Today's interesting fact has to do with the calorie.

When asked, a lot of people don't know what a calorie is.

A calorie is a unit of energy.

It is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree C, or around 4.2 joules of energy.

This calorie is sometimes called the small calorie or the gram calorie.

In most 'scientific' applications, the joule is now used instead.

The calorie is mostly used now as a unit of food energy.

To make things confusing for dieters, there is also the Calorie, sometimes called the Large Calorie, Kilogram calorie, the kilocalorie, Dietary calorie or food calorie.

The Calorie (always denoted with an uppercase or capital C) is the energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree C.

Calories in food is determined by calculations, developed by Wilbur Olin Atwater and associated in the 19th Century, where they compared the energy produce by burning and estimating how much energy is used after the foodstuff passed through an alimentary canal.

We have learnt recently that the number of calories that can be removed from food increases with the amount of processing a foodstuff receives.

This sadly means that the calories listed on many food packets can incorrect, by as much as 25% and those of us who diet, must keep this in mind when calculating how many calories we are consuming.

Today's interesting fact has to do with sleep and the brain.

In our busy modern lives, many of us find ourselves waking up tired.

There have been many proposed reasons for this lack of restful sleep.

It has been suggested that modern lighting has caused the problems, by resetting our body clocks.

It has been shown that bright blue light will reset our circadian rhythms.

Florescent and LED lights tend to be in the bluer range.

It has been suggested that looking at our bright computer screens and mobile telephones late at night does just this.

They have been studying the brain using MRI to determine what sections of the brain do various tasks and how they interact.

Several studies that have shown when we have a lack of sleep, sections of the brain can take a nap without our realising it.

These naps cause a reduction in ability, especially when doing repetitive tasks.

People will often do the 'wrong' things when these naps occur.

Drivers lose the ability to drive and have accidents, operators of machinery can mis-use their equipment, writers can type nonsense, and speakers can find they talk nonsense.

With a good night sleep, they find that the brain doesn't nap and accidents then are less likely to occur.

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.

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 the Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA), more commonly known as a Mini Stroke.

There are two types of strokes, and today, we will deal with one, a subset so to speak of the ischaemic stroke. An ischaemic stroke occurs when something blocks an artery that carries blood to the brain. This can be because of a blood clot that forms in an artery for what ever reason, an air bubble, blood clot or fat globule that is formed in a blood vessel somewhere, that is later carried to the brain and finally a blockage in the tiny blood vessels found deep within the brain.

If the blockage of blood supply to the brain is temporary the individual will have the symptoms of a stroke for a short time. This is called a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or mini-stroke. The symptoms of a TIA can last from a few minutes to 24 hours.

A TIA is a sign that part of the brain is not getting enough blood and there is a risk of a more serious stroke in the future. As with any stroke, it is important to seek medical attention immediately.

Today's interesting fact has to do with nanotechnology

Different people seem to have different ideas in what nanotechnology refers to.

To make it things worse, some journalists seem use the same term for nanomachines and nanocrystals.

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating mater on an atomic and molecular scale.

Titanium dioxide is a good example of this.

This mineral is found in toothpaste, paint, paper, sunscreen, skin care products and is used as a food colouring.

New uses of the material are constantly being found.

It turns paints white, helps whiten teeth, is a mild abrasive and its opacity blocks light.

Up to recently, the crystals used in these products have been large, when considered on the molectular scale.

But nano particles are now being used in many products. They are much smaller than the crystals that were used in the past.

These tiny crystals are begining to be linked to respiratory tract cancer and may cause problems in the digestive tract if swallowed.