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.

14812. Science Facts

It can take a hundred years for the body of a whale at the bottom of the sea to disappear completely, as it is slowly eaten away by different animals, plants and microbes.

14813. Science Facts

Early matches were made of poisonous chemicals and would sometimes burst into flames on their own if they got warm and damp. They poisoned the children employed to make them, and set fire to people's pockets unexpectedly!

14814. Science Facts

A small animal such as a mouse can be dropped 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) down a mineshaft and suffer no harm because the fastest speed it can fall it is not enough to crush its body.The larger an animal or object, the shorter the distance it can safely fall.

14815. Science Facts

Our blood is red because it uses an iron compound to carry oxygen – some spiders have blue blood because theirs uses a copper compound instead.

14816. Science Facts

John Haigh killed six people in London, UK, in the 1940s, dissolving their bodies in a bath of acid, hoping he could wash away all the evidence. However, on finding three human gallstones and a pair of dentures belonging to one of his victims in the sludge left behind, the police had enough evidence to convict him.

14817. Science Facts

Old cannonballs brought up from the seabed can explode and kill divers. Bacteria eat away part of the metal, producing gases that rapidly expand when the cannonballs come to the surface.

14818. Science Facts

Scraping mould off your food doesn't get rid of it – behind the fuzzy part you can see, strings extend into the food up to nine times the length of the visible part.

14819. Science Facts

If you draw pictures in the condensation on a window, the picture will reappear next time the window mists over as a layer of grease from your skin stays on the glass and repels the water.

14820. Science Facts

Earthworms bring 4 million kilograms (8.8 million pounds) of earth to the surface on every square kilometre (0.38 square miles) of open ground each year.

14821. Science Facts

In the 1600s, spiders rolled in butter were recommended as a cure for malaria.

14822. Science Facts

There have been several recorded cases of spontaneous human combustion (people who apparently burst into flames for no good reason). Sometimes, all that is left is a burnt patch and perhaps a foot or some singed clothing.

14823. Science Facts

A medieval cure for stammering was scalding the tongue with a red-hot iron. It didn't work...

14824. Science Facts

Rats trained to look for landmines are so light that they don't trigger the mechanism if they tread on one. Instead, they scratch and bite at the ground when they smell explosives, and the handler deals with the mine.

14825. Science Facts

If you fall off a very high cliff or building, the fastest speed you will ever fall at is around 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour.This is called terminal velocity, and it's enough to make a nasty splat.

14826. Science Facts

Bird droppings are the main export of the island Nauru in the western Pacific Ocean.They're used for fertilizer, as they're rich in the chemical nitrogen.

14827. Science Facts

Horses killed in the First World War were recycled as explosives – their fat was removed and boiled down to be used in making TNT.

14828. Science Facts

Scientists believe that all vertebrates (animals with backbones) evolved from giant tadpoles, 6 centimetres (2.5 inches) long, that swam around 550 million years ago.

14829. Science Facts

Some wealthy people have their bodies cryopreserved (deep-frozen) when they die, in the hope that in the future someone will find a cure for their cause of death and resurrect them.The popular urban legend that Walt Disney was cryopreserved is false; he was cremated.

14830. Science Facts

If potatoes were discovered today, they would probably be banned under European Union regulations as too dangerous.

Fact
The trans-siberian railway is a 5,778-mile long route through russia, from moscow to vladivostok. Earlier travellers had to take this journey by boat across lake baikal. A one-way trip on the trans-siberian railway takes 7 long days.      .. More >>