This is actually our third list of science facts, but here we have focussed especially on lesser-known trivia. Hopefully you will find at least a handful of items here that are completely new to you. Be sure to add your own fascinating facts to the comments. If you wish to read the previous lists of facts, they are: Top 20 Amazing Science Facts, and Another 15 Amazing Science Facts.
1. An iceberg contains significantly more total heat energy than a burning match. The reason is the sheer size of the iceberg. [Source]
2. Caves breathe. They inhale and exhale great quantities of air when the barometric pressure on the surface changes, and air rushes in or out seeking equilibrium. [Source]
3. While the chances of being struck by a meteor are extremely slim, there have been a number of documented cases: On June 21, 1994, Jose Martin of Spain was driving with his wife near Madrid when a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor crashed through his windshield, bent the steering wheel and ended up in the back seat. Martin suffered a broken finger while his wife was uninjured. [Source]
4. When a new queen bee emerges in a hive, she “pipes” (repeatedly sings a G# or A note) to incite her worker bees to fight for her if another queen in the hive needs killing. You can listen to the piping in the youtube clip above. All bees pipe the same note – but Africanized bees pipe more frequently and louder. You can hear another clearer example here. The difference in pitch between the video clip and the sound file is cause by compression and quality of recording devices.
5. There is a current scientific hypothesis that the sun has a companion which is currently about 1-1.5 light years away. It is believed that it has an elliptical orbit which, every 26 million years, sends matter towards the earth causing mass Extinction events. It was the discovery of these seemingly regular events that gave rise to the hypothesis in the first place. The star is predicted to be most likely a red or brown dwarf and has been named Nemesis or “Death Star”. [More]
6. Fulgurite is the name for fossilized lightning. They are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, or silica, or soil by lightning strikes and are formed when lightning with a temperature of at least 1,800 degrees Celsius instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together. The image above is a fulgurite.
7. When Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created the celsius scale, he invented it upside-down with 0 ℃ being the boiling point of water and 100 ℃ being the freezing point. It was reversed in the year of Celsius’ death by Carolus Linnaeus.
8. When dropped on a very hard, rigid surface, glass balls and steel balls will bounce higher than rubber ones. The reason is that rubber balls deform significantly on impact, flattening onto the surface, and then springing back. In the process of this squashing, some energy is lost. [Source - physics.illinois.edu]
9. 65 Million years ago, a meteor impact in Chicxulub, Mexico caused megatsunamis thousands of feet high. It is believed by some scientists that this impact was the single cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. [More]
10. Sound travels much faster through a steel than it does air: Sound travels at 5100 m/s through steel, 1480 m/s through water and 330 m/s through air.
11. Most icebergs are salt-free water caused by mainland glaciers. Some sea-water icebergs do exist – they are green. When an icebergs pics up sea-water, it can create green stripes. Additionally, normal water that freezes more rapidly in the ‘berg can cause blue stripes. These are quite stunning to see and the picture above is a good example of this effect. Click the image above for a larger view; and no, it isn’t photoshopped. Here’s proof.
12. The cracking sound of a whip is actually a sonic boom – this is because the tip of the whip travels faster than the speed of sound. The whip is the first man made device capable of exceeding the sound barrier.
13. At this moment, the earth is in the middle of an ice age which began around 2.58 million years ago. We are in an interglacial period which started between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago and may last for a further 50,000 years before global glaciation begins again. [Source - NASA]
14. The Nintendo gaming software company first opened its doors to business in 1889 as “Nintendo Koppai”. Its first product? Playing cards. [Why is this item on the list? Computer science.]
15. The world’s first nuclear reactor was built in a squash court beneath a Chicago football stadium on December 2, 1942. While it only generated enough power to light a flashlight, it proved that nuclear power was feasible.
Carolus Linnaeus, as in Carl von Linné?
Pretty good list, although as others have said some of them do not strictly belong here… Number 5, though hypothetical, is very interesting nonetheless. There’s an Asimov novel titled “Nemesis” about a future colony located on a planet circling the theoretical star and it deals with the idea of its orbit eventually destabilizing our solar system. It’s fiction, but a great read anyways.
This list lacks a ‘disgusting’ fact.
this list is a perfect example of why i refuse to frequent this site anymore.
PURE BULLSH*T. Stupid f-ing list that is neither grammatically correct, intelligent, or in any way coherent.
i think its time jfrater sticks to his day job.
This was a really great read, I am very glad I came across your site.
Good list, Jfrater, although several of them should me in a list entitled, “lesser known science speculations. Photoshopped or not, I really liked the pic of the iceberg.
@Shagrat (41): Thanks for the explanation to a complicated and confusing subject. It was well written and easily understood for us non-science types. Time to do some research on it now.
I have been in costal caves when they are breathing. Never knew what caused it.
@shaymm (48): aww man, don’t say that! it gets too hot here in PA for me even in the winters. i don’t think i could take whatever the “normal” temps are.
After listening to both bee clips, the pitch varies between a g and a c. The second clip is actually much higher in pitch.
Important? Not really.
@ 43: I don’t think that’s what he means. The rate at which a burning match will release energy is obviously higher than the rate at which the iceberg will (all you have to do is touch a match and touch an iceberg to see that). I think what he means is that an iceberg contains a higher amount of overall thermal energy than a match.
Correct me if I’m mistaken, though.
I love these lists. Much better than the one that was posted yesterday.
@shaymm (48):
“norm”
)
I too have issues with item #5, but then so do alot of people so I won’t focus on that. However, in regards to item #8, I once dropped a glass coffee pot from counter high onto a red brick floor. It bounced right back into my hands much to my surprise. I inspected it right after, and there were no apparent cracks or faults in it, so I proceeded to brew another pot of coffee. Well, it exploded as soon as the hot water hit it. But the fact remains…it still bounced!
Very interesting list, I almost feel smarter!
No.9 “……..caused megatsunamis thousands of feet high.”
I must have spent 10 minutes trying to pronounce “magatsunamis”, thinking it was one word, to realize it is two! (That I CAN pronounce!)
@pplpal (68):
Important to some, and not to others. This little tidbit definitely caught my singer’s ear when I listened earlier today.
YouTubeBee pipes a long sustained tone, slightly below A=440. Then she emits 10 short tones, each one sliding down to about A=415 Hz. She follows up with a stacatto blast, ever so slightly higher than the initial sustained tone. I believe that she is an authentic Baroque-period bee, desperately trying to rebirth herself as a modern-pitch diva, but doomed to sing flat. We’ll call her Emma KirkBee.
By contrast, WAV file bee pipes in a slightly different pattern, and a FULL two semi-tones higher. Her short blasts come in groups of 7 rather than 10. This Queen Bee is clearly hopped up on caffiene or something, and she sounds hot to trot! We’ll call her Bee-yon-say.
It occurred to me that this might be a successful audition technique…. you know, waiting backstage in the green room to sing, launch into this bee-song, and all the other singers will attack your nemesis. I dunno, I think I’ll just stick with my tried and true technique: toss the other soprano into the subway.
Awesome list! Especially the fossilized lightning thing… Wow.
Also, #14 isn’t exactly a science fact, but I loved it anyway.
Shagrat:
You have a VERY bad habit of coming onto this site and making loud, authoritative-sounding, definitive statements on matters of which you have NO expertise. Knock it off.
By your own admission you are a “gifted amateur,” and not a professional in the field of paleontology. It’s always the “gifted amateurs” who pull this *****, ironically enough.
IN FACT, Shagrat, you are wrong, and the question regarding what actually killed off the dinosaurs is FAR from settled. Yes, some believe the KT-boundary asteroid strike was just the “killing blow” that ended a process of extinction that was already under way (and surely there IS evidence that dinosaurs were in decline prior to the strike) but other scientists still believe that it was the asteroid strike that was actually responsible, and that the other factors in play would NOT have led to actual extinction.
The Cretaceous extinction was a MASS extinction, Shagrat, in case you forgot that (apparently you have) and there is still no consensus amongst professionals of what causes these mass extinctions—but they are surely not due to simple, ordinary processes. They seem to require some kind of catastrophic “upheaval” in the usual mechanics of natural selection–asteroid and comet strikes being on the top of the list of suspects.
I know of only a few paleontologists who believe the dinos were due for total elimination regardless of the asteroid. Most still believe AT LEAST that the asteroid played the defining role in the drama, and the overwhelming majority of these believe it was the PRIMARY event the led to the annihilation of the big reptiles and other assorted species at the time.
“Gifted amateurs” should NOT make barking, definitive statements on matters for which they do NOT possess the knowledge or expertise necessary for such statements. I for one am sick of you coming on here and doing this, while at the same time railing against the owner of the site for his alleged “errors” which rankle you into your little tirades in the first place.
Enough. Give your opinions, but stop pretending to speak as a monolithic authority when you are nothing of the kind.
I’m facinated by the sheer range of responses to this list. Somebody above complained that there was not a single ‘distinguishing’ fact on this list, and somebody else mentioned that none of these were new.
Well, what do you expect? Personally, I am a well-educated individual with several years worth of internet experience and I only knew two or three of these points; different experiences lend us different knowledge. This list is mostly full of trivia, and that’s pretty much what it was billed as. Just because YOU knew about these items doesn’t mean that they are not lesser-known.
That being said, I found several of these interesting, a few hastily compiled, and a few downright suspect. I’m not going to complain about the Nemisis star fact because, strictly speaking, it is indeed fact that there is such speculation. However, Nintendo doesn’t belong on this list, and, as somebody mentioned, the phrasing for your comment on icebergs and matches is highly suspect. Your comment on the dinosaur extinctions was also probably not very well thought out (as a particularly ANGRY INDIVIDUAL pointed out).
On the other hand, I found the fossilized lightning and stripped icebergs to be facinating.
Long time reader, first time commenter.
Although I have problems with this list (most of which have been repeated numerous times), I still found many points fascinating and am, in no way, disappointed.
Keep up the good work, Jamie!
Boo Radley (and others):
The iceberg photo is a famous one that’s been knocking around on the net for a decade or more, if I’m not mistaken. It is in fact a composite photo, and not taken as a “single” picture at one time. There is no photographic process known (to the best of my knowledge) that could capture such a site in a single snap. Sorry.
I think a list should be judged to some extent based on the type/quality of comments it generates. Thanks to those of you who had actual scientific-based information to add to the the facts in the list. I do have to agree with those that thought the Nintendo “fact” was misplaced, though. Maybe Jfrater just thought it was interesting?
@Shagrat (41):
Maybe you should reread #9 before you grace us all with a wall of text… The Chicxulub impact did in fact happen. It states that it being the cause of a mass extinction is speculated.
@frushka (74): The difference in audio is the quality and type of recording – one is a poor video clip probably taken with a phone then compressed and uploaded to youtube – the other is a higher quality wav file
Glad I came back to this site some new very interesting items which I wanted to know more about. Great work on your site.
@joanne (19): Here is a source for number 13 (the current ice age): “Scientists have suspected that our current ice age, which began 40 million years ago, was caused by the rise of the Himalayas. [...] Because we are currently living in an ice age — or, more precisely, in a slightly warmer interglacial period within an ice age [...]” [Source - NASA]
And here is a source for the glass ball (item 8): physics.illinois.edu.
Doesn’t everybody learn #10 somewhere in childhood? That sounds like the one everybody should know. (Pressing your ear against a wall to hear, hearing better underwater) That fact was in a science textbook in grade school.
Incidentally – I added the two references in comment 84 to the main body of the list as well.
And for the haters of the Nintendo item – surely it counts under computer science. That is my reason for its inclusion.
I am very surprised by how many haters there are on this list – to the point that some people are saying they will never come back. Have I included something that contradicts a current popular theory like global warming or something?
We should have a list of ‘Obvious Answers on Game Shows Guessed Wrong’
That would make for an entertaining list. :]
As a photoshopper of two years, I don’t see any evidence of a photomanip on the iceberg picture. There’s no apparent smudging or no changing textures on the iceberg or the sky (evidence of a filter used). If you further inspect it, the stripes do not seem elevated as if they were painted on, quite the opposite, they have a groove which is apparent when you look at the horizon. Also, the exposure in the picture is pretty balanced, except for the far left side. That last green stripe on the left may be photoshopped in from another iceberg as it has a very hard edge. But otherwise I’m convinced this photo is legit.
@Randall (79):
Aah, what a shame, I so wanted it to be real! But thanks for the information, Randall.
Ha ha! When I posted the above statement, #89 had not yet shown up on the board. Still, it makes me want to investigate on my own now, which is always a good thing.
@91: I laughed quite hard when I posted that and saw your post right under me. Glad I could help.
1889? Really? o_O You sure you didn’t mean 1989?
@Packeranatic (89):
Sorry, the photo isn’t “legit” at all—at least not in the sense that it was taken as a single snapshot at one time. It is in fact a composite image which has been highly manipulated. Here’s the link to prove it, from Snopes, with an admission from the man who created it:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/iceberg.asp
You should say that the first MAN-MADE nuclear reactor was activated in December 1942. About 2 billion years ago a natural nuclear reactor burned in Gabon, Africa for a half-million years.
http://www.pureinsight.org/node/960
While Shagrat has laid out much of the scientific coversation about the KT Mass Extinction, in an unfortunately dogmatic manner, Randall is absolutely correct that nothing has been “settled” about the sequence and importance of events. The most important statement by Randall is that mass extinctions “are certainly not due to simple, ordinary processes”. One of the best books on the subject is: WHEN LIFE NEARLY DIED – THE GREATEST MASS EXTINCTION OF ALL TIME by Michael J. Benton.
jfrater: I think #11 is a photo of a paperweight you placed in your bathtub!
@Randall (94): I think you are referring to the wrong photo Randall. The “giant” iceberg thumbnail photo is manipulated per the Snopes link you provided, but I think both Packeranatic and possibly BooRadley, are talking about the “striped” iceberg photo accompanying fact #11. According to Snopes, that one is true:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/stripedicebergs.asp
@Zack (8)
ya, here in wisconsin, when we say it’ll be cold, below zero, we aren’t changing scales… lol
@Shagrat (41): Interesting, however you forgot to mention the whole Archaeopteryx and Archaeoraptor hoaxes and what those mean to your “unified-theory” purposes.
Shagrat’s (41) “FACT THREE” is not a fact at all. Besides a few examples in more recent history (Isthmus of Panama, Beringia and Doggerland – all casued/influenced by the last ice age, much less than 65 million years ago), the theory land bridges has basically been dropped by modern paleontologists in favour of plate tectonics.
@jfrater (87): Forget the haters. You did nothing wrong. Not everyone has the broad knowlege of these items and I like to learn new things.
Thank you once again Randall. Love to see your posts.
yeh, so anyway, to add my own (as stated in the intro).. a couple of recent studies that have fascinated me and yet there is very little to go on, as I am not in the field/lab/school and am most often not willing to dish out the doe for the original Science/Nature journal publications, which in turn may make all ongoing studies and their findings “lesser known” to a degree, because it usually isn’t until the news is out and other people in the specific fields can do their own studies and comparisons, ect and begin to build off of the current and past evidence in order to write essays/findings/books and get the knowledge/facts out there to the so called masses. An outsider can only get so close, but yet amateur discoveries happen all the time too, such as the recent earth-size whatchamacallit that smacked into Jupiter. okay,Maybe that’s not the best example. (here’s a list for you Blogball-”top ten amateur discoveries”)
Anyway, why am I wasting so much time here blabbing? The two science studies/facts(?) within this past month of July2009 that have hit the newspapers and I have found interesting are:
The “anti-aging” Soil of Easter Island
and
The sleep patterns of ants.
first:
A compound found in the soil of Easter Island, called Rapamycin (named after the Captain Cook island-discovery-title Rapa Nui) “extends the lifespan of old mice:28 to 38 percent” states the ScienceDaily.
three concurrent studies ongoing.
so whatabout-
UNESCO
indigenous farmers
tourism
the unearthed moai
second:
Humans have R.E.M. (rapid eye movement). Ants have R.A.M.(rapid antennal movement)
the worker fire ants that must protect the queen(s) only sleep a total of 4hrs & 48min a day(thats 250 cute little ant naps-each lasting a tad more than a minute each)
The queen on the other hand sleeps in 6minute stretches over 90times a day, equaling a 9hr sleepday.
this all fluxuates a little, depending on the workload during the day. This difference in sleep cycles affects life cycle, as the worker ant may last for 6months and the queen, 6yrs.
The icon for this list–the GIANT iceberg? It’s not a real picture. Go lookit up on Snopes.com
I’d proviced a link, but my food just arrived^^
Good to see that people still know what they are talking about. So much BS around these days!
@DaniBee (103): The icon for this list–the GIANT iceberg? It’s not a real picture. Go lookit up on Snopes.com
[sigh]
@Maggot (105): [sigh]
haha, best comment all day. LV + computer access makes staying late at work worthwhile.
@jfrater (82):
I figured that was the case.
I’m pretty crushed that you didn’t like my silly explanation from a singer’s point of view.
Oh, well. I’m a dork.
As a scientist, I’m always disappointed with science lists (on any website) because the facts are always so common to any scientist. This succeeded in having some pretty interesting ones!
Although there were only 2 I didn’t know.
@103 Of course that one isn’t real. That cannot be achieved…
But I took a closer look and some amigos of mine helped me spot some irregularites in the other iceberg photo that show it is made up of 2 pictures.
I. The “iceberg” is overexposed and possesses different lighting than the sea photo, which is cloudy and grey.
II. The “iceberg” in particular is bad quality, with patterns left from rotating the stone-like object and has different “water” underneath it that flows in a different direction.
III. When you apply Curves and mess with the RGB settings, you can clearly see a bad erase job with even a corner of the original pic visible in the sky where it was soft-erased.
IV. It clearly has the texture of a stone-face, and not an iceberg.
The striped iceberg has clearly been faked. (I know, I’m a hypocrite.)
Plus it is not consistent of icebergs that actually have stripes in them.
Ha. The only one I was framiliar with was the one about the whip. Cool list!
“15 Fascinating Lesser-Known Science Facts”
but #5 “There is a current scientific hypothesis”…
are you saying, it is a science fact that there is a current scientific hypothesis…then this can go on forever
yes sure
@frushka (34): lol I’m going to have to try keeping my eyes open next time I sneeze to see what happens. I hope eyes pop back in easily
can’t everyone just enjoy the list? GOSH! lol I didn’t know about most of these, very very interesting stuff, GOOD JOB JFRATER!!
I’d like to know why people are demanding a source for number 8, when there is a link to the source in that section. click the link, then come back and argue if you still think it’s BS. Personally the explanation to me seems sound.
a sudden urge to watch starwars i have.
You should really have expanded on points one and ten a bit more. Very interesting though, it sure taught me a thing or two
excellent list
(79) these are true photos of ice burgs, not compsites.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/stripedicebergs.asp