Interesting Facts on Spiders

They crawl in the dark. They build webs to trap their prey before they lunge at them and devour. Their fangs are filled with venom. And the many hairs on their legs make your own hairs rise in fear. But there is no escaping their many small eyes. Spiders are eight-legged-creatures feared by many people. Yet these creatures are quite misunderstood. So before we pass judgment on these arachnids, let us take a look at some interesting facts on spiders.
 Spiders are the seventh organisms with the most number of species. In 2008, about 109 families and 40,000 species of spiders were recorded by taxonomists. So clearly, these creatures are pretty diverse. Yet they all have one thing in common, their body structure. A spider has eight legs and two main body parts, the abdomen and the thorax. So contrary to popular belief, these spiders are not insects because insects have two main body parts and 6 legs.

Speaking of body structures, spiders have different numbers of eyes. Spiders can have 8 or 6 eyes. Yet there are some that have less and a few that have no eyes at all. And even the spiders with eight eyes don’t really have good eyesight. Spiders are very much nearsighted and so they use the hairs on their bodies to sense if there are other animals near and to feel their way around.

All spiders have fangs with venoms. But not all of their venoms are lethal, to humans at least. So for most spider bites you only feel the pain or an inflammation but nothing more serious than that unless we are talking about the black widow. Black widows are highly poisonous. Despite her minute size, there have already been humans killed by a black widow’s bite. Good thing though, they don’t usually live near people. As to why they are called black widow, it is most likely because a black widow kills and eats her mate at times, making her a widow.

Tarantulas are quite the opposite of black widows. These tarantulas are the largest spiders in the world. And many are quite afraid of them because of their size. But to humans, a tarantula bite would cause nothing more than pain on the bitten area. So, they are not as lethal and scary as they look. In fact, tarantulas are quite good, good mothers, that is. They are highly protective of their children. They carry their cocoons with them and once the eggs have hatched, they still carry their babies on their backs. And if a baby falls off, mama tarantula will quickly retrieve the baby.

You see, not all spiders are to be afraid of, just like the fact that not all spiders spin webs. One particular spider is the wolf spider. The wolf spider would rather chase scuttling insects rather than build webs to trap them. And the wolf spider is just like all other spiders. Spiders prey on insects and keep them from overpopulating and infesting your garden or your home. So I guess spiders are quite nice creatures after all. Yet fear of spiders, called Arachnophobia, is one of the most common fears among humans.

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Interesting Facts about Mars

A lot of us already know that Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. We also know that Mars is recognized as the red planet. However, there are still countless things that we don’t know about this very interesting planet. Mars, which is a neighboring planet of our planet Earth, holds a lot of secrets that only some of the experts know. Nevertheless, it is still possible for us to dig in more details about this place in order for us to know Mars a lot better. Here are some of the interesting facts about Mars.
 Mars, aside from being the fourth nearest planet to the sun, is also considered the seventh largest among all the nine planets. Nowadays, many experiments and researches about this planet conducted by NASA as well as other scientists have sparked some interests about the red planet. Mars is also called as such (red planet) since the soil found on its surface is color red due to iron oxide, or otherwise known as rust. This planet was also named after Mars, who is the Roman God of War. Because of the advanced technology that we have, we were able to measure the equatorial radius of this planet which is approximately 3,397 kilometers. Its diameter is, of course, double the radius, which is 6,794 kilometers. In addition to these, our technology has also computed the approximate mass of Mars, which is 641,850,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. Its surface temperature could also reach a maximum of 310 K and a minimum of 150 K and its atmospheric components is mostly made up of 95 percent carbon dioxide, 3 percent nitrogen and 1.6 percent argon.

If these statistics are not interesting enough, recent discoveries about this planet will surely leave us in awe. One of these is the latest discovery by scientists that a large amount of ice water, found under the land surface of Mars, is plenty enough to cover or fill the Lake of Michigan twice. This has also led to the speculation that Mars is a livable planet since the presence of water indicates the presence of oxygen in the area. However, there are still no solid facts and data to support this assumption aside from the discovery of the ice. Since Mars is mostly covered with dust and rust, dust storms are very common in this planet. Aside from this, Mars is also full of amazing land formations. In fact, Mars is the home of one of the largest volcanoes in the solar system. This is otherwise known as the Olympus Mons, which is approximately 3 times bigger or larger than Earth’s Mount Everest and is also as wise as the state of New Mexico. Canyons are also very common in this red planet. One of its largest is the Vallels Marineris, which is approximately as long as the country of USA. Likewise,we could also see moons on Mars. In fact, Mars does have 2 moons. Both of these were discovered by Asaph Hall in the year 1877. These moons were named as Deimos and Phobos.

These are just some of the interesting facts about the beautiful planet of Mars. It may be deserted with living things, but interesting points and features of this planet will always be overflowing.

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Albert Einstein Fun Facts

We all study physics in high school. We have studied his theories and many scientific equations. While we all know, or maybe not all, about the things he has written, discovered, and thought of, we don’t know that much about Albert Einstein. So, here are some Albert Einstein fun facts to let us get to know more about this genius.

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in the city Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, Germany to a Jewish couple, Hermann and Pauline Einstein. Albert was born with an abnormally large head that his mother thought he was deformed. The back of his head was too big that the family considered monstrosity but later on, after some weeks, the shape and size of Einstein’s head was normal.
Growing up, Einstein had difficulty in speaking. He would seldom speak and when he did, he spoke slowly. Einstein would actually try out entire sentences in his mind or mutter them under his breath before speaking them out loud. He did this until he was nine, making his parents worry that he may be retarded.

And so how did this late talker end up a genius? It all started with a compass. When he was 5 years old, Einstein was sick in bed. Then his father brought and showed him a compass. It was a compass that sparked his interest in science with its arrow always pointing to one direction no matter how you turn the case around.

Despite his intellectual capabilities in math and science, Einstein also experienced failure. He failed to pass his entrance exams to the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School, now called Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH). When he first took the exam, he passed the math and science parts of the test but failed languages, history, geography, and others. He had to go to trade school for a year before retaking the exam. Einstein passed on his second take.

Einstein married his first wife, Mileva, in 1903. But before they could tie up the knot, they had an illegitimate daughter, Lieserl. Einstein never saw his daughter and there is very little known about her. Einstein later had two sons with Mileva, Hans Albert and Eduard. But sadly, Einstein’s fame made it difficult for his family. The constant traveling made Einstein estranged from his wife. He even proposed a contract on how they would interact. Eventually, his marriage ended with a divorce. And it was the divorce that pushed his son, Hans, further away from him.

Little did we know that Albert Einstein was, in fact, a ladies’ man. After he divorced Mileva, Einstein married his cousin, Elsa. Elsa wasn’t really his first choice. He wanted to marry Elsa’s daughter from her first marriage, Isle, who was 18 years younger than Einstein. But Isle demurred. She was no attracted to Einstein and saw him more as a fatherly figure. Because of this, infidelity was one of the reasons thought to cause his divorce with Mileva.

However, it seems that the fame was too much for Mileva to handle. Albert was constantly away, traveling to places to give talks about his theories. In fact, when he lived in the U.S., people approached him often and asked him to explain his theories. Later, Einstein was able to come up with an excuse to get away from all the attention. He told people that he was always mistaken for Professor Einstein.

Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics on December, 1922. However, he was not able to attend the ceremony. He was traveling in Japan at that time. Among many things given to Einstein, one was the offer to become the president of Israel. But Albert Einstein turned it down.

Albert Einstein is truly one of greatest men that ever lived. He is a true genius. He died on April 18, 1995 in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. Sadly, nobody knows what his final words were. The nurse on his deathbed didn’t understand German. His great brain is now preserved.

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Interesting Facts about Yorkies

Yorkies, or Yorkshire Terriers, are one of the most adorable dog breeds. So, if you want to know more about these dogs, below are some of the interesting facts about Yorkies, our adorable terriers.

Today, many people treat their little Yorkies as princesses. But did you know that in England, these dogs were far from royalty? Englishmen actually used Yorkies to rid their houses of rodents. Yorkies helped poachers hunt for rabbits and other rodents. Yorkshire Terriers were also used by some miners to help them see in the dark. Yorkies’ coats shine in the dark and so they helped miners in transporting wire through the tunnel.

Surely all that work would lead to sweating. Yorkies have sweat glands too. Yes, dogs usually relieve themselves of heat by panting. But Yorkies happen to have sweat glands in between their paws. That’s a pretty odd place for sweat glands. Just imagine humans to sweat it all out in between their toes. You’re gonna have one pair of smelly shoes.

And after all that work, you would be dead tired and early to hit the sack. Yorkies, in their first two weeks of life, are pretty much heavy sleepers. They spend about 90% of their time sleeping at that age, that’s about 21 and a half hours. Imagine sleeping that long. But don’t worry, Yorkies are far from being lazy when they grow up.

Yorkies are quite adventurous. They love to chase small animals that highly resemble rodents. They are also highly territorial. Yorkshire Terriers will fight to protect and defend their possessions. These little dogs can be very aggressive which means that they tend to bark more compared to other dog breeds.

In fact, Yorkies can be very small. The smallest dog that was ever recorded, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is a Yorkshire Terrier. Her name was Sylvia, from Blackburn, England. She stood at 2 and a half inches from paws to shoulder, and was as long as 3 and a quarter inches. She weighed only a mere 4 ounces, pretty small eh? Sadly, Sylvia did not live long. She lived for only 2 years.

2 years is quite short for the average lifetime of Yorkshire Terriers. The average lifespan of a Yorkie is from 12 to 15 years. So, you can expect your little buddy to live with you quite long. One thing is for sure about these Yorkies, you can expect them to stand by your side despite their small stature. Yorkshire Terriers can be small but they have the heart of a lion.

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Interesting and Fun Facts about the Heart for Kids

In order to make science more entertaining, it is a great idea to come up with some interesting & fun facts about the heart for kids as this will encourage them to want to learn more about how the human body works.


What does the human heart actually look like?

The heart is one of the most important organs in the human body. If it does not function properly, we quickly become very poorly. Kids often think the heart is on the left hand side of the chest, but in fact the heart is in the middle of the chest and is well protected by the rib cage. The heart sits between the lungs and because of its size, the left lung is slightly smaller than the right lung so that there is enough space in the chest cavity.

A kid’s heart is the size of an adult fist and because it is a muscle full of blood, the heart looks like a piece of meat you might see in the butchers shop. In a healthy person, the heart looks lovely and red, but in an overweight person, the heart will be covered in nasty yellow fat.

On average, the human heart beats around one hundred thousand times per day, which is a lot more than most muscles manage to do in the average day! In fact, the heart muscle is so strong it is capable of lifting a small car. In the average lifetime, the human heart beats approximately two and half billion times, which means it is very important to look after your heart!

What other interesting & fun facts about the heart for kids are there?

During exercise, it takes ten seconds for blood to travel from your heart to your big toe, and back again. There are around sixty thousand miles worth of blood vessels inside a kid’s body and if they were all stretched out like spaghetti, they would be long enough to circle around the world two and a half times.

There are four chambers in the heart: left and right atrium, and the left and right ventricle. There are also four valves that make sure blood flow is one way: it flows into the heart through veins on one side and flows back out of the other via arteries.

More fun & interesting facts about the heart for kids!

Every time the heart contracts, it pushes the blood back into the blood vessels. When the heart relaxes again, the chambers inside expand and blood rushes back into the heart. The heart beats with enough power to shoot blood more than thirty feet away.

Electricity makes the heart muscle contract and expand. When people on the television are hooked up to ECG machines, you can see spiky graphs on the screen. The spikes are measuring the electricity passing through the heart muscle and if the line goes flat, it means the heart has stopped beating and the patient is dying.

Amazingly, the human heart begins to beat four weeks after conception and by the time the embryo is eight weeks old, the heart is fully developed, albeit very tiny.

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