Don’t bother, just look at the pictures

Mount Everest, was formed when the Indian tectonic plate ploughed into the Eurasian tectonic plate at the blisteringly fast speed of 20 centimeters per year! When the two landmasses smashed into each other they pushed up the Himalayas and forced Mount Everest to its lofty height of 8,848 meters.

Because it is the highest mountain on Earth some people decide to try and climb it. Unfortunately, 179 people have died trying to reach the summit, which sets the fatality rate at around nine percent. Most of these fatalities happened before 1990. In the last ten years, advances in climbing equipment and more experienced guides have resulted in a steep drop in fatality statistics: from 37% in 1990 to 4.4% in 2004.

Either way I don’t think the risk is worth it. Especially when you can see a full panoramic view from the summit by clicking here (don’t forget to scroll to the right to see it all).

Guidelines on earwax removal

We all know about the dangers of putting things in your ears.

But this is unbelievable - national guidelines on earwax removal were released today in America. A whole panel of doctors generated the new guidelines for earwax removal issued by the American Academy of Otolaryngology. Read more here.

To summarize appropriate ear care … don’t put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear! And that includes these things:

Arctic ice melting a lot … again

Last year the Arctic ice melted to its lowest ever recorded level. Then earlier this year some scientists predicted that the Arctic would be completely ice free in 2008. They were wrong, but it’s looking like the Arctic melting will be the second greatest on record, behind 2007, at the very least. With a few weeks left of the melting season we may even see a new record for a reduced volume of Arctic sea ice. Uh Oh! read more here.

If you want to see what the Arctic would look like with no ice go here.

Here comes a big baby

Ultrasound is sound that has a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing. In other words, it is extremely high pitched.

Ultrasonography is an ultrasound-based diagnostic imaging technique that can be used to visualise a baby still in its mother’s uterus (womb). It works by sending sound waves through the mother’s stomach, these waves then bounce off the baby to a probe which converts the reflected sound waves to an image.

The image below is an ultrasound image of an embryo in the womb, but is a very unusual embryo.

The ultrasound image of this embryo is unusual because it is an elephant! The mother, ’Rorntip’, is an Asian elephant at Taronga Zoo in Sydney.

Interestingly, no baby elephant has ever been born in Australia – but now three elephants are pregnant at zoos in Sydney and Melbourne. Read more here.

Looking to the future, from the past

Over one hundred years ago, in 1900, John Watkins asked some of the wisest minds of the time to predict what the world would be like in 100 years.

The answers are fantastic! Some of them are quite accurate:

• Hot and cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house – think central heating/cooling.
• Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance – think email.
• Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles apart – think TV or video conferencing.

And others not so:

• There will be no wild animals.
• Pneumatic tubes will deliver packages and bundles over hundreds of miles.
• Vegetables will be grown by electricity.

To read the full article click here.

What if humans disappeared?

What would happen if every single human on Earth suddenly disappeared? Go here to find out.

Usain Bolt not that fast really

As astonishing as Usain Bolt’s record-breaking 100-meter sprint was, his time of 9.69 seconds is nowhere near what biostatisticians predict is the natural limit for the human body.

Using the graph below, the biostatisticians have figured out that humans should be able to run the 100m sprint in a time of 9.45 seconds at some time in the future. Read more here.

A cow compass

Have you ever been lost in the forest with a cow and desperately needed to know which way was north?

Probably not, but the next time you find yourself in that situation, just look at the cow.

It seems grazing cows tend to face the North and South Poles. An analysis of more than 8,000 cows has found they have a statistically significant preference to align themselves in a north-south direction. The team behind this study has also found a similar preference in deer, and believes the animals must be sensing the Earth’s magnetic field.

Given that mole rats, mice and bats can perceive magnetic fields, it is plausible in cattle and other mammals. Read more here, here or here.

A bottle goes bang

Hydrogen gas is highly flammable and when mixed with oxygen, it explodes upon ignition. The chemical equation for the reaction is:

Hydrogen + Oxygen → Water + Energy

2 H₂(g) + O₂(g) → 2 H₂O(g) + Energy

Here is a video of a mixture of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen making a very loud bang when ignited:

If you would like to see the largest aircraft ever built exploding in a ball of flaming hydrogen go here.

Weird water

Water is great because it is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. It is also great because it can be supercooled. Supercooling is the process of chilling a liquid below its freezing point, without it becoming solid.

This video of supercooled water being poured into a bowl is pretty cool:

Supercooling works because ice crystals need nucleation points to start forming. These nucleation points could be anything from gas bubbles to impurities to the rough surface of the container. Without these things, water can continue to be a “supercooled” liquid well below its freezing point. Although water has a freezing point of 0 °C it can be supercooled to −42 °C and still remain a liquid.

A couple of other cool (pun intended) videos of supercooled water here and here. And to read more about the weird properties of water, go here.