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Facts about Butterflies

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Syskool
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  • Butterflies are insects.
  • A butterfly’s lifecycle is made up of four parts, egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult.
  • Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.
  • Most caterpillars are plant eaters (herbivores).
  • Butterflies can’t hear, but they can feel vibrations.
  • Butterflies taste with their feet.
  • Butterflies don’t have lungs.
  • Butterflies breathe through openings on their abdomen called ‘spiracles’.
  • Butterflies smell with their antennae.
  • Millions of shingle-like overlapping scales give butterfly wings their colour.
  • Butterflies are still able to fly if their scales are removed, they are just less colourful!
  • Butterflies are divided into two main groups called skippers and true butterflies.
  • Female butterflies are usually bigger and live longer than male butterflies.
  • The Queen Alexandra’s birdwing from the island of New Guinea is the largest butterfly – it can have a wingspan of 27 cm!
  • Butterflies are found in every continent except Antarctica.
  • Butterflies are cold-blooded and cannot fly if their body temperature is below 86 degrees.
  • Butterflies have taste sensors on their feet, enabling them to tell whether the leaves they stand on will make good food for caterpillars.
  • If a caterpillar is taught something, the memory may be retained by the butterfly it turns into.
  • Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, discovered several species of butterfly, including Nabokov’s pug which he discovered in Utah in 1943.
  • The fastest butterflies are skippers which can fly at 37mph, but most fly at 5-12mph.
  • Butterflies have long, tube like tongues which work like a straw to suck up liquid.
  • The butterfly stroke in swimming was invented by the German Eric Rademacher in 1926.
  • In 1933, it shot to fame as a method of legal cheating at breaststroke, but it only became recognised in its own right in 1953.
  • Some people say that when the black bands on the Woolybear caterpillar are wide, a cold winter is coming.
  • The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour. Some moths can fly 25 miles per hour!
  • The females of some moth species lack wings, all they can do to move is crawl.
  • There are more types of insects in one tropical rain forest tree than there are in the entire state of Vermont.
  • Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight. This would be like an adult person lifting two heavy cars full of people.
  • There are over a million described species of insects. Some people estimate there are actually between 15 and 30 million species.
  • Most insects are beneficial to people because they eat other insects, pollinate crops, are food for other animals, make products we use (like honey and silk) or have medical uses.
  • Butterflies and insects have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton. This
    protects the insect and keeps water inside their bodies so they don’t dry out.
  • A butterfly has a small body, made of three parts – the head, thorax and abdomen. Butterflies have two large eyes, which are made of many, many small parts. These are called ‘compound eyes.
  • Butterflies have three pairs of legs. Their feet have little claws to help them stand on
    flowers. Some butterflies, like the peacock, only use four of their legs, carrying the two front legs against their bodies.
  • Butterflies can only feed or fly when their bodies are warmed to at least 30° C, and they have to gain this from the sunshine using their wings. Butterflies are often seen basking with their wings open wide, as they gain heat.
  • During fall migration migrating Monarchs have been seen flying by tall buildings such as the Empire State Building hundreds of meters high. Butterflies are picked up by storm fronts and moved 100’s of km, probably at altitudes of thousands of meters.

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Important Facts about your Digestive System

By
Syskool
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  • The digestive system is responsible for breaking down the food we eat into smaller components so that nutrients can be easily absorbed by the body and the waste discarded.
  • There are two types of digestion. Mechanical digestion is the physical breakdown of large pieces of food into smaller pieces through, chewing (mastication). While chemical digestion uses enzymes to break down this food mass further into small molecules which the body can separate and use.
  • Saliva in our mouths plays a key role in initial digestion by moistening the food to help with the mechanical chewing and swallowing process. Saliva also contains an enzyme which starts the chemical digestion of starchy foods.
  • Our salivary glands produce around 1.5 liters of saliva each day!
  • Bolus is the name of the small round slurry mass produced for swallowing as a result of chewing and starch digestion.
  • The pharynx, at the back of the throat, has a flap of tissue called the epiglottis that closes during swallowing to prevent food going down the trachea (windpipe).
  • Once swallowed, bolus (food) travels down through the esophagus to the stomach, taking about 7 seconds to
    get there.
  • Muscles in the esophagus tighten and relax to create a wave-like process called peristalsis which pushes food down the small tube, which is why your food never falls back out if you happen to be eating and swallowing upside down!
  • Enzymes called proteases break down proteins within the stomach and small intestine. While in saliva, amylases break down carbohydrates and lipases break down fats.
  • The adult stomach has a very small volume when empty but can expand to hold up to 1.5 liters of food when
    full.
  • The inner wall of the stomach secretes hydrochloric acid to help kill bacteria and, along with proteases
    enzymes, aids in the digestion of food. To protect itself from the corrosive acid, the stomach lining must create a thick coating of mucus.
  • Stomach rumblings (borborygmi) are caused by wave-like muscular contractions (peristalsis) at the walls of the stomach and small intestine. These are normal digestion movements, however the process is louder and more noticeable when the stomach is empty as the sound is not muffled.
  • Some animals such as cows, giraffes and deer have stomachs with multiple compartments (not multiple stomachs as is commonly believed). While others like seahorses, lungfishes and platypuses have no stomachs at all.
  • The small intestine is composed of a duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.
  • Most of the digestion and absorption of food nutrients actually takes place in the small intestine. The
    stomach passes on a thick liquid called chyme and enzymes continue to break this down in the small intestine which absorbs the nutrients into the blood stream.
  • The pancreas secretes enzymes for use by the small intestine.
  • On average, the human adult male’s small intestine is 6.9 m (22 ft 6 in) long, and the female’s 7.1 m (23
    ft 4 in).
  • The large intestine includes the cecum, appendix, colon, and rectum. It is the final part of the digestive
    system. It absorbs water from the remaining indigestible food matter, and passes any un-needed waste from the body.
  • The large intestine is approximately 1.5 m (4.9 ft) long.
  • The liver produces bile for the digestive system and processes the nutrients.
  • The gall bladder stores the bile used to break down dietary fat.
  • Your digestive system has its own little “mini-brain.”

 

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Photosynthesis

By
Syskool
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1
photosynthesis
photosynthesis
  • The process mostly takes place in the chloroplasts of plant leaf mesophyll cells
  • The energy for photosynthesis comes from light
  • Light energy is converted to chemical energy by chlorophyll
  • There are two sets of reactions, light dependent and light independent
  • Photosynthesis is affected by temperature, light intensity, light wavelength and carbon dioxide level
  • All living things depend on the organic molecules synthesized by plants as a result of photosynthesis
  • Photosynthesis is the most important chemical process on earth – it provides food and energy for all living creatures who eat the plants that rely on this process to produce their food (glucose).
  • More than half (70%) of the world’s oxygen is produced by phytoplankton photosynthesis in the world’s oceans.
  • Thirty percent (30%) of the world’s oxygen is produced in the rainforest.
  • There are two types of chlorophyll.
  • In 2005, scientists discovered that special bacteria deep in the ocean (where no sunlight could reach) were conducting photosynthesis using very faint light from hydrothermal vents.  This could mean other life exists deep in the ocean or even on other planets!
  • Researchers have discovered a sea slug that eats algae but does not digest it fully.  Instead, the remaining algae continue to conduct photosynthesis inside the slug and to contribute to the energy of the slug.
  • Photosynthesis is the reason conifers and other pine trees grow in a cone shape.  This shape allows more needles to be exposed to the sun, which enables the tree to grow taller.
  • One of the trees in Africa (the Tumbo Plant) has only two wide leaves but can live for over 1,000 years with little rain water.
  • The first scientific evidence for photosynthesis was found in the late 18th Century by chemists Joseph Priestley and Jan Ingenhousz. They noticed that a plant could revive a mouse from suffocation in an enclosed jar, using sunlight.
  • The plant did not care about the mouse. It was only occupied with performing photosynthesis to make itself grow.
  • Organisms that make their own food out of sunlight are called photoautotrophs.
  • Oxygen is the usual waste product of modern photosynthesis.
  • It also produces all the carbon compounds that make up living cells.
  • Plants are the most familiar photoautotrophs, but they did not develop the technology themselves. They acquired it
  • Before photosynthesis evolved, Earth’s atmosphere consisted of water vapour, methane, ammonia and other gases, but not oxygen.
  • The earliest fossil of a filamentous organism thought to perform photosynthesis is about 3.5 billion years old.
  • In order to perform photosynthesis, bacteria had to build a complex metabolic pathway involving the green pigment chlorophyll and requiring at least 17 steps.
  • Early photosynthesis did not involve oxygen and had minimal effect on the atmosphere
  • About 2.7 billion years ago cyanobacteria adopted a version of photosynthesis that oxidized water to produce O2. At first, dissolved iron absorbed most of the oxygen.
  • Billion years ago all the iron became saturated. Oxygen began accumulating in the atmosphere. It was toxic to anaerobic organisms and wiped out most life on Earth. This event is known as the Oxygen Catastrophe. It set the stage for the ascendance of eukaryotes, the more complex aerobic organisms including plants, fungi, and animals. It is theorized that one early eukaryote absorbed a cyano bacteria but instead of digesting it, began a symbiotic relationship. This was the first plant.
  • That individual cyanobacteria became the first chloroplast, the organelle that performs photosynthesis in all plants and algae.
  • Practically all chloroplasts are derived from that single event more than 1 billion years ago.
  • One species of amoeba succeeded in replicating the experiment more recently. It contains chloroplasts closely resembling a different variety of free-living cyanobacteria.
  • Lichens (like in the top photo) are the symbiotic compound of a fungus with either a green alga (a simple plant) or a cyanobacteria.
  • The fungus provides protection and chemical nutrition while the green partner provides solar energy for both organisms. Various fungi have followed this same strategy independently numerous time to survive in extremely cold, arid and nutrient-poor environments
  • A number of invertebrates have developed symbiotic relationships with photosynthetic organisms. This practice is widespread among sponges, corals, and sea anemones, which harbour algae or bacteria in their bodies.
  • Certain sea slugs feed on green algae and then incorporate their chloroplasts into their cells. Photosynthesis can keep the slugs alive for extended periods.
  • Green algae also live in the eggs of a species of salamander and help the embryo develop. So far this is the only documented example of a vertebrate forming photosynthetic symbiosis.

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Mathematicians of all Time

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Syskool
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issac newton
issac newton
  • Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727, British):

Considered as the most influential scientist of the world, Sir Issac Newton, undoubtedly, till the date is the best mathematician who ever lived on the planet earth. His radical theories and innovations will certainly rule the realms of science and mathematics in the coming centuries. Rather than renovating a unique branch of mathematics, he advanced every branch then studied.

  • Carl Friedrich Gauss (April 30, 1777 – February 23, 1855, German):

Carl Friedrich Gauss is considered as the best mathematician Germany has ever had. Sometimes referred to as the “Prince of Mathematicians,” this mega-nerd will be always remembered throughout the existence of mathematics for his vigorous works in differential geometry, number theory, statistics, analysis and other crucial topics. The number of Gauss’ student have become influential mathematicians, such as Friedrich Bessel, Bernhard Riemann, Richard Dedekind, and others.

  • Leonhard Euler (April 15, 1707 – September 18, 1783, Swiss):

Leonhard Euler was an eminent Swiss mathematician who gained enormous laurels for his significant contributions in infinitesimal calculus and graph theory. Through his widely circulated textbooks, he popularized various notational conventions such as f(x) to denote the function f applied to the argument x, letter to denote the imaginary unit, efor the base of the natural algorithm, Σ for summation, and others.

  • Euclid (365 BC – 275 BC, Greek):

Euclid was an ace of computation, which is counted among one of the best mathematicians of all time. Also known as the “Father of Geometry,” Euclid, in 300 BC, published a mathematical treatise – “Elements,” which revolutionized the field of mathematics by some sensational theories. The geometrical system explained by him in the “Elements” was called as “Geometry” for a long time. However, in the 19th century, a couple of mathematicians changed the term to “Euclidean Geometry.”

  • Archimedes (287 BC – 212BC, Greek):

Considered to be the best mathematician of antiquity, Archimedes of Syracuse is highly regarded in the community of scholars for discovering some crucial mathematical concepts, without which we can’t imagine the functioning of modern mathematics. Archimedes was the person who gave the accurate approximation of Pi, using the method of exhaustion.

  • Bernhard Riemann (September 17, 1826 – July 20, 1866, German):

A bright student of Carl Friedrich Gauss, Bernhard Riemann, emerged as one of the most influential mathematicians of this age. His lasting contributions to differential geometry and analysis have enabled the later foundation of general relativity. His theory “Riemann Surfaces” which is an essential part of the foundation of Topology, is still applied in mathematical physics.

  • Joseph Louis Lagrange (January 25, 1736 – April 10, 1813, Sardinian, French):

In the list of best mathematicians throughout the history, the name of J. L. Lagrange is taken with uttermost respect. He made salient contributions to all fields of analysis, analytical mechanics, number theory, as well as classical and celestial mechanics. For more than 20 years, he was the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences, where he produced a large body of work in the field of mathematics.

Must Read: Physics Facts

  • Alan Turing (June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954, British):

Best known for being the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, Alan Turing was the man who germinated the concepts of an algorithm as well as developed the mechanism of computation with the Turing Machine. Because of carrying thorough knowledge in the field of cryptanalysis, he was appointed in the British code-breaking centre during the World War 2 to break German ciphers.

  • Gottfried Leibniz (July 1, 1646 – November 14, 1716, German):

Gottfried Leibniz is counted among some of the best mathematicians who, by his, innovative ideas, changed the contemporary panorama of mathematics. He is honoured for developing the Leibniz’s mathematical notation, infinitesimal calculus (along with Sir Issac Newton), symbolic logic and for restructuring the binary number system which is the foundation of all digital computers.

  • Leonardo Pisano Bigollo (1170 – 1250, Italian):

Best known by his nickname – “Fibonacci,” this legendary and the most intelligent western mathematician of the Middle Ages is widely esteemed for his in-depth work on the Fibonacci numbers. In the early 13th century, he wrote a book on mathematics – Liber Abaci, which is famous for popularizing the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe.

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Surprising Facts About Heart

By
Syskool
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Facts About Heart

Facts About Heart

  • The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a lifetime.
  • Though weighing only 11 ounces on average, a healthy heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels each day.
  • Do you know facts about heart that every day, the heart creates enough energy to drive a truck 20 miles. In a lifetime, that is equivalent to driving to the moon and back.
  • Because the heart has its own electrical impulse, it can continue to beat even when separated from the body, as long as it has an adequate supply of oxygen.
  • The fetal heart rate is approximately twice as fast as an adult’s, at about 150 beats per minute. By the time a fetus is 12 weeks old, its heart pumps an amazing 60 pints of blood a day.
  • During an average lifetime, the heart will pump nearly 1.5 million barrels of blood—enough to fill 200 train tank cars.
  • Do you know facts about heart that the “thump-thump” of a heartbeat is the sound made by the four valves of the heart closing.
  • The heart does the most physical work of any muscle during a lifetime. The power output of the heart ranges from 1-5 watts.
  • The heart begins beating at four weeks after conception and does not stop until death.
  • Prolonged lack of sleep can cause irregular jumping heartbeats called premature ventricular contractions (PVCs).
  • In 1903, physiologist Willem Einthoven (1860-1927) invented the electrocardiograph, which measures electric current in the heart.
  • Physician Erasistratus of Chios (304-250 B.C.) was the first to discover that the heart functioned as a natural pump.
  • Blood is actually a tissue. When the body is at rest, it takes only six seconds for the blood to go from the heart to the lungs and back, only eight seconds for it to go the brain and back, and only 16 seconds for it to reach the toes and travel all the way back to the heart.
  • A woman’s heart typically beats faster than a man’s. The heart of an average man beats approximately 70 times a minute, whereas the average woman has a heart rate of 78 beats per minute.

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Surprising Facts About the Respiratory System 

Excretory System 
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