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Facts about Nature
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• On average, a woman speaks 16,215 words per day, while a man speaks 15,669 words. - San Diego Union, 4/29/08
• The average laboratory mouse runs five miles per night on its treadmill. - San Diego Union, 4/17/08
• Collisions with birds cause more than a billion dollars worth of damage to civil aircraft each year. - Discover Magazine, 5/08
• There is a garbage patch floating in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas. It consists mostly of throwaway plastic items, and grows by 10% each year. - San Francisco Chronicle, 10/19/07
• An unusual cold snap in South Florida has caused iguanas to fall from trees in droves. A Miami zoo spokesperson said, "they lose their grip on the tree, and they start falling." - The Week Magazine, 1/18/06
• Dirt contains bacteria that helps fight depression. - The Week Magazine, 12/28/07
• A 28.6 pound hailstone hit a car in Tampa, Florida in January 2007, crushing the roof. - San Diego Union, 1/3/08
• Birth control pills are being blamed for a dramatic reduction in fish populations. It seems that the estrogen in wastewater in some parts of Canada is killing off minnows in rivers. Larger fish, which feed on the minnows, are also suffering. - Discover Magazine, 1/08
• Indonesia rushed to plant 79,000,000 trees in early December 2007 as environmentalists prepared for a United Nations climate-change summit meeting. Indonesia has the highest rate of deforestation on the planet; illegal logging cuts down a forest the size of Switzerland each year. - The Week Magazine, 12/14/07
• A salamander can launch his tongue with a force estimated at up to 450 Gs. That's a feat impossible to acheive with muscles alone. Scientists are still investigating how the salamander does this. - Discover Magazine, 1/08
• Chimpanzees have a much better short-term memory than humans. - BBC, 12/3/07
• Scientists have produced a global weather map for HD189733b, a planet 63 light years away. - Discover Magazine, 1/08
• A crime wave is hitting India - the perpetrators are monkeys. Two dozen people were injured recently when monkeys rampaged through a New Delhi neighborhood. - India Times, 11/13/07
• A snow crystal can be 50 times as wide as it is think, so snow crystals (in a lab setting) can be grown to more than two inches across, they're still far thinner than a piece of paper. - Discover Magazine, 1/08
• Yellowstone National Park is rising by about 3 inches every year, due to a massive volcano underneath. - Science News, 11/10/07
• The largest snow crystal ever recorded was 15 inches across, found in Fort Keogh, Montana. - Discover Magazine, 1/08
• A black bear is being sought by New Jersey police on suspicion of stealing a minivan. Police theorize that the bear smelled candy inside the van, smashed the window and then "accidentally released the emergency brake" while foraging inside. The minivan rolled down a hill, with the bear inside. - The Week Magazine, 11/23/07
• The speed of light is approximately 186,000 miles per second through a vacuum. Going through ordinary window glass, light travels at only 120,000 miles per second. - San Diego Union, 11/15/07
• Thousands of Americans have made venomous snakes pets. In 2004, 52 people in America were treated for bites from exotic snakes. Three of those people died. - The Week Magazine, 11/16/07
• Gold is almost indestructible, and has always been highly valued throughout history, so humans have always recycled it. 85% of all gold ever found is still in use today. - Discover Magazine, 12/07
• A Michigan couple was driving in Chelan County, Washington, when a 600 pound cow fell off a cliff and landed on the hood of their minivan. "It's raining cows out here, man!", said Charles Everson. - USA Today, 11/7/07
• Marine biologists have discovered a clam off the coast in Iceland that is the oldest living animal in recorded history. The clam is 405 years old. - United Press International, 10/28/07
• A grey squirrel managed to squeeze its way through the bars of a bird feeder, then ate so many seeds and nuts that it was too fat to get out again. - BBC News, 10/25/07
• Fish occasionally suffer from insomnia. - MSNBC, 10/16/07
• Lab rats sent into space during mid-pregnancy (while their fetuses' inner ears are developing) spawn tipsy babies. - Discover Magazine, 11/07
• Sibu, an Orangutan at a Dutch zoo, refuses to mate with females of his own species. He seems to prefer his human female keepers, especially blond and tattooed ones. - Reuters, 10/15/07
• The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that Arctic ice shrank by 131,000 square miles (larger than the state of New Mexico) in just five days (August 17 through August 21, 2007). - Discover Magazine, 11/07
• Illegal traders had been feeding an elephant named "Big Brother" bananas laced with heroin in an effort to better control him. Now Chinese authorities are tasked with breaking the elephant's heroin addiction using methadone. - San Diego Union, 9/27/07
• A team of scientists melted Antarctic ice and revived bacteria frozen for 8,000,000 years. - Discover Magazine, 11/07
• 62,860 trees must be cut to provide paper pulp for just one Sunday edition of the New York Times. - Vanity Fair Magazine, 3/07
• Astronauts who snore on the ground don't snore while in space. - Discover Magazine, 11/07
• Greenland is feeling the effects of global warming more quickly than anywhere else on the planet. Average winter temperatures have gone up nine degrees from 1991 to 2003. - CNN, 6/6/07
• 18 people have died on space missions, but never in space. It's always on the way up or the way down. - Discover Magazine, 11/07
• A soap bubble is 10,000 times thinner than an average human hair. - San Diego Union, 6/12/07
• When it's not mating season, the penis of a drake (a male duck) is about the size of a grain of rice. When it's time to impregnate a mate, it grows into a twisted organ, sometimes longer than the duck's entire body. - The Week Magazine, 5/18/07
• The world's oldest crow is 118 years (estimated age). - San Diego Union, 4/19/07
• The Cleveland Indians baseball team had their first four home games of 2007 snowed out, and they played their next "home" series in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. - ESPN.com, 4/10/07
• The snake Rhabdophis tigninus recycles the venom from toxic toads it has eaten, storing it in glands and releasing it to kill other prey. - Discover Magazine, 4/07
• A recent survey of over 200 professional dog obedience judges ranked the Afghan hound as the least intelligent dog. The border collie was ranked the smartest. - Discover Magazine, 4/07
• Australian researchers have discovered that honeybees can recognize human faces. The bees were shown black and white portraits and given treats for correct answers. - Discover Magazine, 3/07
• 2005 was the warmest year in recorded history. 2006 is the sixth warmest year in recorded history. - San Diego Union, 12/21/06
• 3,300 bees were sent to space for seven days in 1984. The bees adapted perfectly to zero gravity, the only exception being that they held their excrement for the entire trip. - Discover Magazine, 3/07
• Eureka, California has never had a day where the temperature has reached 90 degrees. - San Diego Union, 12/14/06
• Cell phone towers are responsible for the deaths of between 4 million and 50 million birds each year. The birds mistake the tower lights for the stars that they use to navigate, and they crash into the towers or lines. - Los Angeles Times, 11/27/06
• The number of tigers kept as pets in America is approximately equal to the number of tigers in the wild. - San Diego Union, 11/30/06
• A rat can tread water for three days. A rat can also survive being flushed down the toilet, and can return to the building via the same route. - Discover Magazine, 12/06
• The Alaska Zoo built a treadmill for their elephant, Maggie, in 2005 (at a cost of $150,000). The elephant has never used it. That's the only elephant in Alaska, by the way. - San Diego Union, 11/30/06
• Yes, a chicken can live without its head. One robust chicken lived 18 months after its own beheading. - The Week Magazine, 11/3/06
• The Arctic Ocean ice cap shrunk by 289,500 square miles in 2005. That's an area larger than the state of Texas. - San Diego Union, 12/14/06
• In late June 2006, an Alabama man discovered a hornet's nest in his 1955 Chevy. The nest filled the entire car. - Popular Science, 11/06
• Sewage effluent from the wastewater treatment plant outside Boulder, Colorado can change male fish into females in just seven days. - San Diego Union, 2/1/07
• Lightning strikes the Empire State Building in New York about 25 times each year. - The Week Magazine, 11/3/06
• A cubic mile of fog is made up of less than one gallon on water. - San Diego Union, 10/12/06
• Actual mathematical equations have determined that you really do get less wet if you run in the rain. - The Week Magazine, 11/3/06
• The average distance a dandelion seed travels through the air is 6 miles. - San Diego Union, 9/21/06
• The front teeth of rats grow between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 inches per year. Rats wear them down by constantly chewing on everything around them. - Discover Magazine, 12/06
• The brain of a male black right whale weighs approximately 8.8 pounds. The testicles of a male black right whale weigh approximately 2,200 pounds. - San Diego Union, 10/12/06
• Norway is planning to build a "doomsday vault" inside a mountain on an Arctic island to hold a seed bank of all known varieties of the world's crops. This will supposedly preserve biodiversity in the event of a global disaster. - BBC News, 1/12/06
• Only one verified case of injury from a meteorite has ever been recorded. In 1954, an eight-pound meteorite crashed through a roof and bounced off a radio onto Annie Hodges' hip while she was napping. - Discover Magazine, 8/06
• Scientists in San Diego have discovered a plant gene that makes growth-inhibiting enzymes. If the gene is spliced into the grass genome, it will prevent grass from growing more than a few inches. This would mean a lawn that never needs to be mowed. - Popular Science, 8/06
• There is no such thing as the "speed of sound" - sound travels at different speeds depending on temperature and the medium it's passing through. The speed of sound is 4 times faster through water, and 15 times faster through steel than air. - San Diego Union, 5/24/06
• Whales and dolphins can literally fall half asleep. Their brain hemispheres alternate sleeping so the animals can continue to surface and breathe. - Discover Magazine, 7/06
• April 2006 in the United States was the warmest April on record. - USAToday, 5/17/06
• Bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name when they whistle, making them the only animals besides humans known to recognize such identity information, scientists said. Two dolphins will sometimes even refer to a third dolphin by name even when he or she isn't present. - USA Today, 5/8/06
• The mosquito is the most dangerous animal on the planet. Female mosquitoes carry malaria, which kills over one million people each year. - Yale Alumni Magazine, 3/06
• 4.5 pounds of sunlight strike the earth every day. - San Diego Union, 5/3/06
• The most dangerous animals in the United States are deer. They are responsible for vehicular collisions which accounted for 204 U.S. deaths in 2004. - University of Wisconsin (Madison) Study, 2/06
• 100,000,000 sharks are killed annually by commercial fishing. - San Diego Union, 3/8/06
• January 2006 was the warmest January on record. Several ice fishing contests in Minnesota were cancelled because lakes weren't fully frozen over. - Washington Post, 2/7/06
• Taipei 101 is the world's tallest building - 508 metres (1,667 feet) high. At 700,000 tons, it is among the heaviest. But the sheer size of the Taiwan skyscraper is thought to have triggered two recent earthquakes because of the stress that it exerts on the ground beneath it. - The Guardian, 12/2/05
• On average, every man, woman and child uses three gallons of oil daily. Transportation accounts for two of those gallons. - San Diego Union, 12/28/05
• The ingredient that gives Dannon Boysenberry yogurt and Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit juice their distinctive colors comes from crushed female cochineal beetles. - Wall Street Journal, 1/27/06
• The average American home today contains more synthetic chemicals than the average chemical plant a century ago. - San Diego Union, 12/28/05
• A research team at National Taiwan University claims it has succeeded in breeding three male green pigs by injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs. Partially green pigs exist elsewhere, but the Taiwanese pigs are believed to be the only ones that are green inside out, including their hearts and internal organs. In the dark, they glow bright neon green. The pigs will reportedly be used in stem cell research and in the study of several human diseases. - ABC News, 1/12/06
• An Australian couple walking along the beach discovered a 32 pound lump of whale vomit (ambergris). This find is worth approximately $300,000. - BBC News, 1/24/06
• An eight month old kitten survived a seventy mile ride on the New Jersey Turnpike inside the wheel well of an SUV. - Philadelphia Inquirer, 1/4/06
• Newcastle University scientists studied locusts; specifically electrically monitoring the activity of locusts' brain cells while they were watching selected highlights from the film "Star Wars". - Canada.com, 10/12/05
• Bats that have bigger testicles have smaller brains. - Discover Magazine, 2/06
• Between 1942 and 1977, Park Ranger Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times. - Entertainment Weekly, 1/13/06
• In 1955, a 9-year-old girl from South Dakota was riding her pony when a tornado appeared, carried her over a hill, and safely set her down 1,000 feet away. - Entertainment Weekly, 1/13/06
• Greenpeace said it will pay nearly $7,000 in damages after the environmental group's flagship, the Rainbow Warrior II, hit a coral reef at a world heritage site in the southern Philippines. - MSNBC, 11/2/05
• Scientists in Australia are investigating whether kangaroos could help combat global warming. Australia's sheep and cattle produce huge amounts of methane - but kangaroos do not. Researchers believe it might be possible to use bacteria found in the stomachs of kangaroos to reduce methane output from cows and sheep. - BBC News, 6/3/02
• Some of the new dog breeds that are recognized are the Scoodle (Scottie/Poodle mix), Pekepoo (Pekingese/Poodle mix), Puggle (Pug/Beagle mix), Schnoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle mix), GoldenDoodle (Golden Retriever/Poodle mix) and the Labradoodle (Labrador Retriever/Poodle mix). - DogBreedInfo.com, 10/05
• If temperature trends continue, Arctic summers may be ice free within 100 years. - Discover Magazine, 11/05
• A German inventor has found a way to convert a mixture of weeds, old tires and dead cats into inexpensive diesel fuel. - Reuters, 9/14/05
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair. - Springfield News-Leader, 2/8/05
• A Japanese scientist has found that human hands, foreheads and soles of the feet emit detectable light. - Discover Magazine, 11/05
• A lost parakeet in Morioka City, Japan started chirping his name and address. This enabled rescuers to reunite it with its grateful 84 year old owner. - NBC5.com, 9/22/05
• Researchers in Singapore have created a battery powered by urine. - MSNBC, 8/16/05
• Bales of confiscated marijuana will be fed to cows this coming winter in Russia. No word on how it will affect the milk from those cows. - MSNBC, 8/16/05
• Mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda are dying off from respiratory illnesses at a high rate. They may be picking up diseases from tourists, who have been told to keep at least 20 feet away at all times and stay no more than an hour. - Discovery Magazine, 9/05
• Geologists have discovered a new underwater volcano in Samoa. It is currently growing by eight inches each day. - Science Daily, 5/26/05
• According to a recent study, birds prefer their droppings to be on white cars. - WFMY News 2, 6/29/05
• Camels have three eyelids. - San Diego Union, 4/26/06
• Colombian scientists have said they could wipe out cocaine production with caterpillars. The larvae of the moth Elorio Noyesi might endanger other native species, however. - Science and Development Network, 6/22/05
• In spite of global warming, the East Antarctic ice sheet is growing by about 45,000,000,000 tons of ice each year. - Washington Post, 5/23/05
• A bald eagle crashed through a bay window of a Ketchikan, Alaska home, deposited a giant salmon on the living room floor, and then flew out again. - Associated Press, 6/15/05
• A golden-bellied mangabey monkey escaped from the San Diego Zoo, but was discovered less than an hour later - waiting outside a door to get back in. - Zoo-Talk.com, 6/26/05
• The number of Americans that are killed by sharks averages about one per year. An average of 168 Americans die per year when their cars collide with deer. - Outside Magazine, 6/05
• A hiker in Alberta, Canada successfully used martial arts training to kick an attacking grizzly bear in the face. - CTV.ca, 5/31/05
• A large lake east of Moscow disappeared overnight. Government officials theorize that a shift in soils underneath the lake opened access to an underground channel that drained the water. - Deseret News, 6/5/05
• A Romanian farmer is hoping to make a fortune after a chicken was born with four working legs. Doru Grigoras said, "Think of all the extra chicken drumsticks you can get off a chicken with four legs instead of two."He is planning to keep the black feathered chick until it grows up and then breed it to produce more four-legged birds. - Window to Romania, 6/1/05
• A CD or DVD will not degrade in landfills, and incinerating it will release harmful dioxins. So Sony, Sanyo, and Pioneer are working on biodegradable discs made of corn. Sanyo has delayed its corn-based disc because it tends to melt during playback. - Wired Magazine, 3/05
• A duck that is nesting in front of the Treasury Department in Washington DC has been given secret service protection. The duck has been given several names, including "Duck Cheney." - USA Today, 4/8/05
• A Swiss ski resort announced it would combat global warming by wrapping its mountain glaciers in aluminum foil to keep them from melting. - The Week Magazine, 3/25/05
• A 22 pound lobster was caught recently off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts. It is estimated that the lobster is between 50 and 100 years old. - CNN, 3/2/05
• Global warming may be causing the world's highest peak to shrink. The peak of Mt. Everest has dropped by 1.3 metres due to melting of glaciers resulting from global warming. - BBC, 1/25/05
• The earthquake that caused the recent Asian tsunami was the second largest ever recorded, say scientists. New measurements show the quake was much bigger than thought, which could explain why it had such huge impact. Professors at the Northwestern University in Chicago found that the earthquake measured 9.3 on the Richter scale, not 9.0 as was reported. - BBC, 2/8/05
• Up to four times as many females as males may have been killed in the tsunami according to new research released three months since the tsunami. - Medical News Today, 3/30/05
• If human beings completely stopped burning fossil fuels today, the planet would continue to heat up for at least another 100 years. - NASA, 2/17/02
• The Mesa, Arizona Police Department SWAT team wants to add a capuchin monkey to its staff. The monkey could become the ultimate reconnaissance tool. Capuchins are small, weighing between 3 and 8 pounds, have tiny humanlike hands and puzzle-solving skills. The monkey could be trained to unlock doors and search buildings. - Associated Press, 4/19/05
• Future Lebanon County Pennsylvania home buyers won’t be surprised at any seasonal agricultural odors if they receive a new county brochure. The brochure will drive the point home with a preview whiff of scratch 'n sniff manure. - CBS2Chicago.com, 6/17/05
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| Author: shoba 16 May 2008 | Member Level: Gold Points : 2 | Thanks..This shows that you love nature very much
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