Did you know....

Atomic clocks are quite complex, but the basic theory is simple: the transitions of a cesium atom as it moves back and forth between two energy levels are counted to keep time

The basenji, an African wolf dog, is the only dog that cannot bark.

The first film director to discover Hollywood was D.W. Griffith, who filmed In Old California there in 1910. California was ideal for early films partly because its reliable weather and bright sunlight - but also because it was as far as possible from Thomas Edison, who held most of the patents relating to motion pictures.

Dementia is not inevitable as you age. An American study of centenarians (those who reach the age of 100) found that 30 per cent of them worldwide reach the age of 100 cognitively intact. Unfortunately, that does mean that if you reach the age of 100 there is a 7 in 10 chance that you will suffer from dementia.

Skydivers reach a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour (190 km/hr) if they spread eagle themselves to maximise their air resistance, but a velocity of 150 mph (240 km/hr) if they assume a head-down position like a high-board diver about to enter the water.

Today's Quote of the Day

I've been studying faithfully for the past two days and tomorrow I will take my first final for the semester. Some of the information is really complicated and I'm getting really frustrated trying to memorize the information so today's quote represents my struggle.

"Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features."

By Primo Levi

Now do you think professors will give us a break? I guess not, huh :-(

More Fun Facts I Learned Today

The process of photosynthesis traps energy from the Sun and stores it in chemical bonds in carbohydrate molecules, most notably in the six-carbon sugar called glucose.

The most accurate clocks in the world are the new atomic fountain clocks, in which thousands of extremely cold atoms are tossed gently into a vacuum chamber, where they fall under gravity's pull. The vibrations of the atoms at the top of the fountain are measured, where they are practically motionless for a fraction of a second before they fall.

Duplication in the human genome is more extensive then it is in other primates. About 5% of the human genome consists of copies longer than 1,000 bases.

The earthquake that rocked South-central Alaska on March 27, 1964, was the second-largest ever recorded. The magnitude 9.2 earthquake trails only a 9.5 recorded in Chile in 1960.

The second according to atomic time is defined as exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations or cycles of the cesium atom's frequency. This replaced the old second that was defined in terms of the earth's motions.

Today's Scientific Quote

After a long day of completing assignments and reading I have chosen my quote for the day:

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand." by Neil Armstrong

Now ain't that grand.....

5 Fun Science Fact You Probably Didn't Know

The smallest fish in the world is the Trimattum nanus of the Chagos Archipelago. It measures 0.33 inches.

Wahoo fish can travel at speeds of up to 80 km per hour.

The most common pear world-wide is the Bartlett. It is bell-shaped, sweet and soft with a light green colour.

Astronomers estimate that in the entire visible universe, all the stars of all the galaxies, there are altogether roughly 10 to the power of 80 fundamental particles - protons, neurons and electrons. So it would take 10 to the power of 35 universes like our own to provide one such particle to represent every possible unique human being.

The hummingbird's brain, 4.2 per cent of its body weight, is proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom.

-sciencefirst.com-

Which scientist would I meet

If I could meet any scientist who would it be? At first I thought Sylvia Earle, the former chief scientist for the U.S. NOAA and the woman who led the first team of all female "aquanauts." As amazing she really is for all her hard work and research I chose someone very different. This man had some crazy courage to do the unexpected but it won him a Noble Prize years later. Barry Marshall takes the cake for me and I would definitely be happy to meet this guy. His crazy courage was how out of frustration of trying to infect piglets and failing each time he decided to drink the petri dish of bacteria of which he developed H. pylori which was what he was trying to link to the development of gastritis and ulcers. He and his collaborator were convinced that H. pylori was the cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer but many researchers were very skeptical of their theory. I guess that is why I really want to meet this man, although everyone was against them and their ideas he kept going and believed in his own work. It took him many years but eventually they completed their work and earned the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. It's tough out in the big bad world of science and I would love to ask him for advice and hear stories of his struggle to the top.

Aquatic Osteoporosis

This phenomenon called "aquatic osteoporosis" has been discovered by researchers from Queen's and York universities. This is actually much more serious than it seems, apparently there has been a dramatic decline of Calcium Levels in several lakes of North America and with these declining levels comes the demise of aquatic species. They were able to determine the damage by its effect on the invertebrate Daphnia or common name the "water flea." Daphnia is an organism that starts at the very bottom of the food web and without them the higher taxa will also have an effect and eventually leading to endagered species so the discovery of this is important. How much damage has been done is still not accurate been they do know it has already taken a huge toll in some bodies of water. They have linked the problem to the long-term effects of acid rain on forest soils, as well as to logging and forest re-growth. Researchers also noted that, despite signs of chemical recovery from recent reductions in sulphur dioxide emissions, lower calcium levels may delay the biological recovery of lakes from acidification. Let's just hope this finding didn't come too late.