In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, let's take a brief stroll into the weird and wonderful world of science and learn about some old-fashioned science facts that will make you go ‘no way!”
We’re full of bacteria
Experts estimate our bodies contain 30 trillion human cells and 39 trillion bacteria, that’s a ratio of 1:1.3 to be exact. Lined up end to end, all the bacteria on earth would stretch some 10 billion light-years- that’s the distance from here to the edge of the visible universe.
Gardening anyone?
In just one teaspoon of soil, there are more microorganisms than there are people in the world. According to the US Dept of Agriculture, soil represents the greatest concentration of biomass on the planet, and contains billions of organisms, and millions of different species, including bacteria, algae, insects, fungi and more.
Plant a tree
Did you know that there are more trees on earth than stars in our galaxy? A study published in Nature estimates there are 3.04 trillion trees on the earth. And NASA experts believe there are 100-400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
Three states of matter
According to the University of California, Santa Cruz, the ‘triple point’ is a situation where all 3 states of matter can exist at the same time. This point is different for every material. Take water, for example. At a temperature of 0.1°C and at 0.006 atm, it can exist as solid, liquid, and gas all at once.
Laughing rats
Fun fact: The study of laughter is called Gelotology. If you are lucky enough to be in this growing field of study, you may get to do some very interesting research. One study found that 65 other species have their very own form of laughter called ‘play vocalizations’. In fact, when animals are tickled, they may produce their very own laughter-like sounds. According to National Geographic, rats respond very well to tickling and will vocalize their amusement.
Rats, we’re at the end of this article. Thanks for learning with us!
References
Winkler, S. L., & Bryant, G. A. (2021).Play vocalisations and human laugher: A comparative review. Bioacoustics 30(5):499-528 Link.