Chemistry HW 10/2/11

Five Facts:

1. Millipedes are blind and spend most of the day underground.
2. When disturbed they ooze toxic cyanide and other chemicals as a defense mechanism.
3. The only three places where you can see the glow in the dark millipedes are mountain ranges in CA.
4. The millipedes glow is not caused by the same reaction that causes the glow in fireflies.
5. Invertebrate predators tend to aim for the head when attacking their prey.

Scientific Method:  The scientific method, is the process of developing a hypothesis, executing the experiment, and then stating a theory to summarise what was proven in the experiment.  This article followed the scientific method, stating for a hypothesis that the millipedes with the glow in-the-dark gene succesfully manages to protect the millepede from predators.  The article than explained the experiment, which was to lay out fake and real millepedes, with some glowing and some not growing, and see which type survived the best.  The experiment proved that the glowing millepedes did in fact not get attacked as often as the normally colored ones.  This was their conclusion/theory, that the glow in-the-dark gene did help the millepede's to survive.