ROYAL SHIT

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ROYAL SHIT
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Observation

• Scientists studying animals in the forests noted
  that eagles prefer eating lion shit to wolf shit

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Problem

• Why do eagles prefer lion shit?

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Hypotheses

• Lion is the king of the forest, royal shit is a
  specialty.
• (2) Lion shit is more tasty compared to wolf
  shit.
• (3) Lion shit may be more nutritious than wolf
  shit.

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Probability of correctness(1) Lion is the king
of the forest, royal shit is a specialty.

• It is we humans who have given the status of
  King to the lions (in stories). So the eagles may
  not be knowing that lion is the king of the
  forest because they have not read these stories.
• From rigorous observations made in the forests by
  keen animal watchers, all animals appear to
  be equal, with their own roles in the food chain.

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Probability of correctness2) Lion shit is more
tasty compared to wolf shit.

• At present, there is no way of deciding how shit
  tastes to the eagles.
• Therefore there is no way of testing this
  hypothesis.

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Probability of correctness(3) Lion shit may be
more nutritious than wolf shit.

• Probable and testable.
• Therefore it was decided to subject lion shit
  and wolf shit to rigorous chemical examination in
  order to gain some understanding about the nature
  of these two samples by comparing with available
  knowledge about smell, taste and nutritive value
  of known compounds that may be present in them.

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Survey

• Literature survey was conducted with a view to
  get information about
• General behaviour of lions, wolves and eagles in
  the
• forest
• (2) Nature of the usual food and prey eaten by
  lions,
• wolves and eagles
• (3) Any chemical or physiological investigations
  of lion and
• wolf shits that others may already have
  done.
• (4) Smell, taste and nutritive value of various
  chemical
• substances.
• Expert zoologists, bird watchers and people
  living in and around forests were also contacted
  for any useful information.

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Materials and methods

• Samples of fresh lion and wolf shits were
  collected and stored.
• Analytical methods such as elemental analysis,
  GPC, TLC, HPLC, GC-MS, IR, NMR etc. were used to
  find out the nature of compounds present in them.
• The results were tabulated and analysed.

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Results and discussion

• Analyses showed that lion shit is richer in
  proteins compared to wolf shit.
• But the nature of food eaten by both lions and
  wolves are very similar.

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Conclusion

• Eagles prefer lion shit because it is richer in
  proteins.

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Hypothesis testing

• Further investigations showed that eagles become
  protein deficient at a particular stage in their
  life cycle when the chicks grow very rapidly,
  develop wings and start flying.
• This is compensated by consuming lion shit when
  available.

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Scope for further research

• Lions and wolves eat similar food. Then why is
  lion shit richer in proteins?

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Further research

• The digestive systems of lions and wolves were
  investigated.
• It was found that the digestive system of wolves
  were more efficient, with better absorption of
  proteins.
• Absorption of proteins by the lion's digestive
  system is not very efficient. Therefore much
  protein is excreted. Lions make up for this by
  eating more frequently.

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Acknowledgement

• This story as an illustration of research
  methodology was developed as a project by some
  school children in Singapore who were taught
  research methodology.
• It was narrated to me by
• Dr. A. P. Jayaraman, Ph.D., PGDMM
• Professor of Technology Management and
  Consultant
• Vice Chairman, National Centre for Science
  Communicators
• Singapore
• Retired Nuclear Scientist and Engineer, Dept. of
  Atomic Energy
• Past Chairman of Indian Institute of Materials
  Management
• in a Seminar on Science Writing conducted by the
  Department for Science Communication, CUSAT in
  February 2008.