I learned this today. The Ottoman Empire ended due to revolt, general decline, and defeat in World War 1. The Ottoman Empire began in the 13th century. Osman I, a Turkish tribal leader, managed to conquer a few of the territories near to his own on the border of the Byzantine Empire. The name “Ottoman” […]
#243 Why did the Ottoman Empire end? Read More »
I learned this today. A spray bottle works by breaking the liquid up into tiny droplets using a pump and different kinds of nozzles. Modern spray bottles work slightly differently to older spray bottles. The first kind of spray bottles used a rubber bulb and an atomizer nozzle. They were invented by an American called
#242 How does a spray bottle work? Read More »
I learned this today. Chloroform knocks people out by causing depression of the central nervous system. Chloroform appears to have been discovered by several people independently in 1830 and 31. A German pharmacist called Moldenhawer discovered it in 1830. An American physician called Samuel Guthrie, a French scientist called Eugene Soubeiran, and a German scientist
#241 Why does chloroform knock people out? Read More »
I learned this today. Bleaches react with colored organic compounds and turn them into colorless ones. Bleaches by working on the chromophore of a molecule. This is the part of the molecule that is responsible for the color we see. Our eyes do not see color. Our eyes detect a wavelength of light, which they
#240 How does bleach turn clothes white? Read More »
I learned this today. Signals from intelligent life are so difficult to hear because of the sheer vastness of space and the fact that we change the technologies we use. It is possible to look at a distant planet and reason that it has intelligent life because of the gases that are coming off the
#239 Why are signals from intelligent life so hard to hear? Read More »
I learned this today. The creation of the term “pope” to mean the head of the Roman Catholic church started in the 11th century. The word “pope” comes from the Greek word pappas, meaning father. The pope is the head of the Roman Catholic church and is known as the Bishop of Rome or the
#238 Who was the first pope? Read More »
I learned this today. Different species of extremophiles have evolved different ways to survive the extreme environments that they live in. The word extremophile comes from the Greek “extremus”, which means love and “philia”, which means love. They are organisms that not only survive in extreme environments they flourish in them. I learned about tardigrades
#237 How do extremophiles survive? Read More »
I learned this today. Tardigrades are incredibly strong and incredibly small micro-animals. Tardigrades are generally about 0.5mm long. Some of the big ones grow up to 1.5mm in size but they are usually much smaller. There are about 1,300 different species of them and they live all over the world. They are short and plump
#236 Why are tardigrades so tough? Read More »
I learned this today. Rationing in the UK during World War 2 started in September 1939 and ended on July 4th, 1954. Rationing is not an idea that started in the Second World War. People have always rationed when food is scarce. Often, during battles, towns were besieged. The idea would be to starve the
#235 When did rationing in the UK end after World War 2? Read More »
I learned this today. Skunks smell so bad because they spray an organic compound that has sulfur in it. Skunks are mostly native to north and south America, although there is also a species of skunk that lives in Indonesia. This is called the Sunda stink badger. There are generally ten different species of skunk.
#234 Why do skunks smell so bad? Read More »
