The world of science is a fascinating place. It is the inspiration for hope and amazement, the precursor of science fiction, and the last chance for body repair. So thanks to various cosmic sources, here are 20 strange and wonderful facts that will make you love science:
1. There is enough DNA in the average person’s body to stretch from the sun to Pluto and back — 17 times.
2. The average human body carries ten times more bacterial cells than human cells.
3. It takes a photon up to 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to its surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to Earth.
4. At over 2,000 kilometers long, The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth.
- 5. There are 8 times as many atoms in a teaspoonful of water as there are teaspoonfuls of water in the Atlantic Ocean.
- 6. The average person walks the equivalent of five times around the world in a lifetime.
- 7. When Helium is cooled to almost absolute zero (-460°F or -273°C, the lowest temperature possible), it becomes a liquid with surprising properties: it flows against gravity and will start running up and over the lip of a glass container.
- 8. If Betelgeuse (the star) exploded, transitioning from the red supergiant stage to supernova, it would light our sky continuously for two months. And it could happen anytime — within a couple of thousand years, tomorrow or even now.
- 9. An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
- 10. The known universe is made up of 50,000,000,000 galaxies.
- 11. If you drilled a tunnel straight through the Earth and jumped in, it would take you exactly 42 minutes and 12 seconds to get to the other side.
- 12. A medium-sized cumulus cloud weighs about the same as 80 elephants.
- 13. A single bolt of lightning contains enough energy to cook 100,000 pieces of toast.
- 14. In an average lifetime, human skin completely replaces itself 900 times.
- 15. Human saliva contains a painkiller called opiorphin that is six times more powerful than morphine.
- 16. Gorillas and potatoes have two more chromosomes than humans do.
- 17. Sound travels about 4 times faster in water than in air.
- 18. In a full grown rye plant, the total length of roots may reach 380 miles (613 km).
- 19. The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.
- 20. The human brain is 78% water.