[neilep (OP)]

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

[neilep (OP)]

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?

[neilep (OP)]

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.




Image Source: GETTY IMAGES
Words. Sheepy

[neilep (OP)]

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.


Picture source https://www.ndtv.com/webstories/world/all-about-mexicos-giant-crystal-cave-33661
Words: Sheepy

[alancalverd]

Some debate about the meaning of Planck length. l_p 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) l_p 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!

[paul cotter]

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.

[alancalverd]

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.

[paul cotter]

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.

[neilep (OP)]

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!

[paul cotter]

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.

[paul cotter]

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.

[neilep (OP)]

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!

[neilep (OP)]

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!

[alancalverd]

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? 

[paul cotter]

You got that wrong, again!, Alan. It is I who will be the benign dictator who will sort out all the world's problems.

[vhfpmr]

In keeping with the most significant first principle, addresses ought to be country, county, town, street, house number, occupant.

[neilep (OP)]

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.

[paul cotter]

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?)

[neilep (OP)]

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

[neilep (OP)]

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.