The first living organisms to make it into space and back were actually much smaller than a monkey or a dog -- in 1947, a container full of fruit flies successfully flew 106 miles above the Earth and parachuted back without any apparent damage.
Soon after that, space programs began sending up larger animals. The next year, the Aero Medical Laboratory began conducting animal experiments in White Sands, N.M., and on June 11, 1948, a V-2 Blossom rocket launched into space with Albert I, a rhesus monkey. Because of close quarters, Albert died of suffocation during the flight. By naming the monkey Albert, the scientists started a trend, since every monkey used during the operation was called Albert, and the entire endeavor is now known as the Albert Project. They unfortunately also continued a trend of failure -- most of the launches experienced major technical difficulties and animal fatalities. The best that could be said was that the second monkey, Albert II, survived his entire flight through space, only to die during reentry.
More missions throughout the '50s offered more improvements, but the most famous and beloved of space animals is Laika. A month after the Soviet Union stunned the world with the launch of Sputnik I, the first satellite to enter orbit, the Russians revealed an even more shocking plan. On Nov. 3, 1957, Sputnik 2 launched, but this time a live dog named Laika (Russian for "Barker") was on board. Originally named Kudryavka (or "Little Curly") by the trainers, Laika was a 13-pound, part-Samoyed mongrel female from the streets of Russia -- strays were preferred for spaceflight because of their strength and their ability to survive in cold temperatures.
Unfortunately, the flurry of press over Sputnik I caused Nikita Khrushchev, head of the Communist Party, to rush Sputnik 2 to launch for the one-month "anniversary" of Sputnik I, and designs for the new satellite were very poor. The Soviets even admitted soon after the launch that Laika wouldn't return home, and the satellite itself burned up in reentry. Officials led people to believe the dog survived in orbit for as long as four days before she died from overheating. In 2002, however, evidence revealed Laika actually passed away just a few hours after the launch from a combination of heat and panic. Laika's death encouraged Americans to talk more openly about the treatment of animals, and the Russian people looked down upon Sputnik 2 as an unfortunate attempt at propaganda.
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Is honey really bee vomit?
13-Mar-1992
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Dear Cecil:
Is it true honey is really . . . bee vomit? --Lisa, Chicago
Dear Lisa:
Well . . . yeah. This isn't something the Honey Marketing Association is going to make the centerpiece of its next ad campaign, but the fact is that honey is made from nectar the worker bees regurgitate, which is a polite way of saying vomit.
The bees collect the nectar from flowers and store it in their "honey stomachs," separate from their true stomachs. On their way back to the hive they secrete enzymes into it that begin converting the stuff into honey. Once in the hive they yuke up the nectar and either turn it over to other workers for further processing or else dump it directly into the honeycomb. The bees then beat their tiny wings to fan air through the hive to evaporate excess water from the honey. Last they cover the honeycomb cell with wax, figuring hey, we worked like dogs, but at least now we'll be able to get a snack whenever we want. Suckers. The humans steal the honey, pack it in bottles, and there you go--direct from the bees' guts to yours.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, gosh, Unca Cecil, what other fun facts do you know about bees? Well, in my opinion, you can never know too much about an insect's sex life. Did you know that proportionally to its body size, the genitalia of a drone bee are among the largest of any animal on earth? Mention this to the girls over bridge and you'll definitely get the conversation off Tupperware.
The size of its equipment is thought to be directly related to the drone's post-coital fate, namely death. My bee book notes, "[the genitals] are contained in the abdomen and presumably getting them out of the abdomen for the purpose of mating places such a strain on [the bee] that it dies in the process." As I understand it, the proximate cause of the drone's demise is that its privates are (urk) ripped off during the act. One more reason for caution, boys, when we are fumbling in the dark.
One last thing. Despite its status as bee stud, the drone is not itself produced as a result of sex. On the contrary, it develops from an unfertilized egg. (Fertilized eggs become either workers or queens.) My bee book drolly comments, "Thus the queen bee is capable of parthenogenesis and drone bees have no father, only a grandfather." You think your family is dysfunctional, be glad you're not a bee.
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