Science is fascinating and fun. Too many of us discover that fact too late. We all need to pay attention in school far sooner. The universe and all of its secrets are a treasure trove of amazing, we need only look to understand. And finding the understanding is all the fun. Nature, chemicals, life, death, humans, inventions, the cosmos... it's all connected. Get a pencil... I'll explain.
Redditor u/jdgiabajwbdidb wanted to discuss the awe inspiring moments science has to offer by asking.... What is a science fact that not many people know that will change the way they look at life?
Dumbo's Dirt
dumbo flintstones GIFGiphyElephants are known to bury their dead under foliage and remain with the bodies for some time afterwards, exhibiting behavior not dissimilar to human mourning. Indeed, it is the association of apparent grief or mourning that is considered to indicate a 'burial', as opposed to simply covering up or disposing of a body.
I also read somewhere that they have buried humans.
Murderers
Most people know that the mosquito is the deadliest animal when it comes to total human deaths ever. Next to humans of course. And this is due to the malaria parasite spread by mosquitoes. It is estimated that four to five per cent of all humans that have ever lived died from malaria (rather than half as some sources state).
The treatment for malaria is quinine, which was known since the 1700's. This is often contained in tonic water, which is bitter and not that palatable. The anecdotal story is that during the days of British colonization of India, the British East India Company had of course problems with malaria.
Drinking tonic water was not popular with the British, so what'd they do? add booze, i.e. gin. And this is where you get gin and tonic.
Of course modern research has shown that the amounts of tonic water you'd need is quite large (~1 liter for a minimal effect) to make that story apocryphal at best (although I know some people who probably managed to meet the necessary quota to ward of malaria). But it is interesting to think that we managed to make the treatment for one of the worst disease humanity has known into a cocktail.
What is real though is that malaria can be used to treat syphilis. Malaria causes a high fever which kills the syphilis bacteria. In fact, Dr Julius Wagner-Jauregg received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1927 for this discovery (but he later became a hardcore Nazi and eugenisist. Of course we no longer use this because the mortality rate was 15%, but this was much lower than the death rate for syphilis.
Unfortunately, many parts of the world still suffer from malaria, where it is still a major killer.
One Bite
Not a single Tarantula species is able to kill you with venom, so if you see a big hairy boy just know, it can't kill you, not yet, also link to a picture of my escaped...
52×51×50×49...
There are more ways to shuffle a deck of cards than there are atoms making up the entire earth (or atoms in the universe if you use 2 decks), thats because the potential options are 52 factorial or 52×51×50×49... etc. chances are if you've shuffled a deck of cards then you've likely made history as that sequence has statistically NEVER happened before. Even if you had a trillion planets with a trillion people all shuffling a deck if cards every second since the moment of the big bang wed only just now be repeating sequences.
Liquid Spark
Water Douse GIFGiphyWater does not innately conduct electricity, it is all the dissolved stuff that allow electricity to pass through it.
Water is fascinating stuff.
Creating Oxygen
The Amazon Rainforest isn't actually the lungs of Earth. Almost all the Oxygen generated by the Amazon is used by the life found in the Amazon. 40% of Earth's oxygen is actually produced by tiny Organisms called Diatoms.
These organisms can replicate at an incredible rate and trillions of them spread throughout the Oceans and create Oxygen through photosynthesis. When the Diotoms die they transform into underwater snowflakes that remain on the sea floor. When these seas dry up, the dead Diatoms create a salt desert, like the one in Northern Africa.
Huge sandstorms pick the Diotoms up and carry them across the Oceans and drop them down on the Amazon and are used as a fertilizer for the rainforest.
Where are Diatoms born? The rainforest, they spread to the sea, create Oxygen through photosynthesis, die, create salt deserts, get taken back to the rain forest and help create the rainforest that creates them.
That's the circle of life right there.
In the Cosmos
On average, Mercury is the nearest planet to every planet in our solar system.
fit all of the planets in the solar system between the Earth and the Moon
Had to look that up. It's true.
Part of what threw me are all the crazy and awkward analogies you hear whenever you watch a space documentary that are meant to impress upon the viewer the immensity of the universe... like, "You can fit 80 gagillion Rose Bowls inside Jupiter's giant red spot and still have room for 7000 Eiffel Towers laid end-to-end."
The Family Tree
Everyone on earth is at least 50th cousin with everyone else on Earth.
And if you are currently dating or married to somebody who is from your own country and is of your own ethnicity, there's a one in five chance that the two of you share a common family member fewer than 10 generations ago.
From Below
Shake Shaking GIF by Southern California Earthquake CenterGiphyEarthquakes can happen literally everywhere on Earth, however humans rarely feel anything below a 2.5 in magnitude.
Bones
Something I read earlier: Babies have around 100 more bones than adults Babies have about 300 bones at birth, with cartilage between many of them. This extra flexibility helps them pass through the birth canal and also allows for rapid growth. With age, many of the bones fuse, leaving 206 bones that make up an average adult skeleton.
Flesh Diet
halloween flesh GIF by SebaldoGiphyThat the human skin Is quite heavy Its around 16% of your body weight.
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