Goldfish Brains

MISCONCEPTION: Goldfish have a memory span of only three seconds.

TRUTH: Studies into the memory of goldfish have shown that the little fish can retain information on environments such as mazes, up to and beyond one year after initially learning the information, and I think we can all agree that one year is longer than three seconds.

The Body’s Light

Life is light – whilst that may sound like an excerpt from some religious text, it is actual fact. It has been shown that glowing is no longer the reserve of glow worms, firefly’s and deep sea fish. Biochemical reactions in, and on the body of nearly every creature on earth produce thousands upon thousands of compounds, and also light. Practically all life on earth produces visible light, whether it wants to or not. That includes humans – we quite literally glow. Constantly in fact. You are doing it right now.

Now most of us do not notice this because of the fact that the glow is so meager. 1000 times too dim for the human eye to even detect, but it is certainly still there. In fact, how much the human body glows changes throughout the day. A study into the subject using extremely sensitive cameras and light tight rooms found that you are particularly dim (in the light sense of course) at 10 am, whilst you are relatively bright at 4 pm.Japanese researchers are hoping to study it more extensively as it may be linked to how well the metabolism is functioning. They hope to one day have cameras that can see the faintest glow of your skin and tell whether or not you are in good health. A truly remarkable idea indeed.

In addition to us constantly glowing and changing how bright we are it was noted that the human face produces much more light than any other part of the body. Talk about a gleaming smile.

Mass of the earth

The mass of the Earth is 5.98 x 1024 kg or 5980000000000000000000000 kg.

However did you know that the Earth is constantly getting heavier. Thanks to the cosmic rubble , debris and general bric-a-brac wandering to the cosmos the earth gets heavier by between 20-40 tonnes per day.

Goat Eyes

Unlike most creatures with eyes, goats have horizontal rectangular pupils in their eyes. This wider pupil gives them the advantage of having a much wider periphery and it lets them see the edges of their vision in full 3D, a big advantage. Also it mean goats can nearly see behind themselves thanks to the evolutionary advantage.

You may of course believe that horizontal slit pupils are rare, but they are more common than you may think. They are more common with animals which often fall prey to other animals such as cows and many species of bird. We just notice them more in goats because they have paler eyes.

Also, wether is the term for a castrated male goat; if you need to know. To conclude, if you think you are sneaking up behind a goat, you are not. They can see you, and it’s all because of those odd eyes. So stop sneaking up on goats. I won’t tell you twice.

10: Every atom of our body is said to be billions of years old and our body is 70 percent water.

9: By the age of 18, the human brains stop growing.  It even begins to lose more than 1,000 brain cells after such age. Your brain comprises only 2 percent of your body weight but uses up to 20 percent of your body’s energy. Your brain never takes a break even when you are sleeping; the brain is busy working to replenish the brain processes needed to function normally while awake.

8: An average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.

7: It is impossible to sneeze without blinking your eyes. The highest recorded speed of a human sneeze is 165 kilometer per hour.

6: The human body sheds about 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime. Our skin produces antibacterial chemicals to keep germs at a bay. It also produces antimicrobial peptides that protect the body from infection.

5: You can’t swallow and breathe at the same time; however babies can do this but until they are about nine months.

4: Yawning helps you cool your brain. It is an involuntary behavior. When you yawn, the influx of cool air may ventilate your sinuses and facilitate brain cooling.

3: Your heart is said to beat nearly 3 billion times if you live an average life span of seventy years.

2: Your lungs need a lot of breathing room. The total surface area of the lungs is approximately equal to the size of a tennis court.

1: Each person has a unique tongue print just like the fingerprints.