A LIBRARY OF DISCOVERIES
Every word is
a new discovery.
Find explanations, facts, and sources. Follow a single idea into a whole world of knowledge.
Results 32
Fact 1116 — Ben Nevis
…Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain in the British Isles. In 2016, Ordnance Survey remeasured the summit: its highest natural point is 1,344.527 metres above sea level. Rounded to the nearest metre, that is 1,345 metres; older maps often showed 1,344 metres.
Brave New World and biotechnology
…s a genetically near-identical animal, and gene editing separately changes DNA. “Soma” is fictional, and any resemblance to modern antidepressants is only a broad literary analogy.
Silver and Antimicrobial Properties
…roteins in cell walls and membranes and disrupt their function; effects on DNA have also been reported. The response depends on the form and availability of silver and on environmental conditions, and nanoparticle mechanisms are not always the same as those of dissolved ions. Laboratory activity the…
Insects among animals
…s across three ecosystems in Costa Rica’s Área de Conservación Guanacaste. DNA barcodes supported an estimate of about 333,000 species in the reserve; the team then scaled that number using global-to-local richness ratios for trees and several animal groups. The resulting 14.2–20.3 million range dep…
Most bacteria do not cause human disease
…han 5,000 samples from 15 body sites in men and 18 in women. They analyzed DNA directly from the samples rather than studying only bacteria that could be grown in a lab. This shows that detecting a potential pathogen does not mean an active infection is present. The project mapped microbes in the hu…
Identical Twins’ Fingerprints
…luenced not only by genes but also by how the fingers develop. So matching DNA does not create duplicate fingerprints.
Steve Buscemi supported firefighters after Sandy
…iends of Firefighters organize a benefit screening of “Monsters, Inc. 3D”; DNAinfo reported that more than 200 FDNY families attended. This documents organizational and public support, but does not establish that he personally cleared debris.
From a joint plan to international sequencing
… included determining the sequence of about 3.2 billion “letters” of human DNA, developing analysis methods, and studying model organisms. The later international sequencing consortium included hundreds of scientists at 20 centers in six countries; the Sanger Centre was one of them. A working draft …
Age Estimates and Genomic Clues to Longevity
…nt tortoise identified candidate variants and gene changes associated with DNA repair, inflammation, immunity, and age-related disease. Such cross-species associations help generate hypotheses, but they do not establish the causes of longevity in Galápagos tortoises specifically. Body size, metaboli…
How many fungi there are
…he unknown diversity, researchers compared plant-to-fungus ratios and used DNA analyses of soil samples. These are indirect lines of evidence, not a list of every species.
Fact 1007 — The Dnipro
The Dnipro is the longest river that flows through Ukraine: about 2,201 km in total, with roughly 981 km inside the country. Its basin spans three countries and covers about 504,000 km²; about 291,400 km² of that basin lies in Ukraine. That is roughly 48% of Ukraine’s area, or nearly half; the 65% f…
Genome editing
Genome editing makes it possible to introduce targeted changes to DNA. In the United States, the FDA has approved the CRISPR/Cas9 therapy Casgevy for people aged 2 and older with sickle cell disease and recurrent pain crises, or with transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. The treatment edits the pa…