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.