In the middle of the 19th century a Scottish doctor named James Braid published a book called Neurhypnology or the Study of Nervous Sleep. He invented the word neurhypnosis from which the word hypnosis originated.

Scientists can track the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere by comparing modern air with that trapped in air bubbles in Greenland's ice. These measurements seem to show that there are 360 parts per million today, as against 315 parts per million in 1958 and 270 parts per million in the time of the dinosaurs.

The saying 'it's so cold out there that it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey' came from old cannons used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off.

During Winter, a buffalo uses its massive head as a slowplow to clear a path in search of buried plants.

In 1740 a cow was found guilty of sorcery in France and publicly hanged.

Edward Drinker Cope, in his rush to beat Othniel Marsh as the collector and publisher of the most dinosaurs, reconstructed one dinosaur so that its head was placed at the end of its tail instead of its rightful place on its neck. Unsympathetic colleagues suggested that it be named "Strepsisaurus" ("twisted lizard").

Quasars emit more energy than 100 giant galaxies.

A reprint of William Henry Fox Talbot's 'The Pencil Of Nature' was produced to mark the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. It was the first publicly available book illustrated with photographs.

Our Sun contains almost 1000 times more matter than all the planets put together.