Where do the mosquitoes go in winter?

We don't see mosquitoes in winter in parts of the world where winters are cold, but mosquitoes may still be there. They are alive in a different form that of flying insect we know. A mosquito spends the first part of its life in water and the rest of its life on land and in the air. The life of a mosquito begins when a female lays eggs on stagnant water. Soon larvae or wrigglers hatch out and begin to swim around looking for food. In time the larvae change into pupae or tumblers. Then each pupa becomes a grown insect and flies away. This whole process - from new egg to adult mosquito may only take nine to fourteen days! But when cold winter comes, the eggs lie dormant. They don't hatch. And in some species of mosquitoes, the fertile females spend the winter in a sleep, too. So mosquitoes spend winter as adults, eggs, wrigglers, or pupae.

What is Easter?

Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the most important feast in the Christian calendar. Easter Sunday does not come on the date every year, but falls sometime between March 22 and April 25. It falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following March 21, the vernal equinox (the time in spring when day and night are of equal length). The date of Easter Sunday was established by the church council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Easter Sunday ends a period of preparing for the feast of Easter. This forty-day period of prayer and fasting, called Lent, begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. The lenten fast commemorates Christ's forty- day fast in the desert.

The week from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday is known as holy week. During Holy week, church services remind one of the last days of Christ's life on earth. Palm Sunday marks Christ's entry into Jerusalem. Holy Thursday, also called Maundy Thursday, marks the Last Supper. Good Friday marks Christ's crucifixion, and Easter Sunday, his resurrection. There are many customs that have developed around Easter. The custom of a sunrise service on Easter Sunday can be traced to ancient spring festivals that celebrated the rising sun. The new clothes worn on Easter Sunday are symbol of new life. The custom comes from the baptism on Easter Sunday of early Christians, who were led into the church wearing new robes of white linen. The familiar Easter parade goes back to the middle ages, when people walked about the countryside on Easter, stopping along the way to pray. Now, of course, it presents an opportunity for people to see and show their new spring clothes. The egg is an Easter symbol, because it is a symbol of life. The Persians and Egyptians also coloured the eggs and ate them during their new year's celebration, which came in spring.

What is the utility of Seaweeds?

Seaweeds belong to large group of plants called algae plants without true leaves, stems, roots or flowers. They do contain a green pigment called chlorophyll which helps in making their food. Man has found seaweeds like kelp, irish moss etc. useful to mankind. Kelp are often used as fertilizer because they have a high concentration of potash. They are also a source of Iodine. Irish moss is rough and leathery seaweed which produces a great deal of agar, which is a colourless substance resembling jelly. In the orient, tons of seaweed belonging to red-algae group are dried and used as food! They are used for thickening the soups and providing bulk in other foods. Seaweed gives off oxygen and this helps to keep the water pure.
What gives our eyes their colour?

The eye is one of the most remarkable organs in our body. It is really a form of camera, with an adjustable opening to admit light, a lens that focuses the light waves to form an image and a sensitive film on which the image is recorded. The shape of the eye is round, except for a bulge that sticks out in front where the light enters. This bulge, which curves outward in front, is called the cornea. The cornea is transparent. It helps bend the light rays as they enter the eye and since it guards the opening into eye, it is very sensitive. Any dust or dirt that alights on it is quickly felt so it can be removed. The camera film of the eye is the retina. It is made up of ten very thin layers of cells and lines - the entire inside of the eye. So now we have the opening to the eye and the film which the light must reach inside.

To regulate the light coming in, we have the iris and the pupil of the eye. The iris is the circle of colour, and the pupil is the little black dot in the centre. Pupil appears black because it opens into the dark interior of the eye. The size of the pupil is regulated by the iris, which closes the opening to a pinhole in bright light and expands the opening in dim light. Directly behind the iris and the pupil lies the lens, which is just like lens of magnifying glass. The lens is elastic and adjusts itself to long or short distance vision. It is the lens that bends the waves of light so they will all come to a focus on the retina. The colour we see when we look into someone's eyes is in the iris. The reason for this is that the fibres of the iris have pigments in them to protect the iris against light. The back part of the iris has most of the pigments, the front part almost none. Since the front part is very transparent and absorbs the red and yellow light waves as they pass through it, the light reflected from the pigmented part of the iris. If pigments don't develop in the front part of the iris in later years, the iris continues to look blue all through life. But if pigments do develop in the front of the iris, then it becomes brown.