The latest discoveries of scientists. Obtaining stem cells in an “ethical” way. They have memory but no brain

Newborns typically have about 270 bones, most of which are very small. This makes the skeleton more flexible and helps the baby pass through the birth canal and grow quickly. As we grow older, many of these bones fuse together. The adult human skeleton consists on average of 200–213 bones.

2. The Eiffel Tower grows 15 centimeters in summer

The huge structure is built with temperature expansion joints, allowing the steel to expand and contract without any damage.

When steel heats up, it begins to expand and takes up more volume. This is called thermal expansion. Conversely, a drop in temperature leads to a decrease in volume. For this reason, large structures, such as bridges, are built with expansion joints that allow them to change in size without damage.

3. 20% of oxygen comes from the Amazon rainforest

The Amazon rainforest covers 5.5 million square kilometers. The Amazon jungle produces a significant portion of the oxygen on Earth, absorbing huge amounts of carbon dioxide, which is why it is often called the lungs of the planet.

4. Some metals are so reactive that they explode even when in contact with water.

Some metals and compounds - potassium, sodium, lithium, rubidium and cesium - exhibit increased chemical activity, so they can ignite with lightning speed when in contact with air, and if they are placed in water, they can even explode.

5. A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons.

Neutron stars are the remains of massive stars, consisting mainly of a neutron core covered with a relatively thin (about 1 km) crust of matter in the form of heavy atomic nuclei and electrons. The cores of stars that died during a supernova explosion were compressed under the influence of gravity. This is how super-dense neutron stars were formed. Astronomers have found that the mass neutron stars may be comparable to the mass of the Sun, although their radius does not exceed 10–20 kilometers.

6. Every year, Hawaii gets 7.5 cm closer to Alaska.

The earth's crust consists of several huge parts - tectonic plates. These plates are constantly moving along with the upper layer of the mantle. Hawaii is located in the middle part of the Pacific Plate, which is slowly drifting northwest toward the North American Plate, on which Alaska is located. Tectonic plates move at the same speed as human fingernails grow.

7. In 2.3 billion years, Earth will be too hot to support life.

Our planet will eventually become an endless desert, similar to today's Mars. Over hundreds of millions of years, the Sun has warmed up, become brighter and hotter, and will continue to do so. In more than two billion years, temperatures will be so high that the oceans that make Earth habitable will evaporate. The entire planet will turn into an endless desert. As scientists predict, in the next few billion years the Sun will turn into a red giant and completely engulf the Earth - the planet will definitely come to an end.

Thermal imagers are able to identify an object by the heat it emits. And polar bears are experts at staying warm. Thanks to a thick layer of subcutaneous fat and a warm fur coat, bears are able to withstand even the coldest days in the Arctic.

9. Light will take 8 minutes 19 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth

It is known that the speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. But even at such breakneck speed, it will take time to cover the distance between the Sun and Earth. And 8 minutes is not so much on a cosmic scale. To reach Pluto sunlight it will take 5.5 hours.

10. If you remove all the interatomic space, humanity will fit in a sugar cube

In fact, more than 99.9999% of an atom is empty space. An atom consists of a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by a cloud of electrons that proportionally occupy more space. This is because electrons move in waves. They can only exist where the crests and troughs of the waves are formed in a certain way. Electrons do not remain at one point; their location can be anywhere within the orbit. And therefore they take up a lot of space.

11. Stomach juice can dissolve razor blades

The stomach digests food thanks to caustic hydrochloric acid with a high pH (hydrogen index) - from two to three. But at the same time, the acid also affects the gastric mucosa, which, however, can quickly recover. The lining of your stomach is completely renewed every four days.

Scientists have many versions of why this happens. The most likely: due to huge asteroids that influenced its course in the past, or due to strong circulation of air currents in the upper atmosphere.

13. A flea can accelerate faster than the space shuttle

Flea jumps reach mind-boggling heights - 8 centimeters per millisecond. Each jump gives the flea an acceleration 50 times greater than the acceleration of the spacecraft.

And what Interesting Facts do you know?

The past year has been rich in amazing discoveries.

The smallest frog in the world

The smallest frog in the world reaches a size of no more than 7-8 millimeters. A representative of the species Paedophryne amauensis has set a unique record - it reaches a length of only 7.7 millimeters. Scientists announced the discovery of a new species of record size in January 2012, although the frog was discovered by researchers in the tropical forests of southern Papua New Guinea a couple of years ago.

Scientists believe the frog is so large in order to feed on tiny invertebrates, such as ticks, that are ignored by larger predators. Thus, she has found her niche in the food chain and feels great.

They have memory but no brain

Scientists are almost certain that these simple organisms, which do not have a brain, actually have memory. During experiments with slime molds of the species Physarum polycephalum, scientists from the University of Sydney noticed that these living organisms avoid returning to the same places where they have already been. Researchers began to suspect that these protozoa use a special form of spatial memory to move around.

“Slime molds leave a trail of mucus behind them, which they can then detect and thus ‘recognize’ the places where they have already been,” said biologist Chris Reid. Scientists have also suggested that Physarum may recognize and respond to traces left by other species of slime mold.

Reid reported that primitive organisms could use their spatial memory to solve the same problems that our brains face today. This is the beginning of the evolution of memory. Previous research has shown that slime molds can also roam the maze and anticipate periodic events.

The Riddle of the Chimera Cat

In August 2012, a cat named Venus became a real hit of the season, striking everyone with her unusual appearance. This three-year-old tortoiseshell cat has won millions of views on YouTube and even has her own Facebook page. One half of the cat's face is black, the other is red. Moreover, Venus also has different eyes - one is yellow, the other is blue. Scientists do not yet know why she got such a strange appearance, but there are suggestions that this cat is a chimera.

A chimera is an organism that receives the genes of its brother or sister in the womb during the embryonic stage of development. Two embryos merge into one, resulting in one animal being born, but with some genetic characteristics, for example, a strange coat color.

White killer whale

In April 2012, a strange albino killer whale was spotted off the coast of Russia, which puzzled scientists. The animal immediately received the nickname Iceberg. It reaches about 7 meters in length.

Previously, scientists had already seen a white killer whale off the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in 2000 and 2008, but albinos of this species are so rare that scientists concluded that then they saw the same animal, only at a younger age. After all, Iceberg, according to researchers, is already about 16 years old.

Animal with the most legs: record-breaking centipede

The owner of the most legs lives in California. This unique arthropod is a centipede that reaches a length of no more than 3 centimeters. Surprisingly, with her body size she has 750 legs! Scientists first discovered the centipede of the species Illacme plenipes back in 1928, but they were never able to study it thoroughly, since the animal, as scientists believed, had disappeared and was considered extinct for a long time.

The creature developed such a large number of legs due to life underground. It is convenient for the centipede to move its legs and move in the ground, as well as climb underground rocks.

Soft-bodied turtle with a unique urinary system

In October 2012, scientists reported that they had discovered a very strange property in the animal: a soft-bodied turtle of the species Pelodiscus sinensis can urinate... through its mouth. Scientists already knew that soft-bodied turtles have gill-like structures in their mouths. Researchers initially thought that they helped animals breathe underwater, but it turned out that this was not the case.

Scientists also discovered that turtles carry a special gene that helps produce a special protein responsible for urine production. This gene is associated with an organ such as the mouth, not the kidneys. These reptiles live in brackish water, so the adaptation to urinate through the mouth comes in handy. If the turtle were to urinate normally, it would need to drink more water to avoid dehydration.

Rare lioness with mane

Female lions, as you know, do not wear a mane, but among them there are very masculine representatives. For example, strange female lions with manes like males have recently been spotted in Africa.

These unusual trickster lionesses were spotted in the Mombo region of the Okavango Delta, Botswana. In this area, animals may have an unusual genetic feature that gives them such an unusual appearance for lionesses, scientists say.

As it turned out, females with a mane cannot give birth, but they adapt very well in the wild. Due to the presence of a mane, they are perceived as males, and their appearance scares away hyenas and some aggressive males from the pride.

Strange fish with genitals on its head

The genitals, it turns out, can be located... on the head. At least one species of fish from Vietnam can boast of precisely this arrangement of vital organs.

The fish of the species Phallostethus cuulong reaches a length of about 2.5 centimeters and has a transparent body that is quite standard for fish. It lives in the Mekong River basin in Vietnam. This habitat has changed greatly over the past couple of decades, but the fish have demonstrated amazing vitality and have adapted well to new conditions.

Fish of the family Phallostethidae are a group of fish whose males fertilize the eggs of females inside their bodies. Although, as is known, most female fish lay eggs, which are then fertilized by males in the external environment. Many male fish of the family Phallostethidae have physical features that allow them to fertilize eggs inside the body of females, which is why the species Phallostethus cuulong has genitals on the head - for maximum convenience during mating.

Giant Mysterious Eye: Mysterious Find on a Florida Beach

The most unexpected discovery of 2012 was a huge eye that washed up on the Florida coast in October. The Internet community immediately began to lively discuss who this mysterious eye belonged to.

However, a few days later the Wildlife Conservation Commission announced that the eye belonged to a swordfish.

"Observer" made the top ten scientific discoveries our days, which have changed the understanding of the world.

Honorary doctor of 20 leading universities in the world, member of many Academies of Sciences, including foreign honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1926), Nobel Prize laureate Albert Einstein once said: “The process of scientific discoveries is, in essence, a continuous flight from miracles.” The Observer compiled a rating of the most resonant scientific discoveries of the last 10 years that made the miracle a reality.

1. Higgs boson - “God particle” worth $10 billion

The Higgs boson is a theoretically predicted particle that gives other particles mass.

Scientists have been trying to find evidence of the Higgs boson for the past 45 years. Detection of the Higgs boson was the main goal of the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The $10 billion LHC is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built. The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle, one of the building blocks of which the Universe is built. Tara Shears, a particle physicist at the University of Liverpool, told the BBC that if particles didn't have mass, there wouldn't be stars, galaxies or even atoms. The discovery of the Higgs boson was announced in Geneva, where the Large Hadron Collider is located.

Peter Higgs own persona

Among the scientists present at the announcement of the discovery was Peter Higgs himself, a professor at the University of Edinburgh who predicted the existence of this particle 50 years ago.

2. Water was found on the planet Mars

A spacecraft called Phoenix arrived at the North Pole of the planet Mars to take new samples of earth for analysis. In the process of searching for samples, the device discovered a certain white powder, which ultimately turned out to be frozen water.

Phoenix on Mars

Technical and scientific leadership in the Phoenix project was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Arizona, the device was manufactured by Lockheed Martin Space System, and the Canadian Space Agency supplied the probe with a meteorological complex. The project cost $420 million. Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007 on a Delta 2 7925 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA. The weight of the rocket at launch was more than 280 tons.

3. Control of the prosthesis using brain signals

In 2001, Italian Pierpaolo Petrusiello first tried to control a prosthesis using the power of brain impulses.

Pierpaolo Petrusiello and his “smart” hand

Before that, for almost nine years in this area, successful and not so successful attempts were made to turn a fixed prosthesis into a complete imitation of a healthy human arm or leg. By sending motor impulses, Pierpaolo could control the prosthesis and perform a large number of functions.

4. Detected new ancestor person

Paleontologists from several European and African institutions discovered an ancestor modern man, who lived in Central Africa about 3.6 million years ago. The new find is at least 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy", a hominid also discovered in Africa in Ethiopia. Lucy's age is about 3.2 million years.

This is what Kadanuumuu looks like

A new discovery by scientists has proven that Lucy was not so “ancient.” Like Lucy's remains, the bones of the new hominid were found in central Ethiopia. The scientists unofficially named their discovery Kadanuumuu, which means “Big Man” in Ethiopian Afar. The fact is that the bones of the hominid indicate that during life its height was 150-180 cm, which is comparable to the height of modern women.

5. Study of tissues soft type dinosaurs

In 2005, scientist Mary Higbye Schweitzer, thanks to her colleagues, found soft tissue from the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus Rex. In particular, these were blood vessels, some cells and bone matrix.

The amino acids obtained from the tissues of ancient lizards resemble similar compounds in the body of chickens.

6. “Alien” planets discovered

In 2008, astronomers working with the powerful Hubble telescope and the Keck and Gemini observatories in Hawaii discovered three exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

One of these planets is 25 light years away from Earth.

7. Obtaining stem cells “ethically”

Specialist scientists from Kyoto University (Japan) and from the University of Wisconsin - Madison almost at the same time obtained embryonic stem cells from already mature skin cells of an adult.

Thanks to this discovery, it became possible to grow organs for each person based on their own cells. And most importantly, the organs are grown individually for each organism, so they will not be rejected by the immune system.

8. The oldest gas in the Universe was found

Researchers in North America have discovered the most ancient gas in our Universe. Scientists believe that it chemical composition remained unchanged for several billion years after the Big Bang.

Researchers discovered the gas cluster while observing through telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. The gas cluster is located 11 billion light years from our planet.

9. A drug that detects hidden HIV infection

Scientists at the University of North Carolina have found that a drug used to treat certain types of lymphoma helps detect hidden virus HIV in patients taking anti-HIV medications. Researchers assessed the ability of the drug vorinostat to activate and destroy the virus.

They initially measured levels of virus-infected CD4+ T cells in the laboratory. It is these white blood cells that the virus uses to reproduce. Vorinostat found the hidden virus precisely in T cells. It was administered to eight HIV-infected people who were stable on drugs against the virus. As a result of taking vorinostat, there was a 4.5-fold increase in the level of HIV RNA in CD4 + T cells - that is, the virus was released. In other words, scientists have found a new strategy for eliminating hidden HIV infection.

10. Discovery of Eris

In 2005, scientist Mike Brown and his assistants at the Palamar Observatory discovered a completely new space object in our solar system.

This object was named 136199 Eris, and was 27% larger than the planet Pluto. After the discovery of Eris, it finally became clear to scientists that Pluto is not the tenth planet at all solar system, but only one of many dwarf planets, the largest of which was Eris.

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