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3541/ A 'glazed frost' forms
when rain falls at a very low temperature and solidifies immediately
on touching a solid surface. The spectacular effect it causes
can, however, be damaging to the tree as enormous weights
build up that can smash branches off and fell anything in
their way, such as powerlines.
3542/ The green tree python (Morelia
viridis), found in Australia and New Guinea, is yellow or
brown as a juvenile, becoming green as an adult. Exclusively
arboreal, it rests by looping its body over a branch.
3543/ If attacked, Trpidophis
melanurus, a wood snake from Cuba, can autohaemorrhage alarmingly
- its eyes turn red with blood and it bleeds from the mouth.
3544/ Researchers in Sydney,
Australia - a land where snakes are found in abundance - have
shown that even the most deadly species will display aggression
in only one percent of its encounters with humans; we on the
other hand, will try to kill the snake in 50 per cent of those
instances.
3545/ Over 80 per cent of snake
bites come about through people trying to catch or kill snakes.
3546/ Emeralds are a variety
of the mineral beryl, which is colourless in its pure form.
They owe their green colour to the presence of chromium, and
sometimes vanadium.
3547/ Red Beryl is the rarest
form of beryl, which includes emeralds and aquamarines. The
only crystals suitable for faceting are found in the Wah Wah
Mountains (the Violet Claims), near Beaver, Utah. Currently,
this is the only place in the world where gem quality Red
Beryl is found.
3548/ The finest emeralds come
from Colombia, where they are mined from the calcite veining
bituminous limestone at Muzo, Coscuez, and Somondoco. These
deposits were discovered in the late 1500s.
3549/ Emeralds have been produced
synthetically in labs since 1848 and can be virtually indistinguishable
from the genuine article.
3550/ The name 'emerald' comes
from the Greek smaragdos, meaning 'green stone'.
3551/ Legend says that the 'Sacro
Catino' , supposedly the 'holy grail' used by Christ at the
Last Supper, was made from a huge emerald crystal.
3552/ Folklore reports emerald
as having many properties, including a cure for leprosy, a
poison antidote, and a force to repel demons.
3553/ Fireworks are usually launched
from steel tubes, which fit so snugly around them that no
air can escape. That way, when a firework is lit, the force
of the explosion is channelled downwards, firing the device
up into the sky.
3554/ The black powder used in
fireworks is designed to explode more slowly and less fiercely
than conventional gunpowder, preventing the firework from
exploding outwards like a bomb.
3555/ Packed inside each firework
are many marble-sized explosives called stars, which create
the dazzling flashes of colour. Stars are made from a mixture
of black powder, binding agents and colourants: magnesium
or aluminium for flashes of white, sodium salts for yellow,
copper salts for blue and charcoal for orange.
3556/ At night the human eye
is most sensitive to orange light.
3557/ MI5 was set up in 1909
to keep an eye on German spies in Britain, and has focused
on internal security ever since. MI6, formed in 1912, is officially
known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), and focuses
on gathering and analysing intelligence.
3558/ The great Greek physician
Hippocrates was recommending willow bark (the source of aspirin)
for pain and fever about 2,500 years ago.
3559/ In the UK, doctors have
a choice of 6,000 different drugs to prescribe to their patients.
These range from antibiotics, anaesthetics and painkillers,
to drugs that treat heart disease, cancer, ulcers and depression.
The pharmaceutical industry has grown tremendously over the
past 50 years. In 1934, there were only 1,000 drugs on the
market.
3560/ By 2002 the global pharmaceutical
market was worth over $400 billion.
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