Curiosity Aroused

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.

Great Wall of China seen from satellite (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Like the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Great Wall of China is an instantly recognizable landmark. In fact under perfect visual conditions and at a distance of 160 kilometers from the Earth the Great Wall is visible from low orbit. However not everyone knows how such a massive structure came into being. Who built the Great Wall of China? When?

The first bridges used by humans weren’t even man-made – they were as simple as a log falling over the river in a certain way, or a bunch of rocks that allowed safe crossing of a river. Bridges have always been a human necessity, and prove a unique challenge to whoever is building them. No two bridges will sit on the exact same space of land, and as such each bridge design is completely unique and built to meet its own set of engineering challenges.

Space remains one of the few frontiers left for humanity to explore – and what a vast frontier it is. Yet despite the enormity of the challenge, we’re making progress everyday – with the recent Curiosity landing on Mars, and even a planned human expedition to the Red Planet in the works for 2018. With such a vast expanse of stars and planets, constantly expanding, changing, a common question we get from those attempting to grasp the vast magnitude of space is “what’s the biggest star in the universe?

The Clothes Moth and Your Ugly Christmas Sweater Have you ever scrounged through your drawers to find that one ugly wool sweater you got last Christmas, only to find it had been mercifully torn apart by moths? Tineola bisselliella, the clothes moth, can cause extreme damage to fabrics, furniture, books and fur. Most people know that moths can destroy clothes, but they are not just eating through the cloth to get to something else.