Fun Science

Pyrite (FeS2) is an iron sulfide mineral. For its attractive appearance, noble hue and metallic luster, it is commonly referred to as "fool's gold" and for its ability to spark when struck, "firestone".

How do sperm cells get where to go? In fact, the egg is not as inert as you might think. It secretes a substance (gynogamone I), which is a kind of reference point for the sperm and they start moving to the tube where the egg is. This phenomenon is called chemotaxis.

Pets have a positive effect on our IMMUNE system It is critical to have pets in early childhood, ideally before the age of one year, but it is possible to have a positive effect before the age of five as well. Their presence markedly reduces the risks of allergic and autoimmune diseases. A cat, a dog, living in the countryside reduce the risk of allergies, eczema, bronchial asthma, etc. Yet in adolescence, when the immune system is already formed, the effect can be just the opposite.

Why don't cells live forever? Every cell has, so to speak, a "self-destruct program" built in at the genetic level, called APOPTOSIS. Apoptosis is cell death, after which the cell disintegrates into separate corpuscles. A certain amount of time is allotted to each type of cell. One of the main functions of apoptosis is the destruction of defective (damaged, mutant, infected) as well as all old cells. By the way, cancer cells lack this mechanism.

Stirling Engine Illustrative example👆🏻 That is a thermal machine in which the working body in the form of gas or liquid moves in a closed volume, a type of external combustion engine. It is based on periodic heating and cooling of the propellant with energy extracted from the resulting pressure changes. It can operate not only from fuel combustion, but also from any heat source.

Curie point heat engine visually👆🏻 Curie point is the temperature of the phase transition of the second type, associated with a jump change in the symmetry properties of the substance. Such as magnetic — in ferromagnets, electric — in ferroelectrics, crystallochemical — in ordered alloys.

Nikola Tesla's "Egg of Columbus" As legend has it, Christopher Columbus said he could put an egg upright. When nobody believed him, he broke the egg at one end and set it. Responding to the objection that anyone could do it, Columbus replied, "Anyone can do it, but I did it". Meanwhile, Nikola Tesla showed that an egg (or at least an egg-shaped piece of metal) could be put upright with the help of an electromagnetic field.

What are the hazards of viruses? Viruses are small pieces of DNA containing 10-100 genes. They penetrate cells and take over the control of protein production, subjugating the cell and it starts releasing copies of the virus in large quantities. As the viruses multiply, the normal functioning of the cells and then of the whole body is threatened.

How botulinum toxin works Botulinum toxin causes damage to various structures of the peripheral nervous system: neuromuscular synapse, nerve endings. The toxins selectively block the release of acetylcholine in these structures, and simply put, turn the muscle off 👉🏻 it does not contract. (This is the reason for the smoothing of wrinkles in cosmetology).

Double Pendulum Motion A double pendulum is a pendulum with another one attached to its end. The motion of the pendulum is governed by coupled ordinary differential equations. For some energies, its motion is chaotic.

Interaction of bromine with aluminum Under normal conditions, bromine is a heavy red-brown liquid, the only liquid nonmetal. Bromine is poisonous with a pungent, unpleasant, suffocating smell. Bromine properties are similar to chlorine, but less active. It evaporates easily, forming brown vapor. Experiment: Pour some bromine into a flask. Drop a piece of aluminum foil into the flask. After a while the aluminum heats up and burns vigorously to form aluminum bromide.

Sulfur Hexafluoride Is Significantly Denser Than Air Sulfur hexafluoride (also sulphur hexafluoride, SF6) is an inorganic substance, a heavy gas under normal conditions, which is 5 times heavier than air.

Sarrus Linkage The mechanism converts a limited circular motion into a rectilinear one without the use of guideways. It consists of several articulated rectangular plates, with two of them remaining parallel, but capable of moving toward each other.

The way a black hole twists space👆🏻 A black hole is a region within cosmos with so much gravity that it absorbs everything around it, including light. However, the word combination "black hole" itself is just a cleverly invented designation. And it only caught on due to the fact that it's convenient. A hole — because once something gets there, it cannot get back out. And the black one is that the object itself does not emit anything or practically nothing.

💦Acoustic levitation California startup Simplistyk has invented a device to levitate water. The device is called "Levizen". It applies the principle of acoustic levitation: high-frequency sound waves indistinguishable by the ear make a drop of water literally hang in the air.

🐍"The Pharaoh's Serpent" The euphonious name hides a collective image of multiple chemical reactions in the process of which there is a multiple increase in the volume of the used reagents. During the reaction, the resulting substance increases, and it (the substance) wriggles like a snake. What a fascinating sight!

Murmuration (from Latin murmuratio "muttering, buzzing") This is how ornithologists call the association of birds (commonly starlings) in huge flocks, continuously changing their shapes into a variety of figures. An impressive natural phenomenon!

Fluorescein When exposed to ultraviolet light, the green dye fluorescein emits light in the visible range, a phenomenon called fluorescence.