Amazing Science Facts

Facts 1 – 5

1. There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body – laid end to end they would circle the earth 2.5 times

2. At over 2000 kilometers long The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth

3. The risk of being struck by a falling meteorite for a human is one occurrence every 9,300 years

4. A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons

5. A typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent to 8,000 one megaton bombs

Facts 6 – 10

6. Blood xxxxing hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide

7. The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 166.94 mph by Fred Rompelberg

8. We can produce laser light a million times brighter than sunshine

9. 65% of those with autism are left handed

10. The combined length of the roots of a Finnish pine tree is over 30 miles

Just paying the bills...

Facts 11 – 15

11. The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents to a depth of nearly 500 feet

12. The interstellar gas cloud Sagittarius B contains a billion, billion, billion liters of alcohol [JFrater is planning to move there in the near future]

13. Polar Bears can run at 25 miles an hour and jump over 6 feet in the air

14. 60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor

15. Polar Bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur

Facts 16 – 20

16. The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life

17. A single rye plant can spread up to 400 miles of roots underground

18. The temperature on the surface of Mercury exceeds 430 degrees C during the day, and, at night, plummets to minus 180 degrees centigrade

19. The evaporation from a large oak or beech tree is from ten to twenty-five gallons in twenty-four hours

20. Butterflies taste with their hind feet and their taste sensation works on touch – this allows them to determine whether a leaf is edible

Man Swims 3274 Mile Amazon River in 66 Days

Dodging vicious creatures, unfriendly weather, a 55-year old adventurer swam non-stop to cross the frighteningly dangerous Amazon river for 66 days, while covering 3,274 miles.

With a bulging belly and thinning hair, Martin Strel is not your average adventurer with Greek-god like features but he surely has the guts to defy age and achieve what everyone thought of as "too dangerous," he swam Amazon river.

"It helps to be a little crazy, to do what I do...I told myself that I would swim the Amazon or I would die trying.... I''m a big man, sure, but the Amazon is so much bigger." Strel, who is also a part-time guitar teacher practiced everyday for five hours, before finally setting out on the amazon adventure.

Swimming 10 hours each day, he covered almost 90 km daily. But his adventure soon became a fight against the nature. He suffered from dehydration and exhaustion. Water-borne parasites left his body infected and worst of all he contracted dengue fever, and its subsequent cramps. He even wore pillow covers with slits for eyes and lips to protect his face against the heat.

But dangers inside water outnumber those above it. The Amazon is home to the very perilous bull shark, the piranha with razor sharp teeth, stingrays, crocodiles, alligators, anacondas and the deadly candiru fish.

To avoid piranha fish smelling him, he would rub gasoline and cream on his body, while his team that included his son, Borut as well would throw buckets of pig blood into the water to divert their attention.

Strel used to pee inside his wetsuit just to elude the dreaded candiru, which enters the body through the penis and feeds off body tissue and blood.

His son, Borut, and armed guards followed him in a boat to fend off pirates and carried his stockpile of medicine, food and alcohol.

Strel says: "Drinking wine is part of my life...It''s my special blend, that I make myself, so it''s very healthy and it gives me energy, without making me drunk. I would drink whiskey as well, to wash my mouth out before I eat food.

The adventure freak weighed 114kg (250lb) at the start of the swim and lost nearly 20kg (44lb) during the exploit, despite taking 11,000 calories-a-day for strength.

While on his exploit that has made him real famous back at home, he says "I am just a regular man who just has higher goals than usual, not a superman."

Pink Dolphin Appears in US Lake

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.

He said: "I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter.

"It was absolutely stunningly pink.

"I had never seen anything like it. It's the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

"The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink.

"The mammal is entirely pink from tip to tail and has reddish eyes indicating it's albinism. The skin appears smooth, glossy pink and without flaws.

"I have personally spotted the pink dolphin 40 to 50 times in the time since the original sighting as it has apparently taken up residence with its family in the Calcasieu ship channel.

"As time has passed the young mammal has grown and sometimes ventures away from its mother to feed and play but always remains in the vicinity of the pod.

"Surprisingly, it does not appear to be drastically affected by the environment or sunlight as might be expected considering its condition, although it tends to remain below the surface a little more than the others in the pod."

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "I have never seen a dolphin coloured in this way in all my career.

"It is a truly beautiful dolphin but people should be careful, as with any dolphins, to respect it - observe from a distance, limit their time watching, don't chase or harass it

"While this animal looks pink, it is an albino which you can notice in the pink eyes.

"Albinism is a genetic trait and it unclear as to the type of albinism this animal inherited."

A close relation of dolphins, the Amazon River Botos, called pink dolphins, live in South America in the Amazon.

Source: telegraph.co.uk