Chapter 816 Oasis

Lightning strike?

The audience was dumbfounded.

Bi Fang explained it in a simple way.

"The first field tests in Western Sahara show that when windblown sand grains rub against each other, an electric field is created."

"When this happens, the smaller dust particles typically absorb electrons from the larger dust, giving themselves a negative charge."

"As a result, dust particles are more easily blown higher into the air, while positively charged sand particles tend to be closer to the ground. This separation of charges creates an electric field that electrifies the dust trapped in the sand, "Make it flow more into the air, and you'll create bigger storms."

"This ball not only has downward lightning, but also upward lightning."

[Hiss, then this is too dangerous]

[Knowledge about cowhide has increased]

[By the way, I’ve never heard of it. 】

"It's just that you haven't heard of it, because the probability of such an event happening is very low. I don't think I've heard of anyone who encountered a sandstorm and was struck to death by lightning inside."

【Too much hell】

【I haven't heard of it either】

[Anyway, celebrate, it’s another day of racing against death]

[There is a rocket behind Fang Shen’s butt, right?]

[Death is like the wind, always with me, but it can never catch up]

After surviving the sandstorm crisis, Bifang took Alpha on the road, but this time he did not choose to control the reins, but allowed it to hang freely.

There are many ways to get water in the desert, but since you have camels, there is no need to choose those that are complicated and slow to produce results.

"I said before that you can undoubtedly find water sources and even food by following animals. However, the animals here are definitely not the ones that you can find water sources by bringing a dog with you."

"Almost all animals in nature have their own fixed living territory, even migratory birds. Although they migrate every year, their routes are fixed."

"They know where there are lush water and grass on this road, where there are no predators, and where they can rest safely, and they will hardly change. This is why Professor Etienne went all the way to find me and asked me to help change the behavior of white-fronted geese. If the migration routes are not changed, they will be driven to extinction by the continuous urbanization of migration routes. "

"Did you discover the reason?"

"The reason why most animals know the location of water sources is not because they are gifted with antennas on their heads. Wherever there is water, the antenna points."

Bi Fang put his hands on his temples, stretched out his index finger, and turned around, making a more comedic action, which made the audience laugh.

[Is it because they live here that you know it? 】

"Yes, an animal's territory is like our house, and the water source is the tap water supply in the house. As the owner of the house, you naturally know where your faucet is."

"Animals get thirsty, and you know that you can just follow them to the faucet. But if you take a dog and break into an unfamiliar territory, you have to rely on pure luck to find the faucet."

"Almost all animals don't have the ability to find water directly, so they usually don't leave their territory."

"If the faucet in the house is broken, in nature where there are no plumbers, animals can only move, but moving is not that easy, and often requires paying a very painful price. Anyone who has watched the migration of the African savannah in the animal world should be very clear. ”

【Wildebeest! ! ! 】

[The widow maker, the African buffalo! 】

[It’s really shocking, every time I see them crossing the river, and then being bitten by crocodiles, and finally becoming dinner, or they get by by luck with a large group of people]

[Humans may need to spend a lifetime of savings and labor to move, and it is not easy for animals either (dog head)]

[Almost all, I guess Lao Fang must be talking about special cases, I guess it is Alpha]

"clever."

Bi Fang smiled and patted Alpha's neck.

"When humans are in the desert, the biggest difficulty they face is water. If you don't drink water, you may die in a few hours due to dehydration. But camels in the desert don't. They can always find it. Drinking water in desert oases is one of the very few animals that can actively seek out water sources.”

"This is due to their unique structure of the nose. The camel's nostrils are diagonally opened and can be opened and closed freely to prevent dust from entering. There are valve-like structures inside, which are covered with olfactory cells. Not only can they search for food, but they can also survive in droughts. The desert, with its tasteless water source, feels damp from a distance.”

"Such a nose is enough for a camel to find water sources more than 20 kilometers away through its sense of smell, making its chance of survival when crossing the desert much higher than that of a human carrying a large bag of mineral water."

"So, if you really get lost in the desert, experienced people will not feed the camel water. After a few days, loosen the reins and let it move freely, and it will find it on its own."

[Damn, this sense of smell is invincible]

[No matter how invincible I am, I still get caught by Fang Shen (funny)]

[Still Fang Shen is better]

[By the way, is such an awesome sense of smell better than that of dogs and bears? I don't think they can find water by smell. 】

"It is true that dogs and bears cannot find water by their sense of smell, but it is not necessarily true that a camel's sense of smell is stronger than that of the two of them."

Bi Fang shook his head, making everyone a little confused.

"In fact, camels have less than 800 olfactory receptor genes, which sounds like a lot, but on the contrary, camels have relatively few olfactory receptor genes among animals."

"Normal humans have more than 1,000, dogs have 1,300, and the more powerful mice have 1,500."

"But whether it is humans, dogs or mice, they can't locate water sources. This is not a problem of distance. Even if it is less than ten meters, they can't know that there is water in front of them just by smell."

"The camel's own ability to distinguish smells is actually far inferior to that of dogs, bears, and mice. This is still related to its living environment. In the desert, they don't need strong odor distinction ability because there are not many smells that need to be distinguished in the desert."

"So camels have relatively few olfactory receptor genes It is not a problem. On the contrary, because there are not many smells to distinguish, the professional division of labor of these olfactory receptor genes is stronger. It has been strengthened in some special senses of smell. It is much stronger than other animals in terms of smell for water and other green plants! "

"In the soil of vegetation, a chemical called 'geosin' is emitted. This special smell is similar to the smell of newly turned soil, and camels can smell it from a long distance. "

"In fact, we can sometimes smell this smell, such as on rainy days, the 'smell of soil' after rain is also geosin, which is essentially the metabolic waste of bacteria. "

In summer, there are several days of drought, and suddenly a heavy rain will wash the earth, the leaves will be greener and the flowers will be redder, and even the air will be filled with the fragrance of soil.

You take a deep breath, full of the fragrance of plants and the unique smell of soil, the fragrance of nature.

But scientists will tell you that this kind of soil fragrance after rain is actually some organic compounds volatile by fungi, which is a "smell trap" of bacteria subordinates, used to attract springtails to eat and help the spread of Streptomyces daughter spores.

[Ah this, ah this, ah this]

[I have always liked the smell after the rain.]

[It's over, I can't go back]

[What's the big deal, we don't know how many bacteria we eat every time we breathe]

A person with mediocre talent, year after year, focusing on only one thing, may also become a leader.

There are so many smells in nature, but these camels don't need them all. They have few natural enemies. Their biggest enemy is only the natural environment, so they only need to smell a few smells. Even if their sense of smell is a little poor, they can make up for it.

The reins fell beside Alpha's neck. Alpha walked for a while under the sun. After walking straight for a long time, he seemed to find something wrong. He turned his head to look at the rope beside his neck. For a moment, he didn't know whether to continue moving forward, so he stopped where he was.

Bifang didn't let it stop. His legs gently clamped Alpha's abdomen, signaling him to continue moving forward.

[Can you really find it? Is there a water source in the desert?]

[Of course there is, an oasis]

[Does an oasis really exist? I feel like they are all made up by movies, TV shows, or novels. Maybe there are some, but only a few of them? 】

"You are wrong. The Sahara Desert is indeed the largest desert, but it is not the driest desert, nor the most monotonous desert."

"The so-called desert is more like a treeless surface. The desert of 9 million square kilometers is almost as big as China. Although it looks yellow and orange at first glance, the geological structure is actually not simple."

"For example, the four major oases in Egypt, if you look closely at the terrain, they are actually located on a fault zone. This kind of terrain is a guide, and most importantly, it also provides water."

"I told you about the cause of the Sahara a few days ago. I don't know if you still remember it."

"The desertification of the Sahara was very late. Before the agricultural era, the Nile Valley was a place where people could not live, because there were huge amounts of stone layers there, which were even 100 meters thick during the Ice Age."

"So people gradually migrated inland from the grassland area before desertification, and where there are people, there must be rivers."

Bifang began to correct the ideas of the netizens.

Prosperity is still hidden in poverty.

"In the early days of Egyptian civilization, the eastern desert, Nubia, Libya, and the deserts around the Nile River were not so dry, and there were still many rivers."

"Egypt's exchanges with external civilizations, ore mining, timber, and even arable land itself still rely heavily on these rivers. Although the mainstream of the Nile River is now the absolute center, it is at least not the only one. It can even be said that the status of the dry valley in the formation and maturity of Egyptian civilization is on par with the Mediterranean, Libya, Sinai, and Nubia."

"The god of the delta in Egyptian legend, Set, and the god of the Nile Valley, Horus, fought for many years. In the end, Horus defeated Set and drove him into the desert to become the god of the desert. This clearly reflects the superiority and inferiority of the river delta and the desert, but don't forget that since the desert can be on par with the river delta, it shows that Egypt attaches great importance to the desert."

If the so-called Sahara Desert is really worthless and does not lay eggs, how can it be valued?

In many local myths, some human development contexts can actually be sorted out.

In areas with developed water systems, local people will never worship a powerful god of fire, and the god of fire in the system will never be able to beat the god of water.

"Perhaps the conditions were not so good, and the land was not so rich, but in the hearts of the Egyptians, the desert played a much higher role in culture than the desert in the eyes of modern people."

"Even though the sky was filled with yellow sand at that time, there were a large number of oases in the desert, and a large number of humans lived there, which is why it occupied a significant position in culture."

"It's a pity that desert archaeology didn't start until the end of the last century. Now we mainly study the dry valley in the east of the Upper Egyptian river bay. There are also some discoveries in the west, but not many."

Desert archaeology is too expensive, and it is a job that is destined to have a very low input-output ratio.

It is very difficult to think about searching for unclear carvings on cliffs or gravel in a valley that stretches for hundreds of kilometers, eating sand and holding a brush.

"So a long time ago, there were actually a lot of oases and rivers in the Sahara Desert."

"Today, many of these rivers have disappeared on the surface, but they still exist in the invisible underground, rushing and continuing to supply the emergence of oases."

The fact is just as Bifang said.

There are a considerable number of underground rivers under the Sahara Desert. The water resources of these underground rivers are relatively sufficient, and some will even form small rivers directly in the desert.

With the water supply of underground rivers, there will be oases of considerable size in the desert, on which various plants will appear, and some larger oases will also have some animals living. When you come to such an oasis, it is difficult for humans to imagine that you are in the desert.

"The Kelzaz Oasis is a famous oasis in the Sahara Desert. It was also formed by underground rivers. According to investigations, there are even various small fish in many underground rivers. People can fish directly in the underground rivers of the Sahara Desert."

"This is definitely a wonder of the Sahara Desert."

[Another day of learning from both China and the West]

[Mythology researcher, Fangshen profession plus one]

[Although it is just a common myth, it still feels very awesome]

It is not surprising that a mathematician is proficient in mathematics and can easily handle various professional problems. However, if he also shows a certain literary accomplishment, even if he is not at the level of a professional scholar, it will still be surprising and even admirable, because this is not only the level of professional level, but also the breadth.

Unfortunately, things don't seem to be as easy as Bifang thought.

Without the restraint of the reins, Alpha did not change direction, but walked in a straight line. It did not change until several hours later. It seemed that he realized that he could walk freely until the evening.

For this reason, Bifang even hard-headed the midday sun to prevent Alpha's "inspiration" from being interrupted.

The water supply was already insufficient, and after an afternoon, the lips were even more dry and cracked, and even a big expression could not be made, otherwise they would crack and bleed.

This situation continued until eight or nine o'clock in the evening, when the moon rose, and Bifang finally got his reward.

In the sight, a "black spot" appeared on the vast land.