Bubbles are made of an oily substance from. Oily substances like other oily substances just like water likes water. Oil and water don't like mixing, so bubbles stick together and exclude water. The chemistry is similar to how people like to mix with groups of friends, but they don't like to mix with strangers. Soap has an oily bit it sticks into grease and grime. It also has an acid bit on the other end that likes water. Because you have these two parts on one bit of soap, you manage to drag the grease into the water and make these 2 things that don't like to mix, mix together - which is how soap works.

 

The reason you hear those sounds on TV is to make it more interesting. We know dinosaurs probably made noises because they had very good sense of hearing. If you look at dinosaur fossil skulls, you can trace their ear canals and work out where their ears would have been and the kinds of sound they would have responded to. If they could hear sounds, they could probably make sounds. In the late 90's scientists put a fossil through a CT scanner to look at the bone structure. The headpiece was a series of intricately connected tubes a bit like organ pipes. They analysed the structure of these canals and airways, and used a computer to model what would happen if air were blown past. They found that the dinosaur could probably have produced low pitched rumbling noises that could have carried a long way. So what we use for dinosaur sounds on TV is what can be inferred from studying the shape of their fossilised remains, with a bit of artistic license thrown in.

 

Aspartame is made when the amino acids phenylalanine and alanine are glued together and a methanol group is added on the side. Aspartame stimulates sweetness receptors on the tongue. But when you eat it, it breaks down releasing the 2 amino acids - alanine and phenylalanine, and the methanol. Methanol is poisonous to the brain, so people are concerned that it might make nervous problems worse. To test this, they looked at epileptics. Half were given a harmless placebo and half were given aspartame. There was no increase in the number of seizures amongst the people given aspartame so it probably doesn't cause, or exacerbate epilepsy. It might pickle your brain though, if you ate it in large enough quantities.

 

 

 

 

It's True - it all adds up because the average person loses about 31 million brain cells from the main part of their cerebral cortex every year.

It's False - The weight of all the earth's insects is 12 times the weight of all the people. Yuck.

It's True - The Millau viaduct in southern France crosses the River Tarn at a height of 336 metres, dwarfing the Eiffel Tower, and the 228 metre Golden Gate Bridge.

It's True - Called 'Thump', the £300 shades from Oakley are the world's first digital audio glasses. They contain an MP3 player and ear-piece speakers attached to the arms. You connect them to your home computer to upload up to 4 hours of music which you can listen to at your leisure…

It's True - 7 parts milk added to 1 part vinegar causes the milk to congeal into a slimy substance which, once you pour off the excess liquid, will stick things together. An even smellier alternative is to resort to the older method of melting horses hooves !

It's True - The Bombardier beetle releases from glands at its rear 2 chemicals which explode on mixing to produce a burning vile-smelling reddish spray - the insect equivalent of CS gas !

It's False - The circumference of the Earth (how far it is around the equator) is about 25,000 miles. The Earth completes 1 revolution every 24 hours, meaning that it is spinning at about 1000 miles per hour. It has slowed down a bit - at the time of the dinosaurs, about 100 million years ago, days were much shorter and lasted only about 16 hours.