In the connected 21st century, it can be hard to imagine how, for most of history, different cultures existed in relative isolation from each other. Even as late as the 19th century, those living in self-sustaining and remote rural communities had little commerce with the outside world, and scant news made it in or out. In a handful of these […]
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Despite what you learned in grammar school, there are way more than four states of matter. One possible new one, disordered hyperuniformity, was recently found in the weirdest place – the eyes of chickens. Classical States of Matter To better understand an exotic state of matter like disordered hyperuniformity, it may be helpful to review the characteristics of the classical […]
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. Most of us have probably laughed at someone on television getting shocked by a stun gun. They tense up and fall to […]
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You may think the reason toothpaste makes things like orange juice taste so awful is simply due to the common mint flavor of toothpaste clashing with other flavors, but this isn’t actually what’s going on here. The real culprit is thought to be two compounds almost universally added to toothpastes -sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl ether sulfate, which are […]
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Cindy asks: This is kind of ewww, but I read that eating your own boogers helps boost your immune system. Is this true? Does physically taking boogers out of your nose, putting them in your mouth and swallowing boost your immune system? The short answer is probably not. You ingest your snot all the time without needing to channel it […]
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. If you’ve ever washed away your day with hours in a hot-tub, you might have asked yourself, “Why do my hands look […]
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For reasons that still aren’t well understood, bacteria proliferate in microgravity. Creating a potential recipe for disaster for humans stationed in space for long periods, bacteria’s love of low-g also raises an intriguing question: Why are they so comfortable there? Thriving Several years ago, astronauts began noticing that: Virulent bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella can grow stronger and […]
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. A quick online search of Aspartame will provide you with numerous opinions about this artificial sweetener. Some claim it causes things like […]
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Jennifer asks: I’ve read that vaccines cause autism and that they don’t. What’s the truth with this? In 1998, there was a groundbreaking study telling parents that their children were at risk of getting autism from vaccines. Parents everywhere collectively gasped. After all, they had been told for years vaccines were the best way to prevent any number of unwanted […]
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This is an excerpt from our new book: The Wise Book of Whys, available in: Print | Kindle | Nook | Audiobook One Moon “day” is approximately 29 1/2 Earth days. This rotation coincides with its orbit around the Earth so that we only see about 59% of the surface of the Moon from Earth. When the Moon first formed, […]
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Laury asks: What causes morning sickness? Most mothers will tell you that “morning sickness” is a misnomer, and that it should really be called “all day sickness.” In fact, it’s sometimes called “nausea and vomiting during pregnancy” or NVP. Pregnant women have been experiencing this unfortunate side effect of growing a parasite… err human inside them seemingly for as long […]
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This is a guest post from our friends over at The Medicine Journal– the TodayIFoundOut of medical related sites. Also, don’t forget to check out their awesome videos on YouTube. Ever wonder why certain foods seem to have a weird flavor that hangs around after you swallow them? Aftertaste is generally classified as any taste that remains in your mouth […]
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There’s a perception that religion and science go together about as well as mayonnaise and marshmallows. In some instances, this is, perhaps, true. But on a typically warm Southern California January in 1933 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California (the same place and same time that Jack Parsons of rocket science fame was doing his experiments — […]
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Though you’ve likely never given it much thought, a universally accepted unit of measurement like the humble metre is an amazing thing. It lets scientists separated by culture, language, race and even thousands of miles of geography work together on equations and problems like they were sitting next to each other. So how did this unit of measurement come to […]
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What if we told you that around 90 years ago an epidemic swept across the world that killed over a million people while affecting numerous others, before disappearing, leaving the finest scientific minds of the age absolutely stumped . Then what if we told you that when it didn’t kill you, this illness could instead potentially trap you inside your […]
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Kevin asks: What would happen if you froze water, but the container was so strong the water couldn’t expand into ice? Some readers may recall a science class in which an excitable teacher walked to the front of the class to show off a small, cracked steel container, seemingly damaged by an incredibly powerful, but tiny force; only for said […]
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Kateri asks: How did organic matter become fossil fuels? Three hundred million years ago (or so), about the time amphibians first emerged from primordial seas, enormous, lush swamps filled with large trees, ferns and other leafy plants thrived along the coasts of the ancient ocean, which itself was filled with algae and billions of microorganisms. Plants and algae breathe in […]
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Dev asks: What causes spontaneous combustion? Most of us experience combustion, a chemical process where a fuel combines with oxygen to produce heat and light, in the form of a fire where both the fuel and ignition source are well known. In some circumstances, however, the trigger that ignited the fire is not a definite source, like a match, but […]
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