The First Steering Wheel

The first automobiles were steered with a tiller, but in 1894 Alfred Vacheron took part in the Paris-Rouen race with a Panhard 4 hp model which he had fitted with a steering wheel. That is believed to be one of the earliest employments of the principle.

From 1898 the Panhard et Levassor cars were equipped as standard with steering wheels. C S Rolls introduced the first car in Britain fitted with a steering wheel when he imported a 6 hp Panhard from France in 1898. Arthur Constantin Krebs replaced the tiller with an inclined steering wheel for the Panhard car he designed for the Paris-Amsterdam race which ran from the 7th to 13 July 1898.

Interested in knowing more about steering wheel read here.

America Not Discovered by Columbus

Christopher Columbus was not the first European to discover America!

This commonly held belief is wrong. Columbus didn´t reach the North America until 1492, 500 years after Leif Erikson´s arrival in 1001 AD. Leif Erikson was the first European to set foot in the North America opening a new land rich with resources for the Vikings to explore. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland.

Leif Erikson Day is an annual American observance occurring on October 9th to honor Leif Erikson to have set first foot in North America.

To learn all about Erikson's voyage check out this brief history of his life!

Regeneration: Growing New Body Parts

Zebrafish can re-grow fins. Newts can lose a leg and grow a new one identical to the original.

These animals and others also can repair damaged heart tissue and injured structures in the eye. In contrast, humans have only rudimentary regenerative abilities, so scientists hoping eventually to develop ways of repairing or replacing damaged body parts are keenly interested in understanding in detail how the process of regeneration works.

Using zebrafish as a model, researchers at the University of Michigan have found that some of the same genes underlie the process in different types of tissues. Genes involved in fin regeneration and heart repair are also required for rebuilding damaged light receptors in the eye, they found, suggesting that a common molecular mechanism guides the process, no matter what body part is damaged.

You can read more about this here.

World’s Largest Hotels

20 of the 27 world’s largest hotels (by room count) are located in Las Vegas. Genting Highlands (First World Hotel) in Malaysia with 10,000+ rooms is the largest hotel of the world.

Check out the other hotels in the list.

Water Intoxication

Can anyone ever die from an overdose of water? Yes, water is considered to be poisonous when over consumed.

Water intoxication occurs when a person drinks so much water that the other nutrients in the body become diluted to the point that they can no longer do their jobs. The condition that results is called hyponatremia, in which excess water flushes too much sodium out of the body.

Sodium is one of the human body’s most important electrolytes and is necessary for proper muscle and nerve function. Severe symptoms of this condition include seizures, coma, and death.

Learn more about overdosing of water here.

Dogs are 'smarter than cats'

According to a latest research dogs are cleverer than cats because their friendly character has helped them develop bigger brains.



Cat's brains are smaller as they are less social Photo: REX



The intelligence of “a man’s best friend” has evolved at a greater rate than the less social cat over millions of years, scientists at Oxford University have claimed.

It was often thought that the feline pet was smarter than its canine counterpart because it needed less attention but researchers have discovered that cat’s brains are smaller because they are less social.

For the first time scientists have charted the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals over 60 million years and identified huge variations in how their brains have changed.

They found that there was a link between the size of an animal’s brain in relation to the rest of its body and how socially active it was.

The study analysed available data on the brain and body size of over 500 species of living and fossilised mammals. The brains of monkeys grew the most over time followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs.

Read more about the research.

Sonnenberg Tunnel

The Sonnenberg Tunnel is a 1,550m long motorway tunnel, constructed between 1971 and 1976 and located near Lucerne, Switzerland. At its completion it was also the world's largest civilian nuclear fallout shelter, designed to protect 20,000 civilians in the eventuality of war or disaster.

Based on a federal law from 1963, Switzerland aims to provide nuclear fallout shelters for the entire population of the country. The construction of a new tunnel near an urban center was seen as an opportunity to provide shelter space for a large number of people at the same time.

The installations that allowed the tunnel to be converted into a fallout shelter cost around $32.5 million, of which approximately $5 million were borne by the municipality of Lucerne. The shelter consisted of the two motorway tunnels (one per direction of travel), each capable of holding 10,000 people in 64 person subdivisions. A seven story cavern between the tunnels contained shelter infrastructure including a command post, an emergency hospital, and a radio studio. The shelter was designed to withstand the blast from a 1 Megaton nuclear explosion 1 kilometer away. The blast doors at the tunnel portals are 1.5 meters thick and weigh 350 tonnes.

Find out more about the tunnel.

Astronaut Excrement as a Fuel Source



 

For the first time, the United Nations is planning to make its mark in space with an international satellite designed to promote science education and international cooperation in the sciences. But the $5 million satellite (UNESCOSat) won't go up alone--it will be accompanied by a number of payloads, including two from the Florida Institute of Technology filled with bacteria. Why?

The first payload is intended to examine the effects of Shewanella MR-1 (a bacteria) in a microgravity environment to determine its suitability for long-term space travel.

The goal is, to put it bluntly, to see if Shewanella can convert astronaut feces into hydrogen for use in onboard fuel cells. "The bacteria generates hydrogen. If we give waste to bacteria, it converts to hydrogen that could be used in a fuel cell. We're looking at how reliable the bacteria are," explains Donald Platt, the Program Director for the Space Sciences and Space Systems Program at the Florida Institute of Technology. Shewanella's viability will be determined based on its growth rate in space--figuring out, in other words, how different its life cycle is in space than it is on Earth.

The satellite is expected to launch in the first half of 2011 and stay in orbit for up to five years.

Complete news.

Scallops Eyes

Scallops are diverse, with over 300 species of scallops living on the ocean floor worldwide. They range from shallow waters to areas several hundred feet deep. They have about sixty primitive tiny bright blue eyes. Eyes reside in rows along a scallop’s mantle edge to detect motion, light and dark. A scallop can easily regrow any lost or injured eyes.

Check out these amazing pictures of scallop eyes.

Pufferfish

Pufferfish also known as blow fish is a fish which contains deadly poison in the organs. Amazingly, the meat of some pufferfish is considered a delicacy. Called fugu in Japan, it is extremely expensive and only prepared by trained, licensed chefs who know that one bad cut means almost certain death for a customer. In fact, many such deaths occur annually. It's said that the most poisonous fugu, "Tora-fugu," is the most delicious. Winter is the best season to eat fugu.

Almost all pufferfish contain tetrodotoxin, a substance that makes them foul tasting and often lethal to fish. To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide. There are enough toxins in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.

There are more than 120 species of pufferfish worldwide. Most are found in tropical and subtropical ocean waters, but some species live in brackish and even fresh water. They have long, tapered bodies with bulbous heads. They range in size from the 1-inch-long (2.5-centimeter-long) dwarf or pygmy puffer to the freshwater giant puffer, which can grow to more than 2 feet (61 centimeters) in length.

More about Pufferfish here.

World’s Largest Omelette

Turkish chefs have set a new world record for the world's largest omelette. The record breaking omelette has been brought to Ankara to celebrate World Egg Day 2010 and promote eggs as a healthy, affordable and easy to prepare food staple. The Turkish Egg Producers Association staged the event to promote eggs as a healthy primary food source.

The omelette was cooked in a giant fryer which is 10 metres in diameter. During the event, 65 cooks whisked 110,010 eggs to cook the omelette of 4,400 kg using 432 litres of oil. It took 2.5 hours to cook it. The omelette recipe was created by Suleyman Ascioglu, executive chef at Rixos Grand Ankara Hotel.

Carim Valerio, from the Guinness Book of World Records, watched the record attempt and confirmed it had been successful.

The previous record for the world’s largest omelette was held by Pick’n'Pay Retailers, Cape Town, South Africa, for their omelette which weighed 3,625 kg, contained 60,000 eggs and measured 14 metres in diameter.

Extra-Terrestrial Tortilla

YOU'VE heard about flying saucers - but how about a flying chip? A UFO which resembles a popular salty snack has been spotted in the skies over the UK for the third time in as many years.

The space invader, dubbed by locals the 'Dudley Dorito', was sighted over the Midlands.

In the latest sighting 'extra-terrestrial tortilla chip' was spotted as the triangular object in the skies in Tipton, West Midlands at around 10.15pm on Sunday.

Read complete news.

Mickey Mouse

Happy Birthday Dear Mickey! Yes, Mickey Mouse celebrates his birthday on November 18th.

Mickey Mouse is arguably the most famous of the Disney cartoon characters. Making his debut in "Steamboat Willie" at the Colony Theatre in New York City on November 18, 1928, Mickey went on to star in over 120 different cartoons. He also starred in "The Mickey Mouse Club" television show of the 1950s.

 

 

Mickey Mouse's original drawings used circles for his head, body and ears. 1939's "The Pointer" saw a bold, new design for Mickey as his body became more pear-shaped and pupils were added to his eyes to increase his range of expression. Later on, animators of the 1940s would add a perspective aspect to his ears, giving them a three-dimensional effect. This change, however, was short-lived. The Mickey Mouse of today appears much as he did in the early days with the exception of a costume change here and there.

Originally, Mickey was voiced by Walt Disney himself. Later, those duties were assumed by Jim Macdonald and today Wayne Allwine provides Mickey's distinctive voice.

Mickey Mouse has appeared on thousands of merchandise items, and currently holds the esteemed title of Chief Greeter at the Disney theme parks.

Learn more about Mickey.

The Komodo dragon

The Komodo dragon is the world's heaviest lizard, weighing 150 pounds or more. It has grey scaly skin, a pointed snout, powerful limbs and a muscular tail. It lives in the scrub and woodland of a few Indonesian islands. They use their keen sense of smell to locate decaying animal remains from several miles away. They also hunt other lizards as well as large mammals and are sometimes cannibalistic. This species is threatened by hunting, loss of prey species and habitat loss.

Reaching 10 feet (3 meters) in length and more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms), Komodo dragons are the heaviest and largest lizards on Earth. They have long, flat heads with rounded snouts, scaly skin, bowed legs, and huge, muscular tails.

As the dominant predators on the handful of islands they inhabit, they will eat almost anything, including carrion, deer, pigs, smaller dragons, and even large water buffalo and humans. When hunting, Komodo dragons rely on camouflage and patience, lying in wait for passing prey. When a victim ambles by, the dragon springs, using its powerful legs, sharp claws and serrated, shark-like teeth to eviscerate its prey.

The Komodo dragon's teeth are almost completely covered by its gums. When it feeds, the gums bleed, creating an ideal culture for virulent bacteria. The bacteria that live in the Komodo dragon's saliva causes septicemia, or blood poisoning, in its victims. A dragon will bite its prey, and then follow it until the animal is too weak to carry on.

Animals that escape the jaws of a Komodo will only feel lucky briefly. Dragon saliva teems with over 50 strains of bacteria, and within 24 hours, the stricken creature usually dies of blood poisoning. Dragons calmly follow an escapee for miles as the bacteria takes effect, using their keen sense of smell to hone in on the corpse. A dragon can eat a whopping 80 percent of its body weight in a single feeding.

There is a stable population of about 3,000 to 5,000 Komodo dragons on the islands of Komodo, Gila Motang, Rinca, and Flores. However, a dearth of egg-laying females, poaching, human encroachment, and natural disasters has driven the species to endangered status.

Coober Pedy




Coober Pedy is the “opal capital of the world” because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there.There are several mines and manmade caves beneath the town where the opals are procured. It is also famous for most of the residents living below ground, mostly in old mines refurbished, due to the scorching daytime heat. The name 'Coober Pedy' comes from the local Aboriginal term kupa-piti, which means 'whitemans hole' 'waterhole'.



Opalized mollusc shell from a Coober Pedy mine



Coober Pedy is a very small town in northern South Australia, 846 kilometers north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. At the 2006 census its population was 1,916 (1,084 males, 832 females).

Interesting attractions in Coober Pedy include the mines, the graveyard, and the underground churches. The first tree ever seen in the town was welded together from scrap iron. It still sits on a hilltop overlooking the town. The local golf course - mostly played at night with glowing balls, to avoid daytime temperatures - is completely free of grass, and golfers take a small piece of "turf" around to use for teeing off.

More about this interesting place.

Whales can get sunburnt

According to a team of researchers whales can get sunburnt just like humans can.

The scientists studied more than 150 whales in the Gulf of California. They were interested in the effects of increasing levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation on wildlife.

By taking photographs and skin samples, the researchers found the whales had blisters that were caused by sun damage. The report concluded that darker skinned whales showed fewer signs of sun damage.

The whales were a good model for this because as they need to come to the surface to breathe air, to socialise and to feed their young, meaning that they are frequently exposed to the full force of the sun.

Find out more on this research.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year. Any month's 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.

The month of January had a Friday the 13th back in 2006 and will not have another Friday the 13th until the year 2012.

The month of February had a Friday the 13th back in 2009 and will not have another Friday the 13th until the year 2015.

The month of August had a Friday the 13th this year in 2010 and will not have another Friday the 13th until the year 2021.

The month of November had a Friday the 13th back in 2009 and will not have another Friday the 13th until the year 2015.

Find out more about Friday the 13th.

Information Consumed by Americans

In 2008, Americans consumed information for about 1.3 trillion hours, an average of almost 12 hours per day. Consumption totalled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 gigabytes for an average person on an average day. A zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power bytes, a million million gigabytes. These estimates are from an analysis of more than 20 different sources of information, from very old (newspapers and books) to very new (portable computer games, satellite radio, and Internet video). Information at work is not included.

Hours of information consumption grew at 2.6 percent per year from 1980 to 2008, due to a combination of population growth and increasing hours per capita, from 7.4 to 11.8. More surprising is that information consumption in bytes increased at only 5.4 percent per year.

More information on this.

Cat sleeping on toaster oven can put house on fire

A cat named after an Egyptian god of the afterlife is the primary suspect in a blaze that has left a family -- and presumably the cat -- homeless.

 
A little after midnight Sunday morning, Lois Lund was awakened by a loud popping sound in her house on the 1800 block of Kuhn Street in Port Townsend, and followed the noise into her kitchen.

It was ablaze.
 

She extinguished the flames with a garden hose and called East Jefferson Fire-Rescue, which determined the fire had not spread, despite extensive damage to the kitchen and the ceiling.

Fire investigator Kurt Steinbach determined the fire originated from a toaster oven that had been left on, and the culprit was the family's 10-year-old black cat, Osiris.

Lund said Osiris has been acting strangely since a dog came into the house and chased him around and had taken to sleeping on top of the toaster oven.

Read more about this interesting story.

Bizarre Beast

The bizarre discovery of a mystery beast's remains on a NSW beach has everyone talking. This bizarre discovery on Diggers Beach, near Coffs Harbour, has given rise to a host of theories explaining what this creature might be and how it washed ashore.

The animal was found by surfers on Father’s Day, but only now have the photos surfaced. One of the local men, who came across the animal, told "It was found on the high water mark and we contacted National Parks, but it appears the animal was washed back out to sea on the next tide.

Check out the complete story about this bizarre beast.

Fun Facts about Human Eyes

• The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the grey.

• The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels.

• The eyeball of a human weighs approximately 28 grams.

• Sailors once thought that wearing a gold earring would improve their eyesight.

• The conjunctiva is a membrane that covers the human eye.

• Babies’ eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

• The reason why your nose gets runny when you are crying is because the tears from the eyes drain into the nose.

• Some people start to sneeze if they are exposed to sunlight or have a light shined into their eye.

• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

• Blinking helps to wash tears over our eyeballs. That keeps them clean and moist.

• The eyes blink over 10,000,000 times a year!

• Our eyelashes help to keep dirt out of our eyes.

• Our eyebrows are made to keep sweat from running into our eyes.

• The study of the iris of the eye is called iridology.

• Men are able to read fine print better than women can.

 

Interesting Hair Facts

Have you ever tried to count your hairs? Can your hair actually hold any weight?

Interestingly the average human head has 150,000 single hairs on it. An entire head of human hair (about 150,000 strands) is strong enough to support 12 tons, which is equivalent to the weight of two full grown elephants.

Do you know that our hairs can actually guard us against bullets and arrows?

Keen on knowing more unusual hair facts, check out here.

Interesting Facts About Lightning

Ever wondered how long can a lightning bolt be? Or how hot can lightning make the air?

Recent research from Vaisala-GAI's LDAR and LDAR II lightning detection networks show that lightning can travel 60 miles or more. The longest bolts start at the front of a squall line and travel horizontally back into clouds trailing behind the squall line. The longest bolt seen to date was 118 miles long in the Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX area.

Energy from lightning heats the air anywhere from 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit to up to 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Check out the National Severe Storms Laboratory website for more details.

Aurora Borealis

Seeing the northern lights or the aurora borealis as they are also known as, is a jaw-dropping and mystical moment. The Aurora Borealis light display, particularly visible in polar regions, is usually observed at night where it illuminates the northern horizon as a greenish or red glow.

Auroras, also known as northern and southern (polar) lights are natural light displays in the sky, particularly in the polar regions, and usually observed at night. They typically occur in the ionosphere. They are also referred to as polar auroras. They are commonly visible between 65 to 72 degrees north and south latitudes, which place them in a ring just within the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Aurorae do occur deeper inside the polar regions, but these are infrequent and often invisible to the naked eye.

In northern latitudes, the effect is known as the aurora borealis, named after the Roman goddess of dawn,



Aurora, and the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas, by Pierre Gassendi in 1621. The aurora borealis is also called the northern polar lights, as it is only visible in the sky from the Northern Hemisphere, with the chance of visibility increasing with proximity to the North Magnetic Pole. Auroras seen near the magnetic pole may be high overhead, but from farther away, they illuminate the northern horizon as a greenish glow or sometimes a faint red, as if the Sun were rising from an unusual direction. The aurora borealis most often occurs near the equinoxes.

Its southern counterpart, the aurora australis or the southern polar lights, has similar properties, but is only visible from high southern latitudes in Antarctica, South America, or Australasia.

Auroras can be spotted throughout the world and on other planets. They are most visible closer to the poles due to the longer periods of darkness and the magnetic field.

For more information and amazing pictures of Auroras click here.

An alarm clock to beat the blues with a fake dawn

Now, you can beat the blues with a fake dawn, thanks to an alarm clock. The new clock invented by a British firm creates an artificial dawn that cures depressive illness seasonal affective disorder.

 

Cambridge-based Lumie insists its dawn simulator Bodyclock Active clock can banish the blues. Simply set the time you need to be awake and choose your sunrise length -- 15, 20, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes.The firm claims this benefits a person's body clock so you wake up feeling refreshed at the time of your choosing. 

So get ready for this new alarm clock with a dawn chorus of birdsong or roosters crowing!

Happy Diwali

Wishing You All a Very Happy and Prosperous Deepawali

Lizard's sex influenced by climate

According to a new study published in the Nature journal the sex of snow skink lizards is influenced by altitudes and climate, indicating the species' ability to adapt to climate. An international team, led by Dr Erik Wapstra and Dr Geoff While of the University of Tasmania, studied the snow skink (Niveoscincus ocellatus), a small lizard commonly found in Tasmania.

The most interesting fact about these skinks is that the populations have different sex-determining mechanisms at different altitudes, and therefore different climates.

More about the study on snow skink lizards.

Blind chickens lay more eggs

A study reveals that a strain of chickens that are naturally blind produce more eggs than their sighted counterparts and lights influences the overall production. According to a research conducted by the National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bangalore, a genetically blind strain of white leghorn birds called Smoky Joes start reproduction earlier and produces more eggs than the average chicken.

 

 

The study was kicked off in end-2008 to understand how light influences the production pattern of eggs started and its results came in July 2010.

The findings would help poultry farmers in meticulous use of lightings for better egg production, they added.

Find out more about this interesting study.

Dancing Robots

Today's robots are really much more like human beings. It has been demonstrated at the world's largest robot festival in South Korea. The Humanoid Dancing Crew which was around 30-40cm tall won a standing ovation for their performance. The visitors also had a chance to see humanoids playing football and losing robots clutching their heads in anger.

Hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge and Economy, Robot World 2010 was held at Kintex, Ilsan from October 28th to 31st, 2010. Robot World was a collaboration of the international Robot Industry Show 2010, International Robot Contest 2010 and Korea Robot Conference 2010.

Since its launch in 2006, Robot World has drawn around 120,000 visitors and 6000 participants every year for a demonstration of cutting-edge developments in robotics. A variety of robot centred fun was available during the expo this year. The Robot Industry Show was host to over 120 companies each displaying a number of their products. Some of the more noticeable displays were the mobile robot security, window cleaning robot and hybrid ticketing robots.

Robot Contest 2010 had over 8,000 contestants compete in 9 competitions such as college, high school competitions consisting of 22 events, such as the grand challenge and robot shooting. Over 200 awards including the presidential award and cash prizes in their millions were awarded.

There were dancing competitions, obstacle races and various tasks designed to test sensory and movement skills. The taekwondo robot bouts, blending South Korea's ancient martial art with space-age technology, lured the most spectators.

With over 1,000 researchers and robot experts from 30 countries participating, the Korea Robot Conference was the place to find out about the present and future of the robot industry.

 

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

It's a question that has plagued man for centuries: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Well, Scientists say they've found the answer: The chicken!

Scientists cracked the age-old puzzle after discovering the formation of eggs is only possible thanks to a protein found in chicken's ovaries.

That means eggs have to be formed in chickens.

The protein is called ovocledidin-17 (OC-17) that speeds up the development of the shell.

Researchers from Sheffield and Warwick universities laid out their findings in the paper 'Structural Control of Crystal Nuclei by an Eggshell Protein'.

They used a super computer to zoom in on the formation of an egg and realised the protein is vital in kick-starting the crystallisation process.

It works by converting calcium carbonate into calcite crystals which makes up the egg shell.

Complete Report.