Science Factoids
Arvind M. Dhople, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Florida Tech
Did you know?
— Some authorities estimate that some dogs’ sense of olfaction (smelling) is as high as 1 million times greater than ours.
— In an adult there are 100,000 miles of blood vessels.
— From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.
— A shrimp has more than a hundred pair of chromosomes in each cell nucleus.
— Every year about 98% of atoms in our body are replaced.
— It takes a plastic container 50,000 years to start decomposing.
— Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour.
— A full-grown moose may be 8 feet high at the shoulder and weigh almost a ton.
— To make a one-pound comb of honey, bees must collect nectar from about two million flowers.
—The average human body contains enough: Sulphur to kill all fleas on average dog, Carbon to make 900 pencils, Potassium to fire a toy cannon, Fat to make 7 bars of soap, Phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads, and Water to fill a ten gallon tank.
— The brain receives about 9 gallons of blood every hour.
— Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every 2 weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
Every 3 days, our body makes a new lining of your stomach.
— The largest Great White Stark ever caught measured 37 feet and weighed 24,000 pounds.
— Scientists have found that it is impossible to tickle yourself? The cerebellum, a region in the posterior portion of the brain, earns the rest of your brain when you are attempting to tickle yourself.
— Australian scientists have identified some species of baby spiders that bite off the limbs of their mothers and slowly dine on them over a period of weeks.
— A camel can lose up to 30% of its body weight in perspiration and continue to cross the desert. A human would die of heat shock after sweating away only 12% of body weight.
— The average American eats 22 pound of candy per year.
— A blue whale’s heart is as big as a compact car.