14792. Science Facts

A person would need to weigh around 650 kilograms (1,433 pounds) to have enough fat to stop a bullet. Although their body would be bullet-proof, they could still be killed by a shot to the head.

14793. Science Facts

Scientists are working on a microscopic robotic tadpole to deliver medicines – the tadpole would ‘swim' through the patient's blood vessels to take the medicine where it's needed.

14794. Science Facts

Victorian children were often given their own salt cellar, which they were told was a sign of being grown up. In fact, the salt was mixed with bromide, which made them calmer and better behaved.

14795. Science Facts

Potatoes, aubergines, tomatoes and peppers all belong to the same family of plants as deadly nightshade!

14796. Science Facts

Not all dead bodies rot. In the right conditions, some of the fat can turn to a soap-like substance so that if the body is dug up, even years later, it can look much the same as when it was buried.

14797. Science Facts

Police scientists investigating a murder can work out how long a body has been dead by looking at the kinds of maggots, worms and insects that are eating it.

14798. Science Facts

Archaeologists find out about what people in the Stone Age ate by examining Stone Age faeces called coprolites.They have to be soaked in water for three days first to soften them.

14799. Science Facts

An unusual form of drug abuse is licking cane toads. They make a slime containing a drug which produces hallucinations (strange experiences or visions). People in some parts of Australia and the USA have started licking the toads to enjoy the drug.

14800. Science Facts

Fake mermaids made from bits of monkey and fish have been produced to fool scientists for years – most recently with one claimed to have been washed up by the tsunami in Asia in 2004. The oldest so-called mummified mermaid is 1,400 years old and from Japan.

14801. Science Facts

Australian Benjamin Drake Van Wissen invented machinery to mine guano on the Pacific island of Nauru and turn it into fertilizer.

14802. Science Facts

Green potatoes contain a poison, solanin, which can be deadly. It develops in old potatoes that are not kept in the dark. Eating 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of green potatoes could be fatal.

14803. Science Facts

If you are trapped in snow in an avalanche, it's impossible to tell which way is up (and so which way to dig yourself out). Urinate and see which direction the yellow stain spreads – gravity will pull the urine down.

14804. Science Facts

In 1822, Dr. William Beaumont studied human digestion as it happened, through a hole in the side and stomach of a patient who had been shot. The hole did not heal, allowing Dr. Beaumont to study, but also allowing food and drink to ooze out if it was not covered up.

14805. Science Facts

Oil is made from the decayed bodies of animals and plants that died millions of years ago and have been squashed deep underground.

14806. Science Facts

In an attempt to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes, an American scientist built towers to attract bats. He enticed them in with fabric covered with bat droppings, and played music near the bats' old homes to drive them out.After a few years, malaria infection dropped from 89 percent of the population to zero.

14807. Science Facts

If you cut spinach with an iron knife, both will go black as a chemical in the spinach reacts with the iron.

14808. Science Facts

During the First World War, goldfish were used to check whether all traces of poisonous gas had been washed out of gas masks. The mask was rinsed and filled with water, then a goldfish was dropped in. If it died, there was still gas left in it.

14809. Science Facts

The most poisonous metal in the world is arsenic. It used to be made into fly papers for killing flies, but it killed some people, too.

14810. Science Facts

People used to use white lead powder to make their skin look white and beautiful, but it gave them lead poisoning and slowly killed them. As their skin looked worse once the poison took effect, they used more white lead to cover up the damage.

14811. Science Facts

Around 1,400 years ago, the Chinese used to make gunpowder by boiling up and burning pig manure.To make sure it was ready, and not polluted with salt, they licked the crystals.

Fact
Only female mosquitoes bite and drink blood.      .. More >>