Learn One Thing A Day

I asked myself the same question...

Fascinating, simply fascinating :)

This is cool!

An interesting Video from Cheddar :) Enjoy!

The lack of empathy is a scary phenomenon  But I am still not sure that the demise of Facebook is really close.

An interesting story I listed today. Worth to share it ;) Enjoy!

Quite interesting to watch :) Enjoy the view!

Some days ago LIGO (Laser Interferometry Gravitational waves Observatory) announced the detection of the first gravitational wave produced by the collapse of two black holes. Here a nice summary of ideas behind the science and the experiment. Amazing! To understand how impressive this discovery is, here some "raw" numbers: The interferometers making LIGO are huge: each arm of this L-shaped structures is 4 km long! The "ripple" in the fabric of space-time that has been measured is TINY: 1/100000 of a nanometer, how much is this? It's the size of a atomic nucleus! This is incredible! The ripple was produced by the collapse of two black holes, having 36 and 29 times the solar mass. The final black hole was 62 solar masses with 3 solar masses (36+29 - 62 = 3) "lost" in the ripples. The collapse of the two black holes happened 1.3 billion years ago! 1.3 billion years!!!! The earth is about 4.5 billion years old! The quest of the gravitation...

Frogs, Dog vision, Goldfish memory, Ostriches (aka the living "Raptors" ;) ... enjoy! From GPGrey  

Some time ago I prepared a draft-post to tell you about the 2-Billion-Years-Old nuclear reactor in Oklo (Gabon, in Central Africa). However the scishow guys come first with an episode on the subject, an episode that I warmly recommend you  :) Bonus info: To get a "controlled" and self-sustained nuclear fission requires extremely care! The first nuclear reactor was turned on 2 December 1942 by Enrico Fermi, at  University of Chicago. It was called the Chicago Pile-1 and it was built under the west viewing stands of a football field! (No joke!)... tomorrow you'll find a post about it :) Other references: http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.4948 https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/in-the-1970s-scientists-discovered-a-2-billion-year-old-nuclear-reactor-in-west-africa-4472460b82c2

The "Keep Calm And Carry On" was a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 in preparation for the Second World War. It was part of a series of three "Home Publicity" posters (the others read "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory " and " Freedom Is in Peril. Defend It With All Your Might "). The British Government printed millions of these posters, but they were never exhibited to the public. Almost all copies were destroyed until one of them was "rediscovered" in 2000. Sources: youtube , wikipedia

Here are some interesting facts about pigeons ;) Have a nice watch ... and do not forget to subscribe the awesome youtube channel scishow

Have you ever wandered why do we draw Stars as Star-shaped objects instead, let's say, just dots? The short answer is ...  the light diffraction through small imperfections in our eyes. The long answer is ... provided by the beautiful video from MinutePhysics ... (totally worth to watch!!!)

Today I want to talk you about milk! If you are an adult and you can still drink milk, well you and Wolverine have something in common, you are both mutants! In other ways, lactose intolerance is a normal thing. But let's go in order... Lactose intolerance is an impaired ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. Lactose is normally broken down by an enzyme called lactase, which is produced by cells in the lining of the small intestine. Lactose intolerance in adulthood is caused by reduced production of lactase after infancy (lactase nonpersistence). If individuals with lactose intolerance consume lactose-containing dairy products, they may experience abdominal pain, bloating, flatulence, nausea, and diarrhea beginning 30 minutes to 2 hours later.... [ Genetic Home Reference ] Did you know that it is estimated that about 70% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood? 70%!!! But also, did you ...

Another interesting and scary video from scishow!

Why do we yawn? Short answer: to keep cool our brain. Long version: watch the nice video below from scishow.

Does Alcohol Really Keep You Warm?  Short answer: no.  For the long answer I refer you to the nice video from the SciShow channel :)  

Today thanks to Hank Green (video below) I learnt something interesting about blood transfusions. The first experiments were performed in the 17th century by William Harvey (1578-1657) and they were between animals, specifically dogs. The first documented transfusion  involving humans and animals (yes... animals!) were performed in France by  Jean Baptiste Devys (1643-1704).  On June 15, 1667,  he successfully transfused the blood of a sheep into a 15-years old boy, who, surprisingly , suvived! His survival was probably due to the small amount of blood tranfused. Richard Lower (1631-1691) in England also performed similar experiments between animals (especially sheep) and humans. The reason behind these experiments was the belief that blood was responsible for the personality  person. So getting a bit of blood from a gentle animal might quiet the tempestuous spirit of an agitated person and that the shy might be made outgoing by blood from more so...

Today I learnt why cats do purr. In a nutshell: purring is a kind of self-medication. Probably. Let's see why. Cats purr not only when we stoke them but also in other moments in their life, as when they nurse their kittens or ... when they are in pain or near to death! These facts seem to tell us that purring has nothing to do with happiness, or with the pleasure to be with us... Cats purr by pulsing muscles in their larynx and diaphragm. The resulting vibrations have frequencies between 25 and 150 Hz.  Interestingly, scientific studies have shown that exposure to this frequency range can improve bone density and promote healing... hence the conclusion: purring is a kind of self-medication! This makes a lot of sense, since these adorable creatures are quite lazy (unlike dogs, cats do not like to chase balls) and nevertheless they stay healthy (even without physical exercise!) Amazing! References: http://www.scientificamerican.com/ SciShow Video

In the last two seasons of how I met your mother, there are some Italian words/dialogues. Here are the most important elements HIMYM 8x21 - Romeward Bound. The full episode in English is available here In this episode of How I Met Your Mother, the first Italian words appear... Scuncigli OR sconcigli : it's a kind of pasta, with a seashell shape. Gigi ... alla porta : Gigi (it's a man name), let's go to the door. Marshall in Little Italy says  Maronn! namely Madonna and corresponds to the English expression "Oh My God!" ... ( you have how I much I laughed after having watched this scene!!! ) In the last scene, when Marshall talks with Lily, he says "Andiamo, fratello. Non mangiarti tutti i Funions" (Come on, bro. Don't Bogart all the Funions) NOTE 1: As Italian, I have to tell you that his pronunciation is really really bad! And it's interesting about this point, the comment available below ;) NOTE 2: ...