Ø At birth a baby has 300 bones. 94 join together as we grow. Our hand and wrist
contain 27 bones.
Ø Ultrasonic sound waves travel into the body and are bounced back by organs inside. A screen displays the reflected sound as picture.
Ø Metabolism breaks down complicated substances of food.
Ø In spring people suffer from allergic reaction to pollens
called hay fever.
Ø Swimming requires a lot of muscles and doesn’t cause strain.
Ø We must stretch muscles before/after exercise to distribute lactic acid in our body.
Ø Onions send an irritating substance when peeled. An oil containing sulphur irritates the eye. We react by producing tears.
Ø Bananas provide instant
energy as the body absorbs them quickly. Ripe bananas give out a gas that ripens other fruits.
Ø Ladybirds are very useful in gardens. They eat aphids that eat plants and flowers.
Ø A frog’s eyes are positioned on top of its head to warn it for predators.
Ø Mother hens make a sound, causing her chicks to crouch motionless. Then on another call, they collect together. It is done to warn the chicks of danger.
Ø The eagle depends on its keen eyesight for food. The eagle’s eyes are therefore positioned sufficiently far to give 3D vision.
Ø Ostriches’ eyes are larger than tennis balls! Their one
egg is 24 times a hen’s egg. The shell of the egg is so strong that even if we stand on it, it won’t break.
Ø Komodo dragon, which is 3 metres long and lives for 100 years is the only dragon alive.
Ø The red wolf became extinct in 1980, but small numbers of captive specimens were bred. They are now about 200.
Ø Bears have rotten teeth as they like honey, which they steal from beehives.
Ø ‘Leopard’ is derived from ‘leopardus’ meaning spotted lion.
Ø Over 2 million species of plants and animals thrive in rainforests.
Ø Hamsters store food in pouches at either side of heads.
Ø Computers contain electronic circuits and can perform very complicated jobs and they appear to think for themselves.
Ø Inside a nuclear reactor uranium and plutonium undergo fission, releasing huge amounts of energy.
Ø The principle of windmill was known in ancient times. It was
used to pump water.
Ø Magnetic energy produced by vast storms on the Sun’s surface strikes the upper atmosphere of Earth, producing patterns in the sky near poles called aurora borealis.
Ø Carbon and Hydrogen in oil are made to join up in a way to make petrol.
Ø Stainless steel contains small amounts of nickel and chromium.
Ø Alloy of steel and manganese is used in making railway tracks.
Ø The hovercraft rides on a cushion of air. It looks like a flat-bottomed ship and is powered by propellers.
Ø After the
invention of sundials means of telling time indoors were developed, such as hourglasses and burning candles. The invention of clocks allowed for accurate timekeeping.
Ø Modern timepieces are digital. They contain circuits, which receive signals in binary codes.
Ø Luigi Galvani was an Italian scientist who accidentally noticed that the legs of a frog twitched when a nerve was touched with a pair of metal scissors during thunderstorm.
Ø Benjamin Franklin, an American painter, scientist and politician developed lightning rods to protect buildings from storms.
Ø Pythagoras Theorem was used in construction of pyramids.
Ø A stony desert containing a lot of
iron oxide covers Mars. It appears a dusty red colour because of its iron deposits. The water and oxygen this planet contained are locked in rusty iron deposits.
Ø Many asteroids struck the Earth and scientists believe that such an impact resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs 650 million years ago.
Ø A black hole is not a hole but a tightly packed object. It does not reflect any light.
Ø Krakatau in Indonesia erupted in 1833 and destroyed 2/3 of the island.
Ø When water sseeps into ground and reaches a hot rock it boils violently. This produces steam that pushes water out of cracks, causing a geyser. Geysers can shoot water as high as 500 metres.
Ø In 1492, Christopher Columbus set out to find trading routes from Spain to India. and accidentally discovered America.
Ø If it were possible to place atmosphere on a pair of scales, it would weigh 5,700,000,000,000,000 tonnes!
Ø Neanderthals were the first to bury the dead. The graves of the dead contained tools, meat etc for his journey to the other world.
Ø People used a simple method of lighting fire. A stick was turned quickly over a piece of dry wood until it produced fire.
Ø Sumerians first used wheels in making pots. Later this invention was used for transportation.
Ø The Celts constructed their settlements on hilltops that could be easily defended.
Ø The oldest printed book is the Diamond Sutta, made in China in AD 868.
Ø The Chinese so much admire the horses that they built statues of ‘flying horses’.
Ø Ten thousand soldiers, called the immortals, formed the core of the Persian army. Each spearman or archer was instantly replaced if the former was killed or was ill.
Ø The disciplined Roman tribes developed the tortoise formation that proved impregnable against foes.
Ø After the Germans used poisonous gas for the first time in April 1915, masks became an essential part of every soldier’s kit.
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