page 66
Lab Times
2-2010
Book Review
1
Calendar lottery: the winners
You Cracked It!
It was a hard nut to crack, to solve our December’s
brainteaser and win a great wall calendar. Even leading
researchers failed miserably while ten bright Lab Times
readers found out what the sought-after heavy weight
was and were also lucky in the final draw.
H
ippopotamuses look cuddly; they
are, however, the most ill-tempered
animals on earth. A glance at their
barn door-like mouths, and their colossal
canine teeth, makes even hungry lions wary
of nearing a herd of these aggressive, barrel-shaped vegetarians. Recently, the National Geographic published a series of impressive wild life photos showing a furious
Hippopotamus amphibius grabbing a five
metre long Nile crocodile that had disregarded the safety clearance. Jerking the unfortunate reptile mercilessly back and forth,
the hippo made short work of him. The fully grown crocodile didn’t have a chance and
was killed almost instantly.
Hippopotamuses are semi-aquatic
mammals that feed at night. During a lifetime they chomp through about 1250 tons
(yes, tons) of grass! Their closest living relatives are whales and dolphins from which
they diverged about 55 million years ago.
Due to their highly aggressive nature
and that they mainly live in the water, the brainpower and behaviour of
University of Padova researcher Chiara Papetti (4th from left), with her colleagues Ilaria, Stefania, Clelia, Elisa and Cecilia, holding her prize.
hippopotamuses could only be
investigated in part so far.
Racking brains for the heavy weight
This December’s Lab Times calendar
competition bore a strong resemblance to
a very particular hippo. The sought-after
solution was “Obaysch”, being the name of
the first hippopotamus in Europe since Ancient Roman times. This animal was once
the main attraction at London Zoo between
1850 and 1878 (the year Obaysch died), attracting up to 10,000 visitors a day.
The solution could only be found once
the following had been worked out: 1) disulfide rich peptides from Viola tricolor (cyclotides), 2) the place where a river flows
into the Mozambique Channel (Bombetoka
Bay), and 3) a hippopotamus subspecies
that is named after a central African republic, often referred to as the “dead heart of
3
Africa” (H. tschadensis). Assembling these
seven letters then produced the solution.
Although many failed, there were also
dozens of bright sparks who identified
Obaysch. The following ten lucky winners
were selected at random: Chiara Papetti
(University of Padova/ITA; photo 1); Laszlo Beinrohr (Budapest, HUN; photo 2);
Alastair Lyndon (Heriot-Watt University,
Edinburgh/UK; photo 3); André Martins Silva (Sylvius Laboratory, Leiden/NED); Christian Broberger (Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm/SWE); Sabine Grein (Landeskriminalamt Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel/GER; photo 4); Victoria Cooper (University of Warwick, Coventry/UK); Agnieszka Mirowska (Medical University of Gdansk/POL);
Rosa Baumgartinger (Boehringer Ingelheim, Vienna/AUT); Ursula Sorg (University
of Duesseldorf/GER).
Congratulations from your Lab
Times editors!
Winfried Koeppelle
4
2
Laszlo Beinrohr
(Budapest)
Alastair Lyndon
(Edinburgh)
Photos(4): private
Sabine Grein
(Kiel)