Thursday, May 11, 2006

Scientists Agree...


In going about our everyday lives, all of us use science every day, and we never even know it. Science has much to teach us about the world we live in and how to master it. For instance:



  • Blue light travels faster than any other color light.

  • Vegans and vegetarians regularly eat flesh from animals that die of natural causes since that meat is technically considered "carrion."

  • The inside of an ordinary 40-watt lightbulb can become hotter than the surface of the sun.

  • So-called "steam locomotives" are actually fuelled by coal or other combustible materials in a small, controlled nuclear reaction.

  • Ink from a computer printer, if ingested, is more toxic than mercury.

  • 30 is technically the lowest prime number.

  • Albinos are actually black--it is the refraction of sunlight that makes them "appear" white or colorless.

  • Dogs have eight more senses than human beings.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently acquired two stupendous, little-known facts:
1) An individual's hair is an expression of his inner nature.
2) One cannot truly know a man without knowing his passions.

Alice said...

Good layout, gentlemen. I applaud the way your design people have broken up the page: the sprawling, unbroken lines of The History of Ping Pong (known in some lower Pacific nations as Pong Ping prior to World War Two, interestingly enough), interjected with the sharp, bullet-pointed Facts: Here, brevity breeds longevity, as the old saying goes. The eye travels down the page; it is pleased. Bravo, bravo.

Anonymous said...

It's not that I think your ideas are without merit; it's just that I find your methodology flawed. As a student of science with many peer-reviewed studies in publication, it has been my observation that science has taken us to lofty heights and other places where we shouldn't have dreamt to fly! If you think it's funny that solar flares may be reproduced inside a light bulb (n.b. I am a light bulb understander), ponder this: the "car" dilemma. Recklenberg demonstrates that a car can be driven simultaneously to the sun simultaneously and away from the sun, but both states (away-from-sun and to-sun) can not be observed at the same time. I must underscore time, for that is what is at stake. I hope you see the dangers in your research.

Jon Black and Britt Bergman said...

Thank you "carl tech" for your thoughtful comment. We love to receive praise from the layman as well as fellow colleagues. Be assured that our posts are thoroughly researched before publication. There are no "solar flares" in a forty watt light bulb, nor is there any humor in the seriousness of our claim of high temperatures. We feel that just as the "steam" engine was cast aside due to its hidden and potentially dangerous nuclear reactions, the forty watt light bulb would have made its way to the rubbish bin as well, if it truly presented grave danger as well. But remember one important and simple principle of science. Seeing that a light bulb is electric, a person could never be damaged from the intense heat of the filament for two reasons:
a. the protective glass barrier--if it breaks, the light goes out.
b. humans are naturally grounded, so unless a person could reach inside the bulb whilst floating in mid-air there is a 0% chance of being harmed.
Thanks again for your comment and rest assured that although light bulbs can get extremely hot, you can't be burned by one.