My Science School

 Borneo is a big island, covering 743326, 58 square kilometres. It is the largest island in Asia, and the third largest in the world.

            Borneo is unique in many ways. To begin with, it is administered by three different countries -Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. Borneo is covered by some of the oldest rainforests in the world, and the flora and fauna are breathtakingly diverse. There are many species of wildlife here that are found nowhere else on Earth. These include the Borneo elephant, the eastern Sumatran rhinoceros, the Bornean clouded leopard, the Hose's palm civet and the Dayak fruit bat.

Borneo is also home to orangutans, and nearly 11,000 species of flowering plants, about a third of which are found only on this island. Borneo is also famous for its caves and the world's longest underground river flows through Clear water caves. This is a vast network of more than 200 km of underground passages.

Borneo is also home to the world's largest flower- a giant blossom known as the Rafflesia arnoldii.

Canada's Devon Island is the 27th largest island in the world. It was discovered by Robert Bylot and William Baffin in 1616.

What makes it special is that it is also the largest uninhabited island on the planet. As a result of its forbidding climate and terrain, not a single person lives on the island year round.

Devon Island contains several small mountain ranges. But, the climate and the terrain are so inhospitable, that even animals are very few in number.

 

Continue reading "What is special about Devon Island? "

Kwajalein forms a part of the Marshall Islands which lie midway between Hawaii and Australia.

Kwajalein is one of the largest atolls in the world. Its 97 islands surround an immense 2174 square kilometres of water. The total land area is just over 16 square kilometres.

 Kwajalein is a US military base, and its inhabitants are mostly Americans. This beautiful atoll was discovered by a Spanish expedition led by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos in January 1543. Kwajalein's strategic location made it one of the targets for the Allied Forces during World War II.

In late January 1944, a combined force of US Marine and Army troops launched an amphibious assault on three islets in the atoll, and captured Kwajalein from the Japanese. The wrecks of ships and aircrafts from this battle can still be seen in the lagoon to this day. 

 The world's most remote island lies in the South Atlantic. It is Bouvet Island. One of the most forbidding places on Earth; it is located 1700 km north of Antarctica, which is the nearest land mass.

The island lies in the middle of freezing vastness, like a speck of ice. Around Bouvet Island, it is possible to draw a circle of one thousand and six hundred kilometres radius -having an area of 8148102.6 square kilometres, or very nearly that of Europe- which contains no other land whatever.

The island of Marajo is located in the mouth of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is cradled by two rivers, the Amazon and the Tocantins, as well ns by the Atlantic Ocean.

The island is known for the pororoca, a tidal bore phenomenon in the river that creates large waves reaching four metres in height. It is this largest fresh water island in the world, and also has the distinction of being the second largest among all islands in South America.

The most startling aspect of a visit to Marajo Island is the presence of water buffaloes. These enormous, but docile land animals are not native to Brazil or anywhere in South America.

 There are today about 450,000 water buffaloes on an island the size of Switzerland. Another interesting feature of this tropical paradise is that it is located almost directly on the equator.

Greenland and Australia are both land masses that are completely surrounded by water. Yet Greenland is considered to be an island, while Australia is a continent. There are several reasons for this.

 To begin with, Australia is much larger than Greenland. It is three times bigger, and much too large to be considered to be an island. In terms of population too, Australia is much more thickly populated than Greenland, which has a mere fifty seven thousand inhabitants.

Australia has highly distinct plants and animals like kangaroos, wombats, and Tasmanian devils that are not seen anywhere else in the world, while Greenland's are largely shared with those of northern North America.

Australia has unique, ancient cultures. Greenland's Arctic cultures, while unique, are part of larger North American Arctic culture. Australia is also separated geologically from all other continents, and rests on its own tectonic plate, while Greenland is geologically part of North America. So, to sum it up, Greenland is the world's biggest island, and Australia is the smallest continent! 

In 1726, Jonathan Swift wrote Gulliver's Travels, a series about a traveller named Gulliver who is shipwrecked several times, but manages to escape to mysterious islands that are truly unique.

In his first voyage, he is washed ashore on the island of Lilliput, which is inhabited by people who are only 6 inches tall. On his next trip, Gulliver winds up on the island of Brobdingnag which has giants that are 60 feet tall.

On his third voyage Gulliver ends up on a flying island called Laputa. Gulliver also visits Glubbdubdrib, an island of sorcerers where he gets to meet the ghosts of famous historical figures, and Luggnagg, an island with an absolute king and also some very unfortunate immortals.

 On his final voyage, he is marooned on a distant island. This island is home to two kinds of creatures. They are the beastly Yahoos, who are violent, lying, disgusting animals, and the Houyhnhnms, who look like horses. Jonathan Swift's fantastic imagination and skilful storytelling made the islands of Gulliver's travels some of the most famous among fictional islands.

There are many fictional islands that have caught the imagination of the world. H.G. Wells wrote about the Island of Dr. Moreau. This is the story of a shipwrecked man rescued by a passing boat, who is left on the island home of a mad scientist called Doctor Moreau. Treasure Island is an adventure story by Robert Louis Stevenson about hidden gold and pirates. Then there is Robinson Crusoe, a classic adventure story about a traveller who is shipwrecked on a desert island.

 

Continue reading "Which are some popular islands in fiction? "

Many great authors have written about islands that they have created in their imagination. These islands are sometimes the focus, and sometimes the setting for unforgettable stories and epics.

Ancient Greek writers created islands called Ogygia and Erytheia. Some other famous fictional islands are to be found in epics like the Odyssey by Homer, and in books such as The Tempest, Lord of the Flies, Robinson Crusoe, Moby Dick, Dr. Moreau's Island, and Treasure Island.

One reason why islands are popular settings for stories is that there is something inspiring, mysterious and romantic about the sea that stirs the imagination.

Moreover, a fictional island gives an author the freedom to depict a place as he wants to, without being limited by geographical facts.

These fictional islands have become very popular-so popular in fact that they are better known than many real islands! 

Charles Darwin's visit to the Galapagos Islands played a pivotal role in his formation of the Theory of Natural Selection.

In 1831, Darwin accompanied Captain Robert FitzRoy as a travel companion and naturalist on his voyage on the HMS Beagle. During his stay in the islands, Darwin discovered several species of finches that varied from island to island. They are now named in his honour. He also recorded differences among the giant tortoises that inhabited the different islands.

These observations helped him to develop his Theory of Natural Selection. Years later in 1859, he consolidated all his findings into a famous book titled ‘The Origin of the Species’. Darwin also collected many geological and biological specimens for further studies.

Captain James Cook explored the islands in the Pacific Ocean in the 18th century, and made some important scientific discoveries.

On his first voyage to the island of Tahiti, his first goal was to establish an observatory at Tahiti to record the transit of Venus, when that planet passed between the Earth and the Sun, on 3rd June 1769.

 The second aim of the expedition was to record the natural history of the island. This was done by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. Banks brought back to England many unusual specimens of butterflies and plants for further studies.

 Cook's second voyage aimed to establish whether there was an inhabited southern continent in what we now know as Antarctica. He also made some important astronomical observations. Cook's third and final Pacific voyage was significant for the exploration of the North Pacific and the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands in January 1778. 

 

Polynesia is a group of scattered islands in the Pacific Ocean. These islands were settled around 2000 BC. The settlers came from other islands in Southeast Asia, which were probably overpopulated. This would have meant that the farmland was exhausted, forests had been cut down, and the soil had eroded away.

 So, some adventurous souls set sail to find a new land to make their home. They arrived in the islands of Polynesia with pigs, dogs, and hens. They built thatched wooden houses, gathered bananas, coconuts, and breadfruit, and fishes.

Polynesia means 'many islands' in Greek. The cultures of the different islands are very similar. After their discovery by the Europeans in the nineteenth century, and especially after World War II, the customs, beliefs and lifestyles of these islands have undergone great changes.

Tasmanian devils are found only on an island off the coast of Australia, called Tasmania. They were named for the growling noises they make when looking for food and their harsh screeching and screams when they are feeding. They are carnivorous, which means that they eat any dead animals they find in the forest, even if the meat is old and rotting.

Tasmanian devils are the size of a small dog, and are marsupials. Female marsupial animals have pouches in which they carry their young. The pouch helps the Tasmanian devil mother to feed, and protect newly horn devils.

Hundreds of years ago, Tasmanian devils were found on the Australian mainland also. We know this from fossils that have been found. They became extinct on the mainland about 400 years ago, but are still found on the island of Tasmania.

Madagascar is an island country in the Indian Ocean, off the east coast of Africa. Madagascar has been an isolated island for around 70 million years. This isolation led to the development of a unique flora and fauna.

            The plants and animals found here have evolved into some of the oddest forms found on Earth. Ninety per cent of Madagascar's wildlife is found nowhere else in the world.

Among its extinct mammals were giant flightless birds and dwarf hippos. Madagascar however, is most famous for its lemurs. Lemurs range in size from 30g to 9 kg. The smallest species of lemur is known as Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, or Berthe's mouse lemur.

Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot. Over ninety per cent of its wildlife is found nowhere else on Earth.

 The Komodo dragon is the largest living species of lizard. It is the biggest and heaviest lizard on this planet, and is found on the islands of Indonesia.

 Each adult Komodo dragon can be as much as 3 metres long, and weigh up to 70 kg! They are powerful-looking reptiles with wide, flat heads, rounded snouts, bowed legs, and huge, muscular tails.

 Komodo dragons have a clumsy walk, and their yellow tongues flick in and out constantly, giving them a fear-some look. They feast on meat, and have 60 sharp teeth that can tear flesh apart.

The Komodo dragon's bite contains a deadly bacterium that kills its victims in two hours. This magnificent creature plays an important role in keeping the islands free of rotting dead animals, but it is now, sadly, endangered.