Science and Technology News and Facts

Science and Technology News and Facts Part 1

1. US astronauts stationed on the International Space Station (ISS) are sent ballot papers to allow them to vote in elections.

2. Science magazine called it the scientific breakthrough of the year: Astronomers “heard” space for the first time in 2017.

3. According to the World Health Organization, over 4 billion people worldwide have mobile phones. It is said that there are more smartphones than people in the world. A new study shows that more people use mobile devices than toothbrushes.

4. When you pop a cork off of a champagne bottle, the same type of shock waves are released more or less like those coming from a jet engine.

5. No wonder there are flowers that smell like chocolate! There are in fact flowers named Chocolate Daisy and Chocolate Cosmos.

6. All this space junk orbiting our planet is over 23,000 pieces in total, weighing more than 8,000 tons.

7. A 2019 study found that a gene mutation may explain why some people can function on only a few hours of sleep every night.

8. Before 1995, there was no charge for registering a domain name. On September 14, 1995 (less than six months after the internet opened to commercial use), Network Solutions LLC, then a subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), announced a plan to generate revenues from domain name registrations.

9. Although sodium in cheese may sound like a heart attack on a plate, it can actually protect you from heart disease caused by other salts.

10. Email was invented before the World Wide Web. In 1971, a scientist at Bolt Beranek and Newman named Ray Tomlinson sent the first email – he was working on ARPANET, which later became the Internet. His original email to his colleague says this:
“Just FYI,”

11. People used to type too fast and jam their typewriters, as a solution The QWERTY layout was created.

12. There’s a condition known as Alien Hand Syndrome, in which a person has no ability to control one of their hands. It makes it difficult for them to do certain tasks and function normally. An example, is they might say something like “I’m not doing this on purpose” when they see the alien hand moving.

13. There are around 760 thunderstorms on Earth every hour. This is mostly due to the Earth’s rotation and large amounts of water being evaporated during the daytime. Thunderstorms are one of the leading causes of lightning-related deaths and injuries, killing an estimated 23 people each year.

14. Of all broccoli produced in the United States, 80% comes from California. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, and they’ve concluded that this is due to an overwhelming desire for “trendy” broccoli.

15. Physical exercise, if taken four hours after studying, has been proven to improve your long-term memory.
If you’re a student looking to remember more after taking in new information, there’s good news – it turns out that exercising four hours after class could actually improve your memory.

The study, published in the journal “PLOS One,” looked at the effects of physical activity on college students’ ability to memorize words. Subjects were asked to learn a list of 20 words and then tested for their recall 24 hours later.

16. The light from most stars takes hundreds or thousands of years to reach us — so when we look at them, we are essentially looking back in time.

17. The average human body contains enough dissolved salt to fill a quart jar. Salt is crucial for life of living creatures. It helps maintain blood pressure and keeps water in the body’s cells from leaking out.

18. Women are generally better than men at differentiating between tastes. They have a more sensitive palate. Women are better at identifying flavors that are either sweet or sour. They’re not as good at detecting bitterness but they can easily distinguish between different types of sweetness, such as between sugar and honey.

19. When it comes to producing food for their young, the nursery web spider, known as Pisaura mirabilis, is a pro. In fact, it’s one of the only spiders in the world that is able to formulate a milk-like substance to feed its babies — offspring often double the size of Mom.

20. The longest recorded flight for a Frigate Bird is 9,600 km (6,000 miles). The Frigate bird, with its 6-foot wingspan, can fly continuously from one side of the Pacific to the other without stopping. A Frigate Bird is a large black seabird with white wings and a red belly. The only relative is the Lesser Frigate Bird, also known as the Man-o War Bird which is an endangered species in danger of extinction because of human-caused events such as pollution and destruction of their natural habitat.

Science and Technology News and Facts Part 2

21. In 2009, a pair of 700-year old skeletons were found in the city of Modena. One of them was holding the other’s hand, and they were nicknamed ‘The Lovers of Modena’. However, in 2019, scientists said that both skeletons were male.

22. In the English language, a ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time. It was originally defined as the time it takes for light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum, but the definition has been adjusted over the years.

23. In 2019, Leonardo Da Vinci’s design for the world’s largest bridge was proven to work by engineers. It attempted to connect Istanbul with the city of Galata, but it was never built.

24. Human lungs have an area of around 180 square meters, which is about the size of a tennis court.
The size of the lungs is an extremely important element of human anatomy as it allows for oxygen to be transferred from the air into the bloodstream. The rate of breathing, also known as respiration, is measured by how many times per minute a person breathes. A healthy person should breathe at a rate between 12 and 20 breaths per minute with each breathtaking in 6-8 liters of air. Regularly repeating exercises such as pushups, squats and jumping jacks can increase this number exponentially by adding more air to the system and allowing you to exhale more toxins from your body.

25. The largest snowflake on record is a winter wonder indeed. In fact, it measures 15 inches across and was found by a Montana ranch owner in 1887.

26. One bar of soap contains about 3.5 oz. of fat, and humans contain enough fat to make around seven bars of soap.

27. Snow with built-up dirt, such as dark soot, absorbs more energy from the sun than freshly fallen snow that is cleaner. This speeds up the melting of winter snows.

28. According to a new study, baby dreams begin while they are still in the womb!

29. Researchers at Columbia University developed a way to grow heart muscle from human stem cells.

30. In general, men are more likely than women to develop long-term hiccups.

31. At speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour, cracks move through the glass when it breaks.

32. The densest metals in the world are osmium and iridium, while the heaviest based on relative atomic mass are plutonium and uranium.

33. The human body is able to move for over a year after death. Don’t worry though, this movement is caused by the body’s ligaments shrinking, drying out and contracting.

34. Goats have a natural immunity to poison ivy. Poison ivy leaves contain a chemical called urushiol, which is the substance that causes an allergic reaction in humans. Goats, however, have a natural immunity to this chemical. Goat owners know that a goat can eat poison ivy with no effect whatsoever.

35. There are over 90 trillion microbes on your body right now, which is more than the number of people on this planet. In fact, we are outnumbered by more than 10 to 1.

36. Strawberries are unique. Although most fruits have their seeds on the inside, strawberries are the only one that has its seeds on the outside.

37. One bat can often consume 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour.
It’s no joke—bats eat a lot of mosquitoes! And that’s not just because they happen to find them while they’re out and about. There has been research done on how bats use echolocation to find and target their prey, which means it’s deliberate hunting that is going on here.

38. Only two birds can swim and not fly: the penguin and the ostrich.
The penguin is one of the most fascinating creatures in the world because it is so different from other birds. Penguins are flightless, live near water, have no feathers, don’t sing or dance, and have an awkward waddle that scientists call a “penguin walk”.

Ostriches also do not fly but can usually run at speeds up to 45 miles per hour (72 kilometers per hour). They also can’t walk backwards and are the only birds with two toes. Ostriches eat mostly plants, including leaves, seeds, fruit, and roots.

39. When lightning strikes sandy beaches high in silica or quartz, they create glass.

40. zebras are black with white stripes.
They are native to Africa, but can also be found in south and southeast Asia. There are two distinct types of zebra: the plains zebra and the mountain zebra. The name “zebra” comes from Portuguese, which derives from an Arabic word meaning a “striped animal.” Zebra’s have one or two long stripes along their back that sometimes go down to their stomachs and a skirt-like decoration on their hindquarters.

Science and Technology News and Facts Part 3

41. As soon as baby sharks are born, they swim away from their mothers and live on their own.

42. Honey is a natural antiseptic because it contains hydrogen peroxide.
Honey can be used topically on wounds, scrapes, burns, cuts, and even eye injuries — just put some honey in a dish or bowl and then dip a sterile cloth into it. Gently press the warm cloth against the wound or eye until the honey cools down.

43. The very first computer programmers were women. Ada Lovelace is arguably the most important algorithm-author in history. She was the first person to publish an algorithm to be executed by a computer.

44. Peanuts are not tree nuts. They are legumes. Peanuts are not tree nuts. They are legumes. Peanuts are a legume that is in the same family with lentils, peas, beans, and soybeans.

45. The longest time between the birth of twins is 87 days. These twins were born in Ireland in 2012.

46. A hurricane can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs, throughout its lifetime.

47. Burping is impossible in space. Burping is impossible in space. Imagine for a moment the incredible gastric pressures created by gastric acid and gas in your stomach. Now, imagine that you can’t expel them because there’s no gravity holding down your body.

48. In 2017, scientists discovered an energy source on Enceladus that could fuel life on Saturn’s moon.

49. 200,000 people suffer from Nomophobia: an addiction to mobile phones. When you fear leaving home without your phone, you are suffering from Nomophobia.

50. The planet Venus is the only one in the solar system that spins in a backwards manner.
Venus spins backwards compared to the rest of the planets in our solar system. It rotates clockwise on its axis, unlike Earth which also rotates anticlockwise, and this difference has led to a thorough re-examination of the planet’s surface. A new study published this week shows that Venus may have been shaped by crustal-scale flows billions of years ago.

51. With nearly 900 calories per 100 grams, pure animal fat is the food with the highest caloric value.

52. Approximately 1 percent of descendants of Northern Europeans have been found to be immune to HIV. Swedes are found in general to be the least likely people to develop AIDS.

53. Did you know that the first letter transmitted over the internet was ‘L’? In 1968, an MIT student named Charley Kline was connected to Stanford University via what would become the ARPANET. The first thing he typed was the letter L.

54. If you could throw a snowball fast enough, it would completely vaporize upon hitting the brick wall.

55. In the 1950s, many physicians believed that exercising after the age of 40 was dangerous. Bed rest was prescribed to heart problems sufferers.

56. With lighter typefaces, you can save 10% on your ink and your printer cartridges will last longer!

57. Blood cells naturally have a lifespan, and two million die every second. Still, another 2 million are created every second.

58. According to Mpemba’s effect, hot water freezes faster than cold water. This phenomenon is summarized best by the phrase “cooling increases the rate of chemical reactions”. This means that in a cold process, more of the water molecules are randomly bumping into one another. In contrast, hot water freezes faster because higher temperatures allow for faster molecular motion.

59. Nerve connectors in our heads can connect to 100,000 neurons. So that means we each have more connections than there are stars in the Milky Way.

60. When learning about dolphins, what is the first thing that comes to mind? A dolphin’s tail? Bubbles? Their playful behavior in the water? It turns out that this popular aquatic mammal has one more distinguishing feature: Dolphins are primarily a right-handed species.

61. If you microwave grapes, they will explode. If you microwave grapes, they will explode. This is because the grapes release a gas called “sirius” when they get hot. Basically, that is what is happening when your microwave grapes explode, but it’s a bit more complicated than that and there are many other things that cause them to explode.

62. A cob of corn usually has a number of rows ranging from 8 to 22. This number of rows can change with different varieties. The average cob has 14 rows.