SCALENUS POSTERIOR: neck muscle helpful in head-tilting and breathing

The Scalenus Posterior is one of three Scalenus muscles (the s. anterior, the s. medius being the other two). It is the most deeply seated of these muscles, that is, it's overlapped by the others and would be impossible to find by flexing your neck muscles. But if you pulled it, you would not be able to tilt your head to the same side, or only with pain and difficulty. Also, breathing would perhaps be just a tad more labored and you'd feel it with every breath, as the muscle is attached to your second highest rib at one end (the other end is attached to the knobs coming off your lowest two or three vertebra in the back of your neck).

ATHANUR: A Tiny Tamil Town in India

ATHANUR is a town of a mere 9,000 or so residents (according to a 2001 census), which is pretty small for an Indian town I imagine. It is a 'panchayat' town, which is part of a kind of government conceived by Mohandas Ghandi during the days of British Rule. The idea was to have autonomous power at the local level by officials appointed by a council who would be attentive to the issues that are relevant to that particular area. At the village level, these officals number between 7 and 31. The Caste system prevented the wide adoption of this system in many parts of India, but in some areas it was implemented starting in the 50s and 60s, and given official status in the Indian Constitution in 1993.

Only 55% of Anarthur's residents are literate, lower than the national average. There are 2% more males than females, possibly owing to the culture and poverty of the people in the area -- men can work more, women are a liability because it is necessary to provide them with a dowery when married, and then they are incorporated into the new family and do not support the parents any longer. That is, there is female infanticide.

Pictured is the Indian State of Tamil Nadu and its districts.

FOREST ECOLOGY: The study of patterns in the lives of the world's largest living beings

Forests are really important, as we hear more and more these days. Forest Ecology is a field that helps us understand them better, by understanding certain patterns of how they live, interact with each other and their surrounding environment.

Forests are so important to life on earth because they represent a huge amount of biomass, and are have enormous amounts of water and potential energy. We say potential energy, because their kinetic energy is expressed mostly in their growth, which takes place over centuries or longer. But, they have the potential, when acted upon by outside forces, of sudden bursts of activity -- like when a tree falls, or gets burned in a forest fire. And their presence affects the weather, usually exerting a moderating influence on what otherwise would be extreme wind and percipitation -- this is also due to their being huge repositories of water, and their soaking up carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

Aspen trees form in colonies that have linked roots, so they are really part of the same organism. The Pando colony in Utah may be the oldest (80,000 plus years), largest, and it certainly seems to be the heaviest living organism.