Quick facts about tundra

Tundra refers to area where specific climatic and geographic conditions hinder the tree growth, resulting in specific vegetation that includes dwarf shrubs, sedges and grasses, mosses, and lichens.

The world's most famous tundra is Arctic tundra. At winter, the temperatures in Arctic tundra go below -40°C with average temperature being −28 °C.

Arctic tundra is also characterized by very strong and cold winds. The powerful winds in Arctic tundra often blow 30–60 miles an hour.

In the last few decades some shrubs in the Arctic tundra have turned into trees as a result of the climate change and increased temperatures in Arctic. Because of the increased temperatures Arctic tundra is shrinking, and in process opening the door to rapid forestation. What this means is that many trees can now survive in places that would have been too cold before

The ever-growing climate change impact has already significantly increased vegetation in Arctic tundra regions, and many scientists believe that this increase in vegetation can lead to further global warming acceleration by leading to a faster melting of the snow in spring.

Tundra is usually characterized by low biodiversity due to harsh natural conditions. The only real exception to this rule is the fact that millions of birds migrate in tundra each year for the marshes.

It is believed that Arctic tundra is rich with many important resources such as oil and uranium.

The three main types of tundra are Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra.

Unlike Arctic tundra, Antarctic tundra is characterized by the lack of large mammal fauna.

The main difference between the Antarctic and alpine tundra is that alpine tundra typically does not have permafrost. The dominant flora of alpine tundra is dwarf shrubs.

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Interesting facts about sleep

The essential function of sleep is to provide rest for the entire organism. Sleep results in decreased perception of the surrounding environment giving your body a much needed rest.

The several recent studies have confirmed the relation between the sleep deprivation and gaining weight. One of the main reasons for this is that less sleep means we burn off fewer calories.

The recent research by the Uppsala University has showed that the lack of sleep makes your brain feel hungry by activating person's appetite sensation which can lead to overweight and obesity problems later on.

Insufficient sleep is a growing problem in modern society. Our modern way of life is often connected with inadequate sleeping habits which are anything but good for our health.

People should sleep about eight hours every night in order to give their body the rest it needs. U.S. federal guidelines currently prescribe 9 hours of sleep to high school students. According to a 2012 study published in the Eastern Economics Journal, the right amount of sleep decreases with age (for instance 10 year olds need more than 9 hours of sleep while 16 year olds are optimal with 7 hours of sleep).

The lack of sleep can even lead to memory problems later in life and can even result in early Alzheimer's disease.

According to a Michigan State University study people are able to learn while they are sleeping. This refers to an unconscious and separate form of memory, distinct from traditional memory systems. The scientists have discovered that our brain is processing information while we are sleeping without us being aware of this and that this ability may contribute to improved memory in a waking state.

In the United States 18% of adults are estimated to get less than 6 hours of sleep. This is more than 50 million people that suffer from sleep deprivation.

The lack of sleep has been also connected with increased blood pressure.

Sleep loss adds a similar response from our body like during the exposure to stress, resulting in a larger number of white blood cells. Good night sleep therefore helps sustain the proper functioning of the immune system

According to a 2011 study by Spanish scientists the teenagers with an average amount of nightly sleep score higher on mathematics compared to those who slept shorter.

If you're frequently getting less than 6 hours of sleep per day, you're significantly increasing risk for stroke.

Exercise is one of the vital factors contributing to a good night sleep. According to a 2011 Oregon State University study the quality of sleep increases considerably for people if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week.

It has been estimated that around 35 to 40 percent of the U.S. adult population suffers from sleep disorder.

The intensive use of mobile phones often leads to sleep disturbances in young people.

About 3.6 percent of US adults are prone to sleepwalking.

According to a 2011 Kessler study insomnia costs US workforce $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity.

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Interesting facts about antioxidants in food

Food rich with antioxidants helps prevent diseases such as cancer and coronary heart diseases.

Contrary to popular belief, fruits and vegetables do not lose any antioxidant content in the days after purchase, even as signs of spoilage start to appear. The Belgian scientists confirmed this in 2007.

The recent study done by Pennsylvania scientists claims that popcorn is food with higher antioxidants level than fruits and vegetables.

Apples are one of the main sources of flavonoids in the Western diets. Flavonoids have antioxidant properties and help lower the risk of cardiovascular diseases, certain types of cancer, and other chronic diseases.

Brightly colored foods like tomatoes, broccoli, blueberries, and apples are excellent sources of antioxidants.

Almost all fruits and vegetables lose at least some level of antioxidants while cooking. The smallest loses were recorder with artichoke, green beans and garlic.

The fruits that are very rich with antioxidants are popularly called „super fruits“. Blueberries are usually most talked about super fruits.

Herbs and spices are excellent sources of antioxidants which means that adding them to your food may protect your organism against different diseases.

The recent U.S. study showed that walnuts have a combination of more healthful antioxidants and higher quality antioxidants than any other nut. Walnuts have almost twice as much antioxidants as compared to other nuts such as peanuts, almonds, pecans, and pistachios.

Children exposed to cigarette smoke have lower levels of antioxidants and would therefore require larger intake of food rich with antioxidants.

Eggs, which are one of the most important sources of proteins, vitamins and minerals, have antioxidant properties, especially helpful in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer. The researchers have measured that two egg yolks in their raw state have twice as many antioxidant properties as an apple.

Several recent studies have confirmed that caffeine, a healthful antioxidant in coffee and tea, is helpful against the Alzheimer's disease and heart diseases.

Tomato plants have high levels of antioxidants. Organic tomato juice, for instance, contains higher level of antioxidants than juice from conventionally grown crops.

Dark chocolate has good level of antioxidants. Cocoa powder contains many beneficial antioxidants but processing decreases their total content. Adding milk to chocolate decreases the total level of antioxidants in chocolate.

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Interesting facts about pearls

Pearls are hard crystalline objects produced in the mantle of a living shelled mollusk.

Pearls are made of calcium carbonate just like this is the case with the shell of the mollusk.

Not all pearls have ideally round shape and smooth surface because there are many other shapes of pearls. In fact, pearls come in eight basic shapes: round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, oval, baroque, and circled.

A very large number of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls though most of these pearls don't have a gemological value and are not used for jewelry purposes. Term gem-quality pearls only refers to nacreous and iridescent pearls.

The largest pearl in the world is the Pearl of Lao Tzu, sometimes also referred to as The Pearl of Allah. This gigantic pearl measures 24 centimeters in diameter (9.45 inches) and weighs 6.4 kilograms (14.1 lb). It was discovered in 1934 from the Island of Palawan in the Philippines and has an estimated value of $60 million despite not being the gem-quality pearl.

The ocean acidification is a huge threat to future pearl production because ocean are becoming more acidic and since they are made of calcium carbonate they are under threat for even the small rise of acidity in oceans.

Pearls can be also divided to freshwater and saltwater pearls. China is the world's largest producer of freshwater pearls.

The creation of pearl doesn't happen overnight. This is a rather long and slow process, because the material first must be extracted from sea water and then processed by special cells in the mollusk's body. Sometimes it takes up to 20 years for the creation of precious natural gem-quality pearls.

Pearl oysters very rarely produce naturally black pearls and this is the reason for their expensive price tag. The black pearls are also called Tahitian pearls because the oyster and pearl are indigenous to the pure blue lagoons of French Polynesia. The cultured Tahitian pearl farms are located in the blue lagoons of the Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago, which belongs to the five archipelagos that make up French Polynesia. Tahiti is the main archipelago.

The pearls produced by Pinctada maxima pearl oyster are called South Sea Pearls. Among the most valuable South Sea Pearls are the white pearls from Broome area of Australia and golden ones that come from the Philippines.

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Unknown facts about gold

Sulfur plays very important role in the creation of gold deposits because it enhances gold solubility.

The US state of Nevada is the second largest concentration of gold on Earth, after the South Africa. The gold exploration in Nevada started in 1961 with the discovery of the Carlin gold mine.

Gold nanowires and nanoparticles are expected to play huge role in medicine in years to come as they can even help treat cancer because of their ability to disrupt the blood supply to cancerous tumors and they also have the potential to enable early diagnosis of several types of cancer.

Gold nanoparticles are currently also being very intensely researched for possible applications in catalysis, sensing, photonics, biolabelling, drug carriers and molecular electronics.

The record prices of gold have significantly increased the level of deforestation in certain parts of the Amazon rainforest as there is an increased number of small-scale miners blasting and clearing the forests in search for gold.

The term "fool's gold" refers to mineral pyrite because of its metallic luster.

Thew origin of gold on our planet is believed to be the result of a bombardment by meteorites which occurred more than 200 million years after Earth was formed.

There are likely no planets made entirely out of gold. This is because gold is formed together with dozens of other elements such as iron, manganese, silicon, lithium, in massive stars that become supernova. These all elements come together in a package and gold has no chemical or physical properties that would cause only gold molecules to bind together and form planets or any other space bodies.

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Interesting facts about Hubble telescope

Hubble telescope is the most famous telescope of them all, and it has been giving astronomers valuable information since the time it was first carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle on April 24, 1990.

This telescope is a true technological wonder as it is able to take extremely sharp images with almost no background light.

On July 4, the Hubble telescope achieved its jubilant one millionth science observation during a search for water in an exoplanet's atmosphere 1,000 light-years away.

The Hubble telescope has certainly added new meaning to the sharp imagery of the Universe as the most detailed visible-light image ever made of the universe's most distant objects comes from the Hubble's Ultra Deep Field image.

The Hubble telescope enabled tremendous step forward for all astronomic research, and has so far collected more than 50 terabytes of data.

The Hubble was originally planned to go into the orbit in 1983 but the launching was delayed because of technical problems and lack of funds.

The Hubble telescope is still the only telescope designed to be specifically serviced in space by astronauts.

The Hubble telescope already has its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that should be launched in 2018.

The last time Hubble was serviced was in May 2009. With these last servicing efforts it is expected that Hubble should remain fully functional till at least 2014.

There is a replica of the Hubble Telescope on the courthouse lawn in Marshfield, Missouri, the hometown of famous astronomer Edwin P. Hubble. Edwin Hubble was one of the most important astronomers of all time, he revolutionized the astronomy's way of thinking by confirming the existence of galaxies other than our own.

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Interesting science facts - Top 25 science facts

Despite the fact that the scientific methods have been used since the start of the Middle Age, the first traces of modern science have started during the 16th and the 17th century, the so called Early modern period.

The astronomy estimates there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the Universe, and our own galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, has alone between 200-400 billion stars. So if an average galaxy has around 300 billion stars you can imagine the incredible number of all stars in our universe.

Africa is considered to be an origin of today’s modern humans. According to the currently dominant theory Homo sapiens arose in Africa and migrated out of the continent around 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, replacing populations of Homo erectus in Asia and Neanderthals in Europe.

The recent estimates say that there are more than 310,000 plant species on our planet.

The oldest animal fossils (some sort of early sponges) originate from South Australia and are more than 665-million-year-old.

People (and other hominids) have been using rocks for more than 2 million years.

Up to now, scientists have identified more than 500 different dinosaur species. The smallest dinosaurs had the size of a chicken.

The dinosaurs have gone extinct around 65 millions years ago probably due to very large meteorite hitting our planet.

Our planet formed more than 4.5 billion years ago and it is estimated that it took around one billion years for life to develop on Earth.

Oceans cover most of our planet, approximately 71% of our planet.

Sputnik one that was launched in 1957 by Russians was the first Earth orbiting satellite.

In 1947, a pilot Chuck Yeager was the first person to pass the speed of sound, flying the aircraft called Bell X-1.

Planet Mars is called „Red planet“because of iron oxide which is prevalent on its surface and gives it a reddish look.

The fastest wind speed ever recorded was 318 mph, in one of the tornadoes that hit the City in May, 1999.

The world's longest rain streak happened in Hawaii in Kaneohe Ranch, Oahu, where there was rain for 247 straight days from August 27 1993 to April 30 1994.

The world's biggest Earthquake in history occurred in Chile back in 1960. This earthquake had a magnitude of 9,5 and killed more than 1650 people.

It is believed that the greatest volcano eruption in history occurred in Toba, Sumatra, around 71,000 years ago. This eruption was so powerful that it produced some 2800 cubic kilometers of ash and it is also believed to have caused major decline of human population to around 10,000 individuals.

Around 80% of tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean but the possibility for tsunami is present in every larger water body, including the lakes.

Gangkhar Puensum, Bhutan is the highest unclimbed mountain in the world with an elevation of 7,570 meters and a prominence of over 2990 meters.

The jackfruit, widely cultivated in tropics, is the largest tree-born fruit, weighing up to 80 pounds (36 kg), up to 36 inches (90 cm) long and up to 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter.

The blue whales are considered to be the largest animals on Earth in history. These huge animals can weigh up to 150 tons and reach length of more than 30 meters.

The largest tree on Earth is General Sherman, in Tulare County, California. This gigantic sequoia is 83.8 meters (275 ft) tall, has a diameter of 7.7 meters (25 ft), an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic meters (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of more than 2500 years.

World's largest salty lake is Caspian sea that covers an area of 143,200 square miles (370,886 km2) and the world's largest freshwater lake is Lake Superior that covers an area of 31,700 mi2 (82,103 km2)

The lowest temperature ever recorded on our planet was −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at the Russian Vostok Station in Antarctica July 21, 1983. The highest temperature ever recorded was 36° Fahrenheit (58° C) in Libya, back in 1922.

An African Hunting dog can run at 50mph for up to 4 hours.

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General facts about nanotechnology

Nanotechnology includes all processes that tend to manipulate with a matter on an atomic and molecular scale and involves developing materials or devices that possess at least one dimension within 1 to 100 nanometre in size.

Nanotechnology holds a great future promise as it can not only improve vast area of current applications but can also create brand new materials and devices.

Billions of dollars are poured into nanotechnology each year for different researches such as the delivery of drugs into the body, increasing the efficiency of different renewable energy technologies to reduce friction in automobile engines and machines, and improving methods of food packaging.

Nanotechnology as a science has throughout the years developed to several different scientific branches such as nanoelectronics, nanomechanics, nanophotonics and nanoionics.

At the end of 2010 there were more than 1300 manufacturer-identified nanotech products publicly available plenty of which are used for health and fitness. The scientists have estimated that the number of nanotech products could reach 3,500 different products by 2020.

Nanotechnology has stirred many lively debates because some people believe that new developments in nanotechnology could even result in untraceable weapons of mass destruction because nanomaterials have almost unlimited potential.

The environmental effect of nanotechnology is still unknown. Some fear that nanomaterials could cause big damage to our environment because several nanomaterials have showed big levels of toxicity.

Many scientists believe that nanotechnology needs to be very strictly regulated in order to minimize the possible negative impact on human health and environment.

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Quick facts about white dwarfs

A white dwarf is the term in astronomy used to describe the last stage in the life cycle of a (massive) star like our Sun. This last stage in the life of star occurs when star sheds its outer atmosphere, leaving the glowing, gradually cooling, core as a white dwarf. For our Sun this process will begin about 5 billion years in the future.

In the last stage of their life, these massive stars have enormous density, for instance one teaspoon of white dwarf material is estimated to weigh more than a ton.

Many astronomers have specialized in studying white dwarfs mostly because they believe this research could eventually give us more exact info about the destiny and the end of our solar system as our Sun will also eventually end its life as white dwarf.

Most white dwarfs are mainly composed of the two simplest elements in universe, hydrogen and helium. However, white dwarfs can also contain elements such oxygen, nitrogen, silicon and even iron originating from the remains of planets. The scientists have even discovered a white dwarf star system where each star appears to have been stripped down to just its helium.

White dwarfs are among the oldest objects in known universe since they are the end point of life of the life cycles of most stars.

There are some scientists who believe that the best place to look for planets that can support life is around white dwarfs. What they believe is that these new planets could possibly form from a ring of debris left behind by the white dwarf.

The nearest white dwarf to Earth is so called Sirius B at a distance of about 8.5 light years.

When two white dwarfs merge, their combined mass can exceed beyond a tipping point, leading to a supernova-like explosion.

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Interesting facts about ozone holes

Term ozone hole refers to seasonal shrinkage of stratospheric ozone over Earth's polar regions.

The freons (CFC compounds) are the main destructive force behind the creation of ozone holes. It has to be said that CFCs were banned in most countries because of their negative impact on depletion of the ozone layer.

Ozone is important for all life on our planet because ozone layer protects us from excessive ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

The 2011 ozone loss at Arctic looks to be reaching a record level. The scientific measurements in the February/March 2011 showed that around half of the ozone that was present above the Arctic has been destroyed in couple of weeks time.

The scientists believe there is a strong link between the climate change and ozone holes but the interactions between the ozone layer and climate change haven't been completely understood yet and are the subject of many ongoing researches.

Despite this year's negative news regarding the ozone holes at Arctic and Antarctica many scientists believe that long-term ozone layer recovery is realistic to expect because of international environmental policy measures (Montreal Protocol) enacted for its protection.

Scientists are still not certain whether ozone depletion is somewhat connected with the decrease of Antarctic ice or not.

Ozone hole above Antarctica typically starts in September and lasts till early December.

Scientists are constantly analyzing ozone hole chemistry in order to be able to make more accurate predictions of polar ozone loss above Antarctica and Arctic.

Some scientists believe that the efforts in healing the ozone hole above Antarctica could actually increase the global warming impact in the Southern hemisphere.

Currently the largest ozone-depleting substance is Nitrous oxide. Scientists believe that this substance will remain the largest contributor to ozone holes throughout the entire 21st century.

Scientists still haven't discovered concrete evidence that would link ozone depletion to higher incidence of skin cancer in human beings.

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Quick facts about tsunamis

Here are some quick and interesting facts about tsunamis and their devastating power.

The origin of tsunami doesn't necessarily have to be an earthquake. Tsunami can also be a result of volcanic eruption, landslides, meteor hit, etc.

Tsunamis are most frequent in Japan, up to now there have been close to 200 recorded tsunamis in Japan.

The recent earthquake with the magnitude of 8,9 that caused the tsunami in Japan wasn't the strongest tsunami-causing earthquake. In 2004, a 9.3 magnitude earthquake in northern Sumatra, Indonesia caused a extremely powerful tsunami with waves as high as 10.5 m moving at a speed of up to 8 m per second.

In some cases the large earthquake is not needed to create large tsunami. The scientists have calculated that even a moderate earthquake on a strike-slip fault can lead to huge tsunami.

The most simple definition of a tsunami would be a serious of powerful water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of water.

Cities that lie near an area where two tectonic plates slide past each other (the so called strike-slip fault) have very high risk to be faced with destructive tsunamis. Los Angeles and Kingston are among these cities with very high tsunami risk.

The oldest recorder tsunami was the one that in the 365 A.D. devastated the ancient city of Alexandria.

The scientists have developed several different tsunami warning systems. The most important thing about tsunami warning system is that it needs to be flawlessly effective by allowing the perfect coordination of action for emergency officials. Today's computer models can predict tsunami arrival within minutes of the arrival time.

The destructive nature of tsunamis calls for building more resistant structures in areas with high tsunami risk in years to come.

The deep ocean tsunami has a wavelength of around 120 miles. More than three quarters of tsunamis (around 80%) occur in the Pacific Ocean.

It is still not possible (with the current technologies) to prevent tsunami from occurring. The best thing we can do is to try to reduce the damage by as much as possible (by for instance slowing tsunami, if possible of course).

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Ecohydrology definition and facts

Ecohydrology is by definition a scientific field inside the science of ecology which specifically studies the interactions between water bodies and different ecosystems. More specifically, ecohydrology does not only study how certain organisms such as plants adapt to their water environment, but also vice versa, namely how does vegetation effect the water streams. This is the reason why we are talking about the interaction between the water and ecosystems when talking about ecohydrology.

Ecohydrology studies the flow of water on, above, and below the surface on the earth, and its alterations caused by the interactions with various ecosystems. In order to get the comprehensive picture of this interaction ecohydrologists need to study both the terrestrial as well as the aquatic systems. Terrestrial systems are for instance forests while the underground water bodies are for instance water and lakes.

Ecohydrology is not only connected with ecology and biology but also with the chemistry, geomorphology, and hydrology.

The starting premise of ecohydrology as science is the connection between the plant physiology and water availability. This means that in areas when there are abundant water resources such as rainforests the growth of plants depends more on the quality of nutrients in soil unlike is some arid areas where plant growth primarily depend on the water that can be extracted from the soil.

Studying ecohydrology is important because water management is going to become even more important in years to come once water resources become scarcer. Ecohydrology provides valuable information to water managers so they can evaluate the condition of water resources and it also provides valuable information to ecologists in their effort to protect ecosystems.

Ecohydrology is also closely connected with hydrobiology. Hydrobiology is the scientific field that studies all life in water.

Ecohydrology could also play important role in determining how will climate change influence the interaction between water bodies and ecosystems.

Ecohydrology is fast-emerging new discipline that is getting lot of supporters because of its ability to connect ecology and hydrology.

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Interesting science facts about fog

Fog represents the collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface.

Fog is basically a type of low-lying cloud.

The only difference between fog and mist is in their density. Fog reduces visibility to less than 1 km while mist reduces visibility to no less than 1 km.

The foggiest place in the world is the Grand Banks off the island of Newfoundland, this is because this area represents a meeting place of the cold Labrador Current from the north and the much warmer Gulf Stream from the south.

Argentina is the most foggiest country in the world, having more than 200 foggy days per year.

US city Seattle is famous for having many foggy days per year.

In order for fog to be created the difference between temperature and dew point needs to be smaller than 2.5 °C or 4 °F.

In normal conditions fog will appear at a relative humidity near 100%.If the air has a 100% relative humidity this means that it can hold no additional moisture.

Fog can have many different forms, depending on how the cooling that caused the condensation occurred. The forms of fog include Radiation fog, Ground fog, Advection fog, Frontal fog, Freezing fog, etc.

The foggiest area in the United States is Point Reyes, California with around 220 foggy days per year.

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Interesting and fun facts about potatoes

The potato originated in the region of southern Peru where it was first domesticated between 3000 BC and 2000 BC.

Potato was first introduced in Europe by Spain in 1536, and the Spanish claim that that Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada was the first to introduce the potato to Europe. Potatoes were not accepted at once in Europe because clerics said they were not mentioned in the bible, while others believed potatoes can cause some diseases.

Potato still remains an essential crop in Europe, where per capita production is still the highest in the world.

The world's largest potato producing country is China.

Potatoes are among most environmentally friendly vegetables. They’re easy to grow, and don’t require massive amounts of fertilizer and chemical additives to thrive like many other vegetables do.

The world’s largest potato weighed in at 18 pounds, 4 ounces. This is enough for more than 70 portions of medium fries at McDonalds. This gigantic potato was found in England in 1795.

The potato is considered as the fourth most important crop behind the corn, wheat, and rice.

Scientists say there are around five-thousand potato varieties worldwide with hree thousand of them having origin in the Andes.

The average American eats 140 pounds of potatoes per year. Germans are among biggest potato lovers as they eat more than 200 pounds of potato per year.

The world production of potatoes in 2008 was 314 million tonnes.

Potatoes have some positive effects on human health: they are good against colon cancer, improve glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, lower plasma cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations, increase satiety. Potato is also rich with vitamin C.

Potatoes are also used to brew alcoholic beverages such as vodka, potcheen, or akvavit.

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Interesting science facts about wind

Wind on our planet represents the flow of gases, and consists of the bulk movement of air.

From the astronomical point of view there are tow types of winds, solar winds that exist in outer space, and planetary winds that occur on planets. The distinction between these two type of winds is that solar wind represents the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space while planetary wind represents the out-gassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space.

Meteorology, when determining wind usually takes into account two main factors, the power of the wind, and the direction wind is blowing from.

Wind is caused by differences in pressure. The difference in pressure causes the air to accelerate from higher to lower pressure.

Speaking in more broader terms we could say that the two major driving factors of large scale winds on our planet are the differential heating between the equator and the poles and the rotation of the planet.

The term Wind Power Density is yardstick used to determine the best locations for wind energy development. Wind energy is currently fastest developing renewable energy source in the world.

Wind is the main source of erosion in arid climates where wind causes small particles to be lifted and therefore moved to another region.

Warm air moves to the poles where it cools down while cold air moves towards the Equator where it heats up.

Wind has the ability to limit the growth of trees. For instance in isolated mountains, the tree line is often much lower than in corresponding altitudes inland because strong winds in these areas reduce the tree growth.

Birds often use advantage of wind conditions, in order to either fly or glide which saves them strength.

Total destruction of buildings and other structures occurs when winds reach 175 knots (324 km/h), though even at speeds that exceed 135 knots (250 km/h) large buildings will experience significant damage while homes will totally collapse.

Australia's Barrow Island holds the record for the strongest wind ever, reaching 408 km/h (253 mph) during tropical cyclone Olivia in April 1996.

In our solar system, Venus for instance has very powerful winds 300 kilometres per hour (190 mph) that occurs on planet every four to five days. Neptune has the fastest winds in our solar system, and at the cloud tops of Neptune, winds range in speed from 400 metres per second (890 mph) along the equator area.

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Unknown facts about black holes

Some recent theories have suggested that black holes my be even building their own host galaxy. Such scenario would be adequate to explain why the masses of black holes are larger in galaxies that contain more stars.

Some scientists believe that black holes came before starts and galaxies, and at some point they triggered the formation of stars and galaxies.

The scientists have come up with these two conclusions after conducting extensive observations of a peculiar nearby quasar HE0450-2958, which is the only one for which a host galaxy has not yet been detected. There was no trace of stars revealed around the black hole, and what they also noticed was that its companion galaxy is extremely rich in bright and very young stars. They have calculated that stars are forming at a rate equivalent to about 350 Suns per year, one hundred times more than rates for typical galaxies in the local Universe. The conclusion was pretty simple in the end as the scientists have identified black hole jets as a possible trigger of galaxy formation, which may also represent the long-sought missing link to understanding why the mass of black holes is larger in galaxies that contain more stars.

Here are some other fascinating facts about black holes.

Supermassive black holes are found in the cores of almost all large galaxies; our Milky Way galaxy is an exception that has inactive and starving black hole sitting at the centre, with only a fraction of them are believed to be active, as they eat up enormous amounts of material. These amazing actions produce a copious release of energy across the whole electromagnetic spectrum; and among most impressive are the quasars, where the active core is so overwhelmingly bright that it even outshines the luminosity of the host galaxy.

Most galaxies in the "local Universe" contain a supermassive black hole with a mass about 1/700th the mass of the stellar bulge. The origin of this black hole mass versus stellar mass relation is one of the most debated subjects in modern astrophysics, and question of many controversial theories.

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20 Fun science facts

The world record for carrying a milk bottle on your head is astonishing 24 miles.

Deserts represent about one-fifth of the Earth's total surface.

Robert Pershing Wadlow was the tallest man in the world with incredible height of 8'11" (272 cm). Sadly he died aged only 22, back in 1940.

The longest place name, that is believe it or not still in use, is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaung ahoronukupokaiwhenuakitamatahu. This is the name of one hill in New Zealand. Congrats to the one who manages to pronounce this.

The earth's inner core is moving faster than the Earth's surface.

There is town in the world that has never seen the rain. It's name is Calama,and it's located in Chile, Atacama desert.

Coffee is very popular drink worldwide but only thirty-five percent of coffee drinkers drink their coffee black.

Rats are highly "productive animals". One couple is enough to produce 15000 new rats in less than a year.

Average person breathes about 10 million times a year.

The Ancient Mayans believed that throwing women into water wells will please their rain god.

Egyptians were first to use many thing including contraceptives. This happened some 1850 before Christ.

Americans have extremely unhealthy diet as average American's diet today consists of 55% junk food.

There is a dog that can't bark, a basenji, an African wolf dog.

Learning alphabet shouldn't be a problem in Hawaii since Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.

Afraid of lightning? Don't be cause the chances of being struck by lightning are only three million to one.

Honey is very precious thing. If you don't believe me ask bees because to make one pound of honey, honey bees must tap two million flowers.

Day can be longer than a year on some planets. For instance a day on the planet Mercury is twice as long as its year.

Humans and dolphins are only known creatures to have sex for pleasure.

Lions are animals that seem never to get enough since some lions mate over 50 times a day.

The temperature of ice cream is typically about -16°C when it’s served.

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Interesting science facts - 50 amazing science facts

1. Word "Science" derives from Latin word scientia meaning knowledge.

2. Human need approximately 12 hours in order to entirely digest the food.

3. Brain cells are the longest living cells in our body, they can last for an entire lifetime.

4. Some human brains are bigger than other and the biggest human brain weighed 2,3 kg.

5. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system with surface temperature above 450 C.

6. If we are to believe scientists there are approximately 50,000,000,000 galaxies "out there".

7. Sound travels 4 times faster in water than in air.

8. One of the most accidental discoveries was the one of microwave. This discovery happened after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

9. Kissing or shaking hands? In terms of germs be aware that more germs are transferred shaking hands than kissing.

10. Our moon is extremely dry, it is for instance one million times drier than the infamous Gobi Desert.

11. The highest recorded temperature on Earth was measured in Libya in 1922, and it was 58°C.

12. The lowest recorded temperature on our planet was -89.6°C. This was measured in Antarctica in 1983.

13. Not all animals on our planet have brains, for instance starfish do not have brains.

14. Kangaroos are lacking ability to walk backwards.

15. Eyes always remain same in size since the time we are born and till the moment we die, unlike our ears and nose that are constantly growing throughout our life.

16. Only humans have ability to sleep on their backs.

17. Our brain isn't much different than the rest of our body in terms of water since 80 % of our brain is water.

18. Our brain for proper functioning needs about quarter of total oxygen used by our body.

19. Crocodiles are not only swallowing unlucky victims but also the stones in order to help them dive deeper.

20. While cancer is perhaps the greatest disease of humanity, sharks do not have this problem as they are totally immune to cancer.

21. Surprisingly enough little mosquito has 47 teeth.

22. Ants are so hardworking that they even do not sleep.

23. In terms of rapid procreation rats lead the way since two rats can have after year and the half more than 1 million descendants.

24. Our fingernails are growing much faster than our toenails, about 4 times faster.

25. Talking about the hot stuff - The highest temperature produced in a laboratory was 920,000,000 F (511,000,000 C) at the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, NJ, USA.

26. Hurricanes cause havoc which is really no surprise since a typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent to 8,000 one megaton bombs.

27. Polar bears may look slow and fat, but they are in real life far from it since they can run at 25 miles an hour and jump over 6 feet in the air.

28. Mosquitoes like women more than men since they very much like smell of estrogen.

29. In case you have ever wondered why giraffes are such a quiet animals it is because they have no vocal chords to make any noise.

30. Interesting enough, Earth is the only planet in our solar system that hasn't been named after some Roman or Greek god.

31. Year is not always longer time period than a day. Mercury for instance has one day on the planet twice as long as one year. This is because Mercury rotates very slowly but revolves around the Sun in slightly less than 88 days.

32. Our Sun may be gigantic but it still loses 360 million tonnes of material each day.

33. In case you want to be taller than the perfect profession for you is astronaut since astronauts can be up to 2 inches taller returning from space.This happens because the cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.

34. In case you ever wonder how much does a gallon of water weighs the answer is 8.34 pounds (3.8kg).

35. Though many would say otherwise hot water freezes quicker than the cold water.

36. Albert Einstein had speech difficulties in early age.

37. Lions are excellent hunters especially when you consider that they usually hunt in coordinated groups and stalk their chosen prey.

38. Methane is extremely potent greenhouse gas and cows are among the largest methane emitters with each domestic cow emitting about 105 pounds of methane a year.

39. So far scientists have discovered over 20 planets outside our solar system.

40. Spacecrafts are extremely fast, with fastest one going to 40,000 mph.

41. Can you live without you head? Well if you are a cockroach you can manage somewhere around 9 days or so.

42. So how alike are humans and chimps? Well if you consider that we share 98.4% of our DNA you could say a very lot, though on other hand we do share 70% of our DNA with a slug.

43. Human fetuses are in fact great fans of rock music since they react to loud rock music by kicking, or does this mean that they hate rock?

44. Average male brain is larger than average female brain (1,4 kg to 1,25 kg).

45. Humans are not the only creatures on Earth that cry, elephants are crying creatures too.

46. Polar bears would make perfect thieves since they cannot be detected by infrared cameras because of their transparent fur.

47. Rats are really fast lovers, especially desert rats that can copulate 122 times an hour.

48. Lefties are really in minority since 88% of all humans are right handed.

49. Smelly feet are likely to get you in more trouble with mosquitoes since they prefer people with smelly feet.

50. Snails are definitely among the sleepiest animals as they can sleep for three years.

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