How to Eat Healthily With Food Allergies
Writer and blogger Kate Thompson has four children. Kitty and Archie are eight years old. Along with their older brothers (aged 12 and 16) they suffer from food allergies, in their case “gut allergies” called non IgE allergies which you can’t test for.
The more well known allergies are IgE allergies – these are the ones which bring an instant reaction – sometimes this reaction can be very dangerous, and the person cannot breathe properly.
Do Carrots Help You See In The Dark?
In the first of a fab new series called #factORfable, we take a look at some stubborn myths and find out if they are true! First up – do carrots help you see in the dark?
Is The Great Wall of China Visible from Space?
The idea that the Great Wall of China can be seen from space has been around since at least 1938 and is still popular today. It certainly seems plausible that such a large, linear structure would stand out from the surrounding landscape, but it’s actually not true.
Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon, said in 1969
“The only thing you can see from the moon is a beautiful sphere, mostly white, some blue and patches of yellow, and every once in a while some green vegetation. No man-made object is visible at this scale.”
But if you can’t see the Wall from the moon, how about somewhere closer to Earth? The International Space Station (ISS) maintains a low earth orbit of between 330-435 km above our planet’s surface.
Winter Wonderings – Are Snowflakes Really All Different?
It’s a common belief that no two snowflakes are the same, and in a way this is true. No snowflake can ever be completely identical to another, because when you get down to the molecular level they will have slightly different kinds of water molecules, different electrons and different traces of other materials such as specks of dust.
However, if we’re talking only about the appearance and shape of a snowflake, then yes it is possible that some will have duplicates. Snow crystals can vary from fairly simple, hexagonal structures to the more complex and delicate shapes that we commonly think of as snowflakes.
The simple flakes have far fewer molecules than their larger cousins and so it’s entirely possible that you could find two that appeared identical when viewed through a microscope. The more complex structures, however, can have more than a hundred different features and each feature can form in a number of different ways. This makes it highly unlikely that you would ever find two large snowflakes that looked the same – but you could have fun trying!
For a more detailed explanation of the science behind the forming of snowflakes, check out this video