Aviva Trivia

Science is a broad term covering a myriad of subjects including weather, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, zoology, etc…  The following facts all relate to this larger world of science.

The Greek physician Hippocrates is believed to have been born 460 B.C.

Dmitri Mendeleev published the first Periodic Table of Elements in 1869.

No one, before or since, has received more U.S. patents than Thomas Edison-1,093 to be exact.

Scientific researchers believe Earth to be about 4.6 billion years old. 

The planet Jupiter is believed to have thirty-nine moons.

Among the first scientific elements known to man: gold, silver, copper, iron and lead.

Plutonium was discovered in 1940.

The main elements of the human body are hydrogen, oxygen and carbon.

The first laser was made in California in 1960.

Earth’s largest mammal is the blue whale topping the scales at about 130 tons.
Kitti’s hognosed bat is the smallest mammal.

Euclid is considered the father of geometry.  He was a Greek who lived in the Egyptian city of Alexandria.

The first cataract surgery is believed to have taken place in India around 500 B.C.

Dinosaurs first roamed Earth roughly 230 million years ago.  Interestingly, humans only knew of the existence of dinosaur since the 1800s.

The Sahara is Earth’s largest dry desert.  It measures approximately 3,500,000 square miles.

Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes for Science. 

Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921.

The earliest form of the compass is believed to be from China around the year 271.

The first mechanical water driven clock was made in Peking in the year 1090.

Dr. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen discovered medical uses of x-rays in 1895.

The world’s longest coral reef is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.  It’s approximately 1,250 miles long and is home to more than 1,500 species of fish.

India, the country with the most cattle in the world, does not consume them.  Cows are believed sacred in India and used for milk and carrying loads.

Alcohol was first used for medicinal purposes in c.1200.

In 1839, Louis Daguerre invented his daguerreotype-a permanent photograph transfixed on silver-coated plates.

Galileo became professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa in 1589.

The first thermometer to measure the first human temperature was in 1626.

In 1641 arsenic was first prescribed for medicinal purposes.

Bakelite, one of the earliest plastics, was invented in 1908.

1912 saw the invention of cellophane.

The theory of shell shock was first proposed in 1916 by F.W. Mott.

Lung cancer was linked to cigarette smoking in 1953.

Alan Shepard made his U.S. space flight for the first time in 1961.

In 1995 a new comet, even brighter than Halley’s, was discovered and named Hale-Bopp.

English scientist Isaac Newton is considered one of the most important scientists in history.  He was born in 1642 on Christmas day.

The largest butterfly on Earth, the Queen Alexandra Birdwing, lives in New Guinea.

Earth is believed to contain more than 500,000 plant species.