To avoid oxygen starvation and severe headaches after sleep, astronauts on the ISS are forced to sleep near air vents and use earplugs. Earplugs help to get rid of the noise of the space station, and ventilation helps to remove the carbon dioxide bubble that forms in weightlessness around a person's head in a stationary state. You can sleep in any position — even upside down, but traditionally astronauts use special bags or capsules like shower cabins, in which they take a vertical or horizontal position.
The venus flytrap can be neutralized by human anesthesia. Scientists from the University of Julius Maximilian in the course of ten years of research have found out that it is possible to block the electrical impulses transmitted by this plant at great speed with the help of anesthesia. If anesthesia is injected into the plant, the impulse ceases to be transmitted to those areas of the plant that «command» the trap to close, i.e. the signal arrives, but does not pass to the necessary receptors, thereby blocking the flower «nervous system».
The GPS system installed in every modern smartphone was once a highly classified US development. Billions of dollars have been invested in enabling submarines to determine their location using satellites. Initially, their limited number in orbit did not allow to accurately calculate the coordinates, since it was necessary for the object to fall into the «visibility zone» of two satellites. Currently, this system is so extensive that at least four satellites can see us even in the remote hinterland.
Bats hang upside down because they cannot, like birds, take off by lifting their bodies off the ground. It would be possible to scatter for flight, but tiny paws do not allow it to do so. The only way to start the flight is to let go of the branch they were holding on to and start planning.
Gisborne Airport, located in New Zealand, intersects with the existing railway. The regional airport, which carries out only domestic flights, is forced to plan the departure schedule taking into account the schedule of freight trains that regularly pass through the main runway.
Any long-term grain mono diet is a path to scurvy for humans, guinea pigs and great apes. Only these three species of representatives of the animal world do not have the property of reproducing vitamin C in their liver. The first anti-scurvy drug was isolated in 1922 from the juice of white cabbage by researcher N.A. Bessonov. After repeated experiments to purify this medicine in the 1930s, an anti-ascorbic [anti-scouring] extract from lemon juice was «extracted», later called ascorbic acid.
«Black Penny» is the first stamp in the world that made postal communication in England affordable and significantly increased the number of letters sent. Its price was 1 penny, and the blue «little brother» was already worth two pennies. This invention owes its appearance to Rowland Hill, who, listening to his mother's stories about problems at the post office where she worked, came up with the idea of introducing a single tariff for sending correspondence using small standard pieces of paper that were stamped. Stamped envelopes and stamps appeared in 1840 and have not changed at all since then.
The well-known saying «as you name a ship, so it will sail» is the best description of the city of Nothing in Arizona, USA. It was founded in 1977 and existed until 2005. Only four people lived in the town and there was a gas station and a small convenience store. The sign at the entrance to the city bears the inscription: «Devoted citizens of Nothing are full of hope and faith in the need for work. For many years these people believed in Nothing, hoped for Nothing and worked for Nothing.»
In the tenth century AD, men's high-heeled shoes were invented in Persia. Initially, the idea was extremely practical — shoes with a heel for riding helped the rider's feet to hold firmly in the stirrups. In Europe, the fashion for heels was introduced in the XVI century by King Louis in order to appear at least a little taller. Since the 1630s, heels have gradually begun to move into the women's wardrobe along with the habit of smoking tobacco and cutting hair. During the French Revolution, women also refused heels. But at the beginning of the XIX century, the accessory regains popularity due to erotic photos in which French women posed on stilettos.
The largest desert, the area where the least precipitation falls and there is practically no liquid water is… Antarctica. It is generally believed that only sandy hot territories belong to deserts, but this is not the case. 90% of the frozen fresh water of our planet is a desert, where there is practically no precipitation, there are no plants and suitable conditions for life. The second largest area belongs to the Arctic desert and only the third is occupied by the Sahara. At the same time, a person can get dehydration, sunburn and chapped lips in Antarctica.
