The smell of freshly cut grass is actually a plant distress call.
31
In 1999, Harvard physicist Lene Hau was able to slow down light to 17 meters per second and in 2001, was able to stop light completely.
39
Pumice is the only rock that floats on water.
14
One barrel of petroleum holds 42 gallons.
20
Only 12,000 years ago there was a species closely related to modern humans called Homo floresiensis that had been living on an Indonesian Island. They used fire and rather advanced tools, yet were only about 3 feet tall and weighed around 25kg.
15
In the 1950s, the US government placed beer next to an atomic bomb blast to determine if it was still drinkable. The result: in the event of a nuclear war, beer is safe to drink!
16
Dr.Jonas Salk, the man who came up with the cure for polio, didn’t patent the drug. This made the drug more affordable to the general public, and he lost out an an estimated $7 billion dollars for himself.
41
Scientists have revived a flowering plant from a fruit stored away in permafrost by Arctic ground squirrel 32,000 years ago.
16