Newborns typically have about 270 bones, most of which are very small. This makes the skeleton more flexible and helps the baby pass through the birth canal and grow quickly. As we grow older, many of these bones fuse together. The adult human skeleton consists on average of 200–213 bones.
2. The Eiffel Tower grows 15 centimeters in summer
The huge structure is built with temperature expansion joints, allowing the steel to expand and contract without any damage.
When steel heats up, it begins to expand and takes up more volume. This is called thermal expansion. Conversely, a drop in temperature leads to a decrease in volume. For this reason, large structures, such as bridges, are built with expansion joints that allow them to change in size without damage.
3. 20% of oxygen comes from the Amazon rainforest
Flickr.com/thiagomarraThe Amazon rainforest covers 5.5 million square kilometers. The Amazon jungle produces a significant portion of the oxygen on Earth, absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which is why it is often called the lungs of the planet.
4. Some metals are so reactive that they explode even when in contact with water.
Some metals and compounds - potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium and cesium - exhibit increased chemical activity, so they can ignite with lightning speed when in contact with air, and if they are placed in water, they can even explode.
5. A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.
Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars, consisting mainly of a neutron core covered with a relatively thin (about 1 km) crust of matter in the form of heavy atomic nuclei and electrons. The cores of stars that died during a supernova explosion were compressed under the influence of gravity. This is how super-dense neutron stars were formed. Astronomers have found that the mass of neutron stars can be comparable to the mass of the Sun, although their radius does not exceed 10–20 kilometers.
6. Every year, Hawaii gets 7.5 cm closer to Alaska.
The earth's crust consists of several huge parts - tectonic plates. These plates are constantly moving along with the upper layer of the mantle. Hawaii is located in the middle part of the Pacific Plate, which is slowly drifting northwest toward the North American Plate, on which Alaska is located. Tectonic plates move at the same speed as human fingernails grow.
7. In 2.3 billion years, Earth will be too hot to support life.
Our planet will eventually become an endless desert, similar to today's Mars. Over hundreds of millions of years, the Sun has warmed up, become brighter and hotter, and will continue to do so. In more than two billion years, temperatures will be so high that the oceans that make Earth habitable will evaporate. The entire planet will turn into an endless desert. As scientists predict, in the next few billion years the Sun will turn into a red giant and completely engulf the Earth - the planet will definitely come to an end.
Flickr.com/andy999 Thermal imagers are able to identify an object by the heat it emits. And polar bears are experts at staying warm. Thanks to the thick layer subcutaneous fat and a warm fur coat, bears are able to withstand even the coldest days in the Arctic.
9. Light will take 8 minutes 19 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth
It is known that the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. But even at such breakneck speed, it will take time to cover the distance between the Sun and Earth. And 8 minutes is not so much on a cosmic scale. It takes sunlight 5.5 hours to reach Pluto.
10. If you remove all the interatomic space, humanity will fit in a sugar cube
In fact, more than 99.9999% of an atom is empty space. An atom consists of a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons, which occupy proportionately more space. This is because electrons move in waves. They can only exist where the crests and troughs of the waves are formed in a certain way. Electrons do not remain at one point; their location can be anywhere within the orbit. And therefore they take up a lot of space.
11. Stomach juice can dissolve razor blades
The stomach digests food thanks to caustic hydrochloric acid with a high pH (hydrogen index) - from two to three. But at the same time, the acid also affects the gastric mucosa, which, however, can quickly recover. The lining of your stomach is completely renewed every four days.
Scientists have many versions of why this happens. The most likely: due to huge asteroids that influenced its course in the past, or due to strong circulation of air currents in the upper atmosphere.
13. A flea can accelerate faster than the space shuttle
Flea jumps reach mind-boggling heights - 8 centimeters per millisecond. Each jump gives the flea an acceleration 50 times greater than the acceleration of the spacecraft.
And what Interesting Facts do you know?
Specialists from the Netherlands managed to conduct an experiment on growing vegetables using analogues of extraterrestrial soil. The latter were created by NASA scientists, and real extraterrestrial soil was not involved in the study.
English scientists some time ago came to the conclusion that a fairly large amount of iodine oxide, a substance that is responsible for the destruction of most of the Earth's ozone layer, is located above the World Ocean, and the reason for this concentration had not previously been given the necessary attention. Studies have shown that the ocean releases hypohydrous acid into the atmosphere, although previously there was an opinion that this gas, like molecular iodine, is not produced by the ocean. In the 70s of the twentieth century, it was found that the World Ocean contains a considerable amount of methyl iodide, and most of the iodine is produced by the smallest marine plants - phytoplankton.
The history of slot machines
Every gambling person has succumbed to the temptation to play at least once in his life. slot machines, and some of them made fortunes from it! However, few of them thought about when the first “one-armed bandit” appeared and who the “evil genius” who invented this machine was.
A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo has developed extremely thin and ultra-light electronic sheets that can be used to make, for example, discreet medical sensors or solar cells. This technological innovation can bend, wrinkle, stretch and take almost any shape, and is also incredibly light and adaptable.
Can you imagine African elves? Just in case, let me clarify: not the dark ones that swarm in many online games, but African ones. However, even the wild imagination of the authors of modern fantasy did not reach the creation of Afro-elves. So, to blame on them (elves, not science fiction writers) night dances under the full moon is an unusual natural phenomenon - the so-called. “witch circles” will not work in Africa.
Archaeologists from Spain and Great Britain, exploring the tombs of Quebbet el-Hawa, discovered the burial of the southern Egyptian nomarchs, untouched by robbers. Particularly valuable in the found grave is the wooden sarcophagus of the local prince and the well-preserved mummies of his family members.
Every year, scientists make the most incredible discoveries, from minor ones to turning points in the history of all mankind, from completely accidental ones to those that researchers have been pursuing for years and decades. Breakthroughs are occurring in completely different fields, from space exploration and archeology to biology and many other scientific fields. Some of these discoveries help us understand the world's most mysterious mysteries or allow us to see something completely incredible for the first time.
Galilean satellites
When the famous Italian Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his brand new telescope into the sky in January 1610, he had no idea that he would soon discover the four largest moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons. By and large, until that very moment, not a single scientist imagined that other planets could also have their own satellites.
Evolution of microbes
Antibiotics and vaccines have already saved millions of lives, but to the surprise of scientists, some microbes are developing and changing faster than we can find a way to destroy them. The flu virus, for example, mutates so quickly that last year's vaccines are no longer effective against new strains. It turns out that some hospitals are infected with bacteria that have become almost resistant to antibiotics, and if this is the case, then even a small cut can lead to life-threatening infections.
Moa birds
When moa bones were first discovered in the 1830s, biologists were not immediately able to get used to the idea that these were the remains of birds. These bones were so unusual and large that scientists were reluctant to recognize their belonging to the class of birds. Today we know that moas were huge animals and could not fly. They lived mainly in New Zealand, but did not survive to this day. Their extinction occurred approximately between 1300 and 1440 AD. The reason for the disappearance of such an unusual species was the exorbitant hunting of the Maori tribes, whose representatives settled the island at the end of the 14th century.
Yonaguni Monument
In 1987, during a search good place for sightings of hammerhead sharks, the head of the Yonaguni-Cho tourism association, Kihachiro Aratake, noted in sea water unusual single formations reminiscent of architectural structures. The discovery was made off the coast of Yonaguni Island, the southernmost landmass of Japan's Ryukyu archipelago. There is still no consensus in the scientific community about whether this formation is natural, whether man had a hand in it, or whether this place is entirely the fruit of human labor.
Baghdad battery
If you have lived without electricity for some time, you should know that batteries are a very important source of energy. The Baghdad battery proves that humanity tried to create batteries several thousand years ago. The battery is a set of 3 artifacts discovered in the Kuzhut Rabu area of Iraq near Baghdad. The 2,000-year-old find consists of a ceramic pot, a metal cylinder and a rod. If the pot is filled with vinegar or a similar liquid, it can produce up to 1.1 volts of energy. No written explanations were found on the use of this ancient device, but archaeologists agreed that most likely it was an ancient battery.
Infrared radiation
Infrared rays were discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1800 when he was studying the effect of heating different colors. In his experiments, the scientist used a prism to split light into a color spectrum, and thermometers to measure the thermal effect of each individual color. Today, infrared radiation is used in many areas of our lives, including heating systems, search engines, meteorology and astronomy.
Temperatures below absolute zero
Previously, scientists believed that ?273.15 ° C is absolute zero, below which it is impossible to fall, and which is the limit for the thermodynamic temperature scale. However, a team of researchers from the German Max Planck Institute was recently able to disprove the theory of absolute zero. Under vacuum conditions, scientists managed to cool a cloud of gas atoms to below -273.15° C. The result of the experiments was so unexpected that the researchers at first had no idea what to do with the frozen particles.
Martian tsunamis
Recently, scientists published studies proving that approximately 3.4 million years ago a powerful tsunami erupted on the surface of Mars. This discovery literally stunned members of the astronomical community. Experts believe that the red planet suffered a lot from two meteorite impacts, which provoked huge tidal waves that could reach up to 50 meters in height.
Stone balls of Costa Rica
In the river delta area on the small island of Isla del Cano, located in the territorial waters of the Republic of Costa Rica (Isla del Cano, Costa Rica), you can find very unusual stone formations. Also known as petrospheres, these man-made spheres are scattered throughout the island - over 300 of them have already been found on Isla del Cano. For the first time in modern times, these stones were found in the 1930s, when workers were clearing an area here for a banana plantation. According to researchers, the balls were made by the ancestors of the indigenous people who lived here during the Spanish invasion. Their exact age and purpose are still unknown.
Mandela effect
Today science fiction writers and some scientists are speculating on the topic of parallel worlds, but have you heard about parallel memories? Self-identified medium Fiona Broome says that while most people remember the death of legendary South African President Nelson Mandela in 2013 from old age and illness, there are those who remember his death in the 1980s, when Mandela was still in prison. This strange phenomenon the woman called it “The Mandela Effect,” although all over the world people talk about alternative memories that are not at all about the apartheid-era hero.
Tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun
The tomb of King Tutankhamun, preserved almost intact, was discovered by Egyptologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922. Tutankhamun was one of the most famous pharaohs, and his death at the age of 18 remains a mystery. ancient egypt. The news about archaeological find was so widely reported in the media around the world that it even spurred a revival of public interest in the history of ancient civilization.
Hurricane on Saturn
In 2013, a major hurricane was recorded by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn. The epicenter of the storm was about 2,000 kilometers in diameter, and the speed of the clouds reached 530 kilometers per hour. On Earth, hurricanes are fed by warm ocean waters, but on Saturn there are no oceans or seas. And this leads scientists to a dead end, since it is not clear how else to explain the occurrence of such a serious storm on a distant planet.
Songs of humpback whales
Humpback whales make strange sounds that scientists have been unable to decipher for decades. In 2015, near the Hawaiian island of Maui, researchers recorded a completely new type of whale sound. The mysterious noise is so low that it is barely audible to the human ear. Biologists still cannot understand how humpback whales make these sounds and what their purpose is.
Moving stones
Death Valley National Park in California, USA, despite its gloomy name, can boast of a completely positive attitude, because even the stones come to life here. At the beginning of the 20th century, the public first heard about the migrating stones of this reserve, and since then many versions have been put forward about how they move. Experts offered a choice of theories about alien intervention and magnetic influence, or about the pranks of animals or simple jokers. But the solution was found quite recently - it turned out that the stones shifted under their own weight during strong winds moving the rock over a thin layer of ice.
Maria Celeste
Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship marooned in the Atlantic Ocean near the Azores. The ship sailed from New York to Genoa on November 7, 1872, and was discovered again only on December 5. Almost all the supplies were still on the ship, and even the personal belongings of the crew and captain lay in their places untouched. But the Mary Celeste team itself was not in sight. Since then, no one has heard of them, and this case is still considered one of the biggest mysteries in the history of modern navigation.
Black holes
Black holes are some of the strangest and most fascinating celestial objects we have ever discovered in deep space. These are space-time regions that have such a powerful gravitational force that it is simply impossible to get out of there. Albert Einstein was the first to predict the existence of these objects back in 1916, using only the theory of relativity. The term “black hole” itself appeared in 1967, and was coined by American astronomer John Wheeler, but the first black hole was truly discovered only in 1971.
Antikythra mechanism
It may sound crazy, but the first analog computer was created around 100 BC. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient version of a computer that was used to predict the positions of astronomical bodies and eclipses. Discovered in July 1901 among the remains of a crashed ship off the Greek island of Antikytra, the device is believed to have been designed and installed by Greek scientists between 200 and 100 BC.
RNA interference
In 1998, through a series of experiments, scientists discovered that gene expression (the process of converting hereditary information from genes into functional RNA or protein) is controlled by a phenomenon later called RNA interference. This process protects us from viruses that try to invade our DNA and controls gene expression. For their work studying this phenomenon, scientists Craig Mello and Andrew Fire were awarded Nobel Prize in the field of physiology and medicine. Subsequently, this discovery contributed to the study of gene silencing - turning off genes, which causes diseases such as high blood pressure and a number of other ailments.
Voynich manuscript
Perhaps one of the most mysterious manuscripts in human history, the Voynich manuscript is an amazing artifact, the origin and ownership of which is still completely unknown. The manuscript is full of illustrations of plants, strange symbols and diagrams, and is written in a mysterious language that does not belong to any civilization known to historians and archaeologists.
Extraterrestrial neutrinos and Antarctica
Using equipment from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, physicists have recently finally discovered evidence of the existence of cosmic rays beyond our solar system. These energetic beams are very difficult to detect, so scientists have to rely on studying neutrinos (subatomic particles) created when the beams interact with their surroundings.
Mass burial of animals
In 1971, paleontologists discovered a huge animal burial in a cornfield in Idaho. Once upon a time there was a basin of a large reservoir, and this place became the last refuge for the skeletons of almost 200 animals. Apparently, these animals died of suffocation approximately 12 million years ago and were hidden for a long time from prying eyes under a deep layer of volcanic ash. Following the unexpected discovery, the site was designated Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historic Park.
The development of science is currently extremely dynamic, and these incredible discoveries in 2016 are proof of this.
15. Largest known prime number
On January 7, 2016, the largest known prime number was discovered, which is 274,207,281 − 1 and contains 22,338,618 decimal digits. The discovery was made by Curtis Cooper as part of the GIMPS project.14. The ninth planet of the solar system
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology have presented evidence that the ninth planet solar system really exists. Calculations have shown that the planet revolves around the Sun at a distance of 20 orbits of Neptune, its mass is 10 times greater than the mass of the Earth. And 1 year on this planet is equal to 17,000 years on Earth!
13. Eternal keeper of information
In February of this year, scientists from the University of Southampton presented the world with an amazing invention. They created an eternal data keeper from nanostructured glass. The device is capable of storing 360 terabytes of data and is not affected by high temperatures (up to 1000 degrees Celsius), and its shelf life is several billion years.
12. Fish that can move on land and climb trees
A fish capable of moving on land, climbing trees and hunting birds has been discovered in Papua New Guinea. This species, despite its innocent appearance, is very aggressive and poses a serious threat to animals on the islands of Boigu and Saibai, Australia. The fish reportedly has a respiratory organ and moves along the ground using its pectoral fins.
11. A brain implant that allows a paralyzed person to control his arm
The implant sends signals directly to the muscles via wires, bypassing the spinal cord. A man can now lift a glass of water and even play a video game. Brilliant invention belongs to scientists from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York.
10. Successful landing of the first stage of the rocket in the ocean
On April 8, 2016, SpaceX for the first time managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle on a platform in the ocean. Now the first stage can be used repeatedly, which will reduce costs.
9. Turning carbon dioxide into stone
At the Hellisheidi plant in Iceland, scientists pumped CO2 into volcanic rocks, speeding up the natural process of turning basalt into carbonates, which then become limestone. This method will help not to aggravate the problem of the greenhouse effect.
8. The scientific name for the pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head
The phenomenon of perception, characterized by a pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head, spreading in the form of goosebumps along the skin of the neck and back to the limbs, in 2016 acquired a scientific name - Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). ASMR sensations are triggered by audio, visual, tactile or cognitive stimuli.
7. Second Moon
2016 HO3 is an asteroid discovered by the Hawaiian Automatic Telescope on April 27, 2016, which is the best and most stable example of a permanent Earth quasi-satellite to date. Became the “second Moon” of the Earth about 100 years ago.
6. Eyeless Wonder Worm
This year, scientists discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans (a free-living nematode) has the ability to see light. As shown by careful experiments on the excitation of individual neurons, the worm can respond to photons of different wavelengths, but greatest effect achieved precisely by using an ultraviolet light source. Now C. elegans can become a model object for studying human blindness.
5. Mathematical algorithm of our intelligence
“Our complex computations in the brain are based on relatively simple mathematical logic,” says Dr. Joe Tsien, a neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia. Tsien's theory is based on the n=2i-1 algorithm, which determines the number of groups (or “cliques”, as the scientist calls them) needed to recognize and solve situations. In other words, the more clicks, the more complex the thought. N is the number of neural groups connected in all possible ways; 2 - means that neurons in this group receive or do not receive input data; i is the information they receive; -1 is the math part to allow you to account for all possibilities.
4. Farting fish
Scientists from the UK and Canada have concluded that herring farts! For these fish, farting is a way of communication and a way to maintain the integrity of the school at night.
3. Scientific explanation for entering the astral plane
Many people who have survived comas talk about their astral travels. Scientists from the University of Ottawa became interested in this phenomenon and invited a girl for research who claimed that she could initiate the separation of the soul from the body at will. During the experiment, researchers used an MRI machine to monitor her brain during "astral travel." Parts of the brain involved in sensing physical location and visualizing movement have been found to be activated during such experiences. But this does not mean that the soul leaves the body. This is a type of hallucination triggered by a specific neurological mechanism.
2. Stem cells that can restore damaged spinal cord
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, was able to use human neural stem cells to successfully repair a damaged spinal cord. Studies conducted on rats have shown that grafted stem cells stimulate neuronal regeneration and partially replace the function of lost neurons.
1. The gene mutation that gave birth to us all
The ACE2 gene is the possible progenitor of all who live on planet Earth. Biologists from Atlanta, Georgia, came to the conclusion that one gene was capable of turning single-celled organisms into multicellular ones. And in the past, it was gene mutation that led to the emergence of complex life forms. Small changes in the DNA sequence had a profound effect on a particular protein, and from its primary role as an enzyme, it became essential for the organization of multicellular structures.
