Читать книгу The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Science Fact-o-pedia: A Startling Collection of Scientific Trivia You’ll Never Need to Know - Steve Kanaras - Страница 10
Оглавление• The five worst floods in history all occurred in China. These include the 1975 flood in the Hong and Ru rivers; the 1642 flood in the Yellow River; the 1938 flood in the Yellow River; the 1887 flood in the Yellow River; and the 1931 flood in the Yellow River—the worst flood in history. This flood left more than 80 million people homeless, flooded 42,000 square miles (108,880 km2) of land, and had a death toll of between 850,000 to four million.
• It is has been hypothesized that the Great Biblical flood known as Noah’s Ark occurred when the Mediterranean broke through the Bosporus Straits and flooded the Black Sea, circa 5600 BC.
• In the United States, more than half of all fatalities during floods are auto-related, usually the result of drivers misjudging the depth of water on a road and the force of moving water.
• A car can float in just a few inches of water; just 6 inches (15 cm) of water will reach the bottom of most passenger cars and cause loss of control and possible stalling. Two feet (0.6 m) of rushing water can carry away most vehicles, including sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickups.
• Flash floods are the number-one weather-related killer in the U.S.
• The principal causes of floods in the Eastern United States and the Gulf Coast are hurricanes and storms; the principal causes of floods in the Western United States are snowmelt and rainstorms.
Flowers
(Largest and Smallest)
• Largest bloom in world:
• Perhaps best known for its bloom smelling like rotting meat, the Rafflesia arnoldii is the largest bloom in the world.
• Found in the rain forests of Indonesia, Rafflesia arnoldii can grow to be 3 feet (0.91 m) across and weigh up to 15 pounds (6.8 kg)!
• A parasitic plant with no visible leaves, roots, or stem, the Rafflesia arnoldii attaches itself to a host plant to obtain the water and nutrients it needs to survive.
• The Rafflesia’s bloom, which only lasts around five to seven days, emits a repulsive scent to attract insects for the purpose of pollination.
• Smallest bloom in the world:
• Imagine one itty-bitty candy sprinkle! That’s the size of an entire watermeal plant!
• A member of the Lemnaceae family, the watermeal plant (Wolffia globosa) averages 1/42 of an inch long and 1/85 of an inch wide.
• Okay, I really want you to understand how small I’m talking. Ready? The entire plant weighs about 1/190,000 of an ounce—the same as two grains of table salt! If you tried to fill a thimble with them, you’d need about 5000 plants! If you were to find this rootless plant that happily floats on freshwater lakes and in marshes, you’d think someone had spilled cornmeal!
• The flower of the Wolffia has single pistil and stamen and thus, not surprisingly, it also produces the world’s smallest fruit, called a utricle.
Four Forces of Flight
• The four forces of flight are weight, lift, thrust, and drag. These forces make an object move up and down, fast and slow. The amount of each force compared to its opposing force determines how an object moves through the air.
• Weight is the downward force that an aircraft must overcome to fly. Weight is the amount of gravity multiplied by the mass of an object.
• Lift is the opposite force of weight. For an aircraft to move upward, it has to have more lift than weight. Thus, lift is the push that lets something move up.
• Drag is a force that pulls back on something trying to move. The shape of an object also affects drag. Generally speaking, round surfaces usually have less drag than flat ones, and narrow surfaces usually have less drag than wide ones. The existence of drag explains why airplane wings are curved on top and flatter on the bottom. That shape makes air flow over the top faster than under the bottom. As a result, less air pressure is on top of the wing. This lower pressure makes the wing—and the airplane—able to move upward.
• Thrust is the opposite force of drag—it’s the push that moves something forward. For an aircraft to keep moving forward, it must have more thrust than drag. A small airplane might get its thrust from a propeller; a larger airplane might get its thrust from jet engines; a glider doesn’t have thrust and only flies until the drag causes it to slow down and land.
Freezer Burn
• When perfectly good food becomes discolored, parched, frost-covered, and/or has leathery dry spots following a long period in the freezer, we say the food is “freezer-burned.” What happened to cause this?
• The freezing process transforms the water molecules within foods to form ice crystals, which is fine because that’s how the preservation method works. Here’s the thing: Water molecules are drawn to the most hospitable environment, which is the coldest place they can find—the sides of your freezer! It’s that migration of water molecules that causes the food to become dehydrated, or freezer-burned.
• Oxygen molecules can also seep into frozen foods, particularly when the food isn’t wrapped tightly enough, which dull the color and modifies, or even ruins, the food’s flavor.
• Freezer burn is far more likely to occur if the temperature in your freezer fluctuates above 0°F (-17.7°C). This typically occurs when people keep opening and closing the freezer. The standard temperature setting for freezers is usually -10 to 0°F (-23 to -17.7°C).
• And just for the record, there is a limit as to how long foods can be safely frozen. Sooner or later the water molecules will find their way out of the frozen food to a colder place in your freezer.
• And a few quick tips:
• The faster a food freezes, the better, as this minimizes those undesirable six-sided, snowflake-looking, large ice crystals from forming.
• During thawing, those big ice crystals that form in foods that are frozen slowly damage food cells and dissolve emulsions. This can cause meat to “drip” and lose juiciness, and products such as cream or mayonnaise to separate and appear curdled.
• Ideally, a food that is 2 inches (5 cm) thick should freeze completely in about two hours.
• Never stack packages to be frozen. Instead, spread them out in one layer on various shelves, stacking them only after they’re frozen solid.
Frilled-Necked Lizards
• Native to Australia and New Guinea, frilled-necked lizards (Chlamydosaurus kingii) are extraordinary creatures.
• Frilled-necked lizards have the coolest way of running. They start on all four limbs and then as they accelerate, they switch to running on their hind legs!
• Also known as frilled lizards and frilled dragons, the frilled-neck lizard’s stunning ruffle encircles its neck in a series of perfect pleats, which when startled, angry, frightened, or in courtship, opens in glorious fashion! Their frilled ruffle is also believed to aid in body temperature regulation.
• For optimal camouflage, the color and vividness of the frilled-neck lizard’s skin depends upon where they’re living! Yellow with black and white markings means they’re from Queensland; orange with red, black, and white speckles means they’re from the Northern Territory.
• The frilled-necked lizard has a specialized, progressive, five-step defense plan:
• Identifying possible danger: Relying on its natural body colors for camouflage, it will slowly cringe down, which makes it look a lot like a stick.
• Confirming the threat: He bluffs by opening his mouth wide, which engages the ruffle to open like an umbrella in a blaze of “threatening” color!
• When the predator seems unfazed, hissing and jumping toward the predator ensues.
• When this still has no effect, the lizard will up the ante, commencing with repeated lashing of its tail upon on the ground.
• If the aforementioned overtures fail, the frill-necked lizard will opt to run away—preferably up a tree—but will bite predators with his rather large canines, if that’s his last option.
Frogs
• Contrary to popular belief, toads aren’t reptiles: they’re amphibians, just like frogs.
• The icky-sticky secretion on the skin of the Australian green-eyed frog and the growling grass frog is able to successfully neutralize and kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including staph infections such as MRSA.
• Frogs don’t drink water; they soak it into their body through their skin.
• Frogs have the remarkable ability to see what’s straight ahead, to the side, and above them all at the same time.
• To help swallow their food, frogs use their eyes! The blinking motion “pushes” their eyeballs downward, thereby creating a bulge in the roof of their mouths, which helps propel the food that’s already in their mouths to the back of their throats.
Fungi, Pathogenic
• From the Greek words pathos—meaning “suffering, passion”—and gen?s—meaning “producer of”—a pathogen is defined as any infectious disease-producing agent.
• The study of pathogenic fungi is called medical mycology.
• Phytopathology, which is the study of plant diseases, was an offshoot of medical mycology!
• There are over 100,000 recognized species of parasitic fungi—100 of which are known to be infectious to humans.
• Parasitic fungi are classified into four categories: superficial, subcutaneous, systemic, and opportunistic. Each category reflects a different degree of tissue involvement and mode of entry into the host to create infection:
• Superficial parasitic fungi cause localized damage to the skin, the hair, and the nails (e.g. Ringworm).
• Subcutaneous parasitic fungi cause infections confined to the dermis, subcutaneous tissue, or adjacent structures (e.g. Sporotrichosis).
• Systemic parasitic fungi cause infections deep within internal organs (e.g. Histoplasmosis).
• Opportunistic parasitic fungi usually cause infections only in the immuno-compromised (e.g. Cryptococcosis). [See Pathogens, to learn about viral, bacterial, parasitic, and prion pathogens.]
Fungi, Poisonous
(Mushrooms)
• Contrary to popular belief, there are no (as in zero) hard and fast, reliable rules for distinguishing between safe, edible fungi, and those that are poisonous, toxic, and deadly.
• It is NOT true that toxic fungi change color during the cooking process.
• It is NOT true that peeling a toxic fungus makes it safe to eat. Peeled or unpeeled, cooked or uncooked, a poisonous fungus is still poisonous and can often be deadly.
• The deadliest of all fungi is the Amanita phalloides, otherwise known as the death cap. Seemingly harmless in appearance, it’s about 5 inches (13 cm) across, has a soft, greenish-olive colored cap, and lovely white gills and flesh. They’re found in the woodlands, often near oak and beech trees.
• Bearing a disturbingly similar resemblance to the delicious and very edible chanterelle mushroom, the Cortinarius speciosissimus is a deadly fungus with a lovely radishlike fragrance. Ranging in color from reddish to tawny brown, its flattish cap ranges in size from ¾ to 3¼ inches (2 to 8 cm), and its gills are rust colored. They’re most likely to be seen in the fall … but not always.
• Not to be confused with other edible yellowish fungi such as the chanterelle, the Paxilus involutus is deadly. Extremely common in woodland areas—particularly in close proximity to birch trees—this incredibly deadly fungus is about 5 inches (13 cm) wide, has a yellow-brown cap with a rolled rim, and yellow-brownish gills.
• Easily mistaken for the common button mushroom found in grocery stores, the Amanita virosa—otherwise known as the “destroying angel”—can be found on lawns, grassy meadows, near trees and shrubs, and in and along the edges of woodlands. The cap of the destroying angel is white, although it can be tan, yellow, or pinkish in the center. At full maturity the cap can be 5 inches (13 cm) wide.
• There is no known antidote for the destroying angel or the death cap. Ninety percent of people who ingest these mushrooms die from liver failure.
