5 Shocking Facts You Didn’t Know about Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer, inventor and one of the most outstanding physicists in the history of science. But beyond his brilliant work, some aspects of his life remain hidden in the pages of history.

Recently a new statue in honor of Tesla was unveiled in Long Island of New York, which, according to historical data, was the final resting place of the brilliant scientist.

Tesla won more than 700 patents and became famous for developing AC (alternating current), while his work became the basis of developments in wireless communications, radar, laser X rays, lighting, robotics, and many other areas.

Beyond the scientific heritage that made him famous worldwide, his life had some aspects of it remain unknown to most people.

Read the secrets of Tesla’s life as presented by Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe.

In May, the Wardenclyffe was purchased by the Tesla Science Center for $ 1,370,000 donated by the website IndieGoGo. The campaign was started by Matthew Inman, creator of the popular comic Oatmeal.

In 1943, when Tesla died, the Office of Alien Property took his stuff. Most of these things were given to his family, and many were taken to the Tesla Museum in Belgrade. However, some documents still remain classified by the U.S. Government.

As Alcorn said, Tesla was “worried about the fact that people consume the Earth’s resources too fast, so he wanted to make sure that these resources were renewable“. Thus he studied the ways to gather the natural energy from the ground and air. He created artificial lightning in his lab and detected differences in electrical potential on Earth and on high objects.

Except of being environmentalist, the famous inventor was also a humanist. According to Alcorn, “he did what he did for the sake of the betterment of mankind and wanted to give people an opportunity to have a better quality of life. Thus, he never seemed to care about monetary gain and never had enough money for his research.” Although he had famous friends such as Mark Twain and French actress Sarah Bernhardt, he was never a wealthy man, unlike Edison and Westinghouse who proved much more successful entrepreneurs.

He claimed that he needed only two hours of sleep a night, although he occasionally took an afternoon nap. Tesla hated round objects and jewelry and could not bear to touch hair. Also he was obsessed with the number three and had a habit of polishing each point of the dining room before dining, using precisely 18 napkins.

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7 Optical Illusions That Will Blow Your Mind

This optical illusion was created by Chris Westall. There is a tea cup on the table, next to which there is a cube with a small cup. However, on closer inspection, we can see that in fact the cube is drawn, and the cups are of the same size.

Here are two images of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. At first glance, it appears that the tower on the right leans more than the one on the left, but in reality, these two pictures are the same. The reason lies in the fact that the information from the left and the right sides of the image is processed by different hemispheres of the brain, which “does not like” symmetry.

Does the face on the left show more angry than the one on the right? Well, step 5-6 meters away and you will see the angry face turn into the kind one and vice versa.

When you are looking at these two people you think the one on the left is female and the one on the right is male, right? In fact, it is exactly the same person. This is the famous illusion by Richard Russell from Harvard called “The illusion of sex”.

The created illusion is very simple: the contrast in the image with the seemingly male face was reduced. More contrast face looks feminine, less contrast – masculine. That is why women use cosmetics: to increase the contrast of their face.

There is no animation in this picture. It is nothing but an optical illusion.

Which way do you see the wheel turning? It is a brain-teasing illusion similar to the famous “spinning girl”. If the wheel is turning clockwise, your left hemisphere is more active at the moment and vice versa. See more about brain hemispheres here.

Stare at the picture for about 10-20 seconds (not more, otherwise you will have a headache) and then look at someone’s face or simply around you.

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20 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know About Human Behavior

1. People with high levels of testosterone get pleasure from the anger of others.

2. People with low self-esteem tend to humiliate others. Subjects who were told that the results of their IQ test were poor expressed more national and religious prejudices, than those who reported higher results.

3. People sincerely believe that their negative opinions about others are truthful and have no connection with them and their self-confidence. In fact, the humiliation of others helps them restore their own self-esteem.

4. The behavior of people is affected by bodily sensations. For example, there is a strong association between heaviness and such features as “importance” and “seriousness”. A person is assessed as more serious and sustained, if his CV was applied in a heavy folder, and vice versa.

5. Similarly, the feeling of rigidity and hardness makes people inflexible. People sitting on hard chairs were more uncompromising in the negotiations. Feeling a rough surface causes in people a sense of the complexity of human relations, and cold is tightly connected with the feeling of loneliness.

6. People tend to commit immoral acts or do not fulfill someone’s request for help, if no effort is needed and they do not have to refuse a person directly.

7. However, more people behave “as expected” if they have to take a moral decision in front of someone.

8. Lying requires a lot of mental effort. A person who is lying has to keep in mind at the same time the lie – that it to say, and the truth – in order to hide it. As a result, he uses simple sentences and finds it more difficult to cope with mental tasks.

9. When people are being watched, they behave better. And the illusion of being watched works, too. It was enough to hang a picture of human eyes in a self-service cafeteria, so that more people began to collect their dishes.

10. Behavior affects morality. People who lied, betrayed someone or committed other immoral act begin to perceive what is good or bad in another way.

11. Attractive and honest appearance can easily be misleading. People tend to trust appearance more than sincerity.

12. Appearance plays an important role even when voting during elections. Maturity and physical attractiveness of politicians were mostly important for voters’ choice (unconsciously, of course).

13. More successful and rich people are considered to be more intelligent and wise, and vice versa. Often, people tend to think that those who are successful or those who suffer deserve it.

14. Happier is not the one who has a lot of money, but the one who has more than his neighbor does. People constantly compare themselves with others and feel satisfied if they are superior in some respect.

15. Anger increases the desire of possession in people. People make more efforts to obtain the object that is associated with angry faces.

16. The more complex the decision to be taken is, the more people tend to leave things as they are. If the store has too much choice and people cannot immediately find out which of the products is better, most probably they will leave without buying.

17. When people feel they have no control over what is happening, they tend to see non-existent patterns in unrelated pictures and believe in conspiracy theories.

18. People regret quick decisions, even if the results are satisfying. Not the actual time allotted for the decision matters, but the feeling that the time was enough.

19. Not all risks are the same. The same person can fearlessly jump with a parachute, but be afraid of his boss. Or to train tigers, but feel embarrassed when talking to a pretty woman.

20. Boredom has a bright side. Bored people are often looking for ways to do good things as the entertainment bores them and does not bring meaning to their lives.

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Ten Body Functions Retained After Death

It is interesting to learn about the functions of the human body that are still performed even after several hours or even days after clinical death.

Despite the fact that the body does not generate tissue for growth of hair and nails after death, they continue to elongate. In fact, this is easily explained by the fact that the skin loses moisture and shrinks while exposing the hair. Nails also appear longer. Due to the fact that the length of a nail is usually measured from the tip to the point of contact with the skin, when the skin shrinks, nails seem to be longer.

Modern technologies have erased the line between life and death, sometimes the brain may be dead, but the heart will continue to pump blood. After a cardiac arrest, doctors pronounce the patient dead only after the brain is dead. Immediately following the cardiac arrest, the brain starts searching for oxygen and nutrients needed for its functioning. This condition can be extended using medication up to several days. Sometimes, this can save the patient’s life, but most often not.

This is another function of the human body, showing that different parts of the body cease to exist at different speeds. Upon termination of blood circulation, the brain dies almost immediately. However, other cells of the body can still function due to the fact that they can be sustained on their own for some time. Skin cells can remain alive for several days.

According to common knowledge about anatomy, urination is a function of our will, except for some funny or frightening cases. However, our ability to control urinating is an involuntary function. This function is controlled by a certain area of ??the human brain. This very same locale is responsible for regulation of breathing and heart functioning. Which easily explains why people who are intoxicated often experience incontinence. Alcohol inhibits the activity in part of the brain responsible for keeping the bladder sphincter closed. Rigor mortis causes muscles to stiffen, and within a couple of hours after death, the muscles relax, causing urination after death is occurred.

In times of emotional stress, human body is capable of getting rid of waste products. The body relaxes certain muscles, resulting in defecation. After death, this mechanism is triggered by gases accumulating inside the body.

After the death of the body, metabolic processes inside do not fade away right away. For some time, the gut bacteria will continue to function normally.

The blood, which the body stops to deliver to body parts upon death, mostly accumulates in the areas located lower. Relaxation of muscles after death does not last forever. Some types of muscle cells are activated due to the presence of calcium ions. Energy-demanding cells exude calcium ions. Cell membranes after clinical death become more permeable, and they contract. Rigor mortis occurs. Muscle contraction can also cause ejaculation.

Despite the death of the brain, many areas of the nervous system can remain active. Commonly, muscle flexing can be observed, which is a direct result of transmission of nerve signals to the spinal cord, leading to muscle cramps and spasms.

Our bodies are filled with gases and liquids, which are encased by muscles and bones. When the bacteria begin to take over after death, decay takes place, and the amount of gas inside the body increases. One of the ways for gases to escape the body is through trachea. Rigor mortis can affect the vocal cords. Very often, scary sounds like moans, sighs and whistles emanate from the dead.

In the past, when death rates exceeded today’s rates, women often died while being pregnant. The gases accumulating inside the body and relaxation of tissues led to the expulsion of non-viable fetus from the body. Such cases are very rare, but documented.

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8 Little Known Inventors Who Changed the World

This week the photocopier celebrates its 75 years birthday. In the late 1930s, this invention made a splash. Employees were delighted: before that, they had to reprint copies of documents by hand.

The inventor of the photocopier Chester Carlson was denied funding in 20 companies, and in 1944 a small company-manufacturer of photographic materials Haloid ventured to sign a contract with him. In 1961, the company changed its name to Xerox, and soon began to earn billions of dollars. Carlson himself became a rich man, although few people know that the world is indebted to him for the first photocopier.

Below are 8 inventors whose names are not well known, but most of people use their inventions every day.

In 1770, Addis got to a British jail for inciting to riot. At that time, people used a cloth with salt and coal dust to clean their teeth. Addis drilled a hole in a piece of bone, put some tufts of bristles in it and fixed them with glue. Upon his release, he made a fortune from the industrial production of toothbrushes. In 1808, after the death of the inventor, his son inherited the company, which still exists today under the name of Wisdom Toothbrushes.

Before this invention, people used to take medications in the form of powders or drops. In 1880, Upjohn invented a pill that dissolves easily in the stomach. Four years later, he created a machine to produce the pills in large quantities, and in 1886 founded the Upjohn Pill and Granule Company. The company existed for more than a century, and in 1995 it merged with the Swiss Pharmacia. Subsequently, this company was bought by Pfizer.

Whitcomb Judson made about three dozens of registered inventions. The most famous of them is the zipper, which was patented in 1892 as “the buckle for shoes.” Judson hoped that it would be used instead of laces. The inventor died in 1909, before his creation became popular. For the first time the zipper was used in sewing uniforms of the U.S. army during World War II. In 1923, the American company BF Goodrich released boots with Judson buckle. It was then when the name “zipper” appeared.

Who invented the coat hanger is still being debated. Many believe that the first wooden model was invented by Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of the American Declaration of Independence. But most agree that the hangers in their contemporary form are the invention of Parkhouse. He worked in a wire factory in the city of Jackson and decided to help his colleagues who never had enough hooks for clothes. Parkhouse curved a piece of wire so that it could hang a jacket and trousers, and in 1903 patented his invention.

American engineer and inventor developed the first machine capable of cooling air using a non-toxic and non-flammable refrigerant. In 1902, Carrier added to it a mechanism to control the humidity. This unit was the world’s first air conditioner. In 1915, the successful engineer founded Carrier Engineering Corporation, which sold air conditioning systems.

Morgan invented the traffic control system after witnessing a terrible car accident. It switched manually and, in addition to the signals “stop” and “go”, had another one – “stop everybody”, which completely stopped traffic at the crossroads. Morgan filed for the patent in 1922.

He later sold the copyrights for $ 40,000 to General Electric, which developed the electric traffic light. In addition, the inventor designed the “protective hood“, which became the forerunner of a gas mask.

A native of Budapest, Laszlo Biro made his living from journalism. One day he noticed that the printer ink dries faster and makes less blots than the conventional ink. Biro decided to use it for his fountain pen. This attempt failed – the paint was too thick. Then he came up with a ball head, which rotated and evenly distributed the ink on the paper. The invention was patented in 1938, and seven years later, Marcel Bich bought the patent and made the ballpoint pen with a trademark symbol of Bic.

The idea of Velcro or hook-and-loop fastener came to a Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral, when after another walk with his dog he had to remove thistle heads from its hair. De Mestral examined them under a microscope and saw tiny hooks. The same principle was used by the inventor in the hook-and-loop buckle.

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