The Daily Atom

Oil and water do not mix because they have incompatible molecules. Water molecules are polar molecules, meaning they have a negative charge on one end and a positive charge on the other, allowing them to bond together. Oil molecules are non-polar and only mix well with other non-polar molecules. The two different types of molecules are unable to bond, which is why oil and water do not mix. You can temporarily cause them to mix by shaking vigorously and causing emulsion, but the effect fades quickly (think of a bottle of salad dressing). However, you can make the mixing effect last longer by adding an emulsifier, such as egg yolks or soap.

Seals have been around for much longer than you might think. Fossil records indicate that the ancestors of modern seals first entered the ocean between 28 and 30 million years ago.

The Galapagos penguin is the most northerly occurring penguin species. They are endemic to the Galapagos Islands and nest entirely in the tropics. Some colonies live on the northern tip of Isabela, which is located in the Northern Hemisphere.

Titanium doesn’t only exist on Earth. A 2011 satellite map revealed clusters of titanium-rich rock on the Moon’s surface. Anaylsis revealed that these rocks often contained up to 10% titanium – far more than the 1% or so typically seen in Earth rocks.

While Venus Flytraps have been planted in many areas, they are only native to a small, roughly 75-mile radius that encompasses the area around Wilmington, North Carolina and a few South Carolina counties. Poaching and habitat loss are both threats to these unique plants.

Victoria lilies are found in the Amazon. They can grow up to 10 ft. in diameter and are strong enough to hold the weight of a small human.

The majority of your neurons live with you for your entire life. Throughout your lifetime, these brain cells accrue genetic mutations, so that by the time you are an adult, it’s thought that the genomes of all your neurons are unique.

The color of the Moon depends on where you are viewing it from. When you look at the Moon from Earth and the Moon is low in the sky, light on the blue end of the spectrum is scattered by the atmosphere, so the Moon appears reddish. When the Moon is higher in the sky, it is less obscured by the atmosphere, so it looks more yellow. During the day, the Moon looks white from our vantage point on Earth because it has to compete with sunlight, which is also being scattered by the atmosphere. The most color-accurate views of the Moon are photographs taken from its surface. The gray color seen in these snapshots comes from the Moon’s surface, which is mostly oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, calcium, and aluminum. The lighter color rocks are most often plagioclase feldspar, and the darker rocks are pyroxene. The Moon’s dark regions are called lunar maria; these spots were formed by ancient volcanic eruptions.

The world’s largest bat is the flying fox. These bats have a wingspan of up to 6 feet and are found on islands in the South Pacific.

Scientists believe Jupiter has 79 moons orbiting it. There are 53 named moons orbiting the planet and another 26 moons are awaiting official names. The most important moons orbiting Jupiter are the first 4 moons discovered beyond Earth’s: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. (These 4 moons are sometimes referred to as the Galilean satellites.)

Koalas are closely related to wombats. The two shared a common ancestor in the Oligocene or earlier. Also, both koalas and wombats are members of the suborder Vombatiformes (order Diprotodontia). It’s thought that the first arboreal koalas evolved from a terrestrial wombat-like ancestor, possibly in order to take advantage of an underutilized food resource.

Bees communicate by dancing. Inside the hive, one bee will dance while others watch. A special dance called the “waggle dance” is used to communicate flower patch locations. Specifically, the waggle dance is used to tell other bees the distance to a flower patch and which direction to fly in to get there.

Airplanes are designed to be hit by lightning, which is good because it happens pretty regularly! Careful engineering allows the electric charge of a lightning bolt to run through the plane and out of it, usually without causing damage to the aircraft. In fact, a plane hasn’t been brought down by lightning since 1963.

There is no center of the Universe. Why? Because the Big Bang doesn’t refer to a special location in space from which everything emanated, but rather to a special moment in time. And since the Universe is still largely unknown to us and is continuing to expand, it is not possible (or even productive) to pinpoint edges or a center.

Ducks’ webbed feet have no nerves or blood vessels, so they can’t feel the cold. This is a very useful adaptation because ducks sometimes swim in very cold water. In fact, ducks are found on every continent on Earth except Antarctica.

The largest snowflake ever recorded was 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick. It was observed at Fort Keogh, Montana in 1887 and is considered the world’s largest snowflake by Guinness World Records today.

Research from space missions has shown that bacteria grow more resilient – and more deadly – when exposed to microgravity (when only minuscule gravitational forces are present). They also seem to mutate more quickly, but this is mostly a function of them adapting to the new environment.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth. It is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia, where it stretches for 1,429 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles. It is so large that it can be seen from space.

In essence, thunder is caused by a rapid expansion of air. Heat from the return stroke of a lightning bolt raises the temperature of the surrounding air and creates a rapid increase in pressure. As the heated air rapidly expands, the pressure drops, causing the air to cool and contract. The result is a shock wave that produces a loud boom – this is what we experience as thunder.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that there is evidence that some creatures, including sea turtles and salmon, can sense the Earth’s magnetic field and use this sense for navigation.

In gas form, oxygen is odorless as well as colorless. However, in its liquid and solid forms, oxygen appears pale blue.

There are more trees on Earth than stars in our galaxy. NASA estimates that there are between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, while a 2015 paper published in Nature estimated that there are around 3.04 trillion trees on Earth. That's a lot of trees!

There is only one letter in the English alphabet that does not appear in the Periodic Table of Elements: the letter J. Don’t believe us? Go ahead and check for yourself!

Hot water freezes faster than cold water. While this sounds counterintuitive, it’s actually true! It’s called the Mpemba effect, and scientists think it happens because the velocities of water particles have specific qualities when they’re hot that allow them to freeze more readily. However, the theory has not yet been proven out.

Scientists believe there are over 3 billion base pairs of DNA in human genes and over 25,000 genes total in the human genome. A full copy of that genome exists in each of your cells. In fact, if you lined up all the DNA in your body, it would cover the distance between Earth and the sun 100 times!

There is only one mammal with wings: bats. You may think flying squirrels count, but they only jump and glide – they can’t truly fly using wings the way bats do.

Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn all have atmospheres with such extreme pressure that they can crystalize carbon atoms, turning them into diamonds. In fact, it may rain as much as 2.2. million pounds of diamonds on Saturn each year!

Human stomach acid has a pH of 1.0 to 2.0, meaning it is an extremely strong acid. How strong? In a study, scientists discovered that the thickened back of a single-edged razor blade dissolved after just two hours of immersion in stomach acid! You should never swallow razor blades, though.

Neptune has 14 moons and all of them are named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology. The most recent discovery of one of Neptune’s moons, Hippocamp, was announced in 2013.

African lions make 9 distinct vocalizations. We have interpreted some — such as the roar lions make at sundown, after a kill, and after eating — but most of their sounds have not been interpreted by humans. However, it is clear that these distinct sounds have meaning within a lion’s pride (tribe).