The bark of an older redwood tree is fireproof.
65
Brass doorknobs automatically disinfect themselves in about 8 hours.
18
Sound travels fifteen times faster through steel than through air.
134
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
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
The weight of a carat (200 milligrams), standard unit of measurement for gemstones, is based on the weight of the carob seed.
51
Cellophane is not made of plastic. It is made from a plant fiber, cellulose, which has been shredded and aged.
44
One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen!
51