However, only 6% of the population can speak any of these indigenous languages. The Spanish colonizers forced the Spanish language to be the official language of Mexico. It wasn’t until the 1990s that Mexico accept the indigenous languages as official languages for the country. Mexican legal documents can now be written in any of the 60 languages!
Read more about Mexican languages here.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Scientists used to think that Stegosaurus had a brain in its butt.
This was because it was hard to believe that the 24 foot long animal could have survived with a brain roughly the size of a walnut. This led to suspicion that the stegosaurus was so large it needed two brains to maintain its bodily functions. Part of this confusion stemmed from the fact that the stegosaurus’ spinal cord features a suspicious bulge near its rear end. This enlargement of the spinal cord in the hip area was actually its sacral plexus, an intersection of various nerves that serves the animal’s pelvis, back legs, buttocks, and genitals. None of this conspicuous nerve bulge was made up of brain matter.
Naturally, despite the fact that scientists later disproved the “second brain in its rear end” theory, it was too good for the press to let go. The theory was featured in a popular column in the Chicago Tribune in 1912, and nearly 100 years later, it hasn’t escaped the collective consciousness.
Read more about the 2-brain theory at the Straight Dope. And you can get all of your stegosaurus facts at How Stuff Works.
Naturally, despite the fact that scientists later disproved the “second brain in its rear end” theory, it was too good for the press to let go. The theory was featured in a popular column in the Chicago Tribune in 1912, and nearly 100 years later, it hasn’t escaped the collective consciousness.
Read more about the 2-brain theory at the Straight Dope. And you can get all of your stegosaurus facts at How Stuff Works.
Gravity is weaker in North America than it is in Europe, East Asia, Australia, and North Africa.
This is because Earth is not a perfect sphere, and its interior mass is not evenly distributed. There are slight variations of gravitational pull depending on where on Earth’s surface you are.
In fact, you can now check to see which points on the Earth’s surface have the strongest and weakest gravitational pulls with a “gravity map”, available at BBC.com. The map is a 3-dimensional model of the earth that represents the amount of gravitational pull on a specific point on the Earth as its altitude. It uses data compiled from the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE).
GOCE is a satellite that orbits at a low altitude (the lowest ever for a satellite, at 254.9 km or 158 miles) that uses a gradiometer to detect the gravitational pull at different parts of the Earth. Because of this, the data collected from GOCE is the most accurate data on the Earth’s gravity that we have ever been able to compile. It has even been able to collect data from hard-to-reach areas like Antarctica, the Himalayas, the Andes, and Southeast Asia.
In fact, you can now check to see which points on the Earth’s surface have the strongest and weakest gravitational pulls with a “gravity map”, available at BBC.com. The map is a 3-dimensional model of the earth that represents the amount of gravitational pull on a specific point on the Earth as its altitude. It uses data compiled from the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE).
GOCE is a satellite that orbits at a low altitude (the lowest ever for a satellite, at 254.9 km or 158 miles) that uses a gradiometer to detect the gravitational pull at different parts of the Earth. Because of this, the data collected from GOCE is the most accurate data on the Earth’s gravity that we have ever been able to compile. It has even been able to collect data from hard-to-reach areas like Antarctica, the Himalayas, the Andes, and Southeast Asia.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
First photograph of a human being
This is a Daguerreotype taken by the inventor of the process, Louis Daguerre, in 1838. It is a view of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. To achieve this image (one of his earliest attempts), he exposed a chemically treated metal plate for ten minutes. Others were walking or riding in carriages down that busy street that day, but because they moved, they didn't show up. Only this guy stood still long enough—maybe to have his boots shined—to leave an image.
Other primitive forms of photography had preceded this picture by over a decade. But this anonymous shadowy man is the first human being to ever have his picture taken. There is also the very faint image of the bootblack bent over his work.
Odds are neither of them ever knew they were making history that day.
Below is a detail of the photo.
A tip of the Hokumburg Homburg to Fuhrmanator for finding what the same spot looks like today via Google Maps.
Friday, March 5, 2010
What killed the Dinosaurs?
A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs, a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades.
A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years' worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a "hellish environment" around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.
Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.
The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.
The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
Despite evidence of active volcanism in India, marine and land ecosystems only showed minor changes in the 500,000 years before the K-Pg boundary, suggesting the extinction did not come earlier and was not prompted by eruptions.
The Deccan volcano theory is also thrown into doubt by models of atmospheric chemistry, the team said, which show the asteroid impact would have released much larger amounts of sulphur, dust and soot in a much shorter time than the volcanic eruptions could have, causing extreme darkening and cooling.
A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years' worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a "hellish environment" around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.
Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.
The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.
The asteroid is thought to have hit Earth with a force a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima.
Despite evidence of active volcanism in India, marine and land ecosystems only showed minor changes in the 500,000 years before the K-Pg boundary, suggesting the extinction did not come earlier and was not prompted by eruptions.
The Deccan volcano theory is also thrown into doubt by models of atmospheric chemistry, the team said, which show the asteroid impact would have released much larger amounts of sulphur, dust and soot in a much shorter time than the volcanic eruptions could have, causing extreme darkening and cooling.
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