2020-03-14 The Week Junior

Animals and the environment

10 TheWeek Junior•14March

Insectsare one of the mainfood

sourcesfor amphibians, butcould they

soon be on the menuforhumans too?

Scientists at Ghent University in

Belgium areusing fly larvae toreplace

butter incakesand biscuits. They

blend the larvae withwater and then

extrac tthe fat. They say the grease

from insects is better to use than dairy

products likebutter,because insects

use lesswaterthan cows. Arecent

surv ey of schools inWales found that

60% of students would be happy to

eatfood made of insects.Would you?

Good enough to eat?

The production and distribution of foodcanhave a

huge impact on the planet.Farm animals and crops

use upalot of land andwater.Transporting products

from around the world to supermarket shelves also

means that moregases thatcontribute to

climate change arereleased. As a

result, it isreally important to

makesurethatasl ittle food

as possible goes towaste.

Coming up with creative

ways of using up leftovers isagood start.For

example, vegetables that need to beeaten before

they go offcould be made intoatasty soup or curry.

Fruit that is nearly out of datecanbegreat infruit

loaves, likebanana bread, or in jams. Why not think

up acombination and then give itago?

ven better,challengeafriend or

family member toa“leftovers

cook-off”.Whoevercooksthe

tastiest meal wins!

HOLDALEFTOVERS COOKINGCHALLENGE

ECOTIP

WEEK

OF

THE

Frogs glowgreen in blue light

S

cientists have madeastartling

discovery: lots of species of frog

and salamander glow under

certain types of light.

Jennifer Lamb and

Matthew Davis, at St

Cloud State University

in Minnesota, in the

US, studied 32 different

species of amphibians,

mostly frogs and

salamanders. Lamb and

Davis shone blue torchlight

on asalamander that they were

studying and weresurprised to see

it glow green. They wondered how

many others would do the same,

so they went to an aquarium in

Chicago,US, andshone lights

on all the amphibians.

They found that most of

the animals lit up green,

an effect that showed

moreclearly when viewed

throughayellow filter.

The team say theirresults

have surprised them and

they don’t yet know why

the amphibians glow likethis,

but plan to do moreresearch.

This glow-in-the-dark ability is

known as biofluorescence, and many

animals, such as chameleons, jellyfish, sharksand sea

turtles,candoit. Scorpions glowabright blue under

ultraviolet light (a type of light thatcauses sunburn).

Biofluorescenceiscaused by substances in the

body thatcanabsor bone colour of light and then give

it out asadifferentcolou r. Usually animals absorb

blue light and give off green,redororangelight. The

bright green mightwarn off predators or help animals

likethe amphibians signal toeach other,oritmight

even identify individuals,abit lik eacall or smell that

otherscanrecognise.

“The re is stillalot out therethatwedon’t know,”

Lamb toldTheNew York Timesnewspaper.“This

opens upawhole window into the possibility that

organisms thatcansee fluorescence–their world

may lookalot different from ours.”

TIMETO

SHINE

In^201 7,

the polka-dot

treefrog

wasthe first

amphibian

found

tobe fluores

cent.

Fancy asnack?

Glowingmay help to

wardoff predators.

sa upacom

Ev

WHA

TA

WAST

E!

Everyyea

r,around a

thirdofa

ll thefo

od

produc

ediswa

sted

or throw

naway.

Aglowing

Alpine newt.

Howcanyou use

your leftovers?