Bits & Pieces of “Odd” Information – Biology & Human Physiology

1. Bits & Pieces of “Odd” Information – Biology & Human Physiology Mr. Gibson – Science Lecture Room 213/Laboratory 214 Spring 2011

2. Biology & Human Physiology Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.

3. Biology & Human Physiology A bee sting is acidic and a wasp sting is alkali. To treat a sting by one of these you should use the opposite type of chemical.

4. Biology & Human Physiology Honey does not spoil.

5. Biology & Human Physiology A kind of jellyfish (Turritopsis nutricula) upon reaching adulthood can transform itself back to childhood by converting its cells. It may repeat this to live forever.

6. Biology & Human Physiology To avoid predators, a mother Slow Loris licks its offspring with poison before sending them off to search for food. (Their saliva mixed with a gland on their arm produces the toxin.)

7. Biology & Human Physiology The fungus Cordyceps is able to "mind-control" other insects like ants to climb plants and attach there to become its food. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/331826/ant_fungus/

8. Biology & Human Physiology The tiny Water Bear (Tardigrade) can survive environments extreme enough to kill any other animal - with temperatures as low as -273°C close to Absolute Zero to as high as 151°C.

9. Biology & Human Physiology Dolphins only "sleep" half awake - keeping one eye open while consciously breathing and floating on surface.

10. Biology & Human Physiology The length between your elbow and hand (forearm) equals the length of your foot.

11. Biology & Human Physiology If you fully stretch your arms out, the fingertip to fingertip length is almost exactly your body height.

12. Biology & Human Physiology An ostrich egg is also the largest existing single cell.

13. Biology & Human Physiology The nerves in our body are most concentrated in our fingertips.

14. Biology & Human Physiology The Horseshoe crab has blue blood due to it having copper instead of iron which turns blue when exposed to air instead of red.

15. Biology & Human Physiology When the queen of a clownfish school dies, a male clownfish changes its gender to become female and takes her place. When you are done changing; your crown and scepter are ready ma’am … ‘er.. Sir… uhm… ah-h-h Wait! Aha! Your Highness!

16. Biology & Human Physiology The acceleration rate of a flea's jump is 20 times that of a space shuttle during launch.

17. Biology & Human Physiology Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms, that's a 6ft tall person jumping 780 ft in the air. 780 ft.

18. Biology & Human Physiology There are more insects in a single square mile of fertile soil than there are people on the entire earth.

19. Biology & Human Physiology The little Alaskan Wood Frog is capable of reviving itself back to normal life after staying completely frozen for months, during which its heart, brain and other organs stop functioning. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/video/3209/w05-036.html

20. Biology & Human Physiology Some species of earthworm can have as many as 10 hearts.

21. Dolphins and whales are mammals that don't drink water.

22. Chameleons often have tongues longer than their bodies. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f07_1243863717

23. Biology & Human Physiology While only 2% in weight, the human brain requires 15% of the body's heart work, 20% of oxygen and 25% of all glucose.

24. Biology & Human Physiology For every 1000 red blood cells in our body, there is only about one white cell.

25. Biology & Human Physiology You shed and regrow your skin every 28 days, that's about 1000 times in a lifetime. 1000 times per human

26. Biology & Human Physiology That’s about 1 “blink” for every man, woman & child in Chicago’s Cook county The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times each year.

27. Biology & Human Physiology Yeah? Big deal! You try having the same dream 1,460 times a year and see how cool THAT is!!! The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

28. Biology & Human Physiology Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.

29. Biology & Human Physiology There are more bacteria and microbes in our body than actual cells (75 – 100 trillion ) that make up the body.

30. Biology & Human Physiology Armadillos spend about 80% of their lives asleep (which rivals a teenager today).

31. Biology & Human Physiology If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

32. Biology & Human Physiology Amazon ants (red ants found in the western U.S.) steal the larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the Amazon ants, who cannot do anything but fight. They depend completely on their slaves for survival.

33. Biology & Human Physiology Cockroaches can live for nine days without their heads, at which point they die of starvation.

34. Biology & Human Physiology Mosquitoes like the scent of estrogen, hence, women get bitten by mosquitoes more often than men do.

35. Biology & Human Physiology Chalk is made of trillions of microscopic skeleton fossils of plankton (a tiny sea creature.) Actual chalk drawing… pond, frog, child with supplies… all hand drawn with chalk

36. Biology & Human Physiology A typical lightning bolt is two to four inches wide and two miles long.

37. Biology & Human Physiology An average adult body contains around 250g (1/2lb) of salt.

38. Biology & Human Physiology The amount of carbon in the human body is enough to fill about 9,000 'lead' pencils. Sciensational.com

39. Biology & Human Physiology Eighty-five percent of all life on Earth is Plankton. Sheldon; et al

40. Biology & Human Physiology Eighty-five percent of all the plants and animals live in the sea.

41. Biology & Human Physiology 95% of all the animal species on the earth are insects

42. Biology & Human Physiology 95% – 98 % of all animals are invertebrates (without a backbone or spinal column).

43. Biology & Human Physiology The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1. Sciensational.com

44. Biology & Human Physiology Frogs eat their skin after they shed it.