ready for the finale.........NOT!

like i said in my last post, i m done with all my background research for this question. n i also decided to stick with that cows have four stomachs.....cause tats what all the website r saying. need mor reliable sources before i can safely say tat the four stomachs r actually digestive components.

anyway, in the following week i would be summarising n finishing this question. all tat is left now is making a table n wait to hear wat ppl know about this question on yahoo answers.

look forward to the finale next next week!

17/7/08
Thursday

almost done....wait! a new fact????

k i m also done with all the research i need for this topic. by next week i should be able to summarise my results. all i have to do next is to wait for more answers from yahoo answers. i think i should not go to more websites as it might cause me to get messy with all the data. so research stops here................WAIT!!!!! wats this? someone say that Actually cows do NOT have four stomachs. They have a four compartmented digestive system but have one true abomasum ..which like our stomach has pepsin and HCl.(dunno wat the last few words mean though)

oh dear...so they r not actually stomachs but r digestive compartments? hmm...need to find out more on these "compartments", though it wont really affect my entire question as regardless of wat they r, they still do the same thing cause they r afterall the same objects, just with a different name.

16/8/08
Wednesday

Back to the cow!

ok, now its time for me to go back researching about the cows digestive system. since my last post on the topic, i only know the digestion process. still, little is known about the four stomachs. today i wen to find out more about them. this is wat i got from the website which i think is the easiest to understand.

Ruminant animals, such as the dairy cow, have four stomach compartments called the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and abomasum. The rumen is the largest and can hold up to 40 gallons of digesta and contains billions of bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and other organisms. The bacteria can digest fiber allowing the dairy cow to consume grass, forages, and fibrous by-product feeds that humans or monogastric animals cannot do effectively.

The abomasum is the stomach compartment similar to the human stomach.

btw, i post my both my biojournal questions on yahoo answers. so if u know anything, i hope u can help enlighten me. thx.

here's the links:
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080714054351AA7LJv9&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHzJbxmF.M_QgWK_etHl6S2w5ZW4lOCg7Bomw--&paid=asked&msgr_status=
http://sg.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiXFZHhKIW.ulU4Q_ZDytqs95Qt.;_ylv=3?qid=20080714053603AA76vdA

14/7/08
Monday

its hard to get things off the internet...

k, i was looking for a video to help me understand further on how thing r formed. did the same thing with my other topic to find out about the digestive system. down side, there was none on youtube for this topic. on the up side, i managed to find a clip on the formation of twins at a certain website. now on the downdown side, i was unable to download n upload it to the blog due to some unknown error....sad...

anyway here's the url to the website
http://pennhealth.com/health_info/animationplayer/twins.html

now all u have to do is to let the video do the talking...

pity i cant download it....

10/7/08
Thursday

Twins actually varies?

well, regarding my previous post, i decide to not research on how r they delivered. but i can tell u tat most multiple births r usually delivered through c-section due to the risks involved(not sure wat they r though) this part of the research is still quite unsuitable for me. but if i hav the chance when im older, i would definitely look more into the topic.

anyway back to business. i m sure we all what twins r. but i nvr thought tat twins r split into a few categories. anyway here's the info i got off the web.

Identical twins are caused by one egg being fertilized by one sperm. Sometime after fertilization, the egg splits into two genetically identical halves. Identical twins are always of the same sex. They share 100% of their genes, and are in reality, natural clones.

Fraternal twins are formed when two eggs are released by the mother, and each egg is fertilized by a different sperm. Fraternal twins can be of the same or opposite sex. They share up to 50% of their genes, and are no more alike or different than any two siblings would be. It is also possible for fraternals to be of different races or parentage, or to be conceived at different times, resulting in a large weight difference at birth.

There is a third type of twinning that scientists are looking into, called polar body twinning, or "half identical" twinning. This occurs when the mother's egg splits before fertilization and then each half is then fertilized by a sperm. This may explain why some fraternal twins (such as the Olsen twins) look as alike as some identicals, but it hasn't been proven that it occurs, or that it would produce viable twins.

Conjoined twins form exactly like identical twins, but at some point during the stage where the single egg splits, the process stops, and the twins develop attached to one another. This occurs in about 1 out every 100,000 to 200,000 live births, but 60% of conjoined twins are either stillborn or lost in utero. Females are conjoined more than males, at a ratio of 3:1, and they are more likely to occur in India or Africa than China and the USA.

amyway, off for more research!

9/7/08

Wednesday

since when can fungi reproduce sexually???

oops...it seems tat i had made a big mistake. so far only very few fungi can reproduce sexually and they are not really considered sexual reproduction and the process is very complicated. so it seems i have to change my question again.....hmm....wat about how are two or more babies formed and how are they delivered? ya i can do tat, just tat maybe the videos i find may be not suitable for minors(and me), so i will try to find videos suitable for all.

now lets go!

p.s. forgot to update last week's research due to sch event, but u can bet on it tat i will work doublely hard on my research for the posts to come...

8/7/08
Tuesday

CHIM CHIM CHIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, there's still no videos on the cow's digestive system, even the pictures found seems to be only in a samll amount. well, at least i got one naming the four stomachs and got some info of its digestion process though its not very detailed....


As for the digestion process, here are the few steps

1. The cow tears and chews the food briefly then swallows. She'll eat for more than six hours a day.
2. The food passes into stomach #1 to soften. When the food passes into stomach #2, it mixes and softens more into what is called cud.
3. When Ms. Cow feels full, she burps up a small amount of cud to chew it again. She'll chew her cud for eight hours each day.
4. When the cow swallows again, the cud passes into stomachs #3 and #4 where it is digested further and nutrients are absorbed.
5. Digested food passes through her intestines where more nutrients are absorbed. Waste materials exit the cow as manure.

woah, and according to the source, a cow had to chew at a rate of 50 times per minute. In one day, she move her jaw more than 40,000 times!
Tough life it must have....

2/7/08
Wednesday