From a tiny cell to a huge black hole, science has helped unravel the beauty and comprehensiveness of our world. The acquisition of such knowledge is surely one of the greatest achievements of the human mind.
Science is dealt with in our everyday world sometimes without our slightest attention. This article outlines some interesting facts about science which I have learned over the few years.
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1. How does one rotten apple spoil the barrel?
As fruits ripen they produce a gaseous hormone called ethylene (which is among the ripening agents). When you stick a bunch of apples with each other the ethylene that each piece emits prods the others around it to ripen further, and vice versa. Interestingly, even though this is disadvantageous to the bunch of apples, if you want to quickly ripen an avocado you can simply stick it in a bag of apples. The riper a piece of fruit is, the more ethylene it produces, and overripe fruit gives off even more ethylene, eventually leading to a concentration of the gas that’s enough to overripen all the fruit. Given the right conditions and enough time, one apple can push all the fruit around it to ripen—and eventually, rot.
2. Where did the moon come from?
There are many theories about the creation of the moon. The first is the fission theory.This theory states that the moon was torn out of the earth at some time. This explains the varying composition since the moon was created from the earth's mantle after differentiation had taken place. Similar to this theory is the Giant Impact Hypothesis, which states that the moon was formed due to the collision of two planetary bodies which are believed to be Earth and Theia (Mars- size object).
One of the other theories states that the moon was created elsewhere in the solar system and captured by the earth.These theories explain how the composition of the two bodies can be different, but problems arise while talking about the capture of one body. In order to catch an object as big as the moon, a huge gravitational pull would have been necessary.
A more recent addition to the explanation of the phenomenon is called the splash theory. In this case, a giant meteorite hit the earth soon after it was formed, splattering some of the material into the upper layers of the earth out into orbit, which later turned into the moon.
3. How much DNA do we have?
There is enough DNA to stretch all the way up to Pluto and back 17 times. The human genome has 23 DNA molecules each containing from 500,000 to 2.5 million nucleotide pairs. 23 DNA molecules each containing from 500 thousand to 2.5 million nucleotide pairs. DNA molecules of this size are 1.7 to 8.5 cm long when uncoiled, or about 5 cm on average. There are about 40 trillion cells in the human body and if you’d uncoil all of the DNA encased in each cell and put them end to end, then these would sum to a total length of 2×1014 meters or enough for 17 Pluto roundtrips!!
4. How much do you walk?
The average person walks almost 5 times around the earth in a lifetime. The average moderately active person take around 7,500 step/day. If you maintain that daily average and live until 80 years of age, you’ll have walked about 216,262,500 steps in your lifetime. Doing the math the average person with the average stride living until 80 will walk a distance of around 110,000 miles. Which is the equivalent of walking about 5 times around the Earth, right on the equator.
5. Is Glass a liquid?!
Glass is actually a liquid which flows really really slowly. In glass, molecules still flow, but at a very low rate that it’s barely perceptible. This is due to viscosity. As such, it’s not enough to class glasses as liquid, but neither as solids. Chemists seem to be content on calling them amorphous solids— a state somewhere in between the two.
