Curiosity Aroused

Coke Zero (Photo credit: Kevin Trotman) Diet drinks are carbonated beverages that are sweetened with artificial sweeteners like sucralose, aspartame, or saccharin. These low calorie and low carb drinks are available so soda lovers feel that they are making a healthy choice when they choose a diet soda over a regular soda. Recent research and studies show that diet drinks are not good for you, and should be avoided because of the artificial sweeteners that are used in the product’s creation.

The stars have throughout history been fascinating objects of study. From the ancient Greeks, to the modern day astronomers who continually search the stars for other planets and galaxies. One of the Hubble telescope's most famous images showing stars forming in the Eagle Nebula. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The universe is constantly expanding, and changing, thus every time an astronomer looks into his telescope he may see something there that wasn’t there the day before!

Did you know that one of the largest dog in history was a Great Dane by the name of Zeus? He stood at a whopping 112 centimeters (44 inches). Dogs come in all shapes and sizes, with some being as small enough to fit in a handbag, whereas some are large enough to smother a fully grown human. There are so many different breeds, but here is a list of the 10 of the largest dog breeds in the world.

While domesticated dogs are almost always extremely friendly and amicable, on rare occasions, dogs can be dangerous. There are many different breeds of dogs, but the most dangerous dog breeds are quite well known, however looking at the top 10 most dangerous dogs by bite fatalities came up with some interesting results. The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association conducted a twenty year study on the most dangerous dog breeds, and here are the top 10 most dangerous dog breeds based on the amount of fatalities they have caused:

A 2010 American penny (Photo credit: Wikipedia) What is a penny made of? While more accurately called the “one-cent piece”, the penny remains the most common term for the smallest denomination of coinage. The United States has started a discussion on the possibility of taking the penny out of circulation, following a move by the Canadian government to eliminate the penny, which officially took effect Feb 4, 2013. The main argument for the possible extinction of the penny from North America is that the coin reportedly costs more to produce than each cent is worth.

The "buffalo" burger - but is it really buffalo? (Photo Credit: Wikipedia) Some more ambitious restaurants have begun to serve more exotic meals to compete in a saturated market. One particular choice being made more readily available to the adventurous foodie is the Bison burger. Most report that Bison meat is a lean and delicious alternative to the more common beef burger. However, the availability of this meat confuses many casual diners.

Dogs are known for their love of eating. You will not find a dog owner who has not had to deal with their pooch drooling and begging right at their feet while they eat dinner. It’s hard to deny the shiny puppy eyes when you know exactly what they want. If you have raised a puppy then you have probably heard that it’s not good to feed them chocolate. But why is chocolate bad for dogs?

In science, objective observation is the gold standard - at least, that’s what most undergrads hear in every science class. But what exactly is the difference between objective vs. subjective? Since concepts are much easier to explain in context, let’s start with some definitions and then look at an example of how they migjht apply in real life. Pathologists making objective observations Definition of Subjective The Merriam-Webster dictionary, defines subjective as:

Commonly thought to be a mammal, the penguin is actually a flightless bird, which spends half of its life underwater and the other half on land. Emperor penguins with chicks (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Penguins have recently seen lots of media attention, with the box office hit Happy Feet and the documentary March of the Penguins that told the story of the long migrations of the aforementioned Emperor Penguins. Still, if you want to check out some cool facts about penguins, take a look at these 25 facts about everyone’s favorite waddling birds:

Bottle of generic Ibuprofen (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It used to be that all you had to do was take an aspirin with water every morning when you woke up. Nowadays however, there’s no shortage of pain relievers available over the counter at your pharmacy. With so many different choices and many side effects unknown, it’s a real headache (no pun intended) to discover which pain medication is right for you.