50 Weird Science Tidbits - 5
Feb 15 at 6:06pm by Aileen
Part 5: Items 41-50
This is the final installment of our 50 Weird Science tidbits, odd factoids and strange-but-true trivia. There are of course more weird things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But these 50 should get you through at least one championship round down at the pub. By the way, the word “dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt.” That’s a freebie!
41. Plants Have Family Values Too
Researchers from Canada found that plants can have complex social interactions despite being… um, vegetative. Plants will grow more aggressively near unrelated plants than when they grow near relatives from the same maternal family.
42. The World’s Most Dangerous Animal
The not-so humble mosquito wins this award hands down. Mosquitoes transmitting countless diseases kill more animals - including humans - than any other animal (or plant) on Earth.
43. Hot Bed [Bugs] of Sexual Deception
Both the males and females of the African bat bug, a relative of bed bugs, have evolved fake genitals in order to protect themselves from the species’ violent mating practices. Some females have fake genitals of both male and female variety! The species does manage to reproduce prolifically anyway.
44. One Species In Which Dad Does All The Work
In seahorses it’s the male who gets pregnant. He incubates the offspring for three weeks, spends about 72 hours in labor, then gives birth to up to 200 baby seahorses at a time.
45. Alternative Recycling of Humans
A Swedish company has developed a new, environmentally friendly means of dealing with the bodies of the dead. They freeze the bodies in liquid nitrogen, then use sound waves to smash them to powder. From which water is removed in a vacuum chamber and metals are screened out.
46. And Now for the Weather Report…
In the days when apothecaries kept leeches in jars, it was observed that when the weather was calm the leeches stayed at the bottom of the water jar. But when a change in the weather was coming, the leeches would rise to the top of the water. For storms the leeches would rise quickly, descending again when the storm passed.
47. Forecast: Sunny
A solar panel array covering an area of 100 by 100 miles in the US Mojave Desert would produce enough electricity to replace all the coal fired power plants in America.
48. Old Sol Is Expecting Visitors
A red dwarf star labeled Gliese 710 is traveling toward our sun at nearly 50 times the speed of sound. In a million years it will be within just over half a light year away. Our current closest neighbor is Alpha Centauri, just over 4 light years away. But don’t worry. In only 10,000 years a red dwarf called Barnard’s Star will be our closest neighbor.
49. Please Don’t Lick the Walls
The world’s only hotel made entirely of salt (including the dining tables and chairs) is the Hotel de Sal Playa in the Uyuni salt flats of Bolivia.
50. …And Don’t Drink the Water
97% of the water on earth is undrinkable. An estimated 20% of the world’s surface fresh water supply is contained in Lake Baikal in southern Siberia (the world’s deepest lake at more than mile in depth).
The Entire Series:
1-10 of 50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
11-20 of 50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
21-30 of 50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
31-40 of 50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
41-50 of 50 Weird Science Tidbits & Oddities
15 Responses for "50 Weird Science Tidbits - 5"
50 Weird Science Tidbits You Probably Didn’t Know by Science News Review
February 15th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
1[…] Part 2: 11-20 Part 3: 21-30 Part 4: 31-40 Part 5: 41-50 […]
50 Weird Science Tidbits - 4 by Science News Review
February 17th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
2[…] Part 5: 41-50 […]
reanjohn
February 18th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
3Wicked! Especially the theory about Earth Growing!
Aileen
February 19th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
4Hi, reanjohn. It’s not a popular theory with the earth sciences crowd, but I thought the animation was very cool. Of course, I have a whole trunk-full of X-Men comics (and all 4 of the original TMNTs) under the bed, so it’s fun enough to include.
Your vote is logged. Thanks!
Bill
March 13th, 2008 at 3:38 am
5Item 28, on coconuts killing people.
In Honolulu Hawaii the city must harvest all coconuts on city property before they get to large because a tourist was holding her baby walking on the beach and a coconut dropped and struck the baby killing the baby.
Aileen
March 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
6Hi, Bill. That’s very sad! I have pictures of my sister and I hanging out in a topless jeep parked in a coconut grove in the Philippines when I was just a wee thing and she was about two and a half. Luckily my Mom didn’t have to learn about this dangerous practice the hard way!
Michael
March 13th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
7Great post! ‘Tis a far better way to spend time at work than actually working. (I’m improving my overall knowledge so that should justify it!) One question, though albeit a sophmoric one, #34 does that include farting?
p.s.
March 13th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
8very awesome! thanks for sharing
Aileen
March 13th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
9Thanks for the compliment, Michael. I swear I haven’t seen so many noses so bent by meaningless trivia since… well, since last year’s Trivial Pursuit Championship match down at the Town Pump! HAHAHA… sorry, it does strike me funny.
I do not know about farting astronauts. Next time I talk with my niece the rocket scientist I’ll ask. If she doesn’t know, she can probably find out!
slipperyone
March 14th, 2008 at 12:25 am
10I’d like to comment regarding item #50, the claim that Baikal holds 20% of the fresh water supply in the world.
It’s not easy tracking down the facts about fresh water distribution. Part of the problem, I’m sure, is that these figures are necessarily estimates. For example, one source suggested that there are 9 million cubic miles of underground water, while another suggested 5.6.
For this post, I’ll use the chart at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html.
According to this chart, ice caps account for 68.7% of freshwater, while fresh groundwater accounts for another 30.1%. All lakes together account for .26% of freshwater. How can Lake Baikal account for 20%?
You say 20% of the “supply”. Perhaps this is where the disagreement comes from. What do you mean by supply? It is true that Lake Baikal contains aproximately 20% of the fresh water contained in surface bodies of fresh water. However, you mention that 97% of the world’s water is undrinkable. This implies that the 20% you claim for Lake Baikal is 1/5 of the remaining 3%. However, this 3% includes ice caps, underground water, surface water, atmospheric water, biological water and soil moisture. Lake Baikal contains approximately .07% of this fresh water.
I have seen ridiculous claims like this for the Amazon river. National Geographics website, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld/profiles/g200/g147.html, says “The Amazon contains 20 percent of the Earth’s fresh water.”
This is obviously absurd, since the total amount of water in ALL rivers is only 509 cubic miles, or .006% of the total fresh water. What is true is that the Amazon river makes up 20% of the world’s river flow.
Quoting a fact in a careless fashion can lead to misunderstandings and the spread of erroneous data.
Please post responsibly.
Cameron
March 15th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
11Number 50 refers to surface water, if you look again. Next time, make sure you have your facts straight before you go and criticize others. However, I do find this hard to believe, seeing as how the Great Lakes are freshwater.
Aileen
March 18th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
12Hi, Cameron. #50 states:
An estimated 20% of the world’s surface fresh water supply is contained in Lake Baikal…
I realize some of these are “unbelievable.” Google Lake Baikal and see what is estimated. That’s what I did.
David
March 20th, 2008 at 3:28 am
13slipperyone, if you weren’t such a bore, people would be more inclined to pay attention to you, and you wouldn’t have to assert your intelligence in the comments sections of webpages.
Kennytic Energy
March 20th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
14…Awesome.
Brian
April 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
15#47. A solar array 100 miles x 100 miles could replace all the coal fired plants in th U.S.??? If this is true, why don’t we do it?!?!?
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Leave a reply