Cool Science Thoughts

 A large part of my job at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science involves performing various programs for our guests and talking to them, answering any questions they may have. Here are some interesting tidbits that frequently come up:

1. The winds on the planet Mars can travel upwards of 100 mph. However, the atmosphere is so thin, even winds of that speed can only pick up very fine dust particles, more like smoke than dust here on Earth. As great as the movie The Martian was, the ability of Martian winds to blow hard enough to tip over a spaceship or rip up antennae or large rocks just cannot happen. Learn more here: Martian dust storms

2. There is only one reported account of a meteorite hitting a person. This was the Sylacauga meteorite, sometimes called the Hodges meteorite after the woman it struck, in November of 1954. It struck a woman in Alabama who did survive the encounter. Read more about it here:.Sylacauga Meteorite  We do have on display at our museum a meteorite and the portion of the home's roof which was hit by a meteorite. Fortunately, nobody was injured, but the homeowner's cat was terrified by the event. Learn more here: Hodges meteorite

3. Some pacemakers from the 1970's were powered by nuclear batteries. These batteries were much longer-lasting than chemical batteries available at the time. Radiation poisoning was not considered a deterrent since, without the pacemaker, you would die long before the radiation could kill you. Lithium batteries eventually replaced these devices as they proved to be durable and powerful enough to last for most users.

4. every time you go outside you are likely to see the last of the dinosaurs! Today, birds are known to be descended from and closely related to the Therapod dinosaurs (two-legged predators like T-rex). Examination of DNA and skeletal structure has revealed this close relationship and we now consider birds to be the last of the dinosaurs, the only dinos that survived the asteroid impact 65 million years ago. Learn more here: Birds and Dinosaurs

I hope you enjoyed these interesting little tidbits and learned something along the way. Let me know what you think. I'll be back again next week with more. Thanks for reading.