Nils Bohlin invented the three-point seat belt in 1959. There is no way of working out how many people his invention has saved, but it must be over a million, at least. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration thinks that the three-point seatbelt saves about 15,000 lives a year in the US alone. Bohlin […]
#868 Nils Bohlin – inventor of the three-point seatbelt Read More »
What causes the bends? It is caused by the rapid release of nitrogen gas from the bloodstream. You don’t have any risk of the bends if you don’t go very deep. The bends becomes a risk if you dive any deeper than about 9 meters. It is caused because of the water pressure and because
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How does chilling a patient after cardiac arrest work? If the body temperature of a person whose heart has stopped beating is lowered, they can survive for longer without oxygen, which gives the medical staff longer to fix and resuscitate the person. Chilling a patient is an experimental technique that may or may not become
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What is a karat? It is a way to measure the purity of gold. (In the UK, karat is spelled as carat – more on that later). However, a carat is a unit of mass that is 200 mg. It is used for measuring gemstones and pearls. Both Karats and carats are not used to
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What was the Great Stink? It happened in Central London during June and August 1858, when the smell of the River Thames was unbearable. The city of London grew up at the point where the River Thames was narrow enough to bridge. There was a ford across the river before the first bridge was ever
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How does a monorail balance? The single rail of a monorail train is much wider than a rail on a regular railway and there is no worry about balancing. However, they use side wheels for support. There are two types of monorail train. The first type, and probably the most common type, ride on top
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During his career, Maurice Hilleman developed over 40 vaccinations. It is thought that his vaccinations save over 8 million lives every year. However, he was not interested in making a name for himself, only that his vaccines helped people. For this reason, despite having received his vaccines, very few people have ever heard of him.
#861 Maurice Hilleman – microbiologist specializing in vaccinology. Read More »
Is palm oil bad? It depends. It is bad in terms of health and environmental costs, but it is good because it has more oil than other crops and provides an income for people who would otherwise be living in poverty. What is palm oil? It is made from the fruit of the African oil
#860 Is palm oil bad? Read More »
What is survivorship bias? It is when researchers focus on the individuals that have passed a selection process, while forgetting those that have not. It is an error in logic. Survivorship bias doesn’t have to be about people who have survived, it can reference people or things that have survived a selection process. There are
#859 What is survivorship bias? Read More »
How do deep sea creatures see? They don’t see color, they have very large eyes, they use other senses, or they produce their own light. Light doesn’t penetrate very far into the ocean. It starts to get absorbed about 200 meters down and by about 1,000 m it has pretty much all gone. Because of
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