Home > Facts > Science Facts
4 Jul 2009
Fact of the day
Nostradamus wrote 942 quatrains (4 line long poems) in his lifetime which he organised into centuries. Many people believe that he could predict the future and that these poems contain cryptic information about future events.
Random Facts
Mormotomyia hirsuta is a large fly which lives in a crack about a meter wide in the rocky outcrop at the top of Ukazzi Hill in Kenya. The larva feed on the dung of the bats which also live in this rocky crevice, and it is believed the adults feed on the sweat and other body secretions of the bats.
Mayonnaise was invented by the chef to the French general the Duc de Richelieu, who was besieging the English in Menorca in 1756. The Duke expected lavish egg-and-cream sauces, but the chef ran out cream and substituted olive oil instead. He named the new concoction after the town under siege, Mahon.
When angered, the Tazmanian devil turns pinkish red.
If a lobster loses a claw or an eye, it is usually able to grow another, although the new one is usually smaller.
The International Space Station weighs about 500 tons and is the same size as a football field.
Find facts about:
In the U.S. diabetes is the leading cause of adult blindness and leads to a third of all kidney failures.
|
In 1987, a geologist with the United States Geological Survey, discovered the scars of a large tsunami near the mouth of the Columbia River and in several other estuaries in Washington.
|
The highest recorded train speed is 320.2 mph by the TGV train in France.
|
Dogs cannot see as well as humans and are considered colour blind. A dog sees objects first by their movement, second by their brightness, and third by their shape.
|
In 1945, five Navy TBM Avenger planes with 14 fliers flew from Ft. Lauderdale into the Bermuda triangle never to return. The most realistic answer is that the planes got lost and ran out of gas but some believe there might have been a magnetic storm.
|
The first dinosaur to be the subject of a tavern song was the Diplodocus due to the fact that tycoon Andrew Carnegie gave a replica of the animal to King Edward VII. The tune, which was popular around the turn of the century, went:
"Crowned heads of Europe All make a royal fuss Over Uncle Andy And his old Diplodocus |
In 1961 Edward Lorenz accidentally found a mathematical system with chaotic behaviour in a computer model of the atmosphere. Small changes in the initial conditions produced wildly different, and so completely useless, long-range weather forecasts - a phenomenon that became known as the 'butterfly effect'.
|
The Polaroid Corporation was founded in 1937 with their first instant film produced in 1947 and instant camera in 1948.
|
The biggest star has a diameter of 1800 million miles, making it 2000 times bigger than the Sun.
|
About | Privacy policy | Terms & conditions
© 1995-2009 All rights reserved
