How was Emperor Wen of Sui's favorite fruit transported from Sichuan to Shaanxi? | BoLan Daily

Emperor Wen of Sui's favorite fruit.

How to transport from Sichuan to Shaanxi?

"New Theory of Five Dynasties" said: "Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty loved oranges, so he picked yellow oranges from Sichuan and sealed their stems with wax. They would still look fresh after a long time." In the Ming Dynasty, "The Book of the Hidden Gods of the Immortal" recorded: "Grapes are wrapped in wax and put in a jar, which is then sealed with melted wax. They will not spoil until winter." This is the wisdom of the ancient method of preservation that we are going to talk about - wax preservation technology.

Wax has good waterproof and sealing properties. Wrapping fruits with wax can slow down the respiration intensity of the fruits and prevent water evaporation. It effectively delays the aging of the fruits while also preventing the infection of pathogenic microorganisms, thus keeping the fruits fresh.

In ancient times, the use of wax to seal fruits was the prototype of today's coating preservation. Applying natural waxes made of beeswax, shellac, palm wax, etc. on fruits can not only delay the aging of fruits, make the fruits bright and beautiful, but also prevent mechanical damage to fruits during transportation.

Generally speaking, local seasonal fruits are not artificially waxed, but off-season and imported fruits are often coated with wax on the surface to preserve freshness for the needs of long-distance transportation and storage.

Orange processing

Image source: veer gallery

Venus may be volcanically active

A research team led by David Sulcanese of D'Annunzio University in Italy found volcanic lava flows in two areas using radar mapping data of the Venus surface taken in the early 1990s. This discovery suggests that Venus may be currently volcanically active, and the volcanoes on it may be more active and more extensive than previously thought. The relevant paper has been published in the latest issue of Nature Astronomy, published on the 27th. The Magellan spacecraft was launched from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space shuttle in 1989, descended to 295 kilometers above the surface of Venus, and orbited Venus from 1990 to 1992. In the latest study, the researchers compared images taken by Magellan from January to September 1992 (Earth time) with images taken from September 1990 to May 1991, and found volcanic lava flows in two areas. They found lava flow features on the west side of Sif Mons and volcanic materials related to shield volcanoes in the west of Niobe Planitia. Previous studies have suggested that Venus may experience up to 42 volcanic eruptions per year, with an estimated 20 eruptions lasting more than 1,000 Earth days. The latest research suggests that Venus may currently experience up to 120 discontinuous volcanic eruptions per Earth year.

A 3D computer-generated model of the surface of Venus reveals the Sif Mons volcano, which is showing signs of continued activity.

Image source: NASA official website

Seahorse dads can also give birth to babies~

The seahorse is the only animal in the world that is born and raised by its father. During the breeding season, the seahorse father will find the seahorse mother with a big belly. After fertilization, the seahorse father will take about 20 days to incubate the babies, and finally expel the hatched baby seahorses from the body.

The little chicken I bought in my childhood,

Why did he die so soon?

Why do the chicks we bought in childhood often share a common "fate" after we bring them home - no matter how carefully we care for them, many of them will not survive more than a week or two.

One of the reasons is that the newly born chicks have very high requirements for temperature. The temperature of the chicks hatched by the incubator needs to reach above 30℃, and the ambient temperature should be 33℃~34℃, which is safer. If it is lower than this temperature, the chicks are likely to die due to hypothermia.

The body temperature of domestic chickens incubating chicks with their own body temperature is generally around 40℃. Newly born chicks are very small. After leaving the mother's body, the chicks' own heat can be easily dissipated with changes in the outside temperature, thereby reducing their resistance to the external environment.

This is one of the reasons why we often see newly born chicks always like to gather under the wings of the mother hen for protection. If the chicks lose the care of the mother hen, they will huddle together and seek a way to keep their body temperature.

When we bought the chicks but did not use heating equipment, the changes in the cold and hot environments would inevitably make the chicks unable to adapt to the temperature changes, and they would die within a few days.

Image source: pixabay

The content is compiled from China Science Expo Weibo, Science Popularization China, Science and Technology Daily, and Science Academy

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