This article is about the observed phenomena surrounding animal behavior and natural disasters. The researchers began to investigate strange behavior in toads in L'Aquila , Italy. The ninety-six toads abandoned their pond breeding colony in a period of three days.
The research team led by Friedemann Freund and Rachel Grant had their findings published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In the journal article, they suggested stressed rock can release charged particles that can react with water and the air.
The mechanism described suggested the charged particles would ionize air molecules and create hydrogen peroxide in water. the reaction could cause a bigger chain reaction that could turn harmless organic matter into organic matter toxic to aquatic animals. laboratory tests suggested the changes to the water and air could be connected to the stressed rock.
I find this article to be very interesting! This would be another case where natural designs work better than modern man made made tools and understanding! These toads were able to predict an earthquake more accurately and precisely than the six scientists put on trial for failing to predict the same earthquake in Italy.
If more tests were done on the proposed mechanism and all of them led to the same conclusion, this could be a breakthrough in earthquake prediction. A large part of what would be needed to be done would be testing the air for a certain amount of ionization, testing the water for a certain amount of hydrogen peroxide, and looking for and tracking the amount of inhabitants a body of water may or should have.
As this news article states,"Friedemann Freund from Nasa and Rachel Grant from the UK's Open University hope their hypothesis will inspire biologists and geologists to work together". This is very significant for science. Imagine two scientists from very different disciplines. One studies things that are alive and the other one studies things that aren't alive. Both of them will now have something in common to study and a common goal to achieve.
I find this news article to be very interesting and hope there will be more studies on it to either discredit the hypothesis or reinforce the hypothesis even more.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15945014
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9593123.stm
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