William James Sidis was a wonder child; at eighteen months he could read The New York Times, at two he taught himself Latin, at three he learned Greek. By the time he was eight he had taught himself eight languages (Latin, Greek, French, Russian, German, Hebrew, Turkish, and Armenian). He also invented another, which he called Vendergood.
Youngest student at Harvard
William James Sidis gained entrance to Harvard at eleven, and gave a lecture on four-dimensional bodies to the Harvard Mathematical Club his first year. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, on June 18, 1914, at age 16.
Shortly after graduation, he told reporters that he wanted to live the perfect life, which to him meant living in seclusion. He granted an interview to a reporter from the Boston Herald, which published his vows to remain celibate and never to marry, and a statement that women did not appeal to him (however, he later developed a strong affection for a young woman named Martha Foley). He later enrolled at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Source:
http://www.prometheussociety.org/articles/Outsiders.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis
Coca-Cola is invented by John Pemberton in the late 19th century. It was originally intended as a medicine against fatigue and headaches. The idea to call it Coca-Cola came from his business partner Frank Robinson in 1885. The name is made up from the two ‘medical’ ingredients; extract of coca leaves and kola nuts.
Cocaine
How much cocaine there was exactly in the cola is hard to determine, but that is was in there is certain. Frederich Allen even thought it had to remain an ingredient of the cola, despite all the heavy critique;
“But neither could Candler take the simple step of eliminating the fluid extract of coca leaves from the formula. Candler believed that his product’s name had to be descriptive, and that he must have at least some by-product of the coca leaf in the syrup (along with some kola) to protect his right to the name Coca-Cola. Protecting the name was critical. Candler had no patent on the syrup itself. Anyone could make an imitation. But no one could put the label “Coca-Cola” on an imitation so long as Candler owned the name. The name was the thing of real value, and the registered trademark was its only safeguard. Coca leaves had to stay in the syrup.”
It was not before 1929 that Coca-Cola became cocaine free.
Published at October 12, 2007
in Biology.
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Lina Medina (born September 27, 1933 in Paurange in Peru) gave birth at the age of 5 years, 7 months an
d 21 days and is the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.
Lina’s parents brought her to the hospital because of her increasing abdominal size. They thought she had a tumor, but in the hospital it was quickly clear that she was pregnant. A month later, at May 14 1939, her son was born by a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Lozada and Dr. Busalleu, with Dr. Colretta providing anaesthesia. Before the operation, Dr. Lozada had brought her to the hospital in Lima to check whether Lina was really pregnant or not.
The case of Lina is well registered by Dr. Edmundo Escomel in La Presse Medicale.
Her son weighed 2.7 kg (6 lb) at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Lina was his sister, but found out at the age of ten that she was his mother. He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a disease of the bone marrow.
Lina her menarche had occurred at 8 months of age, and she had had prominent breast development by the age of 4. By age 5 her figure displayed pelvic widening and advanced bone maturation.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Medina
The name is;
‘Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop-
nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsak-
kattiyavisanukamprasit‘.
Wales
Very often the town with the name
‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch‘
is mentioned as the longest of the world, but it only comes in third on the list of longest place names.
The second place is hold by New Zealand who have a name for a hill that consists of 92 letters:
Tetaumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronuku pokaiwhenuaakitanarahu.
This one is actually entered in the Guiness Book of Records and is said to mean:
“The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed, and swallowed mountains, known as land eater, played his flute to his loved one.”
Published at October 8, 2007
in Physics.
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This is called the Mpemba effect after the student who discovered this phenomanon. The high school student Mpemba from Tanzania, Africa discovered in 1969 that hot water freezes faster than cold water while making icecream.
His teachers did not believe it was possible, and it took several years until university professors finally accepted his discovery.
It is unclear what the exact cause of this phenomenon is, but there are several factors that have influence on the mpemba effect:
A part of the water vaporizes which already cools down the remaining water and of course has the effect that there is less water left to be freezed.
Besides the following has to be taken into account such as the possibility that the hot water holds less dissolved gasses, there is a difference in convection currents when cooling down and of course the surroundings can have effect as well.
Source: http://www.physics.adelaide.edu.au/~dkoks/Faq/General/hot_water.html
Published at October 7, 2007
in Biology.
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People with red hair feel more pain than people with blond or dark hair. It is scientificaly proven that people with red hair need about 20% more anaesthetic during operations than other patients.
The cells that produce skin and hair pigment have a dysfunctional melanocortin 1 receptor in people with red hair.
This dysfunction triggers the release of more of the hormone that stimulates these cells, but this hormone also stimulates a brain receptor related to pain sensitivity.
This causes people with red hair to be more sensetive to pain.
Poor redheads!
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn2923
More people have drowned in the Sahara than died of dehydration.
It hardly ever rains in the desert, but if it does it rains really heavy rains. The water flows then through valleys where no one expects it even to be possible that water is flowing there.
These water flows are very dangerous as they surprise the people who are there at that given moment. There is no time to escape from water flows like this and the people drown.
In 1995 more than 300 people drowned like this in only one weekend in the Sahara.
Source: Krämer & Trenkler, Nieuw lexicon van hardnekkige misverstanden
Published at October 5, 2007
in History.
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This means that they already knew the earth was round.
Eratosthenes used geometry to estimate the circumference of the Earth.
Eratosthenes measured the altitude of the noontime sun at Alexandria at its maximum on Jun 21st. On that date, the Sun is directly overhead at noontime at Syene, in southern Egypt (latitude = 23.5 degrees north).
The zenith distance is the angle from the zenith to the point where the Sun was at noon; it is also 90 degrees minus the altitude. At Syene, the zenith distance was 0 degrees; at Alexandria it was about 7 degrees.
He knew how far it was from Alexandria to Syene, so he used geometry and the difference in zenith angle to estimate the size of the Earth.
Source: http://astrosun.tn.cornell.edu/courses/astro201/eratosthenes.htm
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