14845. Science Facts

A will-o'-the-wisp is a flame of burning marsh gas that appears in boggy areas at night. It has lured many travellers to a muddy death when they have left the path to follow it, believing it to be someone with a light.

14846. Science Facts

The castor bean plant contains the most deadly poison in the natural world, ricin. Just 70 micrograms (2-millionths of an ounce) could kill an adult human. It is 12,000 times more poisonous than rattle snake venom!

14847. Science Facts

Bacteria – tiny living things that we also call germs – divide in two every 20 minutes. So, starting with one (it doesn't need a girlfriend/boyfriend), you can have over 130 million in just 9 hours!

14848. Science Facts

It's said that dead Americans rot much more slowly than they used to – because they eat so many preservatives in their foods.

14849. Science Facts

Some scientists think that being too clean might make us ill – some studies suggest that people need to eat a small amount of dirt in order to kick start their immune systems. Not learning to fight infections can lead to asthma and other allergic problems.

14850. Science Facts

One possible way of controlling cockroaches being explored in the USA is to release parasitic worms which will kill the roaches but don't harm people.

14851. Science Facts

The stinking corpse plant, or rafflesia, is a huge parasitic flower that smells like rotting meat.The flower is up to a metre (about 3 feet) across and is the largest flower in the world. It grows directly out of a creeping vine, from which it gains all its nourishment without ever growing leaves of its own.

14852. Science Facts

Scientists working on transplant techniques grew a human ear on the back of a mouse. The ear is moulded using human cartilage cells, and nourished by the mouse's blood as it grows.

14853. Science Facts

The average glass of London tap water has passed through nine people's bladders before it reaches your sink.

14854. Science Facts

Deodorants don't stop you sweating but they kill the bacteria that make sweat smell.

14855. Science Facts

The earliest study of brain damage was of railway worker Phineas Gage. In 1848, an explosion shot a thick iron rod through his head. Although he recovered physically, his character changed completely. His skull and the iron rod are on display in Harvard University, USA.

14856. Science Facts

A cure for whooping cough used in Yorkshire, England in the 1800s was to drink a bowl of soup with nine frogs hidden in it. You couldn't make it yourself – it only worked if you didn't know about the frogs. (And probably not then, either!)

14857. Science Facts

Romans dressed small wounds with spider webs soaked in vinegar.

14858. Science Facts

A Roman cure for epilepsy (having fits) was to bathe in the blood of a gladiator.

14859. Science Facts

People on the Pacific island of Chuuk use a love potion made from centipede's teeth and stingray tails.

14860. Science Facts

For centuries, it was illegal to cut up dead bodies, so surgeons and scientists had to pay criminals to steal the corpses of executed prisoners from the gallows in order to learn about anatomy.

14861. Science Facts

An old cure for tuberculosis consisted of cutting open a newly dead cow, pulling the folds of skin around your neck and breathing in deeply.

14862. Science Facts

A chemical extracted from leeches is used as a painkiller.

14863. Science Facts

Air conditioning systems are home to lots of nasty bacteria. And because they pump the same air around a building again and again, they are one of the best ways of spreading diseases to everyone in the building.

14864. Science Facts

Electric bug zappers splatter an aerosol of dead bugs around the room as the bugs explode.

14865. Science Facts

The Australian 1991 Inventor of the Year Award was won by the designer of a cockroach zapper. The roach is lured into a trap with food, then electrocuted.

14866. Science Facts

If you flush the toilet without putting the seat down, a fine aerosol spray of urine and faeces flies into the air of the bathroom – and some lands on your toothbrush.

14867. Science Facts

A stinging tree in Australia can cause intense pain and even death.Tiny hairs full of poison break off the leaves and stick to the skin, which can then heal over the injury, trapping the poison inside. Even standing near the tree can cause painful nosebleeds!

14868. Science Facts

A medieval cure for meningitis involved splitting a pigeon in two and laying the two halves, cut side down, on the patient's head.

14869. Science Facts

An old cure for a headache involved tying the rope used to hang a criminal around your temples.

14870. Science Facts

A common cure for all kinds of illnesses in the past was ‘bleeding' the patient. This could be done by the doctor making a small cut and putting a hot cup over the wound to suck out blood, or by putting blood-sucking leeches on the skin. Using leeches is being reintroduced by some western doctors.

14871. Science Facts

In England in the 1500s, horse urine was rubbed into the scalp as a cure for baldness.

14872. Science Facts

To catch the leeches for medical use, volunteers stand in rivers until the leeches attach themselves to their skin.

14873. Science Facts

A treatment for the skin disease psoriasis available in Turkey involves sitting in a bath full of live fish, which eat away all the flaking skin.

14874. Science Facts

In the late 1800s, the Egyptian railways were fuelled by burning ancient mummies because they were more plentiful than coal and wood.

14875. Science Facts

The Venus flytrap is a plant with fleshy traps that look rather like a clam, edged with spikes. If an insect lands on the trap, the halves snap shut, trapping it, and then juices from the plant dissolve the insect for the plant to absorb.

14876. Science Facts

To investigate what owls eat, scientists take apart owl pellets (owl faeces) and piece together the bones and fur from different creatures the owl has eaten.

14877. Science Facts

One of the best ways of cleaning an infected wound, used before the days of antibiotics and now with infections that antibiotics can't treat, is to put maggots into it to eat the rotting flesh.

14878. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
altimeter
is a special type of aneroid barometer, used in measuring altitudes.

14879. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
ammeter
is an instrument to measure the strength of an electric current.

14880. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
anemometer
is an instrument to measure the velocity and find the direction of the wind.

14881. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
audiometer
is an instrument to measure difference in hearing.

14882. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
barometer
is used for measuring atmospheric pressure.

14883. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
binocular
is an optical instrument designed for magnified view of distant objects by both eyes simultaneously.

14884. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
calorimeter
is an instrument for measuring quantities of heat.

14885. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
chronometer
is a clock to determine longitude of a vessel of sea.

14886. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
clinical thermometer
is a thermometer for measuring the temperature of human body.

14887. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
calorimeter
is an instrument for comparing intensities of colour.

14888. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
commutator
is an instrument to change of reverse the direction of an electric current. in dynamo used to convert the alternating current into direct current.

14889. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
computer
is a technical device designed to find instantaneous solutions of huge and complex calculation based on the information already fed.

14890. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
dynamo
is a device for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy.

14891. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
electroscope
is an instrument for detecting the presence of electric charge.

14892. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
galvanometer
is an instrument for measuring electric current.

14893. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
hydrometer
is an instrument for measuring the relative density of liquids.

14894. Scientific Instruments & Appliances

Scientific Instruments & Appliances
hydrophone
is an instrument for measuring sound under water.

Fact
Huge Moore, the inventor of Dixie cups got the idea for the name from a neighboring factory, the Dixie Doll Company      .. More >>