Weird Chemistry Facts

Liquid oxygen is blue. 

Some radioactive elements really do glow. 

You can die from drinking too much water. 

If you mix half a liter of alcohol with half a liter of water, the volume of the mixture will be less than one liter. 

Liquid water is more dense than solid water (ice). 

You can melt a sample of the element gallium just by holding it in your hand. 

Under certain conditions, hot water will freeze more quickly than cold water. 

You can't solidify helium at normal pressures, even at absolute zero. (You can solidify it at extremely high pressure and low temperature.)

Flamingo's Eat Upside Down

Why Does a Flamingo Eat Upside Down?

The birds stir up food from the bottoms of the lakes and estuaries, then lower their bills into the water, where openings on the top of the bills and structures called lamellae strain out crustaceans, algae, brine shrimp, insects, and fish, according to Animal Diversity Web.

The flamingo’s tongue helps pump the food-filled water in and out about three or four times a second. This method is called filter feeding.

Stanford University’s Stanford Birds website says the flamingo’s lower bill is much larger and the upper bill is not fixed, which is the opposite of other birds.

But this upside-down arrangement is perfectly adapted for upside-down eating. 

Largest Spider

The world's largest known spider is a male goliath bird-eating spider (Theraphosa blondi) collected by members of the Pablo San Martin Expedition at Rio Cavro, Venezuela in April 1965. It had a record leg-span of 28 cm (11 in) - sufficient to cover a dinner plate. This species is found in the coastal rainforests of Surinam, Guyana and French Guiana, but isolated specimens have also been reported from Venezuela and Brazil. 

A two year old spider of the same species, bred by Robert Bustard and reared by Brian Burnett of Alyth, Perthshire also had a leg span of 28 cm (11 in) and weighed 170 g (6 oz) in February 1998. Body length: 280 mm, Weight: 50 g, lifespan: 10 years, discovered: 1804.