Today's interesting fact has to do with bicycles and trucks.

In the UK, 50% of cyclist deaths are caused by collisions with Lorries (Trucks or 18 wheelers in the US) which are only 5% of UK traffic.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Echocardiograms.

An Echocardiogram is a sound picture of the heart.

Until recently, it displayed slices of the heart to allow doctors to see if you have issues with the heart.

With the increased computer power available, three dimensional images and even movies have been created.

It can also show blood flow and can pinpoint where arteries are clogged.

It is usually known as an Echo, as ECG usually refers to an Electrocardiogram.

I have just had one and can confirm that it doesn't hurt.

Today's interesting fact has to do with snakes.

Snakes have two hemipenes, or two half penis, that are stored inverted within the tail of the male.

One hemipenis is everted for reproduction by erectile tissue and one is used in mating.

They used to think that snakes (and lizards) alternated the one they use between matings.

But it turns out from recent observations that most snakes seem to be right handed.

In addition to having a forked tongue, the snakes hemipenes are also forked, and these forks are thought to help the male snake to grasp the female internally and aid in completing copulation.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Termites.

For a long time entomologists argued over where on the tree of life termites came from.

It was often argued that termites were realted to or even desended from a type of cockroach.

Cockroaches and termites share a few common elements, but then so do most insects.

One thing they share is the Fat Body, a white mass that fills much of the abdomen of many insects.

The Fat Body has two types of cells, adipocytes filled with fat gobules and mycetocytes, which are filled with mutualistic bacteria.

Many insects, if you kill these bacteria, can continue to live and will eventually replace their bacteria.

But with cockroaches, if you kill the bacteria, the cockroaches and termites will usually die.

It seems that the bacteria in both insects are almost the same, closely related species.

When until they genetically sequenced the insects and compared them, it was shown that termites are actualy a type of cockroach, desendents of a type of wood eating cockroach.

Nick Myall doesn't like spiders, so he asked me to do something else today.

So, today's interesting fact has to do with Cockroaches.

Cockroaches have been around for at least 300 million years, which is 70 million years before the first identified dinosaurs.

Their overall basic design has not changed in all that time.

The big difference between fossilized examples and present day ones is the loss of a long ovipositor (egg laying tube) in the current crop.

Of the 5000 odd species so far identified, only five try to inhabit our homes.

The big four are: German cockroach, Brown-banded cockroach, American cockroach and Oriental cockroach.

The identifying the names by places may be misleading, as they are found all over the world and there is no evidence as to where they originated.

The fifth inhabitant is a new arrival, which we can positively identify its origin, and that is the Australian roach, which has only recently decided to join our households and is so far mainly located on that island continent.

Cockroaches can spread disease, and lots of people are allergic to their faeces.

Cockroaches eat anything, including human hair, calluses and nails as well as other cockroaches.

Sailors are reported to have sometimes worn gloves to protect their fingernails.

It turns out that Nick isn't that enamoured with Cockroaches either.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Bola Spiders.

Most people are familar with spiders that create webs, chaotic ones as the black widow spiders make or circular ones which are made by orb spiders, the webs that often found in your garden between two plants.

Bola spiders are ones that create a sort of lasso, a sticky blob of web on the end of a line of web.

They often sit in a small circular web waiting until an insect, such as a fly or moth, flies near, when they twirl their Bola and ensnare the passing prey.

You can find a number of videos on the web that show them in action, such as this one.

Today's interesting fact has to do with iodine and the lack of it in the British Diet.

Countries that depend on the sea to produce a large portion of their diet usually don't seem to have problems with iodine deficiencies.

Britain historically was one of those countries.

Unfortunately eating habits have changed; people are eating less food sourced from the sea.

While fish have some iodine in them, the amount various tremendously, shell fish usually have more iodine in them but kelp or seaweed is the best source of iodine.

And until the early 1900's many foods produce in the UK had many foods that contained seaweed extracts.

More recently, the largest portion of iodine in the British diet came from milk, but fewer people drink milk in amounts required and are not meeting their dietary needs.

The World Health Organisation has recently put out a warning that many who live in Britain are deficient in Iodine and suffering from the effects.

This includes thyroid problems and weight gain.

When this was published, I went to every supermarket I could reach, including Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and the only supermarket I've found so far that has iodized salt is Lidls.

Today's interesting fact has to do with light.

Everyone knows that nothing can travel faster than light.

However, this is an incorrect statement of fact when light is in any medium other than a vacuum.

The speed of light in water, in an atmosphere or in glass or plastic is slower than it is in a vacuum.

Neutrinos and electrons are particles and Neutrinos don't slow down when they go through water, glass or even rock or metals.

When a particle does this, it generates Cherenkov radiation, which is an electromagnetic radiation that is emitted when a charged particle passes through a dielectric medium at a speed greater than the velocity of light in that medium.

This radiation has been likened to the sonic boom created by the sound wave produced when an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound.

In this case charged particles polarize the molecules of the medium, which then turn back rapidly to their ground state, which then emit radiation in the process.

The characteristic blue glow often seen in images of nuclear reactors is due to Cherenkov radiation in the dielectric medium of water

Today's interesting fact has to do with parasites.

Parasites do more than infect their vectors, they can also change the infected individual's behaviour.

A vector is any person, animal or microorganism that that carries and transmits an infectious agent.

Most parasites have several vectors, mice and cats are two common vectors for Toxoplasmosis although it also infects many warm blooded animals, including humans.

When Toxoplasmosis infects mice, it changes the mouse behaviour from wanting to stay in corners and dark places, to going into the light and open places.

This allows Toxoplasmosis to reach their second vector, when the mouse is caught by their predetors, such as cats or foxes.

Animals can be infected by eating infected meat, by the accidental ingestion of fecal material of another animal that has recently been infected, or by transmission from mother to fetus.

Cats often get blamed for Humans infection, but we are more likely to get infected contact with raw meat or eating meats that are undercooked or because of fecal contamination of hands.

Up to one third of the world population is thought to be infected.

The initial infection can mimic a minor flu infection, but is more likely to go unnoticed.

Most people never have a problem with the infection, although it can be fatal, especially if passed from mother to fetus.

It has been noticed that Toxoplasmosis can change an infected human's behaviour, in that those who are infected, are more likely to take risks an get into driving accidents.

Today's interesting fact has to do with Blood Cells.

Most people know that there are four basic types of blood cells, A, B, AB and O, and that they come either RH positive or RH negative. But most people don't know that there are actually many additional groupings that blood can come in.

To date 30 blood group systems have been recognised. These groupings are based on antigens that can be found on the surface of the blood cell. The antigens can be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids and over 600 have been identified. Many of the antigens are vary rare or found maily in specific ethnic groups.

These blood groups, are most important when it comes to blood transfusions. By blood typing the main groups, medical personnel can usually easily identify who can receive what blood.

Occasionally these additional blood groupings can cause issues, when the blood is rejected even though it passed the blood typing.

Recently, a lab in Canada has worked out of way of masking these antigens, by coating the blood cells with a layer of sugars, glycoproteins, and glycolipids.

In the lab and in test animals, they have successfully given transfusions of different types of bloods that would normally cause rejection issues without any reduction in the way the blood cells work.

It is going into human testing, and will hopefully be available in the next five years.

Today's interesting fact has to do with the famous children's book writer Enid Blighton, the creator of Noddy and the Famous Five.

She also published under the pen name of Mary Pollock.

Enid had her own tennis court and has been reported to have enjoyed playing tennis in the nude.

Haven't been posting lately, but I've renewed my pledge to try to do so on a daily basis, Monday through Friday.

Today's interesting fact.

One hundred years ago, one third of all children born, died before the age of five. Today it is less than one half of one percent.

And we can thank science and the application of it to modern medicine for this result.