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Strange Science Facts

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  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,508 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Nutgrover wrote: »
    I have a student in my family, will check if I can access ;). Thanks again. Hard to believe though, isn't it?
    Not too hard to believe when you remember that bacteria are much smaller than our cells. Some Neurons are the length of the spine, in the case of whales or dinosaurs this means a very long cell. The biggest cell nowadays is probably the yoke of an ostrich egg.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,508 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    bullet discussion was going on a bit so I've moved it to here http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056162551


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    Fuzzy Clam wrote: »
    300,000 Hertz is equal to about 1000 meters.
    About 1 millimetre:

    [latex] v = 343.2[/latex]

    [latex]f = 300,000[/latex]

    [latex]\lambda = v/f \approx 1.1 \times 10 ^ {-3}[/latex]


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,334 ✭✭✭RichieC


    Akrasia wrote: »
    Crows can hold a grudge.

    Crows can recognise individual humans who have mistreated them in the past and pass on this knowledge to other crows in the area. They can carry this grudge for years and even pass it on to future generations.
    http://boingboing.net/2008/08/26/crows-recognize-and.html

    I know this was posted 3 years ago but funny anecdote.

    My friend was walking his jack russle and a baby crow learning to fly fell out of a tree. The dog ran for it but he managed to grab him before he got to it. Even still the mammy wasnt impressed and swooped at the dog. The next day walking down it came again.. And the next. He said it went on so long the dog would walk that root any more.

    I love crows myself. They are crazy smart birds :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 GerryW


    Is that per day. 47 pints of Guinness per day cant be good for you.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 9 GerryW


    Rat poison thins the blood to the extent they bleed internally. It is very close to the substance also prescribed for people who have had blood clots.


  • Registered Users Posts: 26 leahwechat


    I don't know


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,080 ✭✭✭EoghanIRL


    Cold water takes longer to freeze than hot water. It's not known why.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 318 ✭✭Not2Good


    Regarding the above post. I remember my science teacher also saying that a bucket of warm water will freeze quicker than a bucket of water room temperature if left outside when zero degrees. Yeah or nay? Is it similar to the idea that on a hot day you should drink a hot drink to cool you down faster?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 9,700 ✭✭✭tricky D




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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 318 ✭✭Not2Good


    tricky D wrote: »

    Cheer thanks, I remember telling my dad what my science teacher said when I was 12 or 13 and he said don't be so stupid and I guess he told all of his mates that his youngest child was an idiot! ….


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 318 ✭✭Not2Good


    The Oct issue Wonderpedia mag was talking about comparing lightning strikes from cloud to ground and from cloud to cloud. I thought it was discovered recently that lightning goes from ground upwards proven with slow motion cameras.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,080 ✭✭✭EoghanIRL


    It is thought that we use quantum physics to smell . Not only does a molecule bind to our receptors in our nose using the lock and key/induced fit model but the resonance of the molecule also plays a role .
    E.g benzaldehyde and cyanide have different structures but are interpreted as the same smell . However the bonds holding the atoms in the molecules together vibrate the same . They have the same frequency and resonance . This is why they smell the same (as interpreted by our brain ).

    This is as much as I could remember . Saw it on a show about quantum physics on bbc4. Thought it was interesting because I'm almost certain if I checked my physiology book right now that it would just refer to the lock and key model despite its flaws in explaining how we distinguish smells .


  • Registered Users Posts: 69 ✭✭bside29


    The average person walks the equivalent of five times around the world in a lifetime


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    Human brain detects 11 million bits every second. Aware of only 40.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    MOD: Unstickied thread to see if posts increase.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭LionelNashe


    Not a science fact, but a 'scientist fact'.

    Schrodinger, of the 'Schrodinger's Cat' thought experiment, had one legal wife and also one unofficial wife. The three of them lived together for years (some of it in Ireland). He had a child by the woman who wasn't his wife, and by a couple of other women he met along the way.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    Not a science fact, but a 'scientist fact'.

    Schrodinger, of the 'Schrodinger's Cat' thought experiment, had one legal wife and also one unofficial wife. The three of them lived together for years (some of it in Ireland). He had a child by the woman who wasn't his wife, and by a couple of other women he met along the way.
    Scientist biographies said to be important. Influences thoughts. C. Wright Mills suggested this in The Sociological Imagination (1959).


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    Humans have 10 times more bacterial cells than human cells.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8 GillanLab


    GuanYin wrote: »
    Sykeirl's Happy Science Fact of the Week #2:
    99% of all creatures that have ever existed on earth are now extinct.


    Very interesting


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    One prediction about all species. They will become extinct. Including homo sapiens sapiens.


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,508 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Fathom wrote: »
    One prediction about all species. They will become extinct. Including homo sapiens sapiens.
    You can only say that because for the last four billion years , ALL of your ancestors survived long enough :cool:


  • Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,508 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    4.5-bil­lion-year-old ice on a comet is 'fluffi­er than cap­puc­ci­no froth'


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    The Big Bang was actually silent. There was no sound until 380,000 years later.
    https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/11/15/the-birth-of-sound/


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators, Regional Midlands Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators, Regional Abroad Moderators, Regional North Mods, Regional West Moderators, Regional South East Moderators, Regional North East Moderators, Regional North West Moderators, Regional South Moderators Posts: 1,022 CMod ✭✭✭✭Fathom


    "The celestial object known as 2018VP1 is projected to come close to Earth on November 2." (According to the Center for Near Earth Objects Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory).


  • Registered Users Posts: 809 ✭✭✭filbert the fox


    The Big Bang was actually silent. There was no sound until 380,000 years later.
    https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/11/15/the-birth-of-sound/

    My hearing's not great but No

    Sound definition, the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium


    AFAIK there were no ears around in (13.7bn - 380,000) years ago but I could be wrong.


  • Registered Users Posts: 809 ✭✭✭filbert the fox


    here's one.

    I have two parents

    I had 4 grandparents

    I had eight great - grandparents

    I had 16 great great grandparents....32, 64, 128...and so on.

    Such an exponential rate of ancestry - if all humans living today search back far enough is it true that there was a population on earth alive at one time who were, well, each of our ancestors and everyone on earth is related to each other. Cousin


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,205 ✭✭✭cruizer101


    I was curious about you question so quick did a quick spreadsheet and chart, blue: number of grandparents, red: world population.
    Assuming a generation every 20 years then your number of great gr.... great grandparents will match the world population around 1450.
    Now obviously that doesn't mean you are a direct descendant of everyone who was living on the world at that point in time as you will start to get overlapping grandparents within a few generations back

    532811.JPG


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,943 ✭✭✭✭the purple tin


    My hearing's not great but No

    Sound definition, the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium


    AFAIK there were no ears around in (13.7bn - 380,000) years ago but I could be wrong.
    Even if there were people back then they wouldn't have heard anything, it was infrasound for ages.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    cruizer101 wrote: »
    I was curious about you question so quick did a quick spreadsheet and chart, blue: number of grandparents, red: world population.
    Assuming a generation every 20 years then your number of great gr.... great grandparents will match the world population around 1450.
    Now obviously that doesn't mean you are a direct descendant of everyone who was living on the world at that point in time as you will start to get overlapping grandparents within a few generations back

    532811.JPG

    Believe it or not, this kind of stuff has all been mathematically modeled before. Watch this;


    https://youtu.be/Fm0hOex4psA


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