Page 13 - Science Facts

'Gay face' has been scientifically proven!

A study investigated people's ability to identify homosexual men from pictures of their faces alone. Researchers Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady from Tufts University looked through online dating sites and carefully selected 45 straight male faces and 45 gay male faces.

All of these photos were matched for orientation (only faces shown looking forward were used) and facial alterations. To control for context, the faces were also cut and pasted onto a white background for the study. These 90 faces were then shown to 90 participants in random order, who were asked simply to judge the target's "probable sexual orientation" (gay or straight) by pressing a button.

Surprisingly, all participants scored above chance on this gaydar task, correctly identifying the gay faces. Even more surprisingly, accuracy rate was just as good when the images were exposed at a rapid rate of only 50 milliseconds, which offered participants no opportunity to consciously process the photo. To rule out any erroneous data based on a certain physical style homosexuals and heterosexuals wore, they did a second test.

In this second study, the authors used images from the social networking site Facebook rather than online dating Web sites. This way, the targets hadn't so obviously selected photos of themselves meant to attract prospective sexual partners.

They photoshopped off the mens' hair so the face was truly the only thing to see. Again, people were able to detect who was gay and who was not at a rate higher than chance would allow. So, you really can "look gay".

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Scientists invented a particle that might help you live without breathing!

It's being hailed as one of the greatest medical breakthroughs in recent years. It's a microparticle that can be injected into a bloodstream and can quickly oxygenate a patient's blood.

This will work even if the ability to breathe has been restricted or even cut off entirely. The microparticles so far can keep an object alive for up to 30 minutes after respiratory failure. This is enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted.

The microparticles have a ton of potential uses in the future. Obviously the medical use is great. Ambulances and emergency care people can have it ready for when they're needed. The military will be able to use it for missions when they needed to be underwater for a while.

Imagine you're trapped in a sinking ship and you are drowning. You can inject yourself to give you time to get out. Divers can inject themselves to protect against suit failure.

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Getting annoyed at someone when you listen to them eating or breathing is called Misophonia!

We’ve all been there. Someone is making an abnormal amount of noise crunching on their morning cereal. Or you start to wonder if there is something wrong with someone because their breathing is so loud. It turns out that this annoyance has a name: Misophonia.

Misophonia literally means “hatred of sound” and is characterized by a negative reaction to specific sounds. It is an actual neurological disorder. Those with Misophonia are most commonly annoyed or even enraged by every day sounds such as people brushing their teeth, eating, breathing, sniffing, chewing gum, laughing, snoring, etc.

It is unknown how prevalent Misophonia is in the general population. Some studies have put it at 10% of the population while others have said it is closer to 60%.

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Sapphires and rubies are the same stone. They only look different due to slight impurities!

Sapphires and rubies look quite different. While both precious stones, sapphires are known to be deep blue and rubies are red. However, they are actually the same stone. Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide. It is naturally clear but can be different colors when it has impurities.

If corundum is red, it is known as ruby. If it is pink-orange, it’s called padparadscha. All other colors are referred to as sapphire. So sapphires can actually be other colors besides blue. For example, there are green sapphires.

Apart from its beauty, corundum is known for it's hardness (it can scratch almost every other mineral) and it's high density. It is mined in Russia, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and India.

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Iron weapons existed before the development of smelting.

Before the use of iron smelting, meteoric iron was the only source of iron metal apart from minor amounts of telluric iron. Meteoric iron was already used before the beginning of the iron age to make cultural objects, tools, and weapons.

In ancient Egypt an iron metal pearl was found in a graveyard near Gerzeh that contained 7.5 percent nickel. A dagger made from meteoric iron was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. The Inuit used parts of the Cape York meteorite. Fragments from Gibeon were used for centuries by Nama people.

There are also reports of their use for manufacture of various items in Tibet, including the Iron Man, a statue of Vaiśravaṇa carved from an iron meteorite. In 1000 CE, a Tibetan Buddhist statue, the Iron Man, was likely carved from an ataxite meteorite. It might even be made from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite.

Even after the invention of smelting, meteoric iron was sometimes used where this technology was not available or metal was scarce. A piece of the Cranbourne meteorite was made into a horseshoe around 1854. Today meteoritic iron is used in niche jewelery and knife production, but most of it is used for research, educational or collecting purposes.

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