15 incredible facts from Wikipedia

The publication BuzzFeed published a selection of pages from the Wikipedia dedicated to the incredible facts about the world around us. However, not everyone is given the article has an analogue in Russian. Where possible, the website provides a link to the Russian Wikipedia, in other cases - by the British.

1. Martian meteorites h2> We will never send a man to Mars, so still no one had a chance to bring the red planet at least one stone for the study. But this does not mean that the world does not have the Martian rocks. Some meteorites falling to Earth were once driven from the surface of Mars and flew into the cold expanse of space to find a new home on the planet.





2. Kinesin h2>

Kinesin - a substance that belongs to the category of "motor proteins." This protein is able to literally walk on the so-called microtubule - protein structures within cells. Kinesin moves from one place to another by dragging and dropping of a payload. These cute and hardworking squirrels can be found right inside you (as well as inside the cells of other eukaryotes).

3. Contact Evolution h2> Usually, the evolution appears in people's minds as a process of separation of one species into several, from which only the strong survive. However, in nature there are radically different situation, when two types are combined into one, other than the two previous ones. This is a very rare process, but just this week, scientists announced that they discovered an example of how it happens with some bird species in Madagascar.





4. Limnological catastrophe h2> In rare cases, the apparent calm of the lake can turn into killing machines strangulation. During the whole of limnological catastrophes in the lake contained CO2 gas with the rest going to the first floor, which was then a torrent breaks the surface.





This powerful gas stream containing no oxygen, can stifle anyone happened to be nearby. The most famous such incident occurred on the lake Lake Nyos in Cameroon, August 21, 1986. The nearest village with 6 survivors killed about 800 people, as well as most of the remaining animals.

5. The gates of hell h2> Terrific-looking hole in the ground fire burning in Turkmenistan since 1971, when the Soviet geologists were here working on natural gas production. To prevent the spread of dangerous amounts of methane, they set fire to it. It is common practice, but in this case it turned out that the gas reserves surpassed expectations. Because of this, the land collapsed into the crater, which is steadily illuminated until now.





6. Immortal Jellyfish h2> Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the "immortal jellyfish" inhabits the Mediterranean Sea and in the waters of Japan. It is known for being an example of biological immortality. "How's that?" - You ask.





From the point of view of science, this means that a jellyfish is able to return to their immature state after it has become aged individuals. And she can do it as many times! However, from its predators is not save.

7. 90377 Sedna h2> If you think about the planets, flying somewhere far away from us, certainly on the mind immediately come Pluto. In fact, Pluto is "only" at 4, 6 billion kilometers from the sun, but there are lots of objects located far beyond.





The most extreme example in the solar system that astronomers know is the size of the planet Pluto, named Sedna. It is the most distant point from the sun's orbit is 83 billion (!) Kilometers from the sun. At that distance, the Sun looks more like an ordinary star in the sky.

8. Snowball Earth h2> Among geologists, there are many adherents of the theory that Earth's history has been one or more periods when it is all covered with ice and snow. This hypothesis called Snowball Earth or the "Snowball Earth».





Similarly, it is unclear whether the Earth is covered with ice in whole or more like a spring snow with patches of dirt. But some compelling evidence suggests that some 650 million years ago in tropical latitudes glaciers existed - explain it with another hypothesis is very difficult.

9. Teja h2> This is the name given to the theoretical astronomers object the size of Mars, which is about 4, 5 billion years ago, faced with the Earth, and the wreckage of the disaster eventually formed the Moon. It sounds more like the script of a Hollywood movie, but "giant impact theory" today is the chief scientific explanation of the origin of the Moon.





10. Zankliysky flood h2> About 6 million years ago as a result of tectonic plate shifts the Mediterranean was cut off from the world's oceans. It is believed that because of this it is completely or almost completely dry.





But about 5 and 3 million years ago, still waters of the Atlantic and Gibraltar struck a short time flooded back to the Mediterranean Sea. This event is known in geology as a Zankliysky flood.

11. Bloody rain h2> This phenomenon throughout the history of mankind has been the subject of myths and legends. It is often interpreted as a very bad omen. Today, scientists are sure that the real cause staining of rain in bloody color are airborne spores of green microalgae Trentepohlia annulata.





12. La Garita Caldera h2> This volcanic caldera was formed about 30 million years ago as a result of one of the largest volcanic eruptions ever happened on earth. The volcano threw ash into the atmosphere so much that it would be enough to completely fill Lake Michigan. The energy of the eruption of five thousand times the energy emitted during the test of the most powerful in the history of mankind thermonuclear bomb - so called "Tsar-bomb».





13. Timeline of the future h2> In the future, humanity is waiting for a lot of this, what would you have never in my life did not even think. Here are a few spoilers: 50 thousand years, Niagara Falls will destroy the last 30 kilometers to Lake Erie, and will cease to exist; 10 million years the African continent will be divided into a new ocean bay; 3, 5 billion years of the Earth's surface conditions will be comparable with those that we are now seeing on Venus; over 1 trillion will stop star formation, and through 100 trillion all the bright stars and did go out, because for all the hydrogen fusion reactions will be exhausted.





14. Oxygen Catastrophe h2> all the oxygen in the atmosphere that we breathe, once the bacteria has been created as a byproduct of their life. The problem, however, was the fact that almost all forms of life in that distant time could not exist in an oxygen atmosphere, so that our little assholes, which we owe to the air once accidentally killed almost all my friends in the world. Geologists call this dramatic event the oxygen catastrophe. It occurred about 2, 3 billion years ago.





15. The eruption of the volcano Toba h2> Toba supervolcano eruption was one of the most ambitious in the history of the planet. It happened 69000-77000 years ago on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia today. Some scientists believe that the eruption has caused the world a global volcanic winter that lasted 6-10 years, and led to a cooling of the climate of the planet for a thousand years to come.





Other scholars point out that this event falls on the same time, according to genetics, the population of people suddenly greatly reduced. According to researchers, the eruption is responsible for the so-called "population bottleneck" which limits the genetic diversity of the people to this day. However, all these claims is still the subject of scientific debate.



via rustoria.ru/post/16-stranic-iz-vikipedii-kotorye-zastavyat-vas-po-drugomu-vzglyanut-na-vselennuyu/

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