Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science. Show all posts
Top 10 Accidental Inventions and Amazing Discoveries
Many of the inventions of all times
have been "accidental" inventions. They came about because the person
was doing something else and it just happened or they were working on
another invention and invented another. Some of these on this list are
important medical inventions that have helped save lives or made our
lives easier, some belongs to food and some to fashion. Here is the
list of top ten accidental inventions and discoveries.
1- Penicillin
This was
invented because Alexander Fleming did not clean his workstation before
he went on vacation. When he came back he found a strange fungus on
some of his cultures and the bacteria did not seem to thrive near those
particular cultures. It was the first and one of the most widely used
antibiotics today. This was in 1928.
2- Pacemaker
This was invented
because Professor Wilson Greatbatch put his hand into a container and
pulled out the incorrect object. He was trying to make a type of
circuit to record the sounds of a fast heart and when he put his hand
into the container for a resistor to complete the circuit he pulled out
the wrong one. He was suppose to get a 10,000-ohm but got a 1-megaohm
resistor. This circuit pulsed, stopped for a second, then repeated, and
was the sound of a heartbeat that was perfect.
3- Mauve
Chemist William
Perkin wanted to cure malaria but instead changed the face of fashion.
He was trying to make artificial quinine to cure malaria but instead
made the first every synthetic dye. His dyes were also used to pioneer
chemotherapy and immunology.
4- Radioactivity
William
Becquerel was trying to see if fluorescent minerals would produce X-rays
after being in the sun. The weather was overcast so he put them away
to wait for a sunny day. He looked at the uranium rock he had left in
the drawer and it had imprinted itself on a photographic plate with no
sunlight.
5- Plastic
Leo Hendrik
Baekeland was trying to produce a shellac alternative but instead his
experiment made a moldable material. It could take high temps without
distorting. He first thought it might be used for phonograph records
but found it had many other uses.
6- Vulcanized Rubber
One day
Charles Goodyear accidentally spilled a mix of sulfur, rubber, and lead
onto a hot stove. When he picked up the “accident” he found it was hard
but still quite usable. It is used for tires, to hockey pucks, to
shoes.
7- Teflon
Roy Plunkett was
working to make a new kind of safer chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) because
the old ones was damaging to the ozone system and were being used in
refrigeration. He was trying to get a compound called TFE to react with
hydrochloric acid. He put a bunch of TFE gas pressurized into cans and
when he opened them, the gas was gone. Out of the can came some fine
white flakes which he gave to scientists at DuPont.
8- Coke
Pharmacist John
Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches so he mixed together
some ingredients, which is still a secret today, and after eight years
of being sold in a drug store, it was sold in bottles.
9- Smart Dust
Jamie Link was
on a silicon chips for her doctoral work and one burst but she found the
tiny pieces were still able to function as sensors and she called it
smart dust.
10- Saccharin
This sweetener
was discovered because the chemist Constantin Fahlberg did not wash his
hands after a day at work. He was trying to come up with uses for coal
tar. He was eating without washing his hands and the rolls he was
eating tasted sweeter but tasted normal to his wife. This is used as substitute to sugar and used in tea, cakes etc
Top 10 Amazing and Weird Facts about Bugs and Insects
Even if they do not want to admit it,
people have a fascination with bugs, especially weird bugs and the
weirder the better. With the world of the internet it now makes it
easier for people to look up weird bugs. There are so many different
species that it is hard to make a list of ten of them but it has been
done. Each one of these tell just one strange quirk about the insect.
You can always go online and read more about each one of these plus the
many other bugs and their weird facts. Here are some interesting weird
bug facts.
1- Midge Larvae
This is the type of larvae can survive in liquid nitrogen at negative three hundred twenty one degrees Fahrenheit for three days.
2- Termite Queens
This female termite will lay up to thirty thousand eggs each day. They can also live for many years so now you know why there seems to be so many termites.
3- Indian Moon Moths
When this type of moth is looking for a potential mate, from over six miles away they can smell the pheromones of a mate.
4- Termite Mounds
In Africa,
the termite mounds there can reach a height of forty feet. The termites
that live in these mounds use an intricate system of ventilation shafts
in order to control the inside temperature.
5- Sleeping Wasps
There are
some wasps that hibernate or just sleep for months but the weird thing
is that these type of wasps do it while hanging onto whatever they are
sleeping or hibernating on by their teeth.
6- Fly Taste Buds
Most people
have noticed that when a fly lands on something they seem to be rubbing
their feet together. The reason that they do this is that houseflies
can taste with their feet. Yes, they have their taste buds on their
feet.
7- Mosquitoes
This insect has
been known to cause Malaria and West Nile Virus. As a result of these
two diseases, mosquitoes have killed more humans that all the wars in
the world added together. They are more likely to bite children, people
who wear dark clothes, and blond haired people. They are also more
attracted to people who are sweating after exercising or eating bananas
because the food is high in potassium.
8- Wasp Hunters
This is a
species of wasps which specialize in hunting other predators that are
dangerous. These dangerous predators include tarantulas and praying
mantids.
9- Ants Marching
It seems that
when you never see just one ant. It seems like there is an army of
them. If you watch ants outside they are always marching in a line. Of
all the animals that fight battles, ants are the only animals besides
crows and humans that fight in formation.
10- Grasshopper Ears
Not all grasshoppers and crickets have this weird anomaly but certain ones have their ears on their front legs.
Insects are not only efficient but also compassionate although many people would not agree with this last observation. They might consider them intelligent and ruthless instead. They might also consider them ugly and something to smash or squash. Whatever your thoughts are about bugs, there are good ones and bad ones but each one does have some type of weird fact about them.
Top 10 Most Worst Scientific Jobs
The field of science has seen
tremendous development in the past few decades. Every minute thing
around you includes science. One cannot imagine life without it. Science
has always been the first preference of the parents too as a career
option for their children. The advancements have introduced many more
fields that offer some of the most enticing jobs. However, there lies
the other side of the coin too. Just like there are some of the most
alluring jobs, there exists a certain jobs people are hardly aware. They
are considered to some of the worst jobs ever. Let us have a look at
the ten worst jobs that the field has to offer.
10- Becoming an Armpit Detective
The last thing you want to smell when you go near a person is the body odor. Imagine your state if you are asked to smell a number of different people daily. Disgusted. Now imagine smelling their armpits daily. Yes, you read it right. The job of an armpit detective requires smelling the armpit of different people daily to find out the substances responsible for the different odor in every person
9- Modeling Sneezes
The moment you think the other person might sneeze, you reflexes make you to move away. However, they are few amongst us who wait for such a situation and go as close as possible to the person. Such persons are required to analyze the places from where flu enter the body. He needs the person to cough on his face.
Top 10 Most Worst Scientific Jobs
10- Becoming an Armpit Detective
The
last thing you want to smell when you go near a person is the body
odor. Imagine your state if you are asked to smell a number of different
people daily. Disgusted. Now imagine smelling their armpits daily. Yes,
you read it right. The job of an armpit detective requires smelling the
armpit of different people daily to find out the substances responsible
for the different odor in every person.
9- Modeling Sneezes
The moment
you think the other person might sneeze, you reflexes make you to move
away. However, they are few amongst us who wait for such a situation and
go as close as possible to the person. Such persons are required to
analyze the places from where flu enter the body. He needs the person to
cough on his face.
8- Transplanting Feces
This yet another disgusting job the field has to offer. You must have visited the local hospital a couple of times to get your feces transplanted. But hardly, you must have imagined the condition of the person who has to actually perform the job.
7- Becoming a Dinosaur Dung Curator
The moment we hear of dinosaurs, we think either about the Jurassic Park movies or the dangerous creatures roaring and wandering. Do you know there exist a job that requires you to collect the waste of the animal? Yes, there are paleontologists in Arizona that collect the waste and scrutinize it to find about the kind of plants and weather of the time when they actually existed.
6- Ape Urine Collector
Apes are always known for their notorious behavior and the different pranks they might play. The job that you may have not imagined in your wildest dreams require you to go near them and collect a sample of their urine.
5- Collection of Decaying Substance of Dead Marine Creatures
the smell of dead creatures is nauseating and can even make you vomit. There exists a job that requires you to actually find such dead creatures. An Italian university hire people to collect sample of dead oceanic creatures for research. They look like mucus.
4- Slashing whales/dolphins
Dolphins are considered to man’s friend while whale are the largest sea creatures. You must have visited the local fish market and must have seen people cutting different varieties of fishes. What if your job asks you to cut dolphins and whales? Yes, a museum in Santa Barbara hire people to do the job on the dead bodies of creatures found on the shore to analyze the cause of death. It can take even hors to rip the whale apart in just two pieces.
3- Building Human Tissue
hardly any of us know that the dead bodies of humans that lie unclaimed in hospitals or morgues are used to graft new tissues by recycling the old ones. The process is even grosser than the job sounds.
2- Counting Beans
Yes it may sound hilarious but a researcher in Indiana counted beans of his soya bean pods every month to determine the month with the highest productivity. I think he was unaware about the weighing scale.
1- Predicting the End of the World
Yes, it is a job. We have heard several people debating over the topic and that scared the people. They send their queries to archaeologists who in turn hire people to reply to the people anything that may satisfy them.
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