Curiosity Aroused

Intelligence is a fascinating, though complex subject, and it’s one that is difficult to study for that reason. Researchers have developed IQ tests to try and create some kind of objective, quantitative measure of human intelligence. Despite their many flaws, IQ tests present a clear quantitative bell curve with 95% of their participants scoring within a range of 70 to 130. There are a couple different classifications of IQ scores. One common classification is Wechsler’s, which ranks 90-109 as the true average.

Despite being the 2nd biggest country in the world in landmass, Canada has a population 1/10th the size of the United States. As such, Canada has a tendency to be overlooked on the map, despite being a fascinating country. How many Canada facts do you know? Here are some surprising things you may not know about the U.S. neighbor to the north: 1. The Canadian Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II Here is one of the most interesting facts about Canada that surprises Americans.

What Are The Colors of the Rainbow? When you look at a rainbow in the sky, all the colors can seem to blend together, but there are seven distinct hues that form the arc. In order, these are red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, and violet (in grade school, you may recall these colors in the acronym ROY G BIV). These colors combine to form all the other colors which we can see with our eyes, though they only form a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

**The Grand Canyon is one of the most famous National Parks, not only in the United States, but in the world. Indeed, it is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, both for its impressive depth and its great beauty. Just how deep is the Grand Canyon? ** Ancestral Puebloan granaries at Nankoweap Creek. The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long, 18 miles wide at its widest point, and reaches a depth of 6,000 feet, which is more than a mile.

**_The Titanic - which sank April 15, 1912 - is remembered as the worst maritime accident in history, not only because the sinking of the ship itself was tragic, but because the hubris of the builders who called the ship “unsinkable” - led them to include only enough lifeboats to salvage about half the passengers._** “Arrival of the ship of sorrow”, published in the Boston Globe May 4, 1912. How many people actually survived the Titanic sinking?

The White House is one of the most prominent symbols of the United States. It is of course, the residence and office of the President of the United States. But just how big is the home of the president of the world’s number one superpower? There are a total of 132 rooms in the White House, not including the bathrooms. Some well-known rooms on the State Floor include the East Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room, Family and State Dining Rooms, Cross Hall, Entrance Hall, and Grand Staircase.

Time zones are a universal standard used to mark the hours of the day in different locations. The reason time zones are necessary is to correct for the fact that, geologically speaking, people in different locations experience the hour at different “times” of the day. The Royal Observatory in Greenwich If there were no time zones, "noon," for instance—when the sun is at its highest point in the sky—would occur at 5:05 in one place and 12:36 in another, defeating the purpose of having standard time across regions.

Humans have long been fascinated by the concept of immortality. Our most enduring myths recount the search for fountains, elixirs, holy grails, and other elusive means thought to confer of the gift of eternal life. It has always been the stuff of legend. Then, in the summer of ‘88, a German marine biology student named Christian Sommer discovered something curious about a little-known species of jellyfish: ‘Turritopsis’ had evolved to self-regenerate—and thereby gained eternal life.

What if human beings had the ability to heal themselves every time they spoke? It sounds like a superpower, but that’s what is happening every time your cat purrs. And that’s not all. Purring is a richly expressive felid vocalization, reflecting many of the most extreme moments of a cat’s life, both positive and negative. Photo credit: Wikimedia commons Why Cats Purr Why do cats purr? Most of the time, humans express pain or anxiety very differently from pleasure.

While others enthusiastically projected their divine myths onto the firmament, the Greeks focused on identifying meaningful patterns. To the ancient Greeks, the cyclical drama of the heavens contained objects that could be studied and measured. Observing the grinning silver disc of the moon in its many phases, ancient Greeks had a hunch it was a real celestial body located at a fixed distance from where they stood. The Greeks’ extraordinary insights laid the foundation for the science of lunar distance, or “LD.