Today's interesting fact has to do with magnetic north.

Magnetic north has been moving around a lot lately.

At the moment, it is changing it's position on the earth by more than 40 miles a year.

No one knows why this is occurring and there are many new theories that are being tested and refined at the moment.

But one of the effects of the magnetic pole moving, is that several airports have had to change their signs. The large signs at the ends of the runways, display the degrees off magnetic north that the runway lays on, and pilots rely on these to ensure their on board compasses are working correctly. With recent changes, several of these have had to be changed yearly.

Today's interesting fact has to do with phosphorus.

There are about five countries that produce most of the phosphorus used today.

It seems that there are not many workable deposits available to us in the world.

Phosphorus is a key ingredient in the fertilisers we use to feed all the humans currently in the world.

Without this element, our farmers wouldn't be able to produce as much as they currently do.

Unless we find more deposits, in about 30 years, we will have passed the peak, and will not have enough to keep our farms going.

Today's interesting fact has to do with bitter tastes, spinach, and brussels sprouts.

I started off today’s fact with how a lab in the US has developed a system that uses extracts from spinach leaves to produce electricity.

While this was considered interesting by my audience, Nick Myall stated that he doesn't like the taste of spinach, brussels sprouts and other brassicas.

As he is the one I give these interesting facts to, this reminded me, that there are bitter tasting chemicals that not everyone taste.

While at university many years ago, our chemistry professor gave all of the class a litmus test strip that had been dipped onto one such chemical.

Our task was to taste the strip and report on that taste. About 10% of the class found it very bitter, but the rest of the class reported tasting just paper.

This ability to taste this specific chemical comes from having two copies of a specific recessive allele of a certain gene.

Our ability to taste many bitter tastes is also controlled by specific alleles.

So Nick and his son, who both find brussels sprouts particularly repugnant, probably have some of these genes, whereas his wife and daughter, who love the taste, probably don't.

My advice would be to have something different on their plates, if possible.

Today's interesting post has to do with spiders and snail shells.

There is a spider in Madagascar, that makes itself a home in the shell of a snail.

Doesn't matter what type of snail, these spiders, once they find an uninhabited shell, and after they determine it is their size, use the shell to protect itself from the rest of the world.

Using their silk strands, they hoist these shells up into bushes and trees, for further protection.

Today's interesting fact has to do with house dust mites.

House dust mites are found just about everywhere we live.

They eat the organic detritus, such as the dead skin cslls that constantly falls off our bodies, although they will consume any organic material, such as plant pollen, textile or paper fibers, and hair.

House Dust mites are linked to athma, their feces contain powerful digestive enzymes that are a major inducer of allergic reactions.