Random Facts & Wierd Science

[shereads]

A catch-all thread for posting things you didn't know but do now.

Did everybody know this but me? Madame Curie's laboratory notes are sufficiently radioactive to pose a health risk with a single exposure. They're stored in a lead-lined box and no one is allowed to handle them without wearing a radiation suit.

------------------

"All science is either physics or stamp-collecting."

~ Some physicist quoted in Bill Bryce's "The History of Everything."

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

No, but I did know that Madame Curies died of leukemia, caused by exposure to radiation.


about the vote: I'm stunned, but not by that factoid.

 

[shereads]

No, but I did know that Madame Curies died of leukemia, caused by exposure to radiation.


about the vote: I'm stunned, but not by that factoid.

Well, we're all stunned by the vote, VB.

Now you have to post an obscure factoid.

 

[shereads]

One of the of partners who theorized the existence of quarks wanted to name them partons.

After Dolly Parton.

The other guy insisted on quarks. Some scientists just can't giggle.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

... Now you have to post an obscure factoid.

Here are five obscure “factoids” I found on the internet. One I know is wrong, and can prove it.

Guess which one. Prove it if you can.




[1] A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

[2] A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

[3] A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

[4] There is an American flag flying over the Parliament building on a Canadian two dollar bill.

[5] Butterflies taste with their feet.


[Edit] Will come back tomorrow with the answers.

 

[Guest]

Quarks

Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig discovered quarks (subatomic particles which make up protons and neutrons.

"In 1963, when I assigned the name 'quark' to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been 'kwork.' Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word 'quark' in the phrase 'Three quarks for Muster Mark.' Since 'quark' (meaning, for one thing, the cry of a gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with 'Mark', as well as 'bark' and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as 'kwork.' But the book represents the dreams of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the 'portmanteau words' in Through the Looking Glass. From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry 'Three quarks for Muster Mark' might be 'Three quarts for Mister Mark,' in which case the pronunciation 'kwork' would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature." - Murray Gell-Mann, The Quark and the Jaguar

As for a science related factoid: I was working at Caltech when Gell-Mann failed to appear at the memorial service for Richard Feynman because federal agents were raiding his home for illegally acquired pre-Columbian artifacts.

Perdita

 

[shereads]

Here are five obscure “factoids” I found on the internet. One I know is wrong, and can prove it.

Guess which one. Prove it if you can.




[1] A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

[2] A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

[3] A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

[4] There is an American flag flying over the Parliament building on a Canadian two dollar bill.

[5] Butterflies taste with their feet.


[Edit] Will come back tomorrow with the answers.

Everybody knows that butterflies taste with tiny American flags.

God, I hope it's not #2 because to prove it, you'd have had to do something awful to your cat.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Facts On The Internet


On a quick search I found these FACTS on a list entitled Obscure Facts and immediately saw a questionable one, chose it and four others at random, and submitted them, posing the question which was wrong. Today I went back to research each factoid from a proper site.
I still don't say that this new information is correct, just that its probability of accuracy is higher.

[1] A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

The dime has a edge with 118 ridges. This coin is 17.91 mm in diameter and is 1.35 mm thick - it is the smallest, thinnest and lightest US coin. EnchantedLearning.com

[2] A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A cat's ear has 32 muscles while a human's has only 2, so they are able to be in 360 degree contact with their surroundings. Eukanuba

I ran across a second entry which claimed all other entries were wrong. According to this poster there are NO muscles in a cat's ear being composed of cartilage. The muscles that control the ear are not actually IN the ear, at all. I immediately lost this citation, but I think the poster's name was Joe Wordsworth

[3] A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

The term jiffy refers to a brief, usually unspecified, interval of time. In scientific and lay applications, it can refer to any of several specific time spans. The most common interpretation is 0.01 second. Whatis?.com

[4] There is an American flag flying over the Parliament building on a Canadian two dollar bill.

This is the one I knew to be wrong.

This factoid is not only obscure, it is obsolete. The present Canadian two-dollar bill is a coin, a double-Loonie, or Toonie.


This part I was not aware of.

The flag on the two-dollar bill in question before switching to a coin was the Canadian Ensign (That's a Union Jack in the upper left corner and the Canadian Coat of Arms in the lower right all on a red field.) Slightly furled and with a striped effect caused by shading and scaling, it became a popular myth back when the bill was in circulation.Canadian Myths

[5] Butterflies taste with their feet.

When a butterfly lands on a plant, it can instantly "taste" whether it is the kind of plant it is looking for! Aren't you glad YOU don't taste with your feet? I would get pretty tired of the taste of socks. TeacherScholastic.Com








Sixty percent accuracy . . . 20 percent contradicted . . . 20 percent dead wrong . . . That's about average for the internet.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

All amino acids are "chiral". That is, there's a right-handed version and a left-handed version of each, and they're mirror images of each other. One's called the D-form, the other the L-form. All their properties are identical.

All the amino acids used in every organism on earth are of the L variety and no one knows why. Traces of amino acids found in meteroites are an equal mixture of D and L forms. But something happened on earth to select the L form only.

D amino acids have no nutritional value and are useless in biochemistry.

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

... D amino acids have no nutritional value and are useless in biochemistry. ...

That tears it! I must be a D amino acid.

 

[Guest]

Re: Quarks

As for a science related factoid: I was working at Caltech when Gell-Mann failed to appear at the memorial service for Richard Feynman because federal agents were raiding his home for illegally acquired pre-Columbian artifacts.

Perdita

That's not cricket.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

That's not cricket.

No, it isn't! Or any other insect!

 

[rgraham666]

There's only one poisonous mammal.

 

[Boota]

All of my scientific fun factoids I know came from the tops of Snapple bottles.

Polar bears fur is really clear and their skin is black.

Porcupines float.

Elephants are the only mammal that can't jump. (Apparently besides white men.)

If you take all the veins, arteries and capillaries out of a man's body and lay them end to end, that man will die.

 

[Guest]

There's only one poisonous mammal.

Hey, now come on, that's not fair! You can't leave us dangling on a hook like that.

What is it? A dog? More specifically, a dog's arse?

Lou

 

[rgraham666]

I thought you were supposed to guess.

Anyhow, it's the duck billed platypus. The male actually. Quelle surprise, eh?

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

Men who smoke not only have poorer sperm quality than nonsmokers but also have lower sex drives and less frequent sex.




Hey! Don’t take my word for it.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

That tears it! I must be a D amino acid.

Hmmm.... But yu taste nutricious...



Oh, shit, she's the poisoned mam....

*gurgles and falls with a heavy thud*

Q_C

 

[Quiet_Cool]

My wierd and interesting fact:

Ummm....

The human head weighs eight pounds...

Q_C

 

[Belegon]

My wierd and interesting fact:

Ummm....

The human head weighs eight pounds...

Q_C

Q_C, you are my ambassador of Qwan....

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Q_C, you are my ambassador of Qwan....

ya Know?!

Q_C

 

[R. Richard]

There's only one poisonous mammal.

Not so! As had been pointed out, the male duck billed platypus had poisonous spines in its rear legs.

However, the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) is actually venemous. It uses its venom to handicap its prey and is a remarkable hunter.

 

[R. Richard]

All of my scientific fun factoids I know came from the tops of Snapple bottles.

Polar bears fur is really clear and their skin is black.

A polar bear's fur consists of pigment-free hair shafts which are transparent and have a hollow core. Polar bears look white because the hollow core scatters and reflects visible light.

The reason for the hollow core hair shafts is that the shafts trap infrared light (heat). This is very important in the polar bear's arctic habitat. When they attempted to track polar bears with infra red sensor, the attempts failed because the bear emit so little infra red light (heat).

They are among the largest land predators and do not make good pets.

 

[gauchecritic]

Every single species of spider in the UK is poisonous. And Aussies thought they had it bad.

Gauche