five optical illusions

youtube is far too fascinating

necker cube balanced on air

Can you really not fold paper more than 7 times?!

Amazing dress

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V

The four eyed fish

In Central and South America there's a fish which has four pupils (technically only two eyes, I kinda lied in the title)! Inside each eye one pupil detects light from above and one from the sides and below. The purpose of the pupils detecting light from above being to see things above the surface of the water in clearer vision, aided by the fact that the lenses directing light into the top pupils protrude out of the water! Every once in a while the fish has to dip these eyes below the surface, presumably to keep the eyes moist!

The iris of each eye doesn't make up one circular pupil like ours but is squashed together in the centre, making two separate holes for light to shine through onto the retina presumably onto two different focal points so the brain can distinguish between the underwater and out-of-water images.

Another interesting fact about this fish is that the genitalia of both male and female are variable as to which side of the fishes body they are found! Meaning males can only mate with a female with corresponding genitalia location!

Growing cress in a keyboard

I want to try this but it might be best to give it a go when I've got my own keyboard। Flick off the keys on your keyboards using a flat ended screw driver, put a thin layer of cotton wool between where the keys attatch to the board. Replace the keys and then sprinkle cress seeds evenly across the board (not unevenly, I've seen pictures where the cress growth is concentrated in places and it kinda looks untidy in my opinion).Water every other day using a plant mister, bingo.

I've heard another idea about cress growing as a practical joke; if you have access to someone's house whilst they've gone on holiday for a two weeks or so, sprinkle loads of cress seeds all over their living room carpet and water with a 'flowerhead' watering can or a plant mister. Hopefully by the time they come back there will be a crop of cress. Not tried this out either unfortunately.

The Milky Way tastes like raspberries

While looking for amino acids in the Sagittarius B2 region astronomers have found out that the Milky Way tastes like raspberries and smells like rum! They detected the same chemical that gives the taste of raspberries (ethyl formate) in a hot dense area surrounding a newborn star.

Red cress detects landmines

A group of Danish scientists have genetically modified cress to flush red when grown near landmines. The plant, which is sensitive to nitrogen dioxide -- a product released by landmines as they lie underground -- has been genetically altered to change color from green to red after approximately three weeks in contact with contaminated soil.

Red for landmine: A diagram from Aresa showing the process of TNT degrading to nitrogen dioxide which is detected by the GM tobacco plants, turning them red. Credit: Aresa Biotechnology

more information:
BBC NEWS
COSMOS - The Science of Everything

Why is this blog being created?

This blog essentially is just another blog of many that collates interesting ideas and will hopefully provide a good and addictive read. Articles will be used or copied from numerous different sources over the Internet and wherever else they are discovered. For example:
New Scientist magazine,
Practical Fishkeeping Magazine,

Whilst living my life I keep stumbling across loads of interesting ideas usually within what would be classified as science and art that seem to have almost universal appeal! One example of many is the discovery that the Milky Way could taste like raspberries! A bizarre piece of information where two worlds seem to have become entwined, cosmology mocking our earths feeble attempt at evolving raspberries. Another example of an appealing idea I think, is the 'invention' of the worlds hottest chili sauce ever: 'Blair's 16 Million Reserve'. This sauce is literally the hottest sauce the world will ever see since it's single ingredient is capsaicin - the chemical that gives even the hottest chili in the world it's painfully spicy sensation. To make this 'sauce' capsaicin is extracted from tons of extremely hot chili peppers for every lb of the final product.

People, or at least a number of people I know (possibly the majority), seem to love talking about these things they have discovered or heard. Scanning the Internet at home and the magazine rack in the shopping centre you find that a number of people out there also share the same fascination. The fascination of discovering random crap that stimulates and bends the mind regardless of whether it's useful to your own life or not. I personally find that half of these ideas either are mildly practical as well or at least let me fantasise about how they could be practically applied, which is part of what makes and keeps me interested in these bizarre and interesting phenomena!