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
If the chemical sodium is dropped into water it will immediately and violently explode.
67
Stephen Hawking once tried to find potential time travellers by throwing a party and only sending out invitations after the party.
17
Nearly 50% of the world's scientists are assigned to military projects.
71
The average home creates more pollution than does the average car.
33
The weight of a carat (200 milligrams), standard unit of measurement for gemstones, is based on the weight of the carob seed.
51
Blue eyes are a genetic mutation. Before the mutation occured, all humans had brown eyes.
89
Scientists are attempting to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level. A cellular human brain is predicted possible by 2023. It hopes to shed light on consciousness.
10