Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sleep

What is sleep? How does this thing gets indispensable in your life?
According to definition Sleep is a state in which our body cells undergo repair from the wear and tear of day-to-day activities.Hence sleep is necessary in order to be healthy.
According to scientists lack of sleep may cause serious brain damages,make you obese or even cause a heart-attack.
Also during sleep the nerve-receptors rest and hence if we don't sleep enough we may feel giddy and we may have problems doing simple tasks.


But sleep is not just that,during sleep we also dream and scientists have shown that everybody dreams so dreams must have a special significance.Dreams enable us to set our priorities.This gets seriously affected if we don't have adequate sleep.It has been found that college students who sleep more have higher grades than those who sleep less.

Newborn babies have it made -- they sleep 16 to 18 hours every day. An adult needs about 8 hours a day of sleep.

Militaries of several countries, including the US, the UK, Pakistan and France, have been exploring the use of a drug called modafinil (sold as the brand Provigil in the United States), which has prevented negative effects of sleep deprivation. Although modafinil is not a typical stimulant, it eliminates fatigue, promotes wakefulness, and improves alertness; it was initially developed for sufferers of narcolepsy.

But beware of over-sleeping.Those who average more than nine hours of sleep per night are twice as likely to develop Parkinson's disease as those who get six hours or less [source: The New York Times].
So sleep for the right amount of time to be healthy.

Bizarre Science facts

Did you know?

1) Do you know what colour is the sky on Mars?
Ans-The sky on Mars is pinkish-orange. Mars is covered with a layer of orange dust called iron oxide. Wind catches the dust, forming during dust storms, and the dust colors the Martian sky.

2)Why do some potato chips have green edges?
Ans-Potatoes, like most other plants, contain a chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll helps plants turn sunlight into energy and makes them green. Usually potatoes grow underground, but sometimes they can grow near the top of the soil. If the sun shines on a potato, it will begin to produce chlorophyll and turn a little green.

3)What rock floats in water?
Ans-Pumice, a rock that comes from volcanoes. Pumice can float because it is full of holes that hold air and make the rock buoyant.


4)What's the coolest place on Earth?
Ans-Plateau station, Antarctica—which holds the record as the coldest place on the planet. The average annual temperature there is minus -89°C.

5) What's the hottest place on Earth?
Ans-Dallol, Ethiopia holds the record for the hottest place on Earth. The average annual temperature there is 34.4°C. That's almost human body temperature!

6)Which resource can you live without longer—food or sleep?
Ans-Food. You can live for only about ten days without sleep, but you can survive for several weeks without food.

7)Which animal sleeps for most of its life?
Ans-The Western European hedgehog loves to sleep. In the summer it sleeps about 18 hours a day, waking only at night to eat. During the winter it sleeps constantly, curling into a prickly ball to protect itself from curious animals.

8)What is the oldest living thing on Earth?
Ans-The oldest living thing is a bristlecone pine tree that is more than 4,600 years old. It lives in the White Mountains of California.

9)What kind of bird can fly upside down?
Ans-The tiny bird called a hummingbird can fly forward, backward, and even upside down! Hummingbirds are the smallest kind of bird, and they eat nectar from flowers. Their wings move so quickly that they can hardly been seen, and the fast flapping makes a soft noise like a hum.

10) What kind of bird can fly when it is asleep?
Ans-The albatross can fly while it sleeps. These large birds spend a lot of time flying over the ocean looking for food. If an albatross cannot find land or a ship where it can stop to rest when tired, the bird can sleep while it flies at about 40 kilometers per hour.

Bizarre Science Quiz

The galaxy we live in is called the Milky Way. It is shaped approximately like:

A) A round ball
B) A doughnut
C) A pretzel
D) A flat spiral

The Milky Way has four spiral arms radiating out from a central cluster of stars or "nucleus". Our solar system is located on one of the spiral arms, quite far from the center.

2. Not found in sharks

Unlike most other fish, sharks have no:

A) Bones
B) Teeth
C) Gills
D) Liver

A shark’s skeleton is made of cartilage, a material somewhat softer and more flexible than bone.


3. End of an era

It is now believed that dinosaurs became extinct because of:

A) Viral diseases
B) Hunting by early humans
C) A worldwide period of climatic cooling
D) A meteorite


A large meteorite is thought to have collided with the earth at the end of the Cretaceous period, some 65 million years ago. It probably struck near Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The extinctions were caused by climate changes resulting from the collision.


4. Darwin sailed the ocean blue

Charles Darwin began developing his theory of evolution while voyaging on a ship named:

A) The Enterprise
B) The Beagle
C) The Santa Maria
D) The Endeavour


Darwin was particularly intrigued by the many unusual plants and animals he observed in the Galapagos Islands. The beagle is the correct answer.

5. Droid definition

An android is any robot that:

A) Has more than one basic function
B) Has the ability to make decisions and formulate plans
C) Is built by other robots
D) Looks and acts like a human

So far, androids exist only in science fiction; engineers cannot yet build a robot that comes anywhere near human appearance or behavior.



6. Sky dog

What is special about Sirius, the Dog Star?

A) It is the only star first observed by Albert Einstein
B) It is the brightest star in the sky
C) It always lies directly above the North Pole
D) It emits staccato barking sounds which radio telescopes can detect

Sirius belongs to the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog).It is the brightest star.

10. Not your average mammals

The platypus and the echidna are the only mammals that:

A) Lay eggs
B) Have green blood
C) Live in Antarctica
D) Eat eucalyptus leaves

These animals, called monotremes, are true mammals, but have some reptile-like features.They lay eggs.