Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago, Charles I of England hosted a sumptuous state banquet for
many of his friends and family. The meal, consisting of many delicacies of the day, had been simply
superb but the "coup de grace" was yet to come.
Aftermuch preparation, the King's French chef had concoctedan apparently new dish. It was cold and
resembledfresh- fallen snow but was much creamier and sweeterthan any other after-dinner dessert.
Theguests were delighted, as was Charles, who summonedthe cook and asked him not to divulge the
recipefor his frozen cream. The King wanted the delicacyto be served only at the Royal table and
offeredthe cook 500 pounds a year to keep it that way.
Sometime later, however, poor Charles fell into disfavour with his people and was beheaded in
1649. But by that time, the secret of the frozen cream remained a secret no more. The cook, named
DeMirco, had not kept his promise.
One gram of Uranium produces as much energy as 30000 grams of coal.
An electric eel (fish) can produce sufficient electricity to light up 10 bulbs. Its surface
potential can measure upto 500 volts, enough to kill any swimmer who touches the fish.
A drop of water contains 1.5*1022 molecules.
The largest volcano in the universe is on Mars- Olympus Mons.It is 600 km wide and 24000 metres
high and is nearly 3 times the size of Mt.Everest.
The gravitational field inside a black hole is so strong, that it can swallow anything in the
universe, even a passing star. If a book weighing one kilogram is brought within 6 metres of a
black hole, it would weigh about a million million tonnes.
During the last 3000 years, the greatest single volcanic explosion was of Krakatoa (Indonesia) on
August 27th, 1883. It is equivalent to 1500 megatons of TNT, making it 25 times more powerful than
the biggest ever nuclear explosion. It's sound of explosion was heard in Australia at a distance
of 4700 km.
El Nino is caused by warm surface water flowing from the western pacific towards South America.
This phenomenon can cause severe weather, flooding and high tides on the west coast of North and
South America.
The research indicates that chicken feathers can be used to make products ranging from paper to
diapers and high quality animal feed.
Like milk, unfertilized eggs are of animal origin but not non-vegetarian. 80-90% of the eggs
available are unfertilized eggs.
Milk is good for chickens! Recent studies show that milk products have a positive effect on the
performance and health of chickens.
A hen requires 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg. Thirty minutes later, she starts all over again.
White shelled eggs are produced by hens with white feathers and ear lobes. Brown shelled eggs are
produced by hens with red feathers and red ear lobes.
Egg yolk is one of the few foods that naturally contains Vitamin D.
To tell if an egg is raw or hard boiled, spin it! If the egg spins easily, it is hard-cooked but
if it wobbles, it is raw.
New guidelines from the American Heart Association permit an egg a day, rather than the previous
limit of three a week.
The blue whale has been the largest animal that has ever lived , bigger than the largest Dinosaurs,
But even the blue whale is dwarfed by the Redwood and giant Sequoia trees that grow in
California.
A fully matured Redwood tree towers over a space shuttle or a jumbo jet . It is 50 times as tall
as a fully grown person. Yet it grows from a seed weighing 1/250th of a gram.
The heart pumps 6500 liters of blood each day.
If man's leg could move as quickly as of ant's he would run at a speed of 160 km. per hour.
A giraffe has the biggest heart of all the land mammals. It takes a 25 pound heart to pump blood
all the way up through its long neck to its brain.
The tongue of a Jackson's Chameleon is twice as long as its body.
Koalas of Australia sleeps 22 hours a day .
The size of an Ostrich's eye is equal to that of a tennis ball .
A tree kangaroo can leap 60 feet out of a tree and land uninjured.
The world's smallest winged insect is smaller than the eye of a housefly . It is the Tasmanian
Parasitic Wasp, which has a wingspan of 0.2mm.
An Octopus's brain lies between its eyes and encircles its mouth . One of the disadvantages of this
arrangement is that any food going down the wrong way gets lodged in its brain.
The great white shark is so sensitive to the smell of blood that it can detect a single drop in
46,00,000 liters of water.
The largest Octopus named Octopus apollyon is found in America. Its length is 7.68 meters and
weight is about 118 pounds 10 ounce, or 53 Kgs.
The largest snails are Tethys which are found in Great Britain. They can weigh up to 7 Kgs.
The largest ants named Dinophonera grandis, found in Africa, are about 3.25 cm. long.
The largest spiders on earth are found in South America and are named Theraphosa Leblondi. Their
normal length is 9 cm which can become more than 25 cm once they spread out their legs.
The largest centipedes are found in the Bay of Bengal, named Scolopendra marsitans, their length
is 33 cm and width is 4 cm.
A millipede named Graphidostreptus gigas is the largest of its kind in the world. It is about 28
cms. long.