"October was originally the eighth month of the year."
(Sources: 1,2, 3, 4)
"Bananas are radioactive."
Bananas contain high levels of potassium. Radioactive K-40 has an isotopic abundance of 0.01% and a half-life of 1.25 billion years. The average banana contains around 450 mg of potassium and will experience about 14 decays each second.
It’s nothing to worry about though. Your body already contains potassium. It’s actually necessary for digestion, and the human body can handle low levels of radioactivity.
source
The world’s tallest tree is 379.1 feet high.
This California redwood, named “Hyperion,” is nearly 9 feet taller than the former record holder, another redwood dubbed “Stratosphere Giant.”
Nicotine is named after Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco to France.
In the mid-16th century Nicot served as the French ambassador to Portugal. A friend in Lisbon who was a botanist invited Nicot over for dinner and showed him a tobacco plant that was growing in his garden. The friend told Nicot that tobacco had healing properties, and Nicot became convinced of this fact after treating a friend’s facial wounds. |
| Tobacco |
More information about smoking, why do you like cigarettes?, Understanding why you smoke, and Common reasons for smoking. check Bupa.com Or If you thinking to QUIT smoking Find out about all of the free NHS services available to support you as you go smokefree.
Earth’s rotation is slowing down.
Our planet’s rotational momentum is gradually being transferred to the moon as orbital momentum. This also results in the moon drifting about 4 cm further from Earth each year. This slowed rotation leads to our days and months gradually growing longer!
Once the length of a day and a month on Earth become equivalent (billions of years in the future, don’t worry!), this momentum shift will end. By that time, however, a day and month on Earth will equal 47 of our present days! The moon will also have moved about 35% further away.
source
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
The history of lighters
Match-like chemical reactions began back in the 17th century with the discovery of phosphorus, but the true friction match was not invented until 1827. In that year, a British chemist by the name of John Walker made matches out of long sticks with a combination of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, gum, and starch on the end. He called his invention the “Congreves.” (The history of matches).
Men and women were offered separate toilets for the first time in at a ball in Paris in 1739.
Women take a minimum of 60 seconds to use a toilet, while men need an average of 35 seconds to use a urinal. Also, since women's and men's bathrooms tend to be the same size, and toilets take up more space than urinals, men's bathroom can accommodate more patrons than women. These two reasons combined can helps explain why the line at the ladies' room moves so slowly.
In fact, some states actually have "Potty Priority" laws to address this problem, which recognize that there need to be about twice as many women's restroom facilities. In New Zealand, it's a violation of women's rights to force a woman to wait more than 3 minutes to relieve herself.
November 19th (last Friday) is World Toilet Day! Check out this
article for more information about women's restrooms.
The world’s smallest periodic table was etched onto a human hair with a gallium ion beam.
Chemistry Professor Martyn Poliakoff had a hair removed from his head and (for his birthday) had a periodic table etched onto it. The hair was placed into an ion beam electron microscope. Gallium was fired at his hair, cutting away particles on the surface of his hair to draw the electron microscope.
The microscopic table is 89.67 microns long and 46.39 microns tall! For comparison, a micron is 1/10,000 centimeters.
A 14-month-old baby was born with a second face.
