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 flu (influenza)

Flu belongs to so called infectious diseases.

Flu is caused by RNA viruses and doesn't only affect humans but also mammals and birds.

Flu has many different symptoms and the most common are coughs, fever, chills, muscle pains and headache.

Every year between 5-20% of the total U.S. population gets the flu.

In United States flu is responsible for about 36,000 human deaths each year.

Flu viruses are usually spreading from person to person through coughing or sneezing of people that already caught flu.

Older people, as well as young children are at higher risk of getting the flu because of their weaker immune system.

The flu shot is approved for use in people 6 months of age and older, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions. Even if you receive flu shot you can still get flu though there are much smaller odds for this to happen. Getting the flu vaccination each year is still the best prevention measure against the flue.

Swine flu (H1N1) is flu that is common in swine and rare in humans. People who work with swines are at higher risk of catching swine influenza virus if the swine carries a strain able to infect humans.

Swine flu virus very rarely mutates into a form able to pass easily from human to human, though such rare case happened in Mexico in 2009.

Flu spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands annually - millions in pandemic years.

The symptoms of flu were first clearly described by Hippocrates about 2,400 years ago.

The most famous and deadliest flu in history was Spanish flu which lasted from 1918 to 1919, and has killed by some estimates between 20-100 million people.

New flu viruses are being constantly produced, mostly by mutation from known viruses.

Flu complications can include pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of certain chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes.

In the United States, flu is responsible for a total cost of over $10 billion per year.

Flu is often confused with the common cold because of the similar symptoms, but flu is a much more severe disease compared to common cold.

It has been proven that the frequent hand washing reduces the risk of flu infection.

People who contract flu are mostly infective between the second and third day after the infection and infectious state usually lasts for around ten days.

Researchers are still on a lookout for universal flu vaccine that would also eliminate the need for seasonal flu vaccinations.

Flu vaccines contain bits of weak or dead germs that force the human immune system to produce antibodies that circulate in the blood in order to kill those specific germs.

There has been plenty of talk about how severe an H5N1 (bird flue) pandemic might be but yet there are still no efficient vaccines against it. This means that H5N1 still poses a serious international threat.

The H5N1 virus has very high fatality rate and has taken human lives in about 60 percent of the over 500 confirmed human cases.

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Interesting facts about wetlands

Wetlands are land areas where water is the main controlling factor of the entire surrounding environment. Wetlands are extremely important because they represent the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems. This means that by preserving wetlands we are also preserving our planet's rich biodiversity.

According to the latest study by French scientists the area of the globe covered by wetlands is constantly shrinking and has decreased by 6% in the last two decades. The main reason why wetlands are shrinking is the human population growth.

World's largest wetland is located in Brazil's Pantanal region but is constantly shrinking because of the increased industrial and agricultural activity.

Wetlands have many important functions such as: reducing the impact of flooding and protect subsurface water resources, they help recharge ground water supplies, control erosion, store large amount of greenhouse gases (about 771 billion tons of greenhouses gases ) and of course provide breeding, nesting and feeding grounds to variety of different species.

The scientists say that approximately 60 percent of world's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years, mostly to provide room for new farms. Wetlands currently cover less than 5% of Earth's land surface.

Restoring wetlands to original state is very difficult because restored wetlands very rarely have the same properties like original wetlands. The restored wetland may never be restored to its original state. This is mostly because of the plants that need much longer period of time to return to normal and establish the carbon resources in the soil that make for a healthy ecosystem. Preservation of the current wetlands is therefore much better solution than restoring destroyed wetlands.

Learning more knowledge about wetlands is essential for not just assessing climate change effects but also to learn about water resource management and how to preserve water supplies for our future generations.

Scientists fear that many coastal wetlands will disappear before the end of this century because of the increased climate change impact in form of sea level rise. The loss of these wetlands this will cause tremendous damage since they are extremely multi-functional and play so many vital roles such as „absorbing energy from coastal storms, preserving shorelines, protecting human populations and infrastructure, supporting commercial seafood harvests, absorbing pollutants and serving as critical habitat for migratory bird populations “ (Glenn Guntenspergen, American Geophysical Union).

According to the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment „environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than with any other ecosystem on Earth“.

Wetlands need more protection and better monitoring because preserving wetlands means preserving the health of our entire environment.

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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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Interesting facts about penguins

Emperor penguins are the largest species of penguins in the world, they can achieve height over 1 meter and weigh more than 35 kg.

Emperor penguins that live in Antarctica form tightly packed huddles and coordinate their movements to give all members of the huddle a chance to warm up in order to survive temperatures below -50 ° C and winds above 180 km/h during the Antarctic winter.

Penguins are amazing divers, and they also posses the ability to dive long after their muscles run out of oxygen. Once Antarctic Emperor penguin dives it may not emerge again for another 20 minutes because of its ability to switch to anaerobic metabolism in some tissues. Emperor Penguins are master divers and the scientists have measured a record dive reaching a depth of 565 m (1,870 ft). They also have excellent underwater vision.

Penguins cannot fly, their wings are in fact flippers but are therefore highly adapted to life in water. When penguin swims this in fact looks very similar to bird's flight in the air.

The scientists have found the evidences that some prehistoric species of penguins were as tall and as heavy as humans. However, these predecessors of today's penguins loved much warmer climate to live in. The New Zealand Giant Penguin weighed around 80 kg and was more than 1,80m tall. These gigantic penguin species vanished by the end of the Paleogene around 25 million years ago.

Scientists still do not fully agree on the exact number of penguin species in our planet because there are uncertainties whether certain penguin species should be considered to be a separate species. There are between 17-20 penguin species.

Penguin's color is their great camouflage that gives predators such as orcas great difficulty in catching them because it is not easy to distinguish a white penguin belly from the reflective water surface.

Penguins can be often spotted tobogganing (sliding on their bellies on snow) because this gives them ability to move quickly without using too much energy.

Not all penguins have black plumage as from time to time penguins are born with brown plumage. These penguins are called Isabelline penguins.

The largest penguin populations can be found at Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, and South Africa.

During a breeding season penguins form monogamous relationships. The incubation duties are shared equally among male and female in all species except the Emperor penguin where male does it all.

Penguins are generally not afraid of the humans because they are accustomed to life in the environment without the land predators.

Penguins also belong to animal species that sometimes form homosexual male couples. The reports from the Zoo in Japan showed that some male penguin couples have build nests together and have used a stone as a substitute for an egg.

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Interesting facts about bacteria

The Israeli scientists have discovered that bacteria can communicate with each other through nanotubes. With the help of nanotubes bacteria are even able to exchange small molecules, proteins as well as some small genetic elements.

Scientists are constantly looking for new ways to make it possible to prevent certain bacteria from developing resistance to antibiotics. Many of them believe that the solution may lie in bacterium's genome and are trying different experiments with inserting foreign DNA into bacterium's genome.

The scientists have proved that stress can change the bacteria levels in the gut which can have significant impact on our immunity.

Bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics through mutations in their chromosomes and by incorporating new foreign genes, either from the surrounding environment or from other bacteria.

Bacteria often attack with toxins that are programmed to hijack or even kill host cells. In order to protect themselves from these toxins bacteria also has antitoxin that is bound to the toxin in a way that keeps the toxin inactive and therefore not harmful to bacteria. The modern science is already heavily researching possibilities to make these antitoxins inactive and use it to kill disease-causing bacteria.

Bacteria are constantly increasing their resistance to antibiotics which means that science needs to constantly develop new generations of more powerful antibiotics.

It is estimated that worldwide nearly 50% of all antibiotics are used for veterinary purposes.

Antibiotics should always been used in the correct way and only when necessary because using too much antibiotics decreases their effect and makes bacteria more resistant.

Bacteria have evolved resistance to every major class of antibiotics, and since new antibiotics are being developed very slowly it is vital to prolong the effectiveness of existing drugs to treat bacterial infections.

Bacteria are typically only a few micrometres in length but have a wide range of different shapes.

There are around one million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water.

Bacteria have become very important for many branch of the industries, for instance, they play important role in sewage treatment as well as the production of cheese and yogurt through fermentation.

Bacteria were the dominant form of life on our planet by more than 3 billion years.

The most primitive form of oxygen-breathing bacteria appeared on our planet 2.48 billion years ago.

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Interesting facts about ligers

Liger is the largest of all known cat species and represents a hybrid cross between the male lion and a female tiger. Ligers do not exist in the wild, only in captivity because tigers have habitats mostly in Asia and lions mostly in Africa and besides that they are mortal enemies in the wild ready to kill one another when confronted.

It is believed that there are only few living ligers around the globe, and the most famous of them all is called Hercules. Hercules comes from the Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species, in Miami, Florida.

Hercules' birth was completely accidental, a result of an affair between tigress and one of the lion males at the Institute.

Hercules currently weighs more than 900 pounds, he is 6-feet-tall and 12-feet-long and holds the Guinness World Record for the largest cat in the world. He is also able to eat 100 pounds of food in just one sitting

Ligers can run faster than 50 mph, they like to swim like tigers and are very sociable like lions. Ligers are approximately the same size as the prehistoric American lions.

Ligers can live longer than 20 years, for instance female liger Shasta was born at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on May 14, 1948 and died in 1972 at age 24.

Ligers are not sterile though their offspring is usually of very delicate health. Male ligers, for instance, have the same levels of testosterone on average as an adult male lion.

There are no black ligers, in some cases ligers can be white, though this is extremely rare.

Ligers are distinct from the similar hybrids tiglons (female lion + male tiger) which tend to be about as large a female tiger.

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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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Interesting facts about robotics

The term "robotics" refers to the technology that has the main purpose in creating the mechanical intelligent agents called robots.

The term "robot" was first coined by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his play R.U.R. while term "robotics" was first coined by Isaac Asimov in his 1941 science fiction short-story "Liar!".

The great Leonardo Da Vinci has predicted the creation of robots in future.

At first mechanics was the great force behind the development of robots but as the science became more technologically advanced mechanics was replaced with electronics. The first digital and programmable robot was invented by George Devol in 1954 and is famous under the name of Unimate.

RoboCup World Championship (the soccer games with robots) which started in 1997 is often used as a testing ground regarding the robot's dynamics and locomotion.

The holy grail of robotics is to improve AI intelligence, particularly to create robots that would be able to integrate knowledge and put information into context so that they could make decisions in a split second.

The original idea behind creating robots was to use them do the work of humans, particularly hard work or work in a dangerous environment. Robots which must work instead of humans require some way to manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy, or otherwise have an effect and so far the science is finding it very hard to recreate human moves in robots. Mr. Data is sadly still far far away :)

The current existing robots can walk or run but this movement doesn't look that similar to humans and it also uses great deal of energy which means that robotics needs to make future robots more energy efficient.

Most today's mobile robots have wheels instead of legs.

Today's robots are used for various purposes all the way from vacuuming floors, mowing lawns, cleaning drains to investigating other planets, building cars, as well as being used in military operations.

Asia is believed to have more than half of all the robots in the world (particularly Japan that has over the 30% of all the robots in the world).

There are some people who believe that the future development in robotics will cause big unemployment because robots would be able to do the skilled work better than humans, not to mention the fact that they would likely be more than able to exceed the capability of workers to perform most jobs.

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Interesting facts about spintronics

The spintronics, sometimes also referred to as the magnetoelectronics, is basically a group of emerging technologies that exploit the intrinsic spin of the electron in solid state devices.

There are billions of different spintronics devices, and the most famous are sensors. For instance, every hard disk drive has a magnetic sensor that uses a flow of spins.

Spintronics is closely connected to microelectronics. This is because the key feature of spintronics is to connect the electron spin to electric current as current can be manipulated by means routinely used in microelectronics.

Spintronics should play extremely important role in years to come. Many scientists expect significant advancements in future spintronics devices as it is expected that it will be possible to create direct connection between the current and spin, without the need for magnets to inject spins as it is currently done by today's technologies.

Many scientists expect that graphene will play a key role in developing future spintronics devices. Graphene is a leading candidate to replace silicon in future electronic devices.

The main goal of spintronics is to of achieve the conversion of electricity into magnetism and vice versa.

Term "spintronic devices" refers to all electronic devices that are making use of electron spin.

Spintronic devices have excellent potential to become smaller, more versatile, and much faster than today's electronics based on silicon.

The future spintronic computer processors will require little power compared to today's computer processors.

The main advantage that spintronic devices have over today's electronic devices is the fact that unlike electronic devices they do not only use charge of the electrons but also their spin, which is way they are significantly more efficient.

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Planet Saturn - The latest interesting facts

Saturn's second largest moon, Rhea, is icy. According to the results from the NASA's Cassini spacecraft the oxygen appears to arise when Saturn's magnetic field rotates over Rhea. However, oxygen at Rhea's surface is estimated to be about 5 trillion times less dense than what we have at Earth.

The scientists have in 2010 detected the cyclon on Saturn which in that time was lasting for more than 5 years. The size of this enormous cyclone is similar in size to the European continent, and the diameter of its vortex is larger than 4,000 km.

It is very difficult to measure a day on Saturn because of enormous clouds of plasma that periodically bloom around Saturn and move around the planet. Scientists are still not sure how long a Saturn day is.

The heated plasma is trapped on the magnetic field around the planet Saturn. This magnetic field rotates at speeds of about 100 kilometers per second (200,000 mph).

According to observations by NASA's Cassini spacecraft Saturn emitted gradually less energy each year from 2005 to 2009.

Saturn's moon Titan has a surface covered with organic material and an atmosphere whose chemical composition harkens back to an early Earth. It also has a hydrological cycle similar to the one on Earth, though Titan's cycle depends on methane and ethane instead than water.

Titan is at this moment the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere. Atmosphere on Titan is ten times denser than the atmosphere of Earth. Titan's atmosphere does not include nitrogen and oxygen like Earth's, but rather nitrogen and methane.

Lakes and seas on Titan are very likely filled with liquid methane or ethane.

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Interesting facts about spiders

There are around 40,000 of different spider species living on our planet.

Spiders have eight legs.

Spiders have so far been found on every continent, except Antarctica.

Unlike insects spiders do not have antennae. Most insects use antennae as the primary olfactory sensors.

Spiders that produce tangled cobwebs are more abundant and diverse than orb-web spiders.

First spider like creatures appeared around 386 million years ago, and first predecessors of todays spiders around 200 million years ago.

Almost all spider species are carnivores and predators. In 2008 scientists have also discovered spider species that was vegetarian, the Bagheera kiplingi in Central America.

Spiders are very versatile when it comes to hunting a prey, they use techniques such as trapping prey in sticky webs, lassoing it with sticky bolas, mimicking the prey to avoid detection, or running it down. In other words they are excellent hunters.

Spiders are mostly individual creatures with very small number of spider species being social.

Most spider species live at most for two years though there are some species (like for instance tarantulas) that can live more than 20 years in captivity.

Some spider species have venom that can be highly dangerous for humans.

Spiders, together with scorpions, belong to the group of arachnids. Arachnids have eight legs while insects have six legs.

Spiders have a narrow gut that can only deal with liquid food.

Most spiders have four pairs of eyes, with the main eyes being located on front of spider's head. The secondary eyes are mostly used as the light detectors.

Spiders do not possess balance and acceleration sensors so they depend on their eyes to tell them which way is up.

Spiders use hydraulic pressure to flex their limbs.

Jumping spiders can jump up to 50 times their own length. They achieve this by increasing the blood pressure in the third or fourth pair of their legs.

Spiders have at least six types of silk gland, each producing a different type of silk.

Male spiders, to avoid being eaten by female spiders, need to perform very complex mating rituals prior to mating process.

Female spiders lay up to 3,000 eggs.

The smallest spiders are less than 0.37 mm long, while some tarantula species have body lengths up to 90 mm (3.5 in) and leg spans up to 250 mm (10 in).

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Interesting facts about the Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China represents the series of several walls have been built since the 5th century BC.

The Great Wall of China has been rebuilt and maintained from the 5th century BC through the 16th century, the majority of today's Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty.

The entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8,851.8 km (5,500 miles) from Shanhaiguan in the east, to Lop Nur in the west.

In the beginning, the Great Wall was mainly built from rammed earth, stones, and wood, in 15th century during the Ming period bricks were used for the first time.

Some portion of the Wall, especially near tourist centers have been preserved and even extensively renovated, but in many locations the Wall is in disrepair, and the worst condition is in the Gansu province where 37 miles of the Wall will likely disappear in the next two decades.

Unlike popular belief Great wall can't actually be seen from the moon, in fact the apparent width of the Great Wall from the moon is the same as that of a human hair viewed from 2 miles away.

Great Wall of China is barely visible from low earth orbit, and this only under perfect conditions.

In 2009, an additional 290 km (180 miles) of previously undetected portions of the wall ranging from the Hushan mountains in the northern Liaoning province, to Jiayuguan in western Gansu province, were discovered.

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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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Science facts about quantum mechanics and quantum particles

Quantum mechanics is basically set of different principles that describes the physical reality of the matter at atomic and subatomic level. Its origin is quantum theory that began with the study of the interactions of matter and radiation in the early years of the 20th century. Quantum theory is all about the exploring the nature of the matter by exploring its tiniest pieces (subatomic level).

Planck's constant is very important to quantum theory and quantum mechanics in general. It states that the energy of each quantum is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant: E=f*h, where h is 6.63 * 10E-34 Js.

Quantum mechanics can be referred to as the mathematical description of physical reality of the matter, like almost any other scientific model. According to quantum mechanics the most complete description we can make of a system is its wavefunction, which is mathematically speaking just a number varying between time and place.

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Fascinating science facts about Mars

Mars has extremely low temperatures, and frequent out of this world dust storms that are the biggest in our Solar system.

Martian dust storms occur every two to four Mars years are so powerful that they can cover the whole planet with dust for months.

In winter, the temperatures at the Mars' poles can go down to -140°C (-220 degrees Fahrenheit), these temperatures are so called that even carbon dioxide freezes.

The most difficult problem to any future human mission to Mars is to ensure reliable radio communication because Sun often blocks communication between Earth and Mars.

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Interesting science facts about teleportation

Teleportation is basically a transfer of certain matter from one point (location) to another that would in most cases have to occur instantly.

Teleportation is very common in sci-fi literature and movies, and up to today there are no evidences that teleportation is actually possible.

The term teleportation is more than 70 years old. It was coined in 1931 by American writer Charles Fort in order to describe the strange disappearances and appearances of anomalies, which he suggested may be connected. Today this term is mostly used in sci-fi movies that have theme in exploring space.

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