Everyday Canvas

Fun with Off-the-Wall Science News

Some facts make me chuckle. Well, they may not all be exact facts, but I suspect, some of them are theories parading as facts, and some scientists, it seems, are so attached to their theories that they push them as the truth. That just shows the quirkiness of the human spirit, which in itself is hilarious.

Take astronomy for example. Did you know that there’s a gas cloud in the constellation of Aquila that contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer? If we could only import it…But then, its weight would sink our planet. If not that, imagine all the beer bellies who would be parading about.

People who do research in the area of astronomy must be either hungry or thirsty because there is another goody that claims, the center of our galaxy tastes like raspberries and smells like rum. Hey, I may just go there, even if I might have rejected the option to settle in Mars together with Richard Branson and the likes of him, had there been such a generous offer made to me.

And…Oh, my God! Ladies take notice if you are into big stones. There is a diamond floating in our galaxy that is bigger than Earth. Speaking for me, I wouldn’t bother with that. I was never into large stones in the first place, but those of you who do, dream on!

These goodies are from http://thespiritscience.net/2014/11/13/25-things-you-didnt-know-about-our-univer... I am giving the link for our Sci-Fi writers as there are other "theorized or real" facts in there.

Yet, it is not just astronomy. There are things on earth, which stun me--in addition to my children and some members of my family--, but just maybe, since these earthy facts are more measurable than the Space-y ones, they are closer to being facts. You see, I am neither from Missouri, nor-if in an earlier life-from the ancient skeptics school of Pyrrho of Elis, but I am always the doubting Thomas-ina.

Case in point: Human saliva contains a painkiller called opiorphin (Try pronouncing that!), which is six times more powerful than morphine. Now, why would some of us need other addictions, in addition to the one we self-produce? I bet there’ll be an answer to that, too, very soon.

Another one: Gorillas and potatoes have two more chromosomes than humans do. If I understood about the chromosomes, I’d make a decent comment on this one, but the only thing I can think of is the spiral in DNA. I am thinking maybe our chromosome strings lost a couple while spiraling and gorillas and potatoes picked those up. See, I can come up with scientific theories parading as facts, too. Talk about the theater of the absurd!

Note: If interested, the last two “real” facts are from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/28/science-facts_n_4344759.html