Test yourself on general knowledge

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

What is a test tube baby?

The concept of test tube baby is the latest medical phenomenon which overwhelmed the whole world during the latter part of 1970's. Many a woman who had gone on a futile pursuit to have a baby for years, were enthralled by this exciting new find.

Man's reproduction process involves the fertilization of a female egg cell with a male sperm cell. In the simplest analysis, the medical discoveries have proved that a fertilized egg takes nine months to develop, into a child. The test tube baby is same as any other baby but the only difference is that it begins outside the mother's body within a test tube instead of beginning to grow in her womb.

To produce a test tube baby, the medical specialists take an egg from the woman and fertilize it with man's sperm in a glass tube. Furthermore, they replant the fertilized egg in the mother's uterus where it grows for nine months and then takes birth as a perfectly normal child. This is a clear cut outcome of ten years research. This technique is called "In vifrofertilization".

This is by and large, a great news for a woman whose fallopian tubes are too narrow and cannot admit male sperm for proper fertilization. This technique is desirable also for woman whose husband has a poor concentration of sperm in his semen.

One Mrs. Brown had the rare privilege to give birth to the world's first tube baby, a female child, in 1978. Nirupama, an Indian lady bore a test tube baby in 1986 and USA produced its first tube baby in 1981.

The pioneers of this historical landmark were two British doctors, Dr. Robert Edwards and Patrick Stepbe who materialised the test tube baby after ten years of hard research. The advantage of this technique is that the sex of the child is known before hand and sex of the foetus can be selected as one wishes. For the parents whose dreams of a baby of their own would never materialise, this brings a positive hope.

What is happening to our hair? It is turning grey ?

There is nothing more upsetting for a younger man to discern greying hair going upto terrific numbers week by week or perhaps month by month. Both young men and women make desperate attempts to cancel out the greying of hair making use of variety of applications of balm, shampoo, oil etc., But does it really call a halt to premature greying of hair?It is absolutely natural for the older people's hair becoming grey because in the process of ageing the supply of melanin drops dramatically. Melanin is a body produced pigment which determines the colour of the hair and its shiny look.

It is roughly calculated that between 100,000 to 200,000 hairs grow out of tiny holes in our skin of head. Although our body has stopped the growth at a particular age, our hair still goes on growing at the rate of 15 centimetres a year. When a 'shaft' of hair reaches a considerable length, it stops growing because it has become too long to get proper nourishment. Ultimately it falls out with another hair to replace it.

The real problem?

The young man and woman with hair turned grey! Heredity plays a major role in turning young men's hair grey and those young men can trace this condition back to their parents. Drawn out tensions, worries, depressions, malnutrition, shock, deep sorrow, critically decrease the stimulation and production of melanin. Drawn out illnesses are no exception in producing grey hair as illnesses are proved to slow down the production and activity of melanin. But...... what causes this change in colour of the hair still remains a puzzling secrecy.

Amazing qualities of garlic

The unique pungent taste and smell has made man use garlic to flavour food since distant past. But it is quite recently that man uncovered the medicinal properties hidden in garlic bulb. Its antiseptic qualities are a highly effective medication against heart deseases, intestinal disorders, cough and so forth. The Roman soldiers included garlic in their diet as they believed garlic to be a powerful stimulant for them to be more courageous and strong. Moreover during recent past, people consumed it on a vast scale to defend themselves against all types of evil spirits an plague. Herbalism recommends application of garlic paste over body to guard against bites or stings. Some people make a syrup out of it for treatment of common cold as it contains elements that quickly destroy the phlegm. There is also a common practice among gardeners to sprinkle garlic juice around decorative plants and trees because borers cannot resist the hellish impact of garlic on them.The garlic plant grows wild in Italy and France while its nativity goes back to Europe and Asia. Aerial bulbets growing on the flowers stalk are taken for seeds to new plants. The bulbs growing underground are the edible cloves which resembles the shape of an union and one "bulb" contains around 25 bulbets or cloves. The essential oil concentration of garlic is around 0.1%.