Interesting scientific facts and simply interesting discoveries. Interesting facts about science and technology

Interesting scientific facts

1. Pseudo-blindness is a phenomenon in which blind people have a physiological response to visual stimuli (for example, an angry face), despite the fact that they are unable to see them.

9. All the cells in your body have been dividing since life began on Earth. And all this division will end with your death, with the exception of the cells that you pass on to your descendants (1 per child) and certain circumstances (for example, organ donation).

16. Your lungs have the same surface area as a tennis court.

Here are a number of interesting and amazing facts about science, which includes research into our Universe, and also touch on the topic of the elixir of immortality and some alarming moments.

What is so interesting about science?

The world of science has inexhaustible information, but much more information still remains inaccessible to human minds. However, we strive to penetrate the secrets of the universe, which leads us to various discoveries, many of which are extremely fascinating and surprising.

What interesting facts about science of various directions can be cited as an example today, so that every reader will find something interesting for themselves in each of them? Let's try to talk about the most surprising and relevant ones.

The head of the department of geocryology at one of the Russian universities, Anatoly Brushkov, injected into his body an ancient bacterium that was once discovered in a frozen state in Siberia. As he assures, it contains a gene responsible for longevity. It was found in the region of Yakutia, whose residents have a high life expectancy.

The scientist believes that bacterial cells are endowed with special mechanisms that make it possible to significantly prolong their existence. Brushkov insists that the experiment carried out on himself will be successful, which will someday be confirmed by the extension of his life. Although, how can we know how long he would have lived without this bacterium?

Are we not alone in the Universe?

Interesting Facts The science of astronomy often shocks the world. Some time ago, during joint research carried out by German and American scientists, it was possible to detect radio signals sent from space. Researchers have no doubt that they come from beyond solar system, and the energy of the source of these signals is conventionally equated to the energy generated by the Sun during the day.

On this basis, a variety of hypotheses are built, and the main one is the opinion that this was an attempt by an extraterrestrial civilization to establish contact with us. Or the signals are a consequence of certain processes occurring in space, about which modern science nothing is known.

Scientists are also confident that the source is located somewhere within our galaxy, and not outside it, and in the near future attempts will be made to determine more accurate coordinates.

Black holes or spatial gates?

Everyone has heard about the existence of black holes in the Universe. These are substances that have large mass and energy, and absorbing all matter, including any cosmic bodies.

Famous physicist Stephen Hawking insists that these holes can act as gates for transition from one Universe to another. However, according to the scientist, a traveler who enters such a gate may find himself in any place in some other Universe, but will never be able to return to this one.

Previously, black holes were considered a dead end, an element of the end of the world. Now Hawking expresses the opinion that this is a one-way tunnel with a one-way ticket. This hypothesis is, in fact, an attempt to answer the question of scientists about where bodies and objects, including sunlight, can disappear. After all, this contradicts the earthly laws of physics and the main one: energy does not come from nowhere and does not disappear into nowhere.

Endangered bees

Interesting facts about science also emerge in the world of fauna. Scientists suggest that bees may completely disappear from our planet within 20 years. The process of their disappearance is already progressing dynamically. For example, in Russia the number of these insects has almost halved.

Researchers explain this by deterioration ecological situation. In addition, the rapid development of telecommunication systems is reflected in the form of radio emissions, which also makes it impossible for many species of organisms to exist on Earth.

How much is the Earth worth?

An interesting idea occurred to an American astrophysicist. He considered that the mass of the planets of the solar system and their sizes are no longer interesting to anyone, but the cost in monetary terms is new and relevant. Through research, GregLaughlin came to the conclusion that our planet is the most expensive of them.

Newborns typically have about 270 bones, most of which are very small. This makes the skeleton more flexible and helps the baby pass through the birth canal and grow quickly. As we grow older, many of these bones fuse together. The adult human skeleton consists on average of 200–213 bones.

2. The Eiffel Tower grows 15 centimeters in summer

The huge structure is built with temperature expansion joints, allowing the steel to expand and contract without any damage.

When steel heats up, it begins to expand and takes up more volume. This is called thermal expansion. Conversely, a drop in temperature leads to a decrease in volume. For this reason, large structures, such as bridges, are built with expansion joints that allow them to change in size without damage.

3. 20% of oxygen comes from the Amazon rainforest

The Amazon rainforest covers 5.5 million square kilometers. The Amazon jungle produces a significant portion of the oxygen on Earth by absorbing great amount carbon dioxide, which is why they are often called the lungs of the planet.

4. Some metals are so reactive that they explode even when in contact with water.

Some metals and compounds - potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium and cesium - exhibit increased chemical activity, so they can ignite with lightning speed when in contact with air, and if they are placed in water, they can even explode.

5. A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.

Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars, consisting mainly of a neutron core covered with a relatively thin (about 1 km) crust of matter in the form of heavy atomic nuclei and electrons. The cores of stars that died during a supernova explosion were compressed under the influence of gravity. This is how super-dense neutron stars were formed. Astronomers have found that the mass of neutron stars can be comparable to the mass of the Sun, although their radius does not exceed 10–20 kilometers.

6. Every year, Hawaii gets 7.5 cm closer to Alaska.

The earth's crust consists of several huge parts - tectonic plates. These plates are constantly moving along with the upper layer of the mantle. Hawaii is located in the middle part of the Pacific Plate, which is slowly drifting northwest toward the North American Plate, on which Alaska is located. Tectonic plates move at the same speed as human fingernails grow.

7. In 2.3 billion years, Earth will be too hot to support life.

Our planet will eventually become an endless desert, similar to today's Mars. Over hundreds of millions of years, the Sun has warmed up, become brighter and hotter, and will continue to do so. In more than two billion years, temperatures will be so high that the oceans that make Earth habitable will evaporate. The entire planet will turn into an endless desert. As scientists predict, in the next few billion years the Sun will turn into a red giant and completely engulf the Earth - the planet will definitely come to an end.

Thermal imagers are able to identify an object by the heat it emits. And polar bears are experts at staying warm. Thanks to the thick layer subcutaneous fat and a warm fur coat, bears are able to withstand even the coldest days in the Arctic.

9. Light will take 8 minutes 19 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth

It is known that the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. But even at such breakneck speed, it will take time to cover the distance between the Sun and Earth. And 8 minutes is not so much on a cosmic scale. To reach Pluto sunlight it will take 5.5 hours.

10. If you remove all the interatomic space, humanity will fit in a sugar cube

In fact, more than 99.9999% of an atom is empty space. An atom consists of a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons, which occupy proportionately more space. This is because electrons move in waves. They can only exist where the crests and troughs of the waves are formed in a certain way. Electrons do not remain at one point; their location can be anywhere within the orbit. And therefore they take up a lot of space.

11. Stomach juice can dissolve razor blades

The stomach digests food thanks to the caustic hydrochloric acid with a high pH (hydrogen index) content - from two to three. But at the same time, the acid also affects the gastric mucosa, which, however, can quickly recover. The lining of your stomach is completely renewed every four days.

Scientists have many versions of why this happens. The most likely: due to huge asteroids that influenced its course in the past, or due to strong circulation of air currents in upper layers atmosphere.

13. A flea can accelerate faster than the space shuttle

Flea jumps reach mind-boggling heights - 8 centimeters per millisecond. Each jump gives the flea an acceleration 50 times greater than the acceleration of the spacecraft.

What interesting facts do you know?

Some parents tell their child: “You are the light of my life.” But did you know that if you were light, you would fly around the entire globe 7.5 times per second! If you became sound, you could fly around the Earth in 4 hours! If we lived on Jupiter, our day would consist of only 9 hours. It’s good that on Earth a day lasts 24 hours, because we have so much to do during the day! These are just a few fun scientific facts that may interest both an inquisitive child and an adult.

What is science?

Science is an organized and sequential study that includes observation, collection of scientific facts, experimentation, testing of results, and explanation of natural and man-made phenomena. This is an area that gives us the opportunity to better understand the world and create good things for the benefit of man and all living beings.

Ordinary scientific facts

Now that you know what we're talking about, here are some fun scientific facts:

• If you stretch a human DNA chain, its length will be the distance from Pluto to the Sun and back.
• When a person sneezes, the speed of the air they exhale is about 160 km/h.
• A flea can jump to a height that is 130 times its own height. If the flea were a 1.80 m tall person, it could jump 230 m.
• Electric eel produces electricity voltage of 650 volts. Touching it is the most powerful shock a person can experience.
• Light particles called photons take 40,000 years to travel from the Sun's core to its surface, but only 8 minutes to reach Earth.

Scientific facts about the Earth

Earth is our home. To take care of her, we need to know important information about her:

• The age of the Earth is from 5 to 6 billion years. The Moon and the Sun are about the same age.
• Our planet is composed mainly of iron, silicon and relatively small amounts of magnesium.
• Earth is the only planet in the solar system with water on its surface, and its atmosphere is 21% oxygen.
• The Earth's surface is made up of tectonic plates located on the mantle, a layer located between the Earth's core and the surface. Such a structure earth's surface explains earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
• There are about 8.7 million species of living organisms living on Earth. Of these, 2.2 million species live in the ocean, and the rest live on land.
• ¾ of the Earth's surface is covered with water. When astronauts first saw Earth from space, they saw mostly water. This is where the name “blue planet” comes from.

Environmental Facts

Why do the seasons change? What happens to garbage after we throw it away? What causes the weather to be hot or cool? Children learn this and much more in natural history lessons at school. Let's look at some facts that convince us of what a beautiful planet we live on.

• Plastic completely decomposes in the ground in 450 years, and glass in 4,000 years.
• Every day around the world, 27,000 trees are used to make toilet paper alone.
• 97% of all water on Earth is salty and unsuitable for consumption. 2% of the water is in glaciers. Therefore, only 1% of water is suitable for consumption.
• The meat processing industry contributes most global warming. In second place among global problems- deforestation. About 68% existing species plants will most likely become extinct in the near future.
• The population of the Earth is more than 7 billion people. This figure is expected to reach 8 billion by 2025.
• Unfortunately, 99% of existing species of living organisms, according to scientists, will become extinct.

Interesting facts about animals

The animal kingdom is beautiful and amazing. It contains tame otters, powerful eels, singing whales, giggling rats, oysters that change gender, and many other equally amazing representatives. Here are a few facts about animals that your child will undoubtedly enjoy:

• Octopuses have three hearts. Even more strange fact: Lobsters have a urinary tract on their face, while turtles breathe through their anus.
• In seahorses, males give birth, not females.
• The kakapo parrot has a strong, pungent odor that attracts predators. That is why kakapo are in danger of extinction.
• A squirrel plants more trees than the average person in a lifetime. How can this be? The fact is that squirrels hide acorns and nuts underground, and then forget where exactly they hid them.
• It is mainly lionesses who hunt among lions. Leos only intervene when necessary.

Interesting facts about plants

Plants green our planet, produce oxygen, and make the Earth habitable. Trees and plants are probably the most useful among the living inhabitants of the Earth. Here are some interesting facts about plants:

• Like humans, plants recognize other plants of their own species.
• In total, there are more than 80,000 edible plants on Earth. Of these, we eat about 30.
• Humanity is rapidly destroying forests. About 80% of all forests have already been destroyed.
• The oldest tree in the world (sequoia) is located in the USA, in the state of California. His age is 4,843 years.
• Height itself tall tree in the world - 113 m. It is also located in California.
• The largest tree in the world is aspen, growing in the USA, in the state of Utah. Its weight is 6,000 tons.

Facts about space

The sun, stars, planets, the Milky Way, constellations and everything that is in the Universe is located in vacuum space. We call it space. We offer several interesting facts about him:

• The Earth is tiny compared to the Sun, which is 300,000 times larger.
• The entire space is absolutely silent, because sound does not travel in a vacuum.
• Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system. The temperature on the surface of Venus is 450°C.
• The force of gravity changes a person's weight on different planets. For example, the force of gravity on Mars is lower than on Earth, so a person weighing 80 kg on Mars would weigh only 31 kg.
• Since the Moon has neither atmosphere nor water, nothing can erase the traces of astronauts who set foot on its surface. Therefore, the traces will probably remain here for another hundred million years.
• The temperature of the Sun's core, the closest star to Earth, is 15 million degrees Celsius.

Facts about famous scientists

For a long time, people thought that the Earth was flat, that the change of seasons depended on the mood of the gods, and that diseases caused devilry. This continued until great scientists proved the opposite. Without them, we would still be living in ignorance.

• Albert Einstein was a genius, but his talents were discovered quite late. After the scientist's death, his brain was the subject of numerous studies.
• Nicolaus Copernicus disproved the theory that the Earth is the center of the Universe. He developed a model of the solar system with the Sun at the center.
• Leonardo da Vinci was not only an artist. He was also an outstanding mathematician, scientist, writer and even musician.
• Archimedes invented the law of fluid displacement while taking a bath. The funny thing is that, according to legend, he jumped out of the bathtub shouting “Eureka!” He was so excited that he forgot that he had no clothes on.
• Marie Curie, the female chemist who discovered radium, was the first person in the world to win the Nobel Prize twice.

Scientific facts from the world of technology

Technology is the engine of progress. We are so dependent on technology Everyday life that it's even scary. We offer some interesting facts about technical devices that we encounter every day:

• First computer game appeared in 1967. It was called “brown box” (translated from English as “brown box”) because that’s exactly what it looked like.
• The world's first computer, ENIAC, weighed more than 27 tons and took up an entire room.
• The Internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing.
• Robotics is one of the most relevant scientific fields today. However, back in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci drew the world's first diagram of a robot.
• “Camera Obscura” is a prototype of a camera that influenced the development of photography. It was used in Ancient Greece and China in order to project images onto the screen.
• There is an interesting technology that uses plant waste to produce methane, which in turn can be used to generate electricity.

Scientific facts from the engineering industry

Engineering helps create beautiful things - from houses and cars to electronic gadgets.

• The tallest bridge in the world is the Millau Viaduct in France. It is located at an altitude of 245 m, supported by beams suspended on cables.
• The Palm Islands in Dubai can be called a modern wonder of the world. These are man-made islands floating on the water.
• The world's largest particle accelerator is located in Geneva. It was built to support the research of over 10,000 scientists and is located in an underground tunnel.
• The Chandra Space Observatory is the world's largest X-ray telescope. It is also the largest satellite launched into space.
• Today is the most grandiose project in the world - New Valley in Egypt. Engineers are trying to turn millions of hectares of desert into farmland. Imagine what would happen if we could green the Earth in the same way! Our planet would regain its pristine purity!

Science is a wonderful field of study that inspires many people. All you need is to get your child interested in it. And who knows, maybe your child will grow up to be the next Einstein.

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1. Raindrops are usually depicted in the form of a tear, but this is not the case. They have a spherical shape.

2. During the process of sublimation, a solid substance turns directly into a gas, bypassing the liquid state. For example, this will happen if you throw dry ice into a fire.

3. Gorillas sleep in nests - they make them from soft foliage and curved branches. Males, as a rule, place their nests on the ground, and females - in trees.

4. Champagne fizzes not because of the carbon dioxide in it - it fizzes due to the contact of the gas with dirt and dust. In a completely smooth glass without a single molecule of dust, champagne would not fizz at all.

5. Most of The digestion process occurs not in the stomach, but in the small intestine. This is why a person can suffer from bulimia and remain overweight for some time.

6. The red juice that comes out of the steak is not blood. This is myoglobin - a close relative of blood. By the time the steak hits the counter, there's barely a drop of blood left in it.

7. For those who want to contribute to conservation environment, it is better to use plastic bags rather than paper bags. Manufacturing process The production and processing of paper bags requires significantly more energy than the production of plastic. And in a landfill, paper bags take up significantly more space.

8. Polar bears' fur is actually transparent and not white as it appears. And the skin is black, not white. And in a warm, humid environment, fur polar bear may turn greenish due to algae.

9. Allergies to pets, as a rule, are not caused by animal hair, as is commonly believed, but by particles of their dead skin or saliva. Regularly washing your pet thoroughly can help relieve allergy symptoms.

10. The map of the tongue, according to which sour, sweet, salty and bitter tastes are perceived by different zones of the tongue, is considered incorrect. This theory was debunked in 1901 by German scientists, who based their proof on the fact that any taste is recognized by any zone of the tongue, based on practical experiments.

11. Many people put a shell to their ear to hear the sea. The sound you hear is actually noise own blood in the veins! You can use any cup-shaped object to hear this effect.

12. While a person is alive, his brain is Pink colour. Only after the brain dies does it turn gray. Therefore, describing the brain as “gray matter” is a little misleading.

13. Mercury is not the only one liquid metal. Gallium, Cesium and Francium are metals that are in a solid state when room temperature, but even in the hand they begin to melt from the temperature of the human body.

14. Dolphins don't drink sea ​​water. It can make them sick or even die. They satisfy all their drinking needs by consuming food containing liquid.