curiosities

In 2008, the Peruvian textile industry announced that it had found a new use for algae: to use them to make garments that block ultraviolet rays and prevent skin cancer.

Although it is difficult to establish a ranking, most experts agree that the most unpleasant odor in the world is that generated by pure mercaptan. It is a sulfur compound that generates decomposing matter.

These bright blue stars are not only older than they appear, but instead of running out of fuel, they gain mass at the end of their life, a phenomenon that has puzzled astronomers for decades. Now, Robert Mathieu, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), believes he has solved the enigma.

A study of the calls or "laughs" of 26 captive hyenas shows that variations in pitch and timbre encode information about their age, dominance and identity, and can help these animals establish social hierarchies.

The carbon-14 method, used by archaeologists and paleontologists to date ancient objects and fossil remains, could also be used to determine the exact age of a wine, a team of Australian researchers suggests.

Until recently it was thought that the "quack" of ducks did not generate an echo. But a couple of years ago, Professor Trevor Cox, from the University of Salford Acoustic Research Center (UK), managed to smash this urban legend by recording the squawk of a leg called Daisy in a reverberation chamber.

The smell of old books is the result of hundreds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released into the air from the paper. In addition to being unmistakable, this odor can be very useful to avoid the degradation of old volumes, according to a study just published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.

Did you know that raindrops are not shaped like a teardrop? And that it takes 7,000 liters of water to refine a barrel of crude oil? Quench your thirst for knowledge in this selection of curious facts about water that we have prepared.