Page 132 - Science Facts

From space, there is a phantom city in North Dakota!

From space, there appears to be an enormous city in the middle of North Dakota due to light pollution from oil fields. The Bakken oil fields of North Dakota create a light that looks like a city from space.

This is due to the light pollution from the fields and can also be attributed to natural gas flares. In North Dakota, 17 percent of the natural gas at the oil fields is flared. Comparatively, this only happens to about 1 percent nationally!

Much needs to be done about this waste and it has been suggested to harness the gas and use it as energy.

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The seeds on a strawberry are the actual fruit itself, not the red swelling part!

The achene is a type of simple dry fruit found on many flowering plants. The achene contains a single seed within it and is often mistaken as the seed itself. Other than strawberries, other achenes are the fruit of buttercup, buckwheat, and cannabis.

Some achenes have hair-like structures that make them appear like tumbleweeds. So, you aren’t getting annoying seeds stuck in your teeth when you eat a strawberry at all, but the fruit itself is stuck in your teeth. Too bad knowing this doesn’t make it any less annoying.

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When the US space station Skylab crashed in Australia, the municipality fined the US for littering!

In 1979, pieces of the US space station Skylab fell from the sky and littered the Australian municipality of Esperance. The craft had broken apart over the Indian Ocean.

Esperance fined the United States $400 for littering! It wasn’t until 2009 that they were paid, though. A radio show host, Scott Barley, raised the money from his listeners and paid the fine on behalf of NASA.

The San Francisco Examiner offered $10,000 to the first person to bring them pieces of the Skylab. A 17 year old from Esperance scooped some scraps of the Skylab from his roof and took the first flight to San Francisco where he collected his prize!

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A one-year-old boy in India has broken a world record after being born with 34 fingers and toes!

Akshat Saxena had seven fingers on each hand and ten toes on each foot, according to a spokesman for Guinness World Records. This beats the previous record of a Chinese boy born with 31 fingers and toes.

The condition is known as polydactyly and is a rare genetic condition that makes unborn babies grow extra fingers and toes, usually on the little finger side of the hand. The parents were shocked, but did not know that their baby was so unusual. A family friend finally convinced them to go on the internet and enter the data. That's when they found that their kid had broken the world record.

The boy went into surgery and after 16 hours, he now only has 10 fingers and 10 toes.

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Pickles can glow in the dark!

Pickles are full of salt water, which contains sodium ions. If you apply an electric current to a pickle, the salt water will act as a conductor and cause the pickle to glow! Another way to make them glow is with a microwave. Because microwave ovens emit waves that make the ions vibrate, it will make them glow!

Check out here for instructions and check out the video below!