| 1481/
Poison Frogs derive their name from the fact that they produce
toxins that are secreted from their skin in times of stress.
These chemicals serve as a defense against predators who would
eat the frogs otherwise. There are many toxins that have been
isolated from the skin of frogs in the neotropics. However,
four main ones have sparked the most interest in the world
of science. These four toxins are Batrachotoxin, Compound
A, Compound B, and Epibatidine. Nearly all of them are neurotoxins,
or chemicals that affect and disrupt the nervous system. Of
the four, the most toxic is Batrachotoxin, where a 180-pound
man would be killed by .016 mg of the poison.
1482/ Approximately
20,000 bee species have been identified worldwide, most of
which live in the tropics. About 5000 bee species have been
found to date in the United States. The vast majority of bees
remain solitary their whole lives, with the exception of the
short mating period. Only a small percentage of bees - not
even 15 percent - spend their lives in some form of colony.
Worldwide however, there are only 400 species of the bumblebees
that we are all familiar with. And only nine species of honeybees,
only one of which, the western honey bee, can be found in
the UK or US. more
1483/ The biggest
ant colony was found on the Ishikari Coast of Hokkaido: 306
million worker ants and 1 million queens lived in 45,000 interconnected
nests over an area of 2.7 square kilometres (1,7 square miles).
A worker ant will live for up to 5 years; while a Queen will
live up to 25 years.
1484/ The first
entire colony of a rare type of ant, dubbed the 'Dracula Ant'
was found in 2000 in Madagascar. They were called this because
Queen and worker ants, when hungry, visit the colony nursery
and cut holes into their own larvae to feed on the hemolymph,
the equivalent of insect blood. "They chew them until
they bleed" , said Brian Fisher of the California Academy
of Sciences. "We call this nondestructive cannibalism."
1485/ One of the
most widely accepted factors related to genetic pattern baldness
is the chemical DHT (5-alpha DiHydroTestosterone is its full
name). It has been found that increasing levels of DHT in
hair follicles cause a reaction which reduces blood flow in
that area and adversely affects the health of the follicle
and the growth cycle of the hair. Over time the follicle shrinks
and produces finer and shorter hairs, eventually dying and
producing no hair. Areas that are 'shiny bald' no longer have
live follicles. Areas with shorter, finer hairs still have
live follicles which have gradually shrunk over time.
1486/ When a rattlesnake
is born he has a small rounded tip on his tail known as the
pre button. Several days after his birth he will shed his
skin for the first time and lose this pre button which the
button will replace. This is the first segment of his rattle.
But it takes at least two rattle segments to produce any noise.
He will gain this ability with his next skin shedding. Thereafter
throughout his life he will add a rattle segment with each
shedding (2-4 times a year). It is unusual to find more than
eight or nine segments on a wild caught rattlesnake because
of the wear and breakage of the terminal segment(s). Some
captive rattlesnakes have been known to have 20 plus segments.
1487/ In the twilight
of the Greek era, a singular man appeared - Diophantus, who
has been called the "Father of Algebra". Of his
dates, we know only that they fell sometime between 100 and
400 AD. However, we do know precisely how long he lived -
84 years. We have this information because one of his admirers
described his life in terms of an algebraic riddle. The riddle
begins:" Diophantus' youth lasted 1/6 of his life. He
grew a beard after 1/12 more. After 1/7 more of his life,
Diophantus married; 5 years later he had a son. The son lived
exactly 1/2 as long as his father, and Diophantus died just
four years after his son. All of this adds up to the years
Diophantus lived."
1488/ The Guillotine, invented in April 1792, was originally
designed as a humane way to execute prisoners condemned by
the Revolutionary French National Assembly. The guillotine
was last officially used as recently as September 10th, 1977
by the French. The last public execution in France was on
the 17th June 1939 when Eugene Weidmann was guillotined outside
the prison of Versailles. See
pictures here.
1489/ Contemporary
reports of a man being guillotined in 1905 indicate that for
about 30 seconds after the head has been severed from the
body, there is still a level of consciousness that meant the
severed head opened its eyes twice when its name was called
out. Read about it here
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1490/ Stainless
steel resists rust because it contains a high proportion of
chromium to carbon. It was an English researcher named Harry
Brearley who discovered that the rusting was encouraged by
the carbon in the steel and other metals. But we have to maintain
a delicate balance between the two, because too little chromium
and the steel will become brittle. Brearley only discovered
the optimum formula after many experiments.
1491/ Scientists,
Dr. C.Y. Barlow and Dr. J. Woodhouse of Cambridge University,
England were recently able to investigate the varnish and
ground layers of a number of historic instruments. Their work
was carried out on fragments of authentic instruments made
by Stradivari and others. Using the SEM (Scanning Electron
Microscope) they discovered a distinct particulate ground
layer sandwiched in between the varnish layer and the wood
on certain instruments. Using EDAX spectrum (Energy Dispersive
Analysis by X-Rays) on selected areas of the samples that
were positioned under the SEM, Drs. Barlow and Woodhouse were
able to further analyze the composition of the ground layer.
They determined that the ground layer on many of the early
instruments was largely composed of a mineral rich mixture,
high in silica and alumina. More
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1492/ According
to The Great American Chewing Gum Book by Robert Hendrickson,
if all the sticks of gum chewed in America each year were
laid end to end, it would equal a stick of gum five million
miles long. That's long enough to reach the moon and back
ten times.
1493/ The world's
largest tea cup is located inside the Toki city JR station
near the ticket gate. This tea cup (one piece in a set of
three) was crafted in1985. Made from about one ton of clay,
these three pieces took 5 months to complete.
1494/ Remember
the saying 'Once in a blue moon?' A 'blue moon' is the name
given to the second full moon within the same month. A full
moon normally appears twice in one month every two-and-a-half
year but only every 19 years does it occur in two months of
the same calendar year. The last time being in 1999.
1495/ The surgeon
Guido Lanfranc used violin strings to check for broken bones.
Working over 500 years before the X-ray machine was invented,
Lanfranc put a string between his patient’s teeth and
plucked it. The string made the skull vibrate and Lanfranc
noticed he could listen to the sound of the string and skull
together to find out more about the patient. If Lanfranc heard
a dull twang, he knew the patient's skull wasn't vibrating
very much. This meant it was fractured. If he heard a sweet
note, Lanfranc knew the skull was fine.
1496/ When doctors
in Los Angeles went on strike in 1976, the daily number of
deaths in the city went down. Striking for more pay, the doctors
decided to stop all work except emergency treatments. Everyone
was terrified that their strike would leave people to die.
But they were stunned to find that the number of deaths actually
decreased. Interestingly, the same effect has also been seen
in Israel and Brazil when their Doctors went on strike. Much
of this can however be attributed to the fact that operations
were delayed until after the strikes were over.
1497/ One square
mile of rainforest has more types of butterflies than all
of North America. And every second mankind destroys two football
pitches of this precious resource. Find out more here
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1498/ An aircraft
carrier travels about 6 inches on one gallon of fuel.
1499/ If you look
at a rainbow with Polaroid sunglasses and rotate the lenses
around the line of sight, part of the rainbow will disappear!
This is because when light is reflected at certain angles
it becomes polarized), and it has been found that the rainbow
angle is close to that angle of reflection at which unpolarized
light (sunlight) is almost completely polarized.
1500/ An average
person exhales approximately 2.2 pounds of carbon dioxide
per day. In a year this equates to 803 pounds which is 0.3584
long tons, 0.4015 short tons or 0.3641 metric tons.
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