Naked Science Forum
On the Lighter Side => That CAN'T be true! => Topic started by: neilep on 24/06/2025 11:32:21
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Did you know ?.....that the chemical name for the protein TITAN is 189,819 letters long ? Titan (also known as titan) is a protein that plays a crucial role in the structure and function of muscle cells, particularly in the heart and skeletal muscles.
Here is the link for some happy reading https://share.google/ovxQEDfaNoFyxEF3M (https://share.google/ovxQEDfaNoFyxEF3M)
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Did you know ? ................that if you took the ENTIRE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE and broke it down into teeny-tiny chunks of Planck lengths (the smallest unit of length, approximately 1.62 ? 10^-35 meters), and then assigned each of those Planck lengths the value of Rayo's number (a gargantuan number that makes googolplex look like a tiny ant),...
...the resulting number would STILL be infinitesimally small compared to the behemoth that is Tree(3)!
(1 millimeter (mm) = 1,000,000,000 Planck lengths (approximately)...I know because as a sheepy I counted them last Tuesday)
To put it simply:
- Planck length: the smallest unit of length, a tiny building block of space.
- Rayo's number: a mind-bogglingly huge number that's almost impossible to comprehend.
- Tree(3): a mathematical function that grows at an exponential rate, resulting in a number that's, quite literally, astronomical!
So, if you thought the universe was big, think again! The numbers we're talking about here are on a whole different level of magnitude!
Share your thoughts! Can you wrap your head around these mind-boggling numbers?
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Did You Know ? .....
There is a type of jellyfish that is immortal.
The Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the "immortal jellyfish", is a species of jellyfish that can transform its body into a younger state through a process called transdifferentiation.
This means that it can essentially revert back to its polyp stage, which is the juvenile form of a jellyfish, and then grow back into an adult again. This process can be repeated indefinitely, making the Turritopsis dohrnii theoretically immortal.
This process is still not fully understood and is currently being studied by scientists, but it has potential applications in the field of regenerative medicine and could possibly lead to new ways of understanding and addressing diseases.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczPl-LXji3C5DQ-kLJOLi3esOVBjJyPmcSrZM4aaTjT6ra_8gO2bYLOOX7AyH5S9NrFXwnmN5aknb_ca_CHHe4MXxKCx79t9oLXZreT7iTmB4POz9hWM=w2400)
Image Source: GETTY IMAGES
Words. Sheepy
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Did you know.....
There is a giant crystal cave in Mexico that contains some of the largest crystals in the world, and they are estimated to be over 200 million years old!
The cave, called the Naica Mine, is located about 300 meters (1,000 feet) beneath the surface of the Earth and contains giant selenite crystals that are up to 36 feet (11 meters) long and weigh over 55 tons!
But what's even more astonishing is that these crystals are estimated to have formed over 200 million years ago, during the Triassic period, when the supercontinent of Pangaea was still forming!
The cave was discovered in 2000, and since then, scientists have been studying the crystals to learn more about the Earth's history and the formation of our planet.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczOjO1-vCnvnOLKlWAew2GeuEk8Us15zCmCcPHgEZAm7LMh0iUKv43CL4Do_yK-wsNMZTQXCWgNeLjOTGavyqo2ztiuu5gJUcwNSYxrbjMkMlzH-N8_z=w2400)
Picture source https://www.ndtv.com/webstories/world/all-about-mexicos-giant-crystal-cave-33661 (https://www.ndtv.com/webstories/world/all-about-mexicos-giant-crystal-cave-33661)
Words: Sheepy
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Some debate about the meaning of Planck length. lp certainly places a limit on what is physically measurable but as the rest of the article shows, mathematics is not bounded by physics, so with your mathematical compasses and ruler, you could bisect (but not trisect) lp ad infinitum,
Almost 60 years ago I jokingly said "physics is a trivial particularisation of mathematics". Some of my friends are still alive and just a couple of days ago (at my 80th birthday party) one threw that phrase back at me!
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According to the forum data your birthday was ~6months ago. I sent you a happy birthday message at the time I saw it in your forum profile. Was I in error by 1/2year? Yours sincerely, Insomnia.
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Don't lose too much sleep on my behalf!
My actual birthday was indeed 80.5 years ago, but I couldn't get a band together for a celebratory concert in January (where do musicians go in the winter?) so I decided to have an Official Birthday, like the King. The Red Arrows were due to fly over during the interval but they were temporarily stationed on a USAF base and the idiot in charge of the world's biggest military machine decided to lock the bases down in case anyone objected to his bombing Iran. Now, it's personal.
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I don't celebrate birthdays, I expect that my age will not advance any further if I don't have any birthdays. Do you think this is a viable ploy to defeat senescence and the grim reaper? Yours sincerely, Shattered, from lack of sleep.
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Did you know.....
There is a fungus that turns ants into "ZOMBIES"!
Meet Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, a fungus that infects carpenter ants in the rainforests of South America. When an ant comes into contact with the fungus's spores, it gets infected and begins to behave strangely.
The fungus takes control of the ant's body, causing it to climb to a high location and bite onto a leaf, creating a perfect environment for the fungus to grow. Eventually, the fungus kills the ant, but not before producing fruiting bodies that release spores, infecting other ants.
This fungus essentially turns the ants into "zombies", controlling their behaviour to serve its own needs!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczPB6cUxgzr5I6GFg-ZP6jYnEWb6ZEB8qaRWExdMUJmvZN5lJFwIPUyO9-fAABChnXVGmEbPjxIQ2MRp0D_fwAbO4-8yMV_sYh1e7UHW-dMtXufA0Zmn=w2400)
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I know some people that are like that, hmm fungus, I never thought of the possibility. Thank you neilep, that explains a lot! PS: do sheep use a leading capital letter in their names, ie which is most appropriate, neilep or Neilep? Ewe post as neilep.
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Yea, I put my name in lower case without even thinking about it. On this forum when I type "i" on it's own it automatically switches to upper case, on other fora I have been scolded for using "i" . I don't give a hoot about such matters but when addressing others I like to be correct.
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Did You Know?
.....................that the Diomede Islands, located in the middle of the Bering Strait, are only 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometres) apart, but are separated by a whopping 21 hours of time?
Big Diomede Island (part of Russia) and Little Diomede Island (part of the United States) are incredibly close geographically, but are separated by the International Date Line, which runs roughly through the middle of the Bering Strait.
This means that if you were to stand on Little Diomede Island and look across at Big Diomede Island, you'd essentially be looking into the next day ? or the previous day, depending on the direction you're facing!
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczNEmhW0vMq_SzPcBVXt0YdMI2orFn3u6ymBl_rqu2PNghoAafRr4Jxc5UokOfwaVXulpukEjNx0Jh4sgCPUYyNmyLmt47r77Wm_NFnnjm3LWtFLCplw=w2400)
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Did you know........
A single teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh about 6 billion tons.
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive star after a supernova. During the collapse, gravity squeezes the atoms so hard that the electrons and protons merge into neutrons. Neutrons are incredibly dense and have almost no empty space between them ? unlike normal atoms, which are mostly empty space.
So, in a neutron star, you're cramming the mass of several suns into a ball just a few miles wide. That?s why even a tiny amount ? like a teaspoon ? weighs billions of tons. It?s matter packed as tightly as the universe allows without becoming a black hole!
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In a sane world, of which I will be president, date lines, time zones and "daylight saving" (a lie enshrined in law!) will be abolished and everyone will use UTC and ISO date structure for all purposes. No matter where you are reading this, I am writing at 2025:06:29:21:51:18 Z, and it's the same on every satellite, rocket, ship and plane in the world, so why not on the ground?
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You got that wrong, again!, Alan. It is I who will be the benign dictator who will sort out all the world's problems.
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In keeping with the most significant first principle, addresses ought to be country, county, town, street, house number, occupant.
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Did You Know ? ......
There are more atoms in a single glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the oceans on Earth. A standard glass of water contains around 6.7 ? 10?⁴ atoms ? that?s 6,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! Far more than the number of glasses you could pour even if you filled every cubic mile of the ocean.
To put it in perspective, Earth?s oceans hold about 1.3 billion cubic kilometres of water (or roughly 310 million cubic miles). If you imagined filling each cubic mile with glasses of water, you?d still fall dramatically short of the number of atoms in just one glass.
And here's the poetic bit ? many of the particles in that water are ancient. The protons in the hydrogen atoms have likely existed since the first few minutes after the Big Bang. While complete atoms and molecules like water are constantly forming and breaking apart ? and electrons and neutrons may have been recycled countless times through stars, supernovae, and life itself ? it's still true that when you sip water, you?re tasting the universe?s deep history.
That water might have passed through ancient clouds, dinosaurs' lungs, medieval rainstorms, or even other humans. Because atoms and molecules are endlessly recycled, there?s a real and humbling chance that the water in your glass has been through a cosmic and biological journey far longer than any single human story.
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That would depend on the size of the glass ewe are contemplating. And whether it is an English or American "billion", though the use of the American version seems to have become universal lately. I should also inform you that pedantry is one of my most auspicious qualities.(pedanticism?)
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That would depend on the size of the glass ewe are contemplating. And whether it is an English or American "billion", though the use of the American version seems to have become universal lately. I should also inform you that pedantry is one of my most auspicious qualities.(pedanticism?)
Thank ewe Paul, I did in fact mention a "standard glass" and then calculated the volume of that standard glass by counting atoms for a reference point. As per the value of the "billion" ewe are aright...as I did in fact use a "Sheep Billion"**......if ewe reverse calculate it...ewe can work it out. You're welcome.
**billion not bouillon
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Did EWE Know ?......
There are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the observable universe.
Seriously. Here?s how it breaks down:
- The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe is about 10⁸⁰.
- The estimated number of possible, legal chess games (i.e. different sequences of legal moves) is in the ballpark of 10??⁰ to 10??? ? a figure known as the Shannon number, named after Claude Shannon, the father of information theory.
That number is absolutely mind-bending. And it only includes games following standard rules like the 50-move rule and threefold repetition. Without those limits, the number becomes effectively infinite.
Now ? to be clear ? the number of legal chess positions (i.e. piece arrangements that can occur under the rules) is much smaller: probably in the range of 10⁴⁵ or less. That?s still enormous, but doesn't exceed the number of atoms in the universe. So when you see people claim that chess has ?more positions than atoms,? they?re a little off ? it?s the number of games, not positions, that goes galactic.
Either way, it?s a staggering example of how a game played on just 64 squares can generate complexity that rivals the cosmos.
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Did You Know ? ..........
There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath the Earth?s surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in near-total metabolic stasis. They are nature?s ultimate slow sleepers, quietly challenging our understanding of how long life can persist under extreme conditions.Interestingly, for much of the Earth?s early history ? well over two billion years ago ? oxygen and ultraviolet light were indeed harmful to most forms of life, which had evolved in anoxic (oxygen-free) environments. Then came the Great Oxygenation Event, when cyanobacteria began producing oxygen through photosynthesis. This caused a mass extinction of anaerobic life ? possibly the first time life itself triggered a global biological catastrophe.
Some of those early anaerobic organisms likely retreated to extreme environments: deep underground, in oceanic sediments, and even in places like the Dead Sea ? which, despite its name, is teeming with microbial life and may be one of the most densely packed microbial ecosystems on Earth.
The metabolism of these organisms is incredibly slow but that same energy efficiency means they are unlikely ever to evolve into anything requiring speed or complexity, such as animals like sheep 🐑🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏🐏. They are, however, astonishing survivors ? persisting for eons in silence, long after most other life has moved on.
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I'm going to comment on several of these great tidbits. Kindly forgive me putting on my picky-hat on some of them.
There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath Earth's surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in almost complete metabolic stasis. Essentially, they're nature's ultimate slow sleepers, challenging our ideas of how long life can persist in extreme conditions!
All life up to about 2.5 billion years ago found oxygen and sunlight toxic, so it was everywhere. The oxygenation catastrophe (the first time (of two)) that a life form caused a massive extinction event, forced all these early life forms into hiding, in paces like the bottom of the dead sea, which is hardly dead since it is almost pure biomass. Yes, the metabolism of these life forms is slow, so 'sleepers' is not a bad description. They'd never have evolved into anything with sufficient energy to become say some sort of 'animal'.
Picky-hat going on now. The following comments also constitute interesting
Did You Know ? ..........
....and .. did you also know that those atoms have been around since the dawn of time?
The protons might have been around since pretty close to the dawn of time, but atoms are nuclei and electrons, and nuclei swap electrons like swingers swap wives, making them technically not the same atom anymore.
Secondly, most molecules (water in this case) contain neutrons, and those certainly have not been around since the dawn of time, but need to be manufactured in stars, probably the one that blew up and made the dust cloud from which our secondary solar system was formed. So the oxygen nuclei in water is at best around half the age of the universe.
There are more possible positions in a game of chess than there are atoms in the entire observable universe?
Seriously. Here's the breakdown:
- Estimated number of atoms in the observable universe:
~1080i]
- Estimated number of legal, unique chess positions:
~10120
That number is so massive it's called the Shannon number, after Claude Shannon (the father of information theory). And that's just positions ? the number of possible games is even more absurd: 10??⁰⁰ or more.
I am going to contest this.
Shannon number is indeed that value (10120 - 10130) but that's the number of possible games, which presumes some rules are followed like the 50-move rule and 3-repeat rule are followed, without which the number would not be finite.
But the number of positions can't be that. I counted about a trillion legal pawn setups. Add in the other pieces and it goes up to about 1036. All the legal games are just ordering that small number of positions into different legal orders. No, I did not try to count those to verify Shannon.[/list]
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I'm going to comment on several of these great tidbits. Kindly forgive me putting on my picky-hat on some of them.
There are microbes called endoliths that live deep inside rocks ? miles beneath Earth's surface ? surviving without sunlight or oxygen, sometimes for millions of years in almost complete metabolic stasis. Essentially, they're nature's ultimate slow sleepers, challenging our ideas of how long life can persist in extreme conditions!
All life up to about 2.5 billion years ago found oxygen and sunlight toxic, so it was everywhere. The oxygenation catastrophe (the first time (of two)) that a life form caused a massive extinction event, forced all these early life forms into hiding, in paces like the bottom of the dead sea, which is hardly dead since it is almost pure biomass. Yes, the metabolism of these life forms is slow, so 'sleepers' is not a bad description. They'd never have evolved into anything with sufficient energy to become say some sort of 'animal'.
Picky-hat going on now. The following comments also constitute interesting
Did You Know ? ..........
....and .. did you also know that those atoms have been around since the dawn of time?
The protons might have been around since pretty close to the dawn of time, but atoms are nuclei and electrons, and nuclei swap electrons like swingers swap wives, making them technically not the same atom anymore.
Secondly, most molecules (water in this case) contain neutrons, and those certainly have not been around since the dawn of time, but need to be manufactured in stars, probably the one that blew up and made the dust cloud from which our secondary solar system was formed. So the oxygen nuclei in water is at best around half the age of the universe.
There are more possible positions in a game of chess than there are atoms in the entire observable universe?
Seriously. Here's the breakdown:
- Estimated number of atoms in the observable universe:
~1080i]
- Estimated number of legal, unique chess positions:
~10120
That number is so massive it's called the Shannon number, after Claude Shannon (the father of information theory). And that's just positions ? the number of possible games is even more absurd: 10??⁰⁰ or more.[/l][/l][/l][/l]
I am going to contest this.
Shannon number is indeed that value (10120 - 10130) but that's the number of possible games, which presumes some rules are followed like the 50-move rule and 3-repeat rule are followed, without which the number would not be finite.
But the number of positions can't be that. I counted about a trillion legal pawn setups. Add in the other pieces and it goes up to about 1036. All the legal games are just ordering that small number of positions into different legal orders. No, I did not try to count those to verify Shannon.[/q]
Thank ewe Halc, please continue to correct or adjust as needed. I have rewritten with amendments. sheeeeesh !
[/list]
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Ewe are gambolling with your position on this subforum. Any more erroneous material and Halc will dispatch you to the bold corner, ie the new theories subforum!!
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Ewe are gambolling with your position on this subforum. Any more erroneous material and Halc will dispatch you to the bold corner, ie the new theories subforum!!
considering i'm bald i am happy to be baaaanished to the bald bold baaaaad corner.
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Did You Know............
If you could remove all the empty space from every atom in the human body, a person would be small enough to fit through the eye of a needle.This highlights just how much of what we perceive as solid matter is actually empty space. Atoms are mostly composed of a tiny, dense nucleus surrounded by electrons orbiting at vast distances relative to the nucleus's size. If you were to compress all that empty space, the nucleus and electrons would be incredibly close together, making the overall volume minuscule.
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That's interesting, Neilep. That surely means that despite my vast wealth I will be able to reserve a place in heaven, when I die, if I decide to do the death gig- I haven't decided yet whether I will or won't. By the way, you did not specify the size of the quoted needle!!
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Did you know ?....
Water can boil and freeze at the same time! This strange phenomenon happens at a specific pressure and temperature known as the triple point, where the three phases of a substance?solid, liquid, and gas?can coexist in perfect balance. It's a rare but real condition used in scientific experiments!
The triple point is a unique condition where a substance can exist simultaneously as a solid, liquid, and gas. For water, this happens at a precise temperature of 0.01?C and a pressure of 611.657 pascals (much lower than normal atmospheric pressure).
At this point, you can actually see ice, liquid water, and water vapour all present at the same time in perfect equilibrium. Scientists use the triple point of water to help define the kelvin temperature scale, because it's such a precise and reproducible condition.
This phenomenon isn?t something we encounter in everyday life because our normal air pressure and temperatures aren?t right for it?but in a controlled lab setting, it?s an amazing demonstration of the laws of thermodynamics in action!
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Did you know?....
The Mimosa pudica, also known as the "sensitive plant" or "touch-me-not", can move! When touched, its leaves fold up in a matter of seconds as a defence mechanism. This rapid movement is caused by changes in water pressure within the plant's cells ? a rare trait in the plant world and an amazing example of plant responsiveness.
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczO4dfoXxf-OOymgiq0bwLWn8pS3ey_EJx4z4XxtyJIgzUL7crdsAkWXDQBsK29bqLayvruoxfUCGCF_d1St9bPPMP-kKOlzq59euQvyPlJ3_kpN9vsU=w2400)
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Did Ewe Know ? ......
Your body contains more foreign cells than human ones.
It's estimated that the average human body hosts about 30 trillion human cells, but also around 39 trillion bacterial cells, mostly in your gut. That means you're more microbe than human, at least in terms of cell count!
And these microbes aren't freeloaders ? they help digest food, produce vitamins, regulate your immune system, and even influence your mood and brain function. You're basically a walking ecosystem.
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30 trillion human cells in a body, that means the individual cells must be tiny. Yet within most cells, red blood cells and platelets excluded, the length of the DNA is around 5 feet long! It is of course coiled up to fit in.
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Which leads to two questions
For philosophers: Is the mammalian body a "self" containing useful helpers, or a scaffold for feeding and transporting various bugs?
And for people with actual lives to lead: who cares?
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It is actually a viral incubation system.
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Did EWE Know ? .......
If you unravelled all the DNA in your body and laid it end to end, it would stretch: Over 100 billion kilometres (62 billion miles)that's enough to go from the Earth to the Sun and back over 300 times!
- Every human cell (except red blood cells) contains about 2 metres of DNA.
- The human body has roughly 37 trillion cells.
- Multiply that, and you get a total of about 74 trillion metres (or 74 billion kilometres) of DNA in your body.......some estimates go even higher.
And all of this fits neatly inside the nucleus of cells so small you need a microscope to see them. The level of miniaturisation, organisation, and efficiency is simply astonishing.
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Yes indeed, it is astonishing but what I find more astonishing is the following: various signalling molecules enter the nucleus to turn on/off various genes, how do they find the right location on the 46 intensely coiled chromosomes? Ok, in any given cell type not all genes will be in use though they will all be present. Needle in a haystack job.
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Did you know...
Octopuses have three hearts, blue blood, and can taste with their arms? 🐙💙🫀
Two of their hearts pump blood to the gills, and the third sends it to the rest of the body. That third heart actually stops beating when the octopus swims ? which is part of why they prefer crawling!
And their blood? It?s blue because it uses copper (not iron like ours) to carry oxygen.
Oh, and those suckers on their arms? Packed with taste receptors. They can literally taste whatever they touch.
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Did You Know?
Did you know that space smells like burnt steak? Astronauts have reported that after spacewalks, the airlock smells faintly of seared meat or welding fumes. This strange scent comes from high-energy particles interacting with the metal of the spacecraft and the vacuum of space!
So next time you gaze at the stars, remember?outer space has a scent, and it?s surprisingly? meaty.
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Hi,
I didn't know about the smell, thank you for that information. In general, high energy particles / cosmic rays are known to cause an array of issues.
Examples:
1. Seeing spots of light and some other more unusual visual disturbances during space walks. Various mechanisms are suggested. Apparently this took quite a while to be reported by the Astronauts properly, no-one wanted to admit they might be "seeing things" or imply they might be losing their mind etc.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray_visual_phenomena
2. Computer errors and crashes. High energy particles can play havoc with electrical circuits and especially microelectronics like the CPU of a computer. The worst such events are called SEU (Single Event Upsets) where a single bit has been flipped and the computer system doesn't crash in any obvious way, it appears to have worked correctly, but will produce erroneous results. This was to some extent fully anticpated and the early spacecraft often had about 3 and sometimes 5 separate computer systems for important functions like navigation. Course corrections were made only when there was agreement from 2 out of 3 (or 4 out of 5) of the computers.
Reference: https://stuyspec.com/article/the-possible-cosmic-culprit-behind-computer-errors
Best Wishes.
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The light spots re generally attributed to Cerenkov radiation emitted in the vitreous humor by charged particles moving at v>cmedium.
But you don't have to venture into space to have your chips fried by ionising radiation. Soviet-era military aircraft continued to use thermionic valve technology for many years after the rest of the world had moved on, because it was relatively robust against nuclear radiation. I attended an interesting lecture on flash-proof design where the object was to produce a tank that could continue to operate for at least 20 minutes after the crew had received a lethal exposure. The trick was to work out which type of solid-state switches would be turned on and which turned off by a tactical nuclear weapon, then design a manual override for the most probable final condition.