50 Interesting Facts

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.

2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.

6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

10. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

11. Dalmatians are born without spots.

12. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

13. The ‘v’ in the name of a court case does not stand for ‘versus’, but for ‘and’ (in civil proceedings) or ‘against’ (in criminal proceedings).

14. Men’s shirts have the buttons on the right, but women’s shirts have the buttons on the left.

15. The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.

16. The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it’s already been digested by a bee.

17. Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks.

18. The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

19. Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

20. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

15 Extremely Embarrassing Science Predictions

Science changes every year (not just in the realm of technology) and so it is a great source for very embarrassing quotes which later turn out to be very short sighted. In this list, we look at 15 quotes from scientists around the world who would now rather they hadn’t spoken.

 1. While theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and financially I consider it an impossibility, a development of which we need waste little time dreaming. – Lee DeForest, American radio pioneer, 1926.

2. Radio has no future. – Lord Kelvin, British mathematician and physicist.

3. Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires, and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value. – Editorial in the Boston Post, 1865

4. ‘The abdomen, the chest and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon.’ – Sir John Eric Ericson, Surgeon to Queen Victoria, 1873

5. “That virus is a pussycat.” — Dr. Peter Duesberg, molecular-biology professor at U.C. Berkeley, on HIV, 1988

6. Your cigarettes will never become popular. – F. G. Alton, 1870, cigar maker, turning down Mr. John Player

7. I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious feelings of anyone. – Darwin (writing in Origin of Species), 1859

8. X-rays are a hoax. – Lord Kelvin (again!), ca. 1900

9. The so-called theories of Einstein are merely the ravings of a mind polluted with liberal, democratic nonsense which is utterly unacceptable to German men of science. – Dr. Walter Gross, 1940

10. “With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.” — Business Week, August 2, 1968.

11. “Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy.” — Workers whom Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

12. “Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” — Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872.

13. “Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.” — Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

14. “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” — Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

15. “Within the next few decades, autos will have folding wings that can be spread when on a straight stretch of road so that the machine can take to the air.” — Eddie Rickenbacker, ‘Popular Science,’ July 1924

10 Interesting Facts About The Human Body

1.Your Hand Can Have A Mind On Its Own

Remember Devon Sawa’s character in 1999’s ‘Idle Hands’, a comedy / horror movie about a teen whose hand becomes possessed and goes on a killing spree?
Apparently this movie has some truth in it. The ‘idle hand’ which referred to as the ‘Alien Hand Syndrome’ is an unusual neurological disorder in which the sufferer’s hand seems to take on a mind of its own. This is due to the damage in the medial motor frontal region of the brain and often occurs after a brain surgery, a stroke or an infection of the brain.
The sufferer has no control over the movements of the ‘alien hand’ nor will they have any conscience idea on what that hand is doing. The person suffering from this condition can often feel disconnected with their hand, and feel as if it was not part of their body.
When the suffer is unaware the alien hand can sometime act out complex movements like unbuttoning clothing, using tools or even tearing pieces of clothing. There are no know treatments or cure for ‘Alien Hand Syndrome’ however the best solution is to give this alien hand an object it can play with to keep it distracted from doing anything harmful to the sufferer.

2.You Could Remove A Large Part of Your Internal Organs and Survive

 While the human body may appear fragile, your body is stronger than you could possibly imagine. It is possible for you to survive even after the removal of the spleen, the stomach, one kidney, one lung, 75% of the liver, 80% of the intestines, and almost every organ from the pelvic and groin area.

3.The Strong Contraction of Your Heart Creates Enough Pressure To Squirt Blood As Far As 30 Feet

 

 4.You Can Still Have An Erection After Death

This is a death erection, which often being referred to as ‘angel lust’. It is a post-mortem erection that occurs when a male individual dies vertically or face-downside and as long as the body remains in this position, the effect will not subside.

How It Could Possibly Happen?

When a man is still alive, the heart pumps blood evenly around the body. When he dies, this mechanism stops and the blood acts by the force of gravity. As with any mass, the blood will settle at the lowest point of the body and cause swelling. So if a man dies vertically, the blood will settle in the legs and collect at the feet.
The pressure will cause the blood vessels and tissues in the feet to swell up to accommodate as much blood as possible. As blood collects, it will fill up to the torso and the blood will attempt to move to a lower position due to gravity, which is the penis (the legs are full by now). The blood causes the penis, consisting of erectile tissue, to fill with blood and expand.

5.Heart Attacks Are More Likely To Happen On Monday

A 10-year study in Scotland found that 20% of people die of a heart attack on Monday’s compare to any other day of the week. The study suggests that the ‘Monday peak’ could be a result of massive drinking during the weekend and work related stress; you know the ‘Monday blues.’

6.Three Hundred Million Cells Die In Your Body Every Minute

It does sounds like a lot but this is actually less than 0.0001% of the amount of cells being replaced in your body every day. (about 10-50 trillion cells are being replace in your body every day)

Top 10 Greatest Food Combinations

1. Oreos and Milk

 The Oreo was created in February 1912 by Nabisco in New York City. Oreos immediate popularity resulted in it being the best selling cookie of the 20th century. It has since been dubbed “Milk’s Favorite Cookie”. The milk seems to be the perfect match to the chocolate of the oreo, making the duo one of the best. But, despite the popularity of the oreo and milk combination, milk and any type of cookie is great – maybe you should try it with the maple bacon cookies listed above.

2.Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

 One of the ultimate combinations, the gravy moistens the potatoes and adds the little extra flavor to create the perfect combination. Letting the gravy poor all over the potatoes, seemingly completes the mashed potatoes. This is obviously such a popular combination that it is a signature dish of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Oh – and if you want the secret KFC recipe for potato and gravy, you can find it here. Listverse has also published a top 10 list of secret recipes from other fast food outlets.

3.Tortilla Chips and Salsa

 Although the combination of chips and salsa is typically considered to be Mexican food, the combo really boomed when tortilla chips began being mass produced in Los Angeles. Now the combination serves as one of the most popular appetizers and snacks. This is also a combination that can be as unique as it’s maker – as long as your salsa contains tomatoes, you can add virtually anything else and it will still taste great with tortilla chips.

4.Cheese and Crackers

 The classic combination of cheese and crackers became increasingly popular with the development of the Ritz cracker in 1934, by Nobisco. The combo serves as a great snack, especially for small get togethers. Unlike most of the other entries on this list, this is a food combination loved by both rich and poor – whether you put cheap old cheese on store-bought crackers or the finest truffle laced mature brie on handmade crackers – the combination is simple, tasty, and unbeatable for parties.

 

5. Spaghetti and Meatballs

Some claim the combination began in the early 20th century, where Italian immigrants were making them in New York City. However, others claim that the pairing dates back to Old World Italy. Regardless of the origin, the two compliment each other and make for a great, filling meal – and an especially good one for the poor college student.

6.Burger and Fries

Although french fries may date back to the 1600s-1700s, their popularity sky-rocketed when they began to be sold worldwide through fast food chains, especially McDonald’s. Most fast food chains quickly paired the fries with burgers, creating one delicious meal. Did you know that it was American Soldiers who coined the term “French Fries”, when they tasted them for the first time in Belgium during World War I? In most other English speaking parts of the world they are referred to simply as “chips” and French Fries is considered an Americanism.

15 science factlets-you-dont-know

1. Raindrops are not shaped like a teardrop (as they are almost always depicted in drawings) – they are actually spherical.

2. When something “sublimes” it turns directly into a gas from a solid – bypassing the liquid state. This is what would happen if you throw dry-ice into a fire.

3. Gorillas sleep in nests  they weave together soft foliage and bent branches from trees. Males tend to like sleeping on the ground while females like to have their nests in trees.

4. Champagne doesn’t fizz because of carbon dioxide – it fizzes because of dirt or dust. In a completely smooth glass with no dust molecules in it, champagne would be completely still.

5. Most digestion occurs, not in the stomach, but in the small intestine. This may be the reason that a person can be bulimic whilst still staying fat.

6. The red juice that comes out of rare steak is not blood – it is myoglobin a close relative of blood. Almost all the blood has been removed from a steak by the time it hits the market.

7. Plastic bags are better than paper bags for the environment. The manufacturing process that makes paper bags requires far more energy than that which produces plastic. Recycling paper bags takes more energy than recycling plastic, and paper bags take up more space in a landfill. Because landfills are usually airtight beneath the surface, paper and plastic are equally bad at biodegrading.

8. Polar bears are fascinating creatures. Their fur is transparent (not white), their skin is black (not white), and when kept in warm humid environments, their fur can turn green from algae.

9. Pet allergies are usually not allergies to fur but allergies to the animal’s dead skin, saliva, or waste matter. Regularly cleaning pets can dramatically reduce allergies.

10. The tongue map is a lie – you can taste all tastes on all parts of the tongue. The tongue map is derived from a discredited German paper from 1901.

11. When you hold a shell to your ear to hear the sea, the sound you hear is actually your own blood rushing through your veins! You can use any cup shaped object to hear this effect.

12. When you are alive, your brain is pink. When you die, it turns grey. While we describe the brain as “gray matter” and “white matter”, this is not a true description of its color.

13. Mercury, the fascinating liquid metal is not the only liquid metal. Gallium (Ga – pictured above) is solid at room temperature but will melt if held in your hand, caesium (Cs), and francium (Fr) – the second rarest naturally occurring element, can also be liquid at or near room temperature.

14. Dolphins don’t drink water – if they drank sea water it would make them ill and potentially kill them. They get all of their liquid needs through the foods they eat.

15. The Soviet Union was the first country to have a spacecraft on the moon – not the Unites States. In 1959, Luna 2 was the first craft to crash-land on the moon. In February, 1966, Luna 9 was the first soft-landed craft on the moon which relayed back pictures. Four months later, the United States landed its first craft on the moon (Surveyor I).

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams

1. You are paralyzed while you sleep

Believe it or not, your body is virtually paralyzed during your sleep – most likely to prevent your body from acting out aspects of your dreams. According to the Wikipedia article on dreaming, “Glands begin to secrete a hormone that helps induce sleep and neurons send signals to the spinal cord which cause the body to relax and later become essentially paralyzed.”

2. External Stimuli Invade our Dreams

This is called Dream Incorporation and it is the experience that most of us have had where a sound from reality is heard in our dream and incorporated in some way. A similar (though less external) example would be when you are physically thirsty and your mind incorporates that feeling in to your dream. My own experience of this includes repeatedly drinking a large glass of water in the dream which satisfies me, only to find the thirst returning shortly after – this thirst… drink… thirst… loop often recurs until I wake up and have a real drink. The famous painting above (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening) by Salvador Dali, depicts this concept.

3. Quitters have more vivid dreams

People who have smoked cigarettes for a long time who stop, have reported much more vivid dreams than they would normally experience. Additionally, according to the Journal of Abnormal Psychology: “Among 293 smokers abstinent for between 1 and 4 weeks, 33% reported having at least 1 dream about smoking. In most dreams, subjects caught themselves smoking and felt strong negative emotions, such as panic and guilt. Dreams about smoking were the result of tobacco withdrawal, as 97% of subjects did not have them while smoking, and their occurrence was significantly related to the duration of abstinence. They were rated as more vivid than the usual dreams and were as common as most major tobacco withdrawal symptoms.”

4. Dreams are not about what they are about

If you dream about some particular subject it is not often that the dream is about that. Dreams speak in a deeply symbolic language. The unconscious mind tries to compare your dream to something else, which is similar. Its like writing a poem and saying that a group of ants were like machines that never stop. But you would never compare something to itself, for example: “That beautiful sunset was like a beautiful sunset”. So whatever symbol your dream picks on it is most unlikely to be a symbol for itself.

5. Not Everyone Dreams in Color

A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. People also tend to have common themes in dreams, which are situations relating to school, being chased, running slowly/in place, sexual experiences, falling, arriving too late, a person now alive being dead, teeth falling out, flying, failing an examination, or a car accident. It is unknown whether the impact of a dream relating to violence or death is more emotionally charged for a person who dreams in color than one who dreams in black and white.

Positive Thinking With Hypnotherapy

Someone can say in good shape when he was in physical and psychological condition of the prime. Did you understand that some diseases occur because of the negative suggestion from our minds?.  But if we always think positively, we can prevent the emergence of health problems and can improve the health. With hypnotherapy, we can instill positive thoughts in us.

Hypnotherapy is a suggestion that proved able to drive a variety of health disorders, addiction and using hypnosis as a tool help. In the professional treatment, you will undergo this therapy safely and comfortably. But what is hypnosis? Hypnosis is a state of consciousness where we become focused, concentrated, and absorbed into a particular object, such as the object (landscape), visual images (film, paintings, photographs), or sound (suggestion). This happens when we open up a psychic. In those circumstances, we feel ‘as if “empty and ignore the environment around us. a person in a hypnotic state, activity in the brain increases. Particularly in the brain that affect high-level thought processes and behavior. Humans are able to do things that he himself did not dare to dream, so the impact of hypnosis is very motivating and improving performance. In the teaching-learning process, hypnosis is also good to motivate students, improve the ability to concentrate, confidence, discipline, and organizational.

Self Healing
Hypnotherapy not only be done by the therapist, but hypnotherapy can also be done for self-healing. Hypnotic suggestion often become real because we are entering the mind of suggestion in the thinking process. Like when we’re out in the rain, in our minds will get a suggestion, I’ll headache or dizziness due to rain. As a result the body really get headaches. This phenomenon is called the placebo effect.

Benefits of Using Hypnotherapy

More effective hypnotherapy is used to treat health disorders of functional nature. Organic health disorders due to deficiency or deficiencies in the body of substances from outside the body can not be cured. Like the case of a specific nutrient deficiencies, dehydration or skin diseases disorders, still must be treated with other medical treatments, can not be with hypnotherapy. Psychological disorders such as stress more easily cured by hypnotherapy, by giving suggestions, the patient calmed down. Most people do physical action to prevent and cure mental illness. The disease is more appropriate type treated with hypnotherapy, because the pain is not physical, but his soul. Bioplasmic disorders can also be cured by hypnotherapy. Bioplasmic disorders usually characterized by decreased physical and mental endurance.

Cancer Detection Through Nails

Detecting the disease through toenails can be an alternative to determine whether there is cancer seeds are nesting in your body.

Recognizing the potential of cancer simply by observing the texture of your toenails is the latest breakthrough in anticipation of the disease before it develops into more severe, quoted from the pages of The Sun.

The research team University of San Diego, California, believe it after doing research on a group of smokers and non-smokers or passive. They measured levels of nicotine through the nail samples.

As a result, cigarette addicts were three times more likely to develop lung cancer than people who smoke only occasionally in his life or even a passive smoker.

The study reveals a person who has the seed of cancer, then the nails will not grow normally, which grows about one centimeter per year. This growth is much slower than normal nail growth. This gives guidance to those affected by long-term exposure to cigarette smoke at greater risk of getting cancer.

So, beware if you find any anomalies and abnormalities in your nails. Consult with your doctor, could be best way when you feel something is wrong with the texture of your nails.

Easy 9 Health Tips to Improve Health

1. Move More

Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog; chase your kids; toss balls with friends, move the lawn. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool, it’s a stress buster. Think ‘move’ in small increments of time. It doesn’t have to be an hour in the gym or a 45-minute aerobic dance class or tai chi or kickboxing. But that’s great when you’re up to it. Meanwhile, move more.

2. Cut Fat

Avoid the obvious such as fried foods, burgers and other fatty meats (i.e. pork, bacon, ham, salami, ribs and sausage). Dairy products such as cheese, cottage cheese, milk and cream should be eaten in low fat versions. Nuts and sandwich meats, mayonnaise, margarine, butter and sauces should be eaten in limited amounts. Most are available in lower fat versions such as substitute butter, fat free cheeses and mayonnaise.

3. Quit Smoking
The jury is definitely in on this verdict. Ever since 1960 when the Surgeon General announced that smoking was harmful to your health, people have been reducing their use of tobacco products that kill. Just recently, we’ve seen a surge in smoking in adolescents and teens. Could it be the Movies influence? It seems the stars in every movie of late smoke cigarettes. Beware. Warn your children of the false romance or ‘tough guy’ stance of Movie smokers.

4. Reduce Stress

Easier said than done, stress busters come in many forms. Some techniques recommended by experts are to think positive thoughts. Spend 30 minutes a day doing something you like. (i.e.,Soak in a hot tub; walk on the beach or in a park; read a good book; visit a friend; play with your dog; listen to soothing music; watch a funny movie. Get a massage, a facial or a haircut. Meditate. Count to ten before losing your temper or getting aggravated. Avoid difficult people when possible.

5. Protect Yourself from Pollution
If you can’t live in a smog-free environment, at least avoid smoke-filled rooms, high traffic areas, breathing in highway fumes and exercising near busy thoroughfares. Exercise outside when the smog rating is low. Exercise indoors in air conditioning when air quality is good. Plant lots of shrubbery in your yard. It’s a good pollution and dirt from the street deterrent.

6. Wear Your Seat Belt
Statistics show that seat belts add to longevity and help alleviate potential injuries in car crashes.

7. Floss Your Teeth
Recent studies make a direct connection between longevity and teeth flossing. Nobody knows exactly why. Perhaps it’s because people who floss tend to be more health conscious than people who don’t?

8. Avoid Excessive Drinking
While recent studies show a glass of wine or one drink a day (two for men) can help protect against heart disease, more than that can cause other health problems such as liver and kidney disease and cancer.

9. Keep a Positive Mental Outlook
There’s a definitive connection between living well and healthfully and having a cheerful outlook on life.

Hybrid cars

Hybrid car is like its name suggests a car that uses more than one power sources to move the vehicle (usually two-combination of an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors).

Hybrid cars have very expensive parts but they also have long lasting warranties that usually provide replacement of the most expensive parts if they get broken before the warranty is over.

Hybrid cars are recommended from environmental point of view because they emit significantly less emissions compared to conventional gasoline cars.

Hybrid cars have significantly higher fuel efficiency compared to conventional cars.

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Currently the three most popular hybrid vehicles are Honda Civic, Honda Insight and Toyota Prius.

Toyota Prius belongs to power split hybrid category meaning that there are always two electric motors and one internal combustion engine. When on open road car uses internal combustion engine though when engine requires bigger power the electric motors are used to maximize the available power for a short time, giving the effect of having a larger engine than that actually installed, for instance when overtaking.

Honda Civic on the other hand belongs to mild parallel hybrid train configurations meaning that it uses a very compact electric motor to give extra output during the acceleration when bigger power is required.

Hybrid cars have very long history in Japan where they have been sold since 1997.

Hybrid cars still have relatively high production costs, mostly because of expensive materials used in their production, this is the reason why they cost in average $3500 more than their non-hybrid versions.

Hybrid cars are not totally environmentally acceptable because of the car batteries they use (nickel metal hydride), though it has to be said that general negative environmental effects of hybrid cars are very low.

Hybrid cars usually accelerate at slower speed compared to conventional cars.

Hybrid cars have significant battery storage capacity to store and reuse recaptured energy, which is especially handy in stop-and-go traffic (rush hours).

Hybrid cars usually recapture significant amounts of energy during braking that are in conventional cars wasted as heat.

Hybrid cars usually have better aerodynamics compared to traditional cars.

Toyota Prius is the best selling hybrid car, in fact Toyota Prius was the 11th bestselling vehicle in United States in 2008.

U.S. hybrid market is constantly growing as hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular, not only because they ensure better mileage but also because they have positive effect on climate change by emitting less emissions.

In New York alone there are currently more than 20,000 hybrid cars on the road though U.S. state that traditionally sells the most hybrid cars is California.

In average hybrid cars produce 80% less harmful pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional gasoline cars.

Hybrid cars generally produce between 60-90 horsepower. This may seem to some like a very big problem in strength but hybrid cars are constructed with ultra lightweight materials like carbon fiber or aluminum, meaning they are more aerodynamic which compensates for this loss in horsepower, and ensures high efficiency.

Many U.S. states are offering both cash and privilege incentives for consumers who purchase hybrid cars, mostly in order to decrease the total level of CO2 emissions that harm environment.

Interesting science facts about intelligence

It is very difficult to define intelligence since intelligence encompasses different capacities of our mind, such as to plan, to give reason, to solve different problems, etc.

Intelligence includes not only wisdom and quick thinking, but also creativity, personality, character, and of course our total knowledge.

The word intelligence comes from the Latin verb "intellegere", which means "to understand".

Some say that intelligence can be measured while majority agrees that IQ tests can tell us the level of our intelligence.

IQ tests that have lately become so popular to measure our intelligence were originally used to identify mentally "defective" children that needed special school programs.

There are lot of controversies about traditional IQ tests, and many agree that they cannot be the guide to how person is going to cope with everyday's life.

Some studies suggested how IQ is the product of interaction between multiple genes.

Genetic factor is very important and has a significant impact on IQ results.

Some genetic experiment on animals have showed that genetic engineering could be used to enhance the intelligence of animals, for instance genetically engineering mices have demonstrated superior ability in learning and memory skills in various behavioral tasks compared to "normal mices".

Intelligence involves processing new information and then making associations with other information that individual encounters throughout life.

Intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons, or wiring that sends signals throughout the brain. The faster the signaling, the faster the brain processes information, resulting in better intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is term mostly used to describe intelligence of computers and other machines.

Human beings solve most of their problems using quick, intuitive judgments rather than the conscious, step-by-step deduction that would five more comprehensive results.

Artificial intelligence is becoming better and better but is still not good enough to totally replicate human intelligence.

Interesting science facts - Space & astronomy

 

Term "spacetime" was first used by Albert Einstein in his paper on a "Special theory of relativity", in which he proposed that space and time should be combined into a single construct known as "spacetime".

Word astronomy comes from two Greek words "astron" meaning star and "nomos" meaning law, and would basically mean law of the stars.

The defining feature of every black hole is the so called "event horizon". Event horizon is a surface in spacetime that marks a point of no return, and once an object crosses this surface, it cannot return to the other side.

In theory, there is no smallest size for a black hole.Almost 90% of all the incoming cosmic ray particles are protons.

Dark matter is matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, and its presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter. The dark matter component has much more mass than the "visible" component of the universe.

Each galaxy consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and dust, and dark matter. Dark matter account for around 90% of the mass of most galaxies.

There are probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Galaxies come in three main types: ellipticals, spirals, and irregulars.

Nebula is an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen gas and plasma. Some nebulae are formed as the result of supernova explosions.

Extrasolar planets, or sometimes called exoplanets are planets beyond our solar system, orbiting a star other than our Sun.

Big bang theory is the most common theory of Universe origin. According to this theory universe has expanded some 12-14 billions years ago from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past, and continues to expand to this day.

Asteroids are space bodies primarily found in the inner Solar System — that are smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids, with the exclusion of comets.

Comets are small Solar System Bodies that orbit the Sun and once close enough to the Sun, exhibit a visible coma (atmosphere) or a tail — as a result of solar radiation upon the comet's nucleus.

Some facts about tsunamis

Here are some quick and interesting facts about tsunamis and their devastating power.

The origin of tsunami doesn't necessarily have to be an earthquake. Tsunami can also be a result of volcanic eruption, landslides, meteor hit, etc.

Tsunamis are most frequent in Japan, up to now there have been close to 200 recorded tsunamis in Japan.

The recent earthquake with the magnitude of 8,9 that caused the tsunami in Japan wasn't the strongest tsunami-causing earthquake. In 2004, a 9.3 magnitude earthquake in northern Sumatra, Indonesia caused a extremely powerful tsunami with waves as high as 10.5 m moving at a speed of up to 8 m per second.

In some cases the large earthquake is not needed to create large tsunami. The scientists have calculated that even a moderate earthquake on a strike-slip fault can lead to huge tsunami.

The most simple definition of a tsunami would be a serious of powerful water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of water.

Cities that lie near an area where two tectonic plates slide past each other (the so called strike-slip fault) have very high risk to be faced with destructive tsunamis. Los Angeles and Kingston are among these cities with very high tsunami risk.

The oldest recorder tsunami was the one that in the 365 A.D. devastated the ancient city of Alexandria.

The scientists have developed several different tsunami warning systems. The most important thing about tsunami warning system is that it needs to be flawlessly effective by allowing the perfect coordination of action for emergency officials. Today's computer models can predict tsunami arrival within minutes of the arrival time.

The destructive nature of tsunamis calls for building more resistant structures in areas with high tsunami risk in years to come.

The deep ocean tsunami has a wavelength of around 120 miles. More than three quarters of tsunamis (around 80%) occur in the Pacific Ocean.

It is still not possible (with the current technologies) to prevent tsunami from occurring. The best thing we can do is to try to reduce the damage by as much as possible (by for instance slowing tsunami, if possible of course).

Interesting science facts - 25 amazing science facts

 1. Word "Science" derives from Latin word scientia meaning knowledge.

2. Human need approximately 12 hours in order to entirely digest the food.

3. Brain cells are the longest living cells in our body, they can last for an entire lifetime.

4. Some human brains are bigger than other and the biggest human brain weighed 2,3 kg.

5. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperature above 450 C.

6. If we are to believe scientists there are approximately 50,000,000,000 galaxies "out there".

7. Sound travels 4 times faster in water than in air.

8. One of the most accidental discoveries was the one of microwave. This discovery happened after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

9. Kissing or shaking hands? In terms of germs be aware that more germs are transferred shaking hands than kissing.

10. Our moon is extremely dry, it is for instance one million times drier than the infamous Gobi Desert.

How Earthquakes Works

An earthquake is a vibration that travels through the earth's crust. Technically, a large truck that rumbles down the street is causing a mini-earthquake, if you feel your house shaking as it goes by, but we tend to think of earthquakes as events that affect a fairly large area, such as an entire city. All kinds of things can cause earthquakes, including human activity. Some common causes for earthquakes include volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, underground explosions (an underground nuclear test, for example) and collapsing structures (such as a collapsing mine).
But the majority of naturally-occurring earthquakes are caused by movements of the earth's plates

plate tectoni­cs T­he biggest scientific breakthrough in the history of seismology -- the study of earthquakes -- came in the middle of the 20th century, with the development of the theory of plate tectoni­cs. Scientists proposed the idea of plate tectonics to explain a number of peculiar phenomenon on earth, such as the apparent movement of continents over time, the clustering of volcanic activity in certain areas and the presence of huge ridges at the bottom of the ocean.

Did Bell really invent the phone ?

Attributing the true inventor or inventors to a specific invention can be tricky business. Often credit goes to the inventor of the most practical or best working invention rather than to the original inventor(s). This happens to be the case of the invention of the telephone! There is a lot of controversy and intrigue surrounding the invention of the telephone. There have been court cases, books, and articles generated about the subject. Of course, Alexander Graham Bell is the father of the telephone. After all it was his design that was first patented, however, he was not the first inventor to come up with the idea of a telephone

Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant, began developing the design of a talking telegraph or telephone in 1849. In 1871, he filed a caveat (an announcement of an invention) for his design of a talking telegraph. Due to hardships, Meucci could not renew his caveat. His role in the invention of the telephone was overlooked until the United States House of Representatives passed a Resolution on June 11, 2002, honoring Meucci’s contributions and work

To make matters even more interesting Elisha Gray, a professor at Oberlin College, applied for a caveat of the telephone on the same day Bell applied for his patent of the telephone. In Historical First Patents: The First United States Patent for Many Everyday Things (Scarecrow Press, 1994), Travis Brown, reports that Bell got to the patent office first. The date was February 14, 1876 . He was the fifth entry of that day, while Gray was 39th. Therefore, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Bell with the first patent for a telephone, US Patent Number 174,465 rather than honor Gray’s caveat.

A new book indicates that Alexander Graham Bell stole part of his rival’s invention. It’s one of the facts everyone learns in school – the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell. But author Seth Shulman is set to debunk history in his new book, The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret. He claims that Bell plagiarized the phone design of his rival Elisha Gray. That’s a big claim, but on its website, Shulman’s publisher, W W Norton, says that “”Bell furtively — and illegally — copied part of Elisha Gray’s invention in the race to secure what would become the most valuable US patent ever issued. As Bell’s device led to the world’s largest monopoly, he hid his invention’s illicit beginnings.” That monopoly, of course, was AT&T. Shulman not only looked at Bell’s letters, but also his journals, and has concluded that he colluded with a patent examiner to look at Gray’s patent documents, and thanks to a feisty legal team was able to claim credit for filing his patent first.

Stress and Its Effects on the Body

If you did not know, stress can be causing many of your health-related problems and you may not even be aware. Stress can cause the body and mind to react in ways that normally they would not. Even the headache that you have on occasion, may be coming from stress. Perhaps you are having trouble remembering things like you normally would or you feel that your body and mind is just not delivering productively. Stress may be the blame for these things as well as many others. Putting a stamp on stress early into the game, can help you in finding ways to manage it before it gets out of hand.
Also, never assume that stress is the cause of your headache or forgetfulness, as these may be signs of other, more serious diseases or illnesses. Seeing your physician can help you diagnose the problem and a health care professional should always be consulted when in doubt. Stress can mimic heart attack symptoms, but you should never think that stress is the cause for the signs or symptoms if you ever experience them. Seeking medical or professional help always the right thing to do.
Stress, if left unattended for very long can cause long-standing health issues and can even cut your lifespan down considerably. Steps have to be taken in order to lengthen and increase the longevity of your life. Stress not only wreaks havoc on the individual who has it, it often rubs off to family members and close friends as well. If friends and family see that you are having a hard time with stress and related stressful issues, they may begin to experience it as well.

Stop Stress

There are many types of stress busters and finding one that can help reduce or eliminate your stress is desirable. Things like yoga, meditation, relaxation activities and exercise is great for relieving stress. Finding an enjoyable hobby may often be the perfect remedy for eradicating stress. If you have trouble finding something that will take the stress off of you, talking to someone that you trust or a close friend can often help you in locating the perfect activity to knock out stress as well. There may be times when a medication or prescription may be issued to help alleviate stress and you and your doctor can assess and find the one that is right for you. Sometimes stress can be relieved by simply talking to someone close and trusting and you will find that you feel better just getting things off your mind as well.

What if an asteroid hit the Earth?

An asteroid striking our planet -- it's the stuff of science fiction. Many movies and books have portrayed this possibility ("Deep Impact," "Armageddon," "Lucifer's Hammer," and so on).
An asteroid impact is also the stuff of science fact. There are obvious craters on Earth (and the moon) that show us a long history of large objects hitting the planet. The most famous asteroid ever is the one that hit Earth 65 million years ago. It's thought that this asteroid threw so much moisture and dust in to the atmosphere that it cut off sunlight, lowering temperatures worldwide and causing the extinction of the dinosaurs.
So, what if an asteroid were to hit Earth today?

Any asteroid falling from the sky would have a tremendous amount of energy. Here's a typical example. In 2028, the asteroid 1997XF11 will come extremely close to Earth but will miss the planet. If something were to change and it did hit Earth, what you would have is a mile-wide asteroid striking the planet's surface at about 30,000 mph. An asteroid that big traveling at that speed has the energy roughly equal to a 1 million megaton bomb. It's very likely that an asteroid like this would wipe out most of the life on the planet.
It's difficult to imagine 1 million megatons, so let's try some smaller sizes. Let's say that an asteroid the size of a house crashed on Earth at 30,000 mph. It would have an amount of energy roughly equal to the bomb that fell on Hiroshima -- perhaps 20 kilotons. An asteroid like this would flatten reinforced concrete buildings up to half a mile from ground zero, and flatten wooden structures perhaps a mile and a half from ground zero. It would, in other words, do extensive damage to any city.
If the asteroid is as big as a 20-story building (200 feet on a side), it has an amount of energy equal to the largest nuclear bombs made today -- on the order of 25 to 50 megatons. An asteroid like this would flatten reinforced concrete buildings five miles from ground zero. It would completely destroy most major cities in the United StatesBy the time you get up to a mile-wide asteroid, you are working in the 1 million megaton range. This asteroid has the energy that's 10 million times greater than the bomb that fell on Hiroshima. It's able to flatten everything for 100 to 200 miles out from ground zero. In other words, if a mile-wide asteroid were to directly hit New York City, the force of the impact probably would completely flatten every single thing from Washington D.C. to Boston, and would cause extensive damage perhaps 1,000 miles out -- that's as far away as Chicago. The amount of dust and debris thrown up into the atmosphere would block out the sun and cause most living things on the planet to perish. If an asteroid that big were to land in the ocean, it would cause massive tidal waves hundreds of feet high that would completely scrub the coastlines in the vicinity.
In other words, if an asteroid strikes Earth, it will be a really, really bad day no matter how big it is. If the asteroid is a mile in diameter, it's likely to wipe out life on the planet. Let's hope that doesn't happen anytime soon!

How Hurricanes Work

Defining a Hurricane
To understand how a hurricane works, you have to understand the basic principles of atmospheric pressure. The gases that make up Earth's atmosphere are subject to the planet's gravity. In fact, the atmosphere weighs in at a combined 5.5 quadrillion tons (4.99 quadrillion metric tons). The gas molecules at the bottom, or those closest to the Earth's surface where we all live, are compressed by the weight of the air above them.
The air closest to us is also the warmest, as the atmosphere is mostly heated by the land and the sea, not by the sun. To understand this principle, think of a person frying an egg on the sidewalk on a hot, sunny day. The heat absorbed by the pavement actually fries the egg, not the heat coming down from the sun. When air heats up, its molecules move farther apart, making it less dense. This air then rises to higher altitudes where air molecules are less compressed by gravity. When warm, low-pressure air rises, cool, high-pressure air seizes the opportunity to move in underneath it. This movement is called a pressure gradient force.
These are some of the basic forces at work when a low-pressure center forms in the atmosphere -- a center that may turn into what people in the North Atlantic, North Pacific and Caribbean regions call a hurricane. What else is happening? Well, as we know, warm, moist air from the ocean's surface begins to rise rapidly. As it rises, its ­water vap­or condenses to form storm clouds and droplets of rain. The condensation releases heat called latent heat of condensation. This latent heat warms the cool air, causing it to rise. This rising air is replaced by more warm, humid air from the ocean below. And the cycle continues, drawing more warm, moist air into the developing storm and moving heat from the surface to the atmosphere. This exchange of heat creates a pattern of win­d that circulates around a center, like water going down a drain.
But what about those signature ferocious winds? Converging winds at the surface are colliding and pushing warm, moist air upward. This rising air reinforces the air that's already ascending from the surface, so the circulation and wind speeds of the storm increase. In the meantime, strong winds blowing the same speed at higher altitudes (up to 30,000 feet or 9,000 meters) help to remove the rising hot air from the storm's center, maintaining a continual movement of warm air from the surface and keeping the storm organized. If the high-altitude winds don't blow at the same speed at all levels -- if wind shears are present -- the storm becomes disorganized and weakens.
­Even higher in the atmosphere (above 30,000 feet or 9,000 meters) high-pressure air over the storm's center also removes heat from the rising air, further driving the air cycle and the hurricane's growth. As high-pressure air is sucked into the low-pressure center of the storm, wind speeds increase. Then you have a hurricane to contend with.
Barometers are one way to measure atmospheric pressure.
How a Hurricane Forms
You never hear about hurricanes hitting Alaska. That's because hurricanes develop in warm, tropical regions where the water is at least 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius). The storms also require moist air and converging equatorial winds. Most Atlantic hurricanes begin off the west coast of Africa, starting as thunderstorms that move out over the warm, tropical ocean waters.­
A hurricane's low-pressure center of relative calm is called the eye. The area surrounding the eye is called the eye wall, where the storm's most violent winds occur. The bands of thunderstorms that circulate outward from the eye are called rain bands. These storms play a key role in the evaporation/condensation cycle that feeds the hurricane.
The rotation of a hurricane is a product of the Coriolis force, a natural phenomenon that causes fluids and free-moving objects to veer to the right of their destination in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine flying a small plane directly south. While you're moving southward, the planet is rotating. If you plotted a flight from the North Pole to the equator on a map, the path will appear to curve to the right.
So in the Northern Hemisphere, winds deflect to the right. In the Southern Hemisphere, they deflect to the left. This wind deflection gets storms spinning. As a result, hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere rotate counterclockwise and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. The force also affects the actual path of the hurricane, bending them to the right (clockwise) in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left (counterclockwise) if you're south of the equator. If you can't remember, just move within five degrees of the equator; the Coriolis force is too weak there to help form hurricanes.
Hurricanes often begin their lives as clusters of clouds and thunderstorms called tropical disturbances. These low-pressure areas feature weak pressure gradients and little or no rotation. Most of these disturbances die out, but a few persevere down the path to hurricane status. In these cases, the thunderstorms in the disturbance release latent heat, which warms areas in the disturbance. This causes the air density inside the disturbance to lower, dropping the surface pressure. Wind speeds increase as cooler air rushes underneath the rising warm air. As this wind is subject to the Coriolis force, the disturbance begins to rotate. The incoming winds bring in more moisture, which condenses to form more cloud activity and releases latent heat in the process.

How Sudoku Works

Solving a Sudoku: Simple Logic There is no right place to start a sudoku puzzle. You can shut your eyes and put your finger on the puzzle and start there, and that's as correct a place as any. Probably the most logical place to start, though, is at a row, column or box that has a lot of numbers in it.
Columns 4 and 6 each have six numbers filled in. Let's start the puzzle at column 4, which already has its 1, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9.

In order to have one and only one of each digit from 1 to 9, we're going to hav e to provide column 4 with its 2, its 6 and its 7. But we can't just put them anywhere -- each number has a specific location in the puzzle's answer. So where does each number go? To find out, we need to look at the rows and boxes that interact with column 4. Take a look at the empty square at row 3, column 4 (3,4), and the row and box that interact with it:

The "simple logic" approach to sudoku requires only visual analysis and goes something like this: Can the 2 go in the empty square? It can't, because box 2 already has a 2, and it can only have one of each number. Can the 7 go there? Row 3 already has its 7, so we can't put a 7 there, either. That leaves us with the 6. Neither row 3 nor box 2 already has a 6, so we know the 6 is correct for that cell. We've solved our first number!

Now let's solve the rest of column 4, which still needs its 2 and its 7. The empty square at 5,4 interacts with row 5 and box 5, and the empty square at 7,4 interacts with row 7 and box 8.

Since box 5 already has its 7, we can't put a 7 in the 5,4 square. So right there we know the 2 goes at 5,4, and the 7 must go at 7,4:

We've now solved all of column 4, and we used only simple logic to do it. Since this is an easy puzzle, we could probably solve a good portion of it this way. But it's not always so clear-cut. There are strategies we can use when the solution is not so obvious, and it all starts with some little pencil marks.