Learn One Thing A Day

   (image from http://uweanimation.blogspot.com ) "If, in some cataclysm, all scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis (or atomic fact , or whatever you wish to call it) that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence you will see an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied."     Richard Feynman (1918-1988), Lectures on Physics (vol. 1) ---> For other posts on this blog about Richard Feynman click here

Did you know that you don't need a ladder to harvest pineapples? Why? They grow pretty much on the ground! That's why!   (image from wikipedia )

Today I heard one of the three famous " laws " of the British science (fiction) writer Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 - 2008) and I have thought to the report  them here :) ( image source ) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. The third sentence is probaly the most famous one and if you look around you, its value and validity will appear still extremely relevant, don't you think?

The loudest animal(s) on Earth? In terms of pure power nobody beats the Blue Whale ! Its whistles can indeed reach 188 dB! How big is this number?  Well, just consider that a human whisper at 1 m is about 20 dB, a conversation is 60-70 dB and a Jet Engine is 140 dB. What is the threshold of pain for a human ear? 120-130 dB! And at 160 dB your eardrum will rupture! The phenomenal blue whale whistles have been recorded more than 500 miles (805 kilometers) away! This is pretty much the distance between San Francisco and San Diego! Amazing! However the poweful whistle is not the only thing special about the Blue Whale. As I wrote in a previous post , it is also the largest animal that ever lived on Earth! Yes, even larger than the largest dinosaur! (Photograph by Flip Nicklin, National Geographic ) Another every interesting and loud animal is the Snapping Shrimp .  (Photograph from WaterFrame/Alamy, National Geografic ) Even though it doesn't sing as the wh...