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Learn more about your brain and how to take care of it

11/07/09 - Shea butter is a slightly yellowish or ivory colored natural fat extracted from the seed of the shea tree by crushing and boiling. Shea butter is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer and salve.

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11/06/09
The National Science Foundation was formed in 1950. It is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.
11/05/09
Methane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CH4. It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas.
11/04/09
Portugal is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east.
11/03/09
A gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Occasionally, sudden intense rainfall may produce flash floods in the area of the gulch.
11/02/09
Smelts are a family of small fish found in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They are also common in the North American Great Lakes, and in the lakes and seas of the northern part of Europe, and run in large schools along the coastline during their spring migration to their spawning streams.
11/01/09
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash masonry walls or to throw projectiles over them.

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10/31/09
An auger is a device for moving material by means of a rotating helical flighting. The material is moved along the axis of rotation. An integral part of a drill, the auger of the drill bit uses this mechanism to remove shavings from the hole being drilled.
10/30/09
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind and the defense mechanism of repression and for creating the clinical practice of psychoanalysis for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.
10/29/09
A turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The thoracic cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are stuffed, sometimes with a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.
10/28/09
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds. The term "petroleum" was first used in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, also known as Georgius Agricola.
10/27/09
The Ticonderoga is a pencil model distributed by the Dixon Ticonderoga Company, which was originally located in Jersey City, New Jersey. While their products are akin to those of similar companies, because of the company's 18th century origins and large size this brand name has long been a fixture of life in the United States and elsewhere, especially for primary school children.
10/26/09
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consume or used as an organic pesticide. In consumption it most commonly appears in the forms of smoking, chewing, snuffing, or dipping tobacco.
10/25/09
Fiberglass is material made from extremely fine fibers of glass. What is commonly known as "fiberglass" today was invented in 1938 by Russell Games Slayter of Owens-Corning as a material to be used as insulation.
10/24/09
The acai berry is the fruit of the acai palm tree. The fruit, a small, round, black-purple berry, is about 1 inch in diameter, similar in appearance and size to a grape but with less pulp.
10/23/09
An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against precipitation or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun, and umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain.
10/22/09
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The design dates to 1606 when a new flag was needed to represent the union of England and Scotland. The Union Jack integrates England's St. George's Cross with Scotland's St. Andrew's Cross.
10/21/09
A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab or hack) is a carriage or automobile for hire.
10/20/09
A station wagon is a passenger automobile with a body style similar to a sedan, but with the roofline following the full, sometimes extended rear cargo area and sometimes an extra row of sometimes rear-facing seats, ending with a more vertical door than on a hatchback.
10/19/09
A waterbed is a bed or mattress filled with water. A form of waterbed was invented in the early 1800s by the Scottish physician Neil Arnott. Dr Arnott's Hydrostatic Bed was devised to prevent bedsores in invalids, and comprised a bath of water with a covering of rubber-impregnated canvas, on which lighter bedding was placed.
10/18/09
Polyvinyl chloride, commonly abbreviated PVC, is the third most widely used thermoplastic polymer. Waldo Semon and the B.F. Goodrich Company developed a method in 1926 to plasticize PVC by blending it with various additives. The result was a more flexible and more easily-processed material that soon achieved widespread commercial use.
10/17/09
Celsius is a temperature scale that is named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who developed a similar temperature scale two years before his death.
10/16/09
Peafowl are best known for the male's extravagant tail, which it displays as part of courtship. The male is called a peacock, the female a peahen, though it is common to hear the female also referred to as a "peacock" or "female peacock." The female peafowl is brown or toned grey and brown.
10/15/09
Maggot is the common name of the larval phase of development in insects of the order Diptera (flies). Sometimes the word is used to denote the larval stage of any insects.
10/14/09
Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. A rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal, tantalum is highly corrosion resistant and occurs naturally. Its main use today is in tantalum capacitors, found in electronic devices.
10/13/09
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book "Where the Wild Things Are," published in 1963.
10/12/09
Menhaden have been called "the most important fish in the sea" because of the vital role that they play in the oceans' ecosystem. They go by many different names, some of the most popular being bunker, pogies, mossbacks, bugmouths, alewifes, and fat-backs.
10/11/09
Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and is second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water. Glaciers cover vast areas of the polar regions and are found in mountain ranges of every continent except Australia.
10/10/09
In human anatomy, cuticle refers to several structures. It refers to the strip of dead skin cells at the base and sides of the fingernail and also to the superficial layer of overlapping cells covering the hair shaft that locks the hair into its follicle.
10/09/09
The state of Tasmania includes the island of Tasmania, which is the 26th largest island in the world, and other surrounding islands. It is located 240 kilometers south of the eastern side of the Australian continent.
10/08/09
A nanometer is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billionth of a meter.
10/07/09
Betsy Ross was born Elizabeth Griscom in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on January 1, 1752, the eighth of 17 children. She has been widely credited with making the first American flag.
10/06/09
Asphalt concrete, normally known simply as asphalt, is a composite material commonly used for construction of pavement, highways and parking lots. It consists of asphalt binder and mineral aggregate mixed together then applied in layers and compacted.
10/05/09
A flea market is a type of bazaar where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold or bartered. The origins of the term are disputed, but some have observed that buyers and sellers may be as active as fleas, or that the original people and goods were infested.
10/04/09
The kangaroo--a marsupial from the family Macropodidae--is a national symbol of Australia. Its emblem is used on the Australian coat of arms, on some of its currency, as well as by some of Australia's best known organizations.
10/03/09
The bubonic plague is an infection of the lymphatic system, usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea. The fleas are often found on rodents, such as rats and mice, and seek out other prey when their rodent hosts die.
10/02/09
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is located between the islands of Cuba to the west, and Puerto Rico to the east, directly within the hurricane belt. Hispaniola is perhaps most famous for marking the first European colonies in the New World, colonies founded by Christopher Columbus on his voyages in 1492 and 1493.
10/01/09
A geyser is a hot spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected forcefully and turbulently and accompanied by an outburst of steam.
09/31/09
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09/30/09
The name of Yosemite National Park comes from a Native American word that, literally, means “they are killers.”
09/29/09
Probiotics are dietary supplements of live microorganisms thought to be healthy for the host organism. Lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria are the most common types of microbes used as probiotics.
09/28/09
Daniel Bernoulli (1700–1782) was a Dutch-Swiss mathematician. He is particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in probability and statistics. Bernoulli's work is still studied at length by many schools of science throughout the world.
09/27/09
Carbohydrates require less water to digest than proteins or fats and are the most common source of energy in living things. Foods high in carbohydrates include breads, pastas, beans, potatoes, bran, rice, and cereals.
09/26/09
The Merino is a breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having the finest and softest wool of any sheep.
09/25/09
A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface.
09/24/09
Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834- 1906) was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation. In 1867, he became the director of the Allegheny Observatory and a professor of astronomy at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, a post he kept until 1891 even while he became the third Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1887.
09/23/09
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times its main use is that of a recreational activity. One who practices archery is typically known as an "archer" or "bowman," and one who is fond of or an expert at archery can be referred to as a "toxophilite."
09/22/09
Clover is a genus of about 300 species of plants in the pea family. Clovers occasionally have leaves with four leaflets, instead of the usual three. These four-leaf clovers, like other rarities, are considered lucky. Clovers can also have five, six, or more leaves, but these are more rare.
09/21/09
Macaroni is a kind of pasta. Much shorter than spaghetti, and hollow, macaroni does not contain eggs. In English-speaking countries, the name macaroni is customarily given to a specific shape of pasta, i.e. small pasta tubes cut into short pieces.
09/20/09
Deciduous means falling off at maturity and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally. In a more specific sense deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its purpose is finished. In plants it is the result of natural processes.
09/19/09
As a designer for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in 1924, Richard H. Ranger invented the wireless photoradiogram, or transoceanic radio facsimile, the forerunner of today’s "Fax" machines. A photograph of President Calvin Coolidge sent from New York to London on November 29, 1924 became the first photo picture reproduced by transoceanic radio facsimile.
09/18/09
Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. A rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal, tantalum is highly corrosion resistant. The chemical inertness of tantalum makes it a valuable substance for laboratory equipment and a substitute for platinum, but its main use today is in tantalum capacitors.
09/17/09
A Dandie Dinmont Terrier is a small breed of dog in the terrier family. The breed is named after Dandie Dinmont, a jovial farmer in Sir Walter Scott's novel Guy Mannering. As such, the Dandie Dinmont is the only dog breed to be named after a character in fiction.
09/16/09
An optician is a licensed health care practitioner who provides lenses for the correction of a refractive error. Corrective lenses may be contact lenses, spectacles lenses, low vision aids, or ophthalmic prosthetics.
09/15/09
Orlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It became a city in 1885. Originally the center of a major citrus-growing region, Orlando is now best known as the home of amusement attractions, including the Walt Disney World Resort, the Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld.
09/14/09
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, commonly known by its acronym, FIFA, is the international governing body of association football. FIFA is responsible for the organization and governance of football's major international tournaments, most notably the FIFA World Cup, held since 1930.
09/13/09
The National Football League is the largest professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association. The league changed the name to the National Football League in 1922.
09/12/09
A blood type is a classification of blood based on the presence or absence of inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells.
09/11/09
Dust mites feed on organic detritus such as flakes of shed human skin and flourish in the stable environment of dwellings. House dust mites are a common cause of asthma and allergic symptoms worldwide.
09/10/09
Numerology is any of many systems, traditions, or beliefs in a mystical relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things.
09/09/09
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a fear of the number 666.
09/08/09
An extremophile is an organism that thrives in physically or geochemically extreme conditions that are detrimental to the majority of life on Earth.
09/07/09
From 40 to 75 percent of all species on Earth are native to rainforests. Rainforests are also responsible for 28 percent of the world's oxygen production, processing it through photosynthesis from carbon dioxide.
09/06/09
Play-Doh is a modeling compound used by children for art and craft projects at home and in school. Composed of flour, water, salt, and other ingredients, the product was first manufactured in Cincinnati as a wallpaper cleaner in the years following World War II. By the mid-1950s, its modern use became popular.
09/05/09
King Penguins breed on the subantarctic islands at the northern reaches of Antarctica, as well as Tierra del Fuego, South Georgia, and other temperate islands of the region. The total population is estimated to be 2.23 million pairs and is increasing.
09/04/09
Most salamanders have four toes on their front legs and five on their rear legs. Their moist skin usually makes them reliant on habitats in or near water, often in a wetland. Uniquely among vertebrates, they are capable of regenerating lost limbs, as well as other body parts.
09/03/09
A hypotenuse is the longest side of a right triangle, the side opposite the right angle. The length of the hypotenuse can be found using the Pythagorean theorem, which states that the square of the length of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides.
09/02/09
Magma is molten rock that is found beneath the surface of the Earth. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma often collects in a magma chamber inside a volcano.
09/01/09
The donkey is a domesticated member of the horse family. A male donkey is called a jack, a female a jenny, and offspring less than one year old, a foal.
08/31/09
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface.
08/30/09
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, translated as "little silver of the Pinto River." Platinum is used in jewelry, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts and electrodes, platinum resistance thermometers, dentistry equipment, and catalytic converters.
08/29/09
Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport in which competing players, using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is played on golf "courses," each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either 9 or 18 holes.
08/28/09
Extrasensory perception (ESP) involves reception of information not gained through the recognized senses and not inferred from previous experience. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct, or hunch.
08/27/09
The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert. At over 9,000,000 square kilometers (3,500,000 square miles), it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as the United States or the continent of Europe.
08/26/09
The Russian word sputnik literally means "co-traveler," "traveling companion," or "satellite."
08/25/09
The Prime Meridian is the line of longitude considered to be 0 degrees. The Prime Meridian and the opposite 180th Meridian (at 180 degrees longitude), divide the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
08/24/09
L. Frank Baum, the author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," was born in Chittenango, New York in 1856.
08/23/09
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada. When completed in 1936, it was both the world's largest electric-power generating station and the world's largest concrete structure.
08/22/09
The polar bear is native to the Arctic circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas, and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest carnivore species found on land.
08/21/09
Toronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario.
08/20/09
George Eastman (1854–1932) founded the Eastman Kodak Company and invented roll film, helping to bring photography to the mainstream.
08/19/09
The anchovies are a family of small salt-water fish. There are about 140 species found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Anchovies are usually classified as an oily fish.
08/18/09
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface.
08/17/09
The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years.
08/16/09
Teak is a genus of tropical hardwood trees native to the south and southeast of Asia, and is commonly found as a component of monsoon forest vegetation. They are large trees, growing to 30-40 meters tall and are deciduous in the dry season.
08/15/09
A peroxide is a compound containing an oxygen-oxygen single bond. The simplest stable peroxide is hydrogen peroxide.
08/14/09
Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust.
08/13/09
George Westinghouse, Jr (1846–1914) was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air brake and was a pioneer of the electrical industry as one of Edison's main rivals in the early implementation of the American electricity system. Westinghouse's system using alternating current ultimately prevailed over Edison's insistence on direct current.
08/12/09
Oak Ridge National Laboratory originated as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II when U.S. scientists feared that Nazi Germany was developing an atomic bomb. Both the laboratory and the town of Oak Ridge were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in less than a year on isolated farmland in East Tennessee. Oak Ridge became a "secret city" that within two years housed more than 75,000 residents.
08/11/09
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. Tesla used his coils to conduct innovative experiments in electrical lighting, fluorescence, x-rays, high frequency alternating current phenomena, electrotherapy, and wireless power for electric power transmission.
08/10/09
Mount Hood is a stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc of northern Oregon. Its snow-covered peak rises 11,249 feet (3,429 m). It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. The odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7 percent.
08/09/09
Banana slugs are usually bright yellow, although they may also be green, brown, or white. The Pacific banana slug is the second-largest species of terrestrial slug in the world, growing up to 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long.
08/08/09
Earthworms need moisture to survive, but they can drown. To protect themselves they escape to the surface, but if the ground is un-naturally hard they may later become stranded and die from exposure. This is why they are seen in places like driveways after a heavy rainstorm.
08/07/09
Vitiligo is a chronic disorder that causes depigmentation in patches of skin. It occurs when the cells responsible for skin pigmentation die or are unable to function. The precise cause of vitiligo is not yet fully understood. It may be caused by a combination of autoimmune, genetic, and environmental factors. It is also common in people with thyroid disorders.
08/06/09
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a border with England to the south. It is also bounded by the North Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the North Channel, and the Irish Sea. Scotland also includes 790 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides.
08/05/09
The Montessori method is a child-centered, alternative educational method based on the child development theories originated by Italian educator Maria Montessori (1870–1952) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
08/04/09
Butter is a dairy product made by churning cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications such as baking, sauce making, and frying. Butter consists of butterfat, water and milk proteins.
08/03/09
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river in the United States, with a length of 2,320 miles (3,730 km) from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico.
08/02/09
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, were two Americans who are generally credited with designing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903.
08/01/09
A portmanteau is a blend of two (or more) words. The battery brand Duracell, for example, is a portmanteau of "durable" and "cell." Motown is another example, blending "motor" and "town" as a nickname for Detroit.
07/31/09
Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clay minerals or muds. Shale is the most common sedimentary rock.
07/30/09
The Poodle is regarded as one of the most intelligent breeds of dog. The poodle breed is found in small, medium, and large sizes, and in many coat colors. Originally bred as a type of water dog, the poodle is skillful in many dog sports, including agility, obedience, tracking, and herding.
07/29/09
Kerosene is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid, primarily burned for heat and light. The word Kerosene was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854.
07/28/09
The nectarine is kind of peach that has a smooth, fuzzless skin. Though fuzzy peaches and nectarines are regarded commercially as different fruits, they belong to the same species. Several genetic studies have concluded that nectarines are created due to a recessive gene, whereas a fuzzy peach skin is dominant.
07/27/09
Tanzanite is the blue/purple variety of the mineral zoisite which was discovered in Northern Tanzania in 1967. It is used as a gemstone. Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism, appearing alternately sapphire blue, violet, and burgundy depending on crystal orientation.
07/26/09
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The best-known type of silk is obtained from cocoons made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm, reared in captivity.
07/25/09
Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian. His Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, is by itself considered to be among the most influential books in the history of science. In it, Newton described the three laws of motion which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries.
07/24/09
A microwave oven is a kitchen appliance that cooks food by dielectric heating. This is accomplished by using microwave radiation to heat water and other polarized molecules within the food. This molecular excitation is fairly uniform, leading to food being adequately heated throughout, a feature not seen in any other heating technique.
07/23/09
Sludge is the residual, semi-solid material left from industrial, or wastewater treatment processes.
07/22/09
A ruby is a pink to blood-red gemstone. The red color is caused mainly by the presence of the element chromium. Its name comes from the Latin for red. The ruby is considered one of the four precious stones, together with the sapphire, the emerald, and the diamond.
07/21/09
The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as an exocrine gland, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that pass to the small intestine.
07/20/09
Fiji, officially the Republic of the Fiji Islands, is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga, and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets.
07/19/09
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskies, some vodkas, and animal fodder. It can be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries, or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats.
07/18/09
Sulfur is the chemical element with atomic number 16, denoted by the symbol S, and found naturally a yellow crystalline solid. Its commercial uses are primarily in fertilizers, but it is also widely used in black gunpowder, matches, insecticides, and fungicides. Sulfur is also sometimes referred to as brimstone.
07/17/09
In agriculture and gardening, mulch is a protective cover placed over the soil. Properly used, mulch benefits plant growth and minimizes garden labor. The main functions of mulches are the conservation of soil moisture and the moderation of soil temperature.
07/16/09
Gerbera is a genus of ornamental plants from the sunflower family. It was named in honor of the German naturalist Traugott Gerber, a friend of Carolus Linnaeus.
07/15/09
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for humans, a large number of higher primate species, a small number of other mammalian species (notably guinea pigs and bats), a few species of birds, and some fish. In humans, a Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy.
07/14/09
Numerology is any of many systems, traditions, or beliefs in a mystical relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things. Numerology was popular among early mathematicians, such as Pythagoras, but is regarded as pseudomathematics by modern scientists.
07/13/09
Vulcanization refers to a specific curing process of rubber involving high heat and the addition of sulfur. Vulcanized rubber is harder, much more durable, and also more resistant to chemical attack.
07/12/09
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. When it enters the atmosphere, impact pressure causes the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball, also known as a meteor or shooting star.
07/11/09
A cocoon is a casing spun of silk by many moth, caterpillars, and numerous other insect larvae as a protective covering for the pupa.
07/10/09
A hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus. Hysterectomy may be total (removing the body, fundus, and cervix of the uterus) or partial (removal of the uterine body but leaving the cervical stump). It is the most commonly performed gynecological surgical procedure.
07/09/09
Fireworks were originally invented in ancient China in the 12th century to scare away evil spirits, as a natural extension of the Chinese invention of gunpowder. China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world.
07/08/09
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, Eleven plus two = Twelve plus one, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place.
07/07/09
The Brussels Sprout is a wild cabbage cultivated for its small leafy green buds, which resemble miniature cabbages.
07/06/09
Founded in 1908 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Briggs & Stratton is one of the world's largest manufacturers of air-cooled gasoline engines for primarily outdoor power equipment. Current production averages 11 million engines per year.
07/05/09
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, with by far the greatest diversity in China, where over 100 species occur. Many of the species have sweetly-scented, bell-shaped flowers that produce a sweet, edible nectar.
07/04/09
Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826. In his lifetime, he was the third President of the United States, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.
07/03/09
George Washington Carver was an American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor whose studies and teaching revolutionized agriculture in the Southern United States.
07/02/09
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America, and the only one located entirely within the United States. The third largest of the Great Lakes by surface area, it is bounded by the U.S. states of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
07/01/09
An intussusception is a medical condition in which a part of the small intestine has retracted into another section of intestine, similar to the way in which the parts of a collapsible telescope slide into one another.
06/30/09
The Central American country of Costa Rica has the distinction of being the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.
06/29/09
Fire ants bite their prey to grab hold and then sting from the abdomen, injecting a venom that causes a sensation similar to burning.
06/28/09
The planet Jupiter has been known since ancient times. It is visible to the naked eye in the night sky and can occasionally be seen in the daytime when the sun is low. The Babylonians, the Romans, and the Greeks all had names and associated mythologies for it.
06/27/09
A microscope is an instrument for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy.
06/26/09
Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world.
06/25/09
Rotavirus is a genus of double-stranded RNA virus. It is the leading cause of severe diarrhea among infants and young children worldwide. By the age of five, nearly every child has been infected with rotavirus at least once. However, with each infection, immunity develops, so subsequent infections are less severe.
06/24/09
The white cliffs of Dover are cliffs which form part of the British coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face owes its striking facade to its composition of chalk (pure white calcium carbonate) accentuated by streaks of black flint.
06/23/09
Carbonyl iron is a highly pure iron, used in many industries. Pharmaceutically, it is used to treat iron deficiency and as an iron dietary supplement.
06/22/09
The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems today, principally elevators and escalators. Founded in Yonkers, New York, USA in 1853 by Elisha Otis, the company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, invented by Otis, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.
06/21/09
The Siberian tiger once ranged throughout Western and Central Asia and eastern Russia. Today, it is now completely confined to far eastern Siberia, where it is now a protected species.
06/20/09
Auroras, sometimes called the northern and southern lights, are natural light displays in the sky, usually observed at night, particularly in the polar regions.
06/19/09
A ringer T-shirt is a T-shirt in which the jersey shirt fabric is one color, but the ribbing used for the collar and the sleeve bands are of a contrasting color.
06/18/09
Peristalsis is the contraction of smooth muscles to propel contents through the digestive tract.
06/17/09
Pepperidge Farm is a commercial bakery in the USA. It was founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which in turn was named for the pepperidge tree.
06/16/09
The SPF of a sunscreen is a laboratory measure of the effectiveness of sunscreen — the higher the SPF, the more protection a sunscreen offers against UV-B (the ultraviolet radiation that causes sunburn).
06/15/09
Tang is an orange-flavored non-carbonated soft drink mix introduced in powdered form in 1959. It did not gain popularity, however, until the mid-1960s when NASA's Gemini astronauts began using it.
06/14/09
Aluminium is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust. It makes up about 8 percent by weight of the Earth’s solid surface. It has the symbol Al and its atomic number is 13.
06/13/09
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is an automobile shaped like a hot dog on a bun that is used to promote and advertise Oscar Mayer products. It was created in 1936.
06/12/09
The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times. Other examples from the Brassicaceae family are cabbage, cauliflower, and turnips.
06/11/09
Nanotechnology is the study of the control of matter on an atomic and molecular scale.
06/10/09
A swimming pool is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. The history of swimming pools dates back to the 3rd Millennium BC and were common among Ancient Greeks and Romans.
06/09/09
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines onto droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere.
06/08/09
Hair is a protein filament that grows through the epidermis from follicles deep within the dermis. Found exclusively in mammals, hair is one of the defining characteristics of the mammalian class.
06/07/09
The Commonwealth of Australia is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland (which is the world's smallest continent), the major island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
06/06/09
The Seine is a slow flowing major river and commercial waterway in France and is famous as a romantic backdrop in photographs of Paris. There are 37 bridges over the River Seine just within Paris and dozens more spanning the river outside of the city.
06/05/09
The Atlantic Ocean is the world's second-largest ocean. It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek mythology, making the Atlantic the "Sea of Atlas."
06/04/09
Venomous mammals produce venom, which they use to disable prey, or to defend themselves from predators. In modern nature, venomous mammals are quite rare. The platypus, the shrew, and the slow loris are examples.
06/03/09
The Blue-footed Booby is a Pacific seabird that is clumsy on land. This clumsiness led to its name which derives from the Spanish "bobo" that means a fool or a clown.
06/02/09
Salamander is a common name of approximately 500 species of amphibians. They are typically characterized by slender bodies, short noses, and long tails.
06/01/09
Developed in 1935 by Charles Richter in partnership with Beno Gutenberg, both of the California Institute of Technology, the Richter Scale assigns a single number to quantify the amount of seismic energy released by an earthquake.
05/31/09
Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who accompanied Lewis and Clark in their exploration of the Western United States. She traveled thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean between 1804 and 1806.
05/30/09
QVC is a West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, multinational corporation, specializing in televised home shopping. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel, QVC stands for Quality, Value, Convenience, the three pillars of Segel's vision for the company.
05/29/09
In 1882, William Breyer founded Breyers ice cream company in Philadelphia. In 1928, William Dreyer founded Dreyer's ice cream company in Oakland, California.
05/28/09
The American Museum of Natural History was founded in 1869. Theodore Roosevelt, Sr., the father of the 26th U.S. President, was one of the founders.
05/27/09
Pythagoras of Samos was revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, best known for the Pythagorean theorem related to triangles.
05/26/09
Bermuda is a British territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about 1,030 kilometres (640 mi) west-northwest. Bermuda's first capital, St. George's, was settled in 1612 and is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the Americas.
05/25/09
The American Civil War came to its end when General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia on April 9, 1865, at the McLean House in the village of Appomattox Court House.
05/24/09
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use.
05/23/09
A Spaniel is a type of gun-hunting dog. Spaniels may have arrived in the British Isles during Caesar’s invasion (54-55 BC). It is assumed spaniels originated from Spain as the word spaniel may be derived from Hispania (Spain) or possibly from the French phrase Chiens de l’ Espagnol (Dog of Spain).
05/22/09
Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, also known as Maxfield Field, is a military airport located just outside Lakehurst, NJ. It is best known as the site of the Hindenburg disaster of May 6, 1937. Today, a plaque and a small white metal flag mark the spot of the disaster which killed 36 people.
05/21/09
Pepsi Cola was originally named "Brad's Drink," after its creator, Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in New Bern, NC. Created in the summer of 1893, it was renamed Pepsi Cola in 1898, likely due to the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe. Bradham sought to create a delicious drink that would aid digestion and boost energy.
05/20/09
Silt is soil or rock-derived granular material of a grain size between sand and clay. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a body of water. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body.
05/19/09
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990.
05/18/09
Alaska is the largest state by area in the U.S. The U.S. Senate approved the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million at two cents per acre.
05/17/09
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical matter that is undetectable by its emitted radiation, but whose presence can be inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter.
05/16/09
The muskrat is a medium-sized semi-aquatic rodent native to North America. Its name comes from the two scent glands near its tail. The musky scent is used to mark territory.
05/15/09
The Schwinn Bicycle Company was founded by Ignaz Schwinn in Chicago in 1895 and became the dominant manufacturer of American bicycles through most of the 20th century.
05/14/09
Crabgrass is part of the genus Digitaria which consists of 300 kinds of grass, most of which are considered lawn pests.
05/13/09
In 1898, the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) was formed when the American Biscuit Company, United States Baking Company, and New York Biscuit Company merged.
05/12/09
In the United States, the Federal government defines a felony as a crime which involves a potential punishment of one year or longer in prison.
05/11/09
Lacrosse, one of the oldest team sports in the Americas, may have developed as early as the 12th century.
05/10/09
Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
05/09/09
Caviar is the processed, salted roe of certain species of fish, most notably the sturgeon (black caviar) and the salmon (red caviar). It is commercially marketed worldwide as a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread.
05/08/09
Historians of tattoos report that sailors used to tattoo the image of a bluebird on their chests for every 5,000 miles logged at sea.
05/07/09
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.
05/06/09
A mile is a unit of length, usually used to measure distance. In contemporary English contexts, mile most commonly refers to the statute mile of 5,280 feet (exactly 1,609.344 meters) or the nautical mile of 1,852 meters (about 6,076.1 ft).
05/05/09
The hyacinth is a perennial flower that grows from a bulb. It originated in the Mediterranean.
05/04/09
The duck-billed platypus is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal found in Australia and Tasmania. It has webbed feet, a broad flat tail, and a snout that looks like a duck's bill.
05/03/09
Although more common today for being show dogs, the poodle was originally bred for excellence in hunting in Europe.
05/02/09
Graphite is a soft, steel-gray to black, hexagonally crystallized allotrope of carbon with a metallic luster and a greasy feel, used in lead pencils, lubricants, paints, and coatings.
05/01/09
Mayday is an emergency code word used internationally as a distress signal. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning 'come help me.'
04/30/09
Scientists are studying modern-day alligators in an attempt to understand how dinosaurs lived in low-oxygen environments.
04/29/09
Choosing eggs for breakfast can help adults manage hunger while reducing calorie consumption throughout the day.
04/28/09
The human lungs breathe in between 2,100 and 2,400 gallons (8,000 and 9,000 liters) of air each day.
04/27/09
Many organisms use warning, or aposematic, coloration to signal their undesirability to potential predators. The highly conspicuous prey is detected sooner and aversion is learned faster by the predator.
04/26/09
Aardvarks live south of the Sahara in Africa. Their name comes from South Africa's Afrikaans language and means "earth pig."
04/25/09
Most wind energy comes from turbines, which look like giant airplane propellers on a stick. The wind spins the blades, which turn a shaft connected to a generator that produces electricity.
04/24/09
A herbivore is any organism which feeds exclusively on plants.
04/23/09
This evening at The Franklin Institute, the 2009 Franklin Award Laureates will be honored at the annual Awards Ceremony and Dinner.
04/22/09
Today is Earth Day, and marks the beginning of a two-year initiative called the "Green Generation Campaign."
04/21/09
A mountain peak rising out from and above an ice sheet or glacier is called a nunatak.
04/20/09
The scientists, programmers, and technicians who work in NASA's Astrophysics Science Division study the astrophysics of objects that emit cosmic ray, x-ray, and gamma-ray radiation.
04/19/09
The excellent eyesight of a praying mantis allows it to see movement up to 60 feet (18 meters) away.
04/18/09
Vegans are vegetarians who in addition to not eating meat, fish, or poultry, also do not use animal products or by-products such as eggs and dairy products.
04/17/09
An extrasolar planet is a planet in orbit around a star other than the Sun.
04/16/09
Fat-soluble vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K, are absorbed by the body along with dietary fats. The body stores excess fat-soluble vitamins in your liver and body fat, and then uses them as needed.
04/15/09
The goslings of Canada geese usually stay with their parents for a full year after they hatch.
04/14/09
Salmonellosis is an infection with bacteria called Salmonella, which can cause diarrheal illness in humans. The microscopic living creatures pass from the feces of people or animals to other people or animals.
04/13/09
T1 lines can carry data at a rate of 1.544 megabits per second. A T3 line is the equivalent of approximately 28 T1 lines.
04/12/09
Pumice rock is a type of igneous rock that forms when lava cools quickly above ground.
04/11/09
By recycling one glass bottle, you save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for approximately four hours.
04/10/09
The Eustachian tube is a canal that connects the middle ear to the throat. Cold, flu, and allergies can irritate the Eustachian tube and cause the lining of this passageway to become swollen.
04/09/09
If something is heliocentric, it is Sun-centered.
04/08/09
Koalas have fingerprints similar to those of humans. Even with a microscope, it can be difficult to distinguish between the prints.
04/07/09
Apples contain pectin which helps to neutralize food odors. The fibers in apples also serve as a natural dental floss.
04/06/09
Camels can tolerate a 40 percent loss in body mass when food and water are scarce. A 15 percent loss would kill most other mammals.
04/05/09
Diastolic blood pressure is the bottom number of a blood pressure reading. It indicates the lowest pressure in the blood vessels, between heartbeats when the heart is at rest.
04/04/09
Systolic blood pressure is the top number of a blood pressure reading. It indicates the peak pressure in the blood vessels, when the heart contracts and circulates blood throughout the body.
04/03/09
NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle is currently being designed to take humans back to the moon by 2020.
04/02/09
To cut down on waste, buy household items such as detergent and cleaning supplies in concentrated forms so that you get more product per package.
04/01/09
Earthworms' bodies are made up of ring-like segments called annuli.
03/31/09
Frostbite can be superficial or severe. If severe, the person will likely suffer tissue damage, which means that skin has actually died. In extreme cases, fingers, toes, hands, or feet may need to be amputated.
03/30/09
The whale shark is the world's largest fish. It measures up to 50 feet in length, and estimates suggest it weighs over 13 tons.
03/29/09
In forestry, a snag is a dead tree that is still standing. Snags provide important food and cover for a wide variety of wildlife species.
03/28/09
At the end of March, Venus passes from the evening sky into the morning sky. Along the way it passes between Earth and the Sun. A telescope can pick out Venus in the daytime as an ultra-thin crescent sitting just above the Sun.
03/27/09
Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.
03/26/09
Gallstones are hard, pebble-like deposits that form inside the gallbladder. Some stones form when there is too much cholesterol or bilirubin in the bile. Other stones form if there are not enough bile salts or if the gallbladder fails to empty properly.
03/25/09
Ticks are commonly thought of as insects, but they are actually arachnids like scorpions, spiders, and mites.
03/24/09
A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye, making it difficult to see. Most cataracts are related to aging.
03/23/09
When a software program is open source, it means the program's source code is freely available to the public.
03/22/09
Narwhals are pale-colored porpoises found in Arctic coastal waters and rivers. They have two teeth; in males, the more prominent tooth grows into a sword-like, spiral tusk up to 8.75 feet (2.7 meters) long.
03/21/09
A new study finds that temperatures rise, rather than drop, with altitude on Pluto. Methane, the second most abundant gas in the dwarf planet's atmosphere, is warmer at higher elevations than at the icy surface. As a result, Pluto's upper atmosphere is about 90 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) warmer than the planet's surface.
03/20/09
An "exotic" fish is one not native to an area, but introduced either by accident or design.
03/19/09
A lightning flash is composed of a series of strokes with an average of about four. The length and duration of each lightning stroke vary, but typically average about 30 microseconds.
03/18/09
Mars has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, which were discovered in 1877 at the U.S. Naval Observatory.
03/17/09
An antipyretic is a substance that can lessen or prevent fever.
03/16/09
Brain Awareness Week takes place March 16-22, 2009, and is an international campaign dedicated to advancing public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
03/15/09
Did you know that harbor seals are capable of diving 1,000 feet to feed on squid?
03/14/09
Karst topography is a landscape created over time by the dissolving action of water on carbonate bedrock such as limestone. This creates land forms such as shafts, tunnels, caves, and sinkholes.
03/13/09
A noctilucent cloud is a rare cloud form, probably composed of ice crystals and meteoric dust. The clouds occur at a higher altitude than any other cloud form--about 50 miles (82 km). Noctilucent clouds are silvery or bluish white and visible mostly on spring and summer nights in high latitudes.
03/12/09
Lemurs are prosimians, or primitive primates, found naturally only on the island of Madagascar and some smaller surrounding islands.
03/11/09
The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a tool used by medical professionals to evaluate the degree to which a person is conscious or comatose. The GCS operates on a scale of 3 to 15, in which higher scores indicate higher levels of consciousness.
03/10/09
Nicotine leaves brownish deposits on teeth, which slowly soak into the tooth structure and cause discoloration over time.
03/09/09
Deforestation is the removal of trees from a habitat dominated by forest.
03/08/09
There are four cavities inside the heart that fill with blood. Two of these cavities are called atria; the other two are called ventricles.
03/07/09
A glovebox is a sealed container with built-in gloves. Astronauts do small experiments and test hardware inside of it.
03/06/09
Badgers belong to one of the largest carnivore families--the mustelid. This group includes skunks, otters, minks, polecats, wolverines and badgers.
03/05/09
Experts recommend waiting at least three days, and up to a week, before introducing a new cereal or food to a baby, to make sure that he or she tolerates it well and is not allergic.
03/04/09
Nasal congestion refers to a stuffy nose. It is a common misconception that a nose gets congested from too much thick mucus. Rather, a nose becomes congested when the tissues lining the nose become swollen due to inflamed blood vessels.
03/03/09
There are 26 known species of barracuda, including the great barracuda, which grows to over 6 feet in length.
03/02/09
In 1609, Galileo first aimed his telescope at the sky. To commemorate 400 years of exploring the universe, 2009 has been designated the International Year of Astronomy.
03/01/09
Nails grow all the time, but their rate of growth slows down with age and poor circulation.
02/28/09
Agrostology is the science or study of grasses.
02/27/09
Cheetahs can run at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour; they cover 20 to 22 feet (6 to 6.7 meters) in one stride -- about the same distance as a racehorse.
02/26/09
Submarine canyons are similar to those on land in shape and form, but are cut by currents on the ocean floor.
02/25/09
Temperatures on Mercury's surface can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (430 degrees Celsius). But because the planet has no atmosphere to retain the heat, nighttime temperatures on the surface can drop to -280 degrees Fahrenheit (-170 degrees Celsius).
02/24/09
The sympathetic nervous system starts in the brain and branches out from the spine across the body. It is this system that controls your body's response to stress.
02/23/09
Floods do about $6 billion worth of damage and kill about 140 people every year in the United States.
02/22/09
Red-tailed hawks make stick nests high above the ground, in which the female lays one to five eggs each year. Both sexes incubate the eggs for four to five weeks, and feed the young from the time they hatch until they leave the nest about six weeks later.
02/21/09
In 1874, an all-volunteer Franklin Institute Committee on Science and the Arts began selecting Franklin Institute Award recipients. The Franklin Institute Awards are among the oldest and most prestigious science awards in the world.
02/20/09
Discovered by a meteorology undergraduate student at China's Sun Yat-Sen University in July 2007, Comet Lulin is expected to make its closest approach to Earth on February 24. Comet Lulin will be difficult to see with the unaided eye.
02/19/09
Your voice box, or larynx, is a hollow tubular structure connected to the top of your windpipe. Inside the voice box are two bands of tissue that form vocal cords. When you speak or sing, muscles pull the cords together. The air passing through the cords makes them vibrate, and you hear these vibrations as sounds.
02/18/09
A fjord is a narrow, deep, U-shaped valley with steep walls that was carved by a glacier and now occupied by the sea.
02/17/09
All reptiles are covered in scales. Scales are made of keratin and they provide protection and prevent water loss.
02/16/09
The term cosmonaut refers to professional space travelers who are members of the Russian space program.
02/15/09
Your body has approximately 300 million skin cells. Every minute, you can shed up to 40,000 of them.
02/14/09
Pacemakers are used to treat heart rhythms that are too slow, fast, or irregular. These abnormal heart rhythms are called arrhythmias.
02/13/09
An elephant's gestation period is very long; it takes about 630 days to two years from conception to birth. After a successful birth, an elephant won't conceive again for another 4 to 5 years.
02/12/09
February 12 is Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. More than 300 birthday celebrations are planned in Britain alone.
02/11/09
Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Very fast winds, combined with rising heat from the planet's interior, cause the yellow and gold bands that are visible in the atmosphere.
02/10/09
Cell growth needs to be regulated strictly in order for the body and its organs to function properly. Cancer cells, however, divide and multiply at their own speed, forming abnormal lumps or tumors.
02/09/09
Lakes and ponds are bodies of water that are surrounded by land, whereas rivers and streams are the arteries that move fresh water from land--such as mountain peaks--to oceans.
02/08/09
About 80 percent of all the planet's earthquakes occur along the rim of the Pacific Ocean, called the "Ring of Fire" because of volcanic activity.
02/07/09
Sloths are so sedentary that algae actually grows on their fur. They are the world's slowest mammal.
02/06/09
The composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is similar to that of the sun--mostly hydrogen and helium.
02/05/09
The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, accounting for 85 percent of the organ's weight.
02/04/09
Vibrantly colored birds named resplendent quetzals live in the mountainous, tropical forests of Central America where they eat fruit, insects, lizards, and other small creatures.
02/03/09
Calibration is correcting a measuring instrument by measuring values whose true values are known.
02/02/09
Rainsplash is soil erosion caused by the force of impact of raindrops.
02/01/09
The speed of light is equal to 299,792,458 meters/second (186,000 miles/second).
01/31/09
A captive reptile in New Zealand has unexpectedly become a father at the age of 111. Eleven tuatara babies were hatched on January 26 at the Southland Museum and Art Gallery--good news for the endangered species.
01/30/09
The tailbone, or coccyx, is made of several vertebrae fused together.
01/29/09
A stroke is the death of brain tissue that occurs when the brain doesn't get enough blood and oxygen.
01/28/09
Manatees never leave the water; however, like all marine mammals, they must breathe air at the surface.
01/27/09
The Earth moves at approximately 18.5 miles (29.8 kilometers) a second in its orbit around the Sun.
01/26/09
Smallpox was declared eradicated in 1979 following a successful vaccination program. In the 20th century alone, the disease had killed about 300 million people globally.
01/25/09
An avalanche can reach speeds of 60 to 80 miles per hour within five seconds after it fractures.
01/24/09
The optic nerve transmits electrical impulses from the retina to the brain.
01/23/09
It is rare for thunder and lightning to occur during a snowstorm, but when it does, it is a phenomenon called thunder snow.
01/22/09
The stripes of an individual zebra are as unique as fingerprints, although each of the three species of zebra has its own general pattern.
01/21/09
Emoticons are icons that represent emotions.
01/20/09
A comet's nucleus is a mass of ice and frozen gases. The cloud of gas that surrounds the nucleus is called the coma. As a comet nears the sun, parts of the nucleus begin to vaporize, forming a long tail.
01/19/09
Icthyology is the branch of science that studies fish.
01/18/09
On a chessboard, the queen is the most powerful and versatile piece. Each side has only one queen, and she may move in any direction from the square where she starts--forward, backward, to each side, or diagonally.
01/17/09
Graduation marks are the markings on a flask, beaker, measuring cup, or any other vessel used in measuring volume.
01/16/09
Angiosperms are plants that produce flowers and develop fruit around their seeds. Cereal grains like wheat, oats, barley, and corn are angiosperms, as are apples, oranges, and bananas.
01/15/09
Every cell in the human body is enclosed by a cell membrane. It maintains the integrity of a cell and controls passage of materials into and out of the cell.
01/14/09
Approximately one-third of all U.S. garbage consists of packaging materials.
01/13/09
The four main directions (North, South, East, and West) found on a compass or map are called cardinal points.
01/12/09
Insertion and suit technicians are members of the closeout crew that assists NASA astronauts on launch day; they help to outfit the astronauts in their launch and entry suits and ensure that all gear is properly fitted and functioning.
01/11/09
Brown bear cubs don't come out of their birthing dens until they are about four months old. They stay with their mothers until they are two to three years old.
01/10/09
Up to 50 percent of the average household's energy consumption is used for heating and cooling the home. Checking that your windows are properly sealed will help insulate your home and reduce energy consumption.
01/09/09
Acid rain refers to any form of precipitation with high levels of nitric and sulfuric acids.
01/08/09
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 99 percent of the people who die from rabies worldwide contract the disease from rabid dogs.
01/07/09
Mars' geological characteristics include the largest volcanic mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons.
01/06/09
Did you know that Albert Einstein's brain was slightly smaller than the average human brain?
01/05/09
Green anacondas can grow to more than 29 feet (8.8 meters), weigh more than 550 pounds (227 kilograms), and measure more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) in diameter, making the South American snake the largest in the world pound for pound.
01/04/09
To date, no one has survived with an artificial heart longer than 602 days, or just over 20 months.
01/03/09
Eaten in moderation, unsaturated fats can actually help lower the amount of cholesterol in your blood. Many nuts and seeds contain unsaturated fats.
01/02/09
In geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years.
01/01/09
Cloud-to-ground lightning is a common phenomenon; about 100 bolts strike Earth's surface every second.