth control in India.

American anarchist political activist and writer Emma Goldman was arrested on February 11, 1916 for giving speeches explaining birth control. Refusing to pay a $100 fine, Goldman spent two weeks in a prison workhouse.

Emma Goldman

Public health nurse Margaret Sanger opened the first U.S. birth-control clinic at 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn, New York on October 16, 1916. She was arrested and jailed for 30 days. In 1953 Sanger became the first president of the International Planned Parenthood Foundation.

Margaret Sanger

Having experienced a wretched first marriage to an impotent man, the Scot Marie Stopes wrote the book Married Love, in which she advocated birth control not only to save women from constant childbearing but also to improve the human race by selective breeding. Despite the protests from Christians, especially Roman Catholics, who were shocked at the book’s frank look at sexual relations she believed God personally directed her.

Marie Stopes

On March 17, 1921, Stopes opened her first birth-control clinic at 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway, North London. The Mother's Clinic offered mothers birth control advice and taught them birth control methods and dispensed Stopes own "Pro-Race" brand cervical cap.

The United States Food and Drug Administration announced on May 9, 1960 that it would approve the use of Searle's Enovid for birth control, making it the first oral contraceptive pill. This was a groundbreaking development in the field of birth control, as it offered women a more convenient and reliable method of contraception than previous methods such as condoms, diaphragms, and contraceptive jellies. 

The approval of Enovid also played a significant role in the women's liberation movement of the 1960s, as it gave women more control over their own reproductive health and allowed them to make choices about their own lives and futures.

The first widespread book detailing contraception was created and published illegally by some Canadian students in 1968. The Birth Control Handbook rapidly gained popularity with its critical information and, within a year, millions were distributed across the US and Canada.

Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical, Humanae Vitae, reaffirmed the Catholic church’s historic denunciation of artificial birth control. Many Catholics were disappointed by this as it was felt that after the modernisation of the church in Vatican Two, the church would take heed of technological advances such as the pill and allow Catholics to practice contraception.

September 26th is World Contraception Day, devoted to raising awareness of contraception and improving education about sexual and reproductive health.

The "99% effective" label on birth control pills means that out of 100 women who use the pill in a year, one will get pregnant.

Gorillas have similar reproductive systems to humans, so birth control pills are effective in preventing their pregnancy.

The German word for 'birth control pill' is "antibabypille."

Birth

FAMOUS HISTORICAL BIRTHS

Aristotle believed that the womb is divided into two halves, one for boy babies, the other for girls. 

He said that a woman wishing to conceive a son should lie on her right side, or on her left for a girl.

The Aztecs regarded childbirth as a form of battle with the gods to win her child's life—Mothers who succeeded were celebrated, while women who died in childbirth were thought to become vampiric monsters called Cihuateteo, which stole other women's children.

When Louis II of Hungary was born prematurely on July 1, 1506, doctors kept him alive by slaying animals and wrapping him in their warm carcasses as a primitive incubator. 

In Sigershaufen, Switzerland, during the early 16^th century a pregnant woman, Frau Nufer, was having considerable trouble delivering her child, possibly because of the baby's position. In great distress her husband Jacob watched his wife's labor going from bad to worse, without her being able to give birth. A sow-gelder, by trade on the spur of the moment he took a razor and cut open the uterus to release the baby. Legend has it that Julius Caesar was delivered this way and it is thus being referred to as a Caesarean operation.

Virginia Dare is considered to be the first English child born in the Americas, specifically on Roanoke Island in what is now North Carolina, on August 18, 1587. She was the granddaughter of Governor John White, who was the leader of the Roanoke colony. The colony ultimately failed, and the fate of Virginia Dare and the other colonists remains a mystery to this day.

Nicholas Guy (fl. 1612 – 1631) was one of the first settlers at the London and Bristol Company's Cuper's Cove, colony in Newfoundland. He was the father of the first English child born in Canada. 

There is some debate among medical historians about who performed the first successful Cesarean section in Britain. While farmer's wife, Alice O'Neal,  is often cited as the patient in the first successful Cesarean in Britain, there are conflicting accounts of the circumstances surrounding the operation and its outcome.

Some sources suggest that the first successful Cesarean in Britain was actually performed by surgeon James Barlow in Manchester in 1736, two years before Alice O'Neal's surgery. Barlow's patient, identified only as "Mrs. Potts," survived the procedure and gave birth to a healthy child.

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were both born on February 12, 1809. Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, in the United States, while Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. Despite being born on the same day, the two men led very different lives and made very different contributions to history.

Dr Alexander Lion, from Nice, France, who devised the first incubator for premature babies in 1891, helped 137 babies to survive in the equipment’s first three years. To encourage interest in the technology, he also began displaying newborns in their incubators to the paying public.

Margaret Evans was a 23-year-old woman from Miami, Florida, who was pregnant with her first child. On October 26, 1929, she was flying from Miami to New York City on a Pan Am flight when she went into labor. The flight was only halfway there, and there was no doctor on board. However, the flight crew was able to deliver the baby safely. The baby girl was named Airlene, in honor of the fact that she was born on an airplane.

The Dionne quintuplets, named Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie, were born on May 28, 1934, in a farmhouse near the village of Corbeil, near Callander, Ontario, Canada, to Oliva and Elzire Dionne. They were the first known quintuplets to survive infancy, and their birth and subsequent upbringing became the subject of intense media attention and public fascination. The Ontario government took custody of the girls and placed them in a specially-built facility called Quintland, where they were cared for by nurses and doctors and became a popular tourist attraction.

Peruvian Lina Medina became on May 14, 1939 the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of at the age of five years, seven months and 17 days. Her parents, who assumed their daughter had a tumor, took her to a hospital where she was then found to be seven months pregnant. 

Medina's son weighed 6.0 lb at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister, but found out at the age of 10 that she was his mother. The biological father who impregnated Lina was never identified.

Politician and television personality Jerry Springer was born on February 13, 1944, in Highgate Underground station in London, England. His parents, Richard and Margot Springer, were German-Jewish refugees who had fled Nazi Germany in 1939. They were living in London during World War II, and Highgate Underground station was being used as a bomb shelter. Margot Springer went into labor during a bombing raid, and Jerry was born in the station..

Dr. John Buster and his team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, performed the first successful embryo transfer from one woman to another in 1984. The baby girl, who was born on February 3, 1984, was the first baby to be born as a result of this procedure.

Inés Ramírez Pérez, a pregnant Mexican woman from the state of Oaxaca, was experiencing delivery complications. At midnight on March 5, 2000, she drank three glasses of hard liquor and then gave herself a Caesarean section with a kitchen knife. The mother and child both lived. She had no medical training.

Omkari Panwar, a 70-year-old grandmother from India gave birth to twins on June 27, 2008, setting the then-world record for the oldest mother. Omkari delivered a boy and a girl after she underwent IVF treatment, which cost 350,000 rupees (£4,375 or $9,000) - a small fortune in India. To pay for it Charan mortgaged his land, sold his buffalo, spent his life savings and took out a loan.

73-year-old Erramatti Mangayamma became the world's oldest mother when she successfully delivered two healthy babies on September 5, 2019  in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. After 57 years in a childless marriage, Erramatti, and her husband, Raka Rao, conceived after successfully undergoing IVF treatment from Ahalya Hospital. 

A baby girl from Lewisville, Texas named Lynlee was "born" twice in 2016 after she was taken out of her mother's womb for 20 minutes for life-saving surgery. Partner surgeons Dr Darrell Cass and Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye removed her from the womb to cut out a tumor on her spine, placed her back and several weeks later Lynlee was born a second time, healthy and on time.

In August 2019, Czech doctors successfully delivered a baby girl from a brain-dead mother who had suffered a severe stroke. The mother had been kept on life support for 117 days to allow the baby to continue developing in the womb. The baby was delivered by cesarean section at 34 weeks gestation, and despite some initial complications, she was reported to be in stable condition. After the successful delivery, the mother's life support was disconnected, and she was allowed to pass away.

BIRTH RECORDS

The record for giving birth to the most surviving children from a single birth is nine. Halima Cisse, a woman from Mali, gave birth to nonuplets on May 4, 2021, at Ain Borja Clinic in Casablanca, Morocco. The five baby girls and four baby boys were born prematurely, at 30 weeks gestation, and weighed between 500 grams and 1 kilogram. They were all delivered via caesarean section. The nonuplets are the first known case of nine surviving children from a single birth.

The shortest interval between two children who weren't twins is 208 days. The record is co-held by Sadie Budden, a 31-year-old pre-school teacher from Andover, England who gave birth to her son Ronnie in August 2011, and her daughter Sienna in February, 2012. Sienna was born prematurely at just 26 weeks gestation.

Sadie Budden shares the record with New Zealander Jayne Bleackley who gave birth to Joseph Robert on September 3, 1999, and Annie Jessica Joyce on March 30, 2000 - again 208 days apart.

The shortest woman to give birth is American Stacey Herald, who is 28.5in tall (2ft 4in). She gave birth to three children, Kateri, Malachi and Makya. At birth, Makya was 18in long, more than half her mother’s body length, and weighed 4lb 7oz. Herald was born with a condition called osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes brittle bones and underdeveloped lungs. She was told that she would never be able to have children, but she defied the odds.

FUN BIRTH FACTS

255 people are born every minute, according to UNICEF.

Worldwide, the average woman gives birth to an estimated 6.89 children.

Niger has the highest fertility rate in the world, with an average of 6.9 children born per woman. This is followed by Mali, Somalia, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, all with fertility rates of over 6 children per woman. As of 2023, South Korea has the lowest fertility rate, with an average of 0.78 children born per woman.

The world's population was fewer than 1 billion in 1800, 3 billion in 1960 and 6 billion as recently as 1999. It is now over 8 billion.

When your mother was born, she was already carrying the egg that would become you.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth but our nose and ears never stop growing.

You once held a world record when you were born for being the "Youngest Person on The Planet."

Only 4% of babies are born on their actual due date.

Aphids can give birth 10 days after being born themselves.

The chances for a mother giving birth to quadruplets (four Childs) are almost 1 in 600000.

Normally there are born 94 females to 100 males. But among quadruplets there are 156 females for every 100 males.

More babies are born in August than in any other month.

Human babies are born two months prematurely for our size and lifespan, to accommodate for the fact that we have large brains during birth.

Traditional Egyptian Sebous—post-birth naming ceremonies—may include scaring the baby with loud noises to teach courage.

In 1965, a patent was filed for a "birthing apparatus" which would spin pregnant women around at as much as 7G until their baby was flung out from the centrifugal force.

In China, the day a child is born it is considered one year old.

While just 1.26% of babies born in the United States in 2021 entered the world at home, about 95% were born at home in 1900.

Approximately one out of every 55 women from Canada give birth in their car on the way to the hospital or clinic.

22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.

A 41-gun salute is the traditional salute to a royal birth in Great Britain.

Pixar lists all children born during the production of their movies in the credits as "Production Babies".

Mumbai businessman  Raphael Samuel attempted to sue his parents in 2019 for giving birth to him without his consent. He claimed it is wrong to bring a child into the world, because they have to put up with lifelong suffering.

Antinatalism is a philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth. The arguments range from the trauma and suffering that comes with existing to the idea that it's morally wrong to bring a being into existence without their consent.

Sources Greatfacts.com, International Business Times, Daily Express

Biro

Whilst working with a magazine, Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biró (September 29, 1899 – October 24,  1985) noticed that the ink used in newspaper printing dried quickly, leaving the paper dry and smudge-free. He tried using the same ink in a fountain pen but found that it would not flow into the tip. Eventually Biró had the idea of replacing the nib with a metal ball which delivered the ink more evenly.

Had Biró kept the patent for the world's first ballpoint pen, his estate would be worth billions. As it happened, Biró sold the patent to one Baron Bich of France in 1945 and it soon became the main product of his Bic company.

The success of the biro was helped by it’s being offered to Royal Air Force airmen in the Second World War as it didn't leak at high altitudes.

Bíró moved to Argentina to develop his invention and he died in Buenos Aires in 1985.

Birome advertisement in Argentine magazine Leoplán, 1945. Wikipedia Commons

Argentina's Inventor's Day is celebrated on Bíró's birthday, September 29th.

American entrepreneur Milton Reynolds came across a Bíró ballpoint pen during a business trip to Buenos Aires. Recognizing commercial potential, he purchased several ballpoint samples, returned to the United States, and founded Reynolds International Pen Company.

His product Reynolds' Rocket ballpoint pens went on sale at Gimbels department store in New York City on October 29, 1945 for $12.95, the equivalent of $161.41 in 2023. Reynolds advertised it as the pen "to write under water." It was immediately successful: $100,000 worth sold the first day on the market.

Bíró was responsible for several other inventions, including a lock, a heat-proof tile, and a device for recording blood pressure.

Biró's name is pronounced to rhyme with “hero” not “giro."

The Frenchman Marcel Bich (1914-94) took over the invention in 1958 and created a disposable version, the Bic.

In 2008, Bic released a statement indicating that its standard ballpoint pens are capable of writing up to 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) of continuous line. 

Launched in 2012, the "Bic Cristal for Her" was a pink-hued spinoff of the classic pen, marketed specifically towards women. This decision was met with widespread criticism and mockery. Critics lambasted the product for its blatant gender stereotyping, suggesting that women somehow require specialized writing instruments different from their male counterparts.

The campaign's messaging further stoked the flames. Phrases like "Look Like a Girl" and "Think Like a Man" were deemed patronizing and insensitive, reinforcing harmful gender binaries. Predictably, sales plummeted, and the "Bic Cristal for Her" became a prime example of marketing gone wrong.

However, the story doesn't end there. The "Bic Cristal for Her" found its way into the Museum of Failure, a collection of well-intentioned products that met unfortunate ends. While not intended to be a badge of honor, the pen's inclusion serves as a reminder of the importance of inclusivity and sensitivity in marketing, especially when considering gendered products.

China produced over 38 billion ballpoint pens in 2016 - 80 percent of the world's pen production.

Ballpoint pens are widely referred to as "biro" in many English-speaking countries, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

According to the article "It's 70 today, but our favourite pen just keeps rolling along" published in The Guardian in 2008, an estimated 15 million Bic pens are sold every day worldwide, perhaps making the pen the world's most successful gadget.

Sources The Independent 3/11/07

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city in the West Midlands region of England, located about 120 miles northwest of London. It is the second-largest city in the UK, with a population of 1,144,900 residents (2021 census)..

HISTORY

Birmingham as a settlement dates from the Anglo-Saxon era. After the Norman Conquest, Birmingham passed into the possession of the Bermingham family, and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book (1086), valued at 20 shillings.

By the end of the 13th century, a market town had grown up around the Bull Ring, the meeting point of several roads. Birmingham remained in the hands of the Bermingham family until 1527, when John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, gained control of the town.

The first building society was set up in Birmingham in 1775. The Birmingham-based "Society for the Permanent Benefit of the Working Classes" was established by a group of local artisans and craftsmen, who pooled their resources to create a mutual savings fund that would allow them to purchase their own homes.

Birmingham grew to international prominence in the 18th century at the heart of the Midlands Enlightenment , which saw the town at the forefront of worldwide developments in science, technology and economic organisation, producing a series of innovations that laid many of the foundations of modern industrial society. By 1791 it was being hailed as "the first manufacturing town in the world."

John Cadbury first began selling tea, coffee and later chocolate on Birmingham’s Bull Street. He was listed in the 1828-29 Directory of Warwickshire as a tea dealer.

Despite being a major industrial and commercial center, Birmingham did not have a member of parliament until the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832, which redistributed parliamentary seats and created new constituencies across the United Kingdom. After the Reform Act, Birmingham was given two members of parliament, and this was increased to three in the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885.

Birmingham was granted borough status in 1838, which meant that it was allowed to elect its own town council. The first council was elected in that same year. 

In 1889, Birmingham was granted city status by Queen Victoria in recognition of its rapid growth and importance as a center of industry and commerce. The granting of city status also led to the establishment of a Lord Mayor and other civic dignitaries.

Until the ballpoint was invented by László Bíró in 1938, Birmingham led the world in pen nib production. In the 1850s, Birmingham produced half of all the world’s pens.

In recent years, Birmingham has undergone significant redevelopment, with new public spaces, cultural institutions, and business districts emerging. The city is now a major hub for business, finance, and technology, and is considered one of the fastest-growing cities in the UK.

FUN FACTS

Birmingham is known for its cultural diversity, with a large population of immigrants from around the world, which has contributed to its vibrant arts and food scenes.

Some notable attractions in Birmingham include the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the Symphony Hall, the Bullring shopping center, the National SEA LIFE Centre, and the Cadbury World chocolate factory. Birmingham is also home to several universities, including the University of Birmingham and Aston University.

There are many miles of restored canal walks, with Birmingham known as ‘Britain's Canal City’. The city is often noted for having more miles of canal than Venice.

The Birmingham Mint (1850) is the oldest continuously operating mint in the country, and is still the biggest private mint in the UK.

Birmingham's Spaghetti Junction, officially the Gravelly Hill Interchange, serves 18 routes on five levels, as well as crossing a canal, two railways and a river.

Birmingham City Council has one of the largest local authorities in Europe with 120 councillors representing 69 wards.

Sutton Park covering 2,400 acres is the largest urban park in Europe. It is also designated as a National Nature Reserve, as well as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The Library of Birmingham, which opened in 2013, has been described as the largest public library in the United Kingdom, the largest public cultural space in Europe, and the largest regional library in Europe. The library is located in Centenary Square in Birmingham and covers an area of over 31,000 square meters (334,000 square feet).

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
 

Birdsong

Birdsong refers to the musical or melodic sounds that birds produce as a form of communication, often used for attracting mates, defending territory, or signaling danger. Birds have a specialized vocal organ called the syrinx, which allows them to produce a wide range of sounds and complex vocalizations.

Birdsong varies greatly between different species of birds, and can be characterized by its rhythm, pitch, and pattern. 

Most likely, when you hear a bird singing, it is a male trying to attract a mate or mark his territory. However, female birds in certain regions such as the tropics, Australia, and South Africa, sing more frequently than their counterparts in other parts of the world. 

Birds sing in the morning to get the clearest, crispest sound quality they can.

The morning singing of birds is called the "dawn chorus". It is mostly male birds that sing in the morning and it is theorized that they do so to show fitness, the air and low ambient noise allows for clearer signal, and it's too dark to really do anything else.

Birds are not born with the ability to sing; they learn their songs in the nest. 

While some birds have a limited repertoire of just one song, others have an impressive repertoire of up to 2,000 songs.

Some birds are renowned for their complex and intricate songs, such as the nightingale or the mockingbird, while others produce more simple and repetitive calls. 

The songs of many bird species are highly complex and can contain dozens of notes per second. Songbirds may take as many as 30 mini breaths per second to keep up their tune. 

True songbirds exhibit a wide range of songs, from the simple two-note song of the chiffchaff to the complex 103-note phrase (sung in as little as 8.25 seconds) of the wren. 

In some bird species, particularly those in the tropics, male and female birds sing together in duets.

Research has revealed that British songbirds have distinct dialects, with variations in pitch, tone, and tune based on the region in which they live. It is believed that these regional accents help reduce the likelihood of birds mating with those from other regions.

In the 1930's an Australian farmer/flute player released his pet lyrebird into the wild, which was able to mimic certain phrases of the man's music. The bird has shared the music with other lyrebirds and the same melodies are still sung by these birds today.

CBS used to add bird songs to their golf broadcasts to get rid of awkward silences until they got caught by someone watching at home who knew the bird songs belonged to birds that didn’t live in the region in which the golf tournament was being played.

BIRDSONG IN THE MEDIA

The Let Nature Sing project, launched by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), aimed to raise awareness of the decline in Britain's birdlife by incorporating birdsong into the United Kingdom music charts. Adrian Thomas, a renowned expert in birdsong, recorded a series of birds singing between 2016 and January 2019 for this project. Folk singer Sam Lee and Shakespeare's Globe music director Bill Barclay collaborated to compile the resulting track, "Let Nature Sing," which features 25 different threatened and endangered United Kingdom birds and runs for two and a half minutes.

"Let Nature Sing" became the first track featuring only birdsong to chart in the United Kingdom, debuting at #18 on May 5, 2019. While some songs like "Lovin' You" by Minnie Riperton, "Birds" by Bic Runga, "Morning Mr. Magpie" by Radiohead, and "Unknown Caller" by U2 include birdsong in their mix, "Let Nature Sing" is unique in featuring pure birdsong.

Kate Bush's 2005 Aerial album's second CD is also noteworthy for its abundant use of birdsong, particularly the title track.

Source Daily Express

Bird

BIRD HISTORY

The subjects of the Roman Emperor Augustus would train birds which made complimentary greetings to him. Augustus would then bury them.

Leonardo Da Vinci was known to buy up whole stocks of live birds and set them free.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded on December 17, 1889 by Emily Williamson, a social reformer, and Eliza Phillips, a bird enthusiast, in Manchester, England. The organization was initially created to combat the use of bird feathers in women's hats, which was a major cause of bird population decline at the time. 

Today, the RSPB is the largest wildlife conservation charity in Europe, with more than 1.2 million members and over 200 nature reserves in the United Kingdom.

The modern technique of bird banding was worked out by a Danish schoolmaster, Hans Mortensen. He was the first to attach aluminium rings to the legs of various European birds. His report in 1899 gave birth to the bird-banding movement in America.

The term 'birdwatching' to describe the practice or hobby of watching birds in their natural habitat was first recorded in 1901. It was used as the title of a book by E. Selous, Bird Watching, as a 'homelier' equivalent of the specifically scientific ornithology.

The first federal bird reservation was created by executive order of President Theodore Roosevelt on March 14, 1903. It was located on Pelican Island in the Indian River Lagoon east of Sebastian, Florida. The reservation was created to protect egrets and other birds from extinction through plume hunting.

During World War I, U.S. citizens were encouraged to feed wild birds so they could survive and eat insects that threatened America's crops.

BIRD RECORDS

The smallest bird in the world is the bee hummingbird. The bird is 2.24 inches long.

The Arctic Tern, which is a small bird, can fly a round trip from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back. This can be as long as twenty thousand miles per year. This is the longest migration for a bird.

The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds (156.5 kgs) and has an average height of 9 feet (274 cm.)

Despite only living in Africa, the red-billed quelea (see below) is the world's most abundant wild bird species, with some estimates of the overall population being as large as 10 billion.

  Photo by Bernard Dupont

                                   
The highest flying bird in the world is a type of vulture. The Rüppell’s vulture, or Gyps rueppellii, is found throughout the Sahel region of central Africa, which has been found at confirmed elevations of 37,000 feet.

The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon. It can fly at a speed of more than 215 miles per hour.

 BIRD EATING HABITS 

A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.

To survive, every bird must eat at least half its own weight in food each day.

A bird 'chews' with its stomach.

The scarlet tanager, a songbird native to Illinois, can eat as many as 2,100 gypsy-moth caterpillars in one hour.

Depending on the species, birds may have fewer than 50 or up to roughly 500 taste buds, while humans have 9,000-10,000 taste buds.

BIRD BEHAVIOR

Birds sing in the morning to get the clearest, crispest sound quality they can.

Certain songbirds, including the blue-capped cordon-bleu and the red-cheeked cordon-bleu, tap dance while waving twigs to attract mates.

Birds can sleep while flying, but it is still not understood properly how they avoid bumping into each other.

There is a species of bird, Antpitta avis canis Ridgley, that barks like a dog.

BIRD ANATOMY

A hummingbird’s brain makes up 4.2% of its weight—proportionally, that’s the largest of any bird’s.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can hover and fly straight up, down, or backward!

Birds lack a sense of depth, so they have to move their heads to judge positions of objects against backgrounds.

Birds can see the Earth's magnetic field. This is due to the presence of a protein in their retina called Cryptochrome(Cryp4).

Birds not only can see in ultraviolet, but their feathers have patterns which can only be seen in UV. This explains why the males and females of certain species may look the same to us, but in reality, are very different in each other’s eyes.

Birds have two lungs and two additional air sacs which allow breathing to continuously flow in a single direction through their respiratory system. This allows oxygen intake even when they exhale, which is especially needed at high flying altitudes.

Kiwis are the only known bird to have nostrils located at the tip of their beak.

The kiwi, ostrich and emu appear to have no wings but have vestigial wing bones.

Bird excrement is 11 to 16 percent nitrogen, 8 to 12 percent phosphoric acid, and 2 to 3 percent potash.

Fossilized bird droppings are one of the chief exports of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific.

FUN BIRD FACTS

The penguin is the only bird that can't fly but can swim.

About 20% of bird species have become extinct in the past 200 years, almost all of them because of human activity.

The Australian Night Parrot is the most elusive and mysterious bird in the world - only three people have had a confirmed sighting in over a century.

The Yao tribe in Africa uses the Greater Honeyguide bird to help them find bees. They have learned to communicate with the small orange-beaked creatures, using a "Brrr-Hm" grunt, which the birds know means "lets go find honey."

About 80 percent of all bird species in the world inhabit wetlands.

The world's oldest known wild bird is Wisdom the Laysan albatross. She hatched around 1951 and is still laying viable eggs and raising chicks. Wisdom has outlived several mates and raised anywhere from 30 to 35 chicks.

The absence of land mammals in New Zealand allowed birds to become dominant, and with fewer threats from predators many species became flightless. New Zealand is home to the most flightless birds having 16 out of the 60 species worldwide.

Outdoor cats are the number one threat to bird populations. They have contributed to the extinction of 33 bird populations and are responsible for roughly 2.4 billion in bird losses per year.

Wind farms kill approximately a half-million birds per year in the United States.

The remains of birds hit by airplanes in flight are known as 'snarge'.

Nippon Airways announced in 1988 that bird collisions had decreased by 20% since it painted eyeballs on its jetliners.

Source Greatfacts.com

Biology

Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science that encompasses a wide range of topics and sub-disciplines, including genetics, ecology, physiology, microbiology, zoology, botany, and more.

By MathKnight - Own work based on: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50819897

The word "biology" was first used to refer to the study of living organisms in 1799 by the German botanist Karl Friedrich Burdach. Before that, the term "biology" was used to describe biographical writing, which focused on the life stories of individuals.

The term "biology" comes from the Greek words "bios," meaning life, and "logos," meaning study or science. The term "biologie" was first used in French in the early 19th century, and it quickly spread to other European languages. Much of the earliest recorded history of biology is derived from Assyrian and Babylonian bas-reliefs showing cultivated plants and from carvings depicting veterinary medicine. Assyrian and Babylonian bas-reliefs depict cultivated plants such as barley, wheat, and date palms, as well as fruit trees and other crops. These reliefs often show the tools and techniques used for planting, harvesting, and processing these crops.

Aristotle, who lived from 384-322 BC, is considered one of the founding fathers of Western philosophy and science. He was interested in the natural world and conducted extensive observations and categorizations of living organisms. He explored biological causation, examining the ways in which organisms interact with their environment, and he made important contributions to the classification and taxonomy of living organisms. Aristotle's work on biology is found primarily in his books, Historia Animalium, De Anima, and Parts of Animals.

Theophrastus, who lived from 371-287 BC, was a student of Aristotle and continued his work on the natural world. He is often considered the "father of botany" and is credited with beginning the scientific study of plants. He wrote extensively about the morphology, growth, and reproduction of plants, and his work, Enquiry into Plants, is considered a foundational text in the study of botany.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek's dramatic improvement of the microscope in the 17th century played a significant role in the development of modern biology. Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch scientist, was the first person to develop powerful microscopes that allowed for the observation of microscopic organisms and structures.

Using his microscopes, Leeuwenhoek was able to observe and describe many previously unknown microorganisms, including bacteria, protozoa, and spermatozoa. He also discovered the existence of microscopic structures such as red blood cells and the capillaries that carry them.

Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk and scientist, is often considered the father of modern genetics. In the 1860s, Mendel conducted a series of experiments with pea plants and discovered the basic principles of biological inheritance, including the idea of dominant and recessive traits.

However, Mendel's work was largely ignored by the scientific community at the time, and it was not until the early 20th century that his ideas were rediscovered and recognized as groundbreaking. 

The discovery of the double-helical structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953 was a major breakthrough in the field of molecular genetics. This discovery revealed how genetic information is stored and transmitted, and it paved the way for many subsequent advances in the field.

In the same period, Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase conducted a series of experiments that showed that DNA, rather than protein, is the genetic material that is passed from one generation to the next. This discovery helped to establish the importance of DNA in genetics and laid the groundwork for further research into the structure and function of DNA.

Biology uses the scientific method to investigate and understand the natural world. The scientific method is a systematic approach to studying phenomena that involves making observations, asking questions, formulating hypotheses, testing those hypotheses through experimentation, and drawing conclusions based on the results.

In order for an idea in biology to be considered scientifically valid, it must be supported by empirical evidence that can be independently verified by other scientists. This means that biologists must be able to provide evidence to support their ideas, and they must be able to design experiments that allow other scientists to test those ideas for themselves.

Biological Warfare

Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological agents such as bacteria, viruses, or toxins to intentionally cause disease or death in humans, animals, or plants. The aim of biological warfare is to incapacitate or kill an enemy by spreading contagious diseases, contaminating food or water supplies, or infecting livestock or crops.

Biological weapons can be spread through the air, water, or direct contact with infected individuals or materials. They can be highly effective and can cause widespread damage to both military forces and civilian populations.

Aeneas the Tactician, a Greek military writer who lived in the 4th century BC, recommended in his treatise On the Defense of Fortifications that besieging armies should try to make the water supply of the besieged city undrinkable. This was seen as a way to weaken the defenders and force them to surrender more quickly.

Aeneas suggested several methods for making water undrinkable, including adding salt or vinegar to the water source, or even using dead animals to contaminate the water supply. These tactics were intended to make the defenders more vulnerable to disease and other health problems, as well as to undermine their morale and ability to resist.

The Romans were known to catapult beehives and hornets’ nests into enemy encampments.

Hannibal suggested a novel approach to warfare, advising the Bithynians to catapult jars filled with poisonous snakes towards enemy ships in 184 BC. 

The 12th century Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa dumped human corpses down wells on a campaign in Italy in 1155. 

When the tartars besieged the Crimean city of Caffa (now Feodosiya, Ukraine) in 1346, they catapulted dead bodies of soldiers infected by the bubonic plague over city walls. an outbreak caused its collapse.

Combatants became increasingly inventive. in 1495, Spanish forces supplied their French adversaries with wine contaminated with the blood of leprosy patients while warring in Southern Italy. in 1650, the Polish general Kasimierz Siemienowicz suggested firing ‘the slobber from rabid dogs’ in glass vials at their enemies.

Russian troops catapulted plague infected corpses into the Baltic city of Reval during its war with Sweden in 1710.

During the siege of Mantua in 1797, Napoleon ordered the fields around the city to be flooded, hoping to spread swamp fever, now known as mosquito transmitted malaria.

Gruinard Island is a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Scotland that was used by the British military during World War II as a testing site for biological weapons, specifically anthrax.

After the tests were completed, the island was contaminated with anthrax spores, and in 1942 it was declared a prohibited area. The island remained quarantined for several decades, and it was not until 1986 that a major decontamination effort was launched by the British government. The decontamination involved spreading a formaldehyde solution over the island, which killed off the anthrax spores.

On April 24, 1990, after 48 years of quarantine and extensive testing, the British government declared Gruinard Island free of anthrax. Since then, the island has been used for scientific research and has been the subject of ongoing monitoring to ensure that it remains free of contamination.

The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is an international treaty that prohibits the development, production, and stockpiling of biological and toxin weapons. It was opened for signature in 1972 and entered into force on March 26, 1975.

As of 2021, the BWC has been signed by 185 countries, including the United States, Russia, China, and other major powers. The convention prohibits the use of biological weapons and requires states to destroy any existing weapons and facilities for their production. It also requires states to take measures to prevent the proliferation of biological weapons and to cooperate in the peaceful uses of biological science and technology. The BWC is monitored by the United Nations and its member states, and there have been efforts to strengthen its implementation and enforcement over the years.

The Biological Weapons Convention

Source Daily Mail

Biography

A biography is a written account of a person's life, typically focusing on the most significant events and accomplishments of their life. A biography can be written by someone else, known as a biographer, or by the person themselves, known as an autobiography.

The word "biography" comes from the Greek words "bios," meaning life, and "graphia," meaning writing.

The history of biography dates back to ancient times when people recorded the lives of significant figures. 

The epic of Gilgamesh, which is a narrative poem from ancient Mesopotamia, is one of the earliest works of literature that includes a biographical account of a historical figure. While Gilgamesh is often regarded as a legendary or mythological figure, some scholars believe that he may have been a historical king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk. The epic includes descriptions of Gilgamesh's life, achievements, and relationships, as well as his search for immortality.

Other ancient texts that include biographical elements include the Egyptian Autobiography of Harkhuf from the 23rd century BC and the Inscriptions of Shalmaneser III from the 9th century BC, which detail the military campaigns and achievements of the Assyrian king.

In ancient Greece, biographies were often written as part of the genre of "lives," which recounted the lives of famous men. These works focused on the virtues and vices of their subjects and often served as moral lessons.

Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, also known as Parallel Lives, is a series of biographies of famous men from ancient Greece and Rome. The work was likely written in the early 2nd century AD and consists of 48 biographical pairs, with each pair comparing the lives and careers of two notable figures, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar or Demosthenes and Cicero.

One of the main goals of the work was to examine the moral virtues and failings of these famous individuals and to draw lessons from their lives that could be applied to contemporary society. Plutarch was known for his interest in ethics and philosophy, and his biographical approach allowed him to explore these topics in a more practical and relatable way.

Plutarch's Lives has had a significant influence on later biographical writing, and it continues to be studied and admired for its insights into the lives and personalities of historical figures, as well as its focus on the ethical and moral dimensions of leadership and achievement.

Third Volume of a 1727 edition of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans 

In medieval Europe, hagiographies were popular, which were biographies of saints and other religious figures. These works often included miraculous events and were intended to inspire religious devotion.

The Renaissance saw a renewed interest in biography, with figures such as Giorgio Vasari writing Lives of the Artists, which included biographies of famous artists from the time period.

During the Enlightenment, biography became a popular genre of literature. In this era, biographers aimed to present their subjects as rational and objective individuals, focusing on their achievements and contributions to society

The earliest biographical dictionary in the accepted sense was that of French philosopher Pierre Bayle (1696).

The term 'autobiography' was first used by the writer Robert Southey in 1809 in the Quarterly Review in which he predicted an 'epidemical rage for autobiography.'

In the 19th century, the development of the novel and the rise of individualism led to a new form of biography that focused more on the personal lives of individuals. Biographers began to include more personal details, such as the subject's childhood, relationships, and inner thoughts. 

The biography of Thomas Crapper, the British sanitary engineer who invented the modern flush toilet in 1878, was called Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper.

In the 20th century, biography continued to evolve with the development of new techniques such as oral history and the use of psychological analysis. Biographers also began to write about previously marginalized figures, such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography has been awarded annually since 1917

The best selling autobiography of all time is almost certainly The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank with over 30 million copies sold.