What did you learn today?

ShineCero

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Everyone says that learning something new every day helps to keep your mind sharp. Whether it be true or not, one can only find something new to learn new every day. So this is a thread to post the new things that you have learned recently, so that the knowledge can be passed on and help everyone learn something new today!
 
Echinoderms (i.e. Starfish) do in fact have skeletons; but are endoskeletons. That's really weird bc I've only ever seem em dried up and they don't look like they have anything.

That and I learned how to find intersections of systems of equations with 2 or 3 variables. I remember hating these in 10th grade. Because 3 by 3s took eons to solve.
 
I learned how Rods and Cones help us process color and the bending or flattening of our lens can focus us for short or long distance respectively (I think so).

I also relearned the Gram Stain procedure.
 
I've learned about the Herero Genocide that occurred in Africa brought forth by the Germans onto the Herero and Nama people. Jesus, it's a wonder why this isn't outspoken as compare to the holocaust that they would do decades later.
 
Today I learned that it's much much harder to cut into an eyeball than I thought.

When you dissect a cow's eye, at the very back of the cavity once you empty it out of the vitreous humor (jelly stuff with eyeball juice) it has a really cool blue_green shiny part. But I scraped it off afterwards.

The sclera keeps the eye shape, and there's a hard bony piece right behind the iris and cornea (Cornea layered over the iris) which is the lens we use to focus images, I believe.

eye06_allparts.jpg
 
LoopyPanda said:
Today I learned that it's much much harder to cut into an eyeball than I thought.

When you dissect a cow's eye, at the very back of the cavity once you empty it out of the vitreous humor (jelly stuff with eyeball juice) it has a really cool blue_green shiny part. But I scraped it off afterwards.

The sclera keeps the eye shape, and there's a hard bony piece right behind the iris and cornea (Cornea layered over the iris) which is the lens we use to focus images, I believe.

eye06_allparts.jpg

The image appears to be broken.

I've learned the utterly badassery of Yue Fei who can take down an army of 500,000 strong with just 800 of them. B)
 
The formaldehyde they used? Yeah, it smelled like plastic. But it wasn't really that bad. You just had to be careful not to puncture the fluid in the vitreous humor cavity when you cut it in half. Or else you might get it everywhere.

I learned the way melanin protects our DNA from harmful UV exposure and the Vitamin D deficiency people with the Brown-Black melanin can have if they're in an area with low UV exposure. US doesn't get a lot of UV exposure as everywhere else save for the poles.

The melanin has melanocytes that shield the nucleus in the skin cells from the UV rays and let a limited amount in. Which is why sunscreen keeps most of it out but lets enough in to get vitamin D.
 
I learned a lot about plate tectonics and about minerals and rocks. I know it sounds boring but it's actually really interesting because of how easily ONE rock can tell the entire history of earth.
 
I learned that in a couple million of years, California has the potential to become it's own micro continent. DAMN PLATE TECTONICS, YOU SCARY!
 
A couple of things over the course of few weeks. 

1) I learn how to drive. While it's not certainly related academics, I thought it was important enough to leave a mention. I was already driving for about a couple of months, but recently, I have been getting more comfortable of driving without the need of my parents in the car. I'm hoping to get my driver's license before I go back to school in September. 

2) Over the past month or so, I been checking out grammar lessons in order to improve my sentence structure. English is one of the more, difficult task for me, simply because I'm a lazy fuck who always want to get straight to the point as soon as possible. I can write better if I can actually try, but I end up spending too much time on a single sentence -- analyzing to make sure it gets the point across lol. I'm still not finished with it yet, but I learn more things on the differences of past tense, present tense and the like. 

3) I heard more information by studying Ivan the Terrible, along with other rulers thanks to the Epic Rap Battle of History, in order to understand the references they have made. Interesting stuff. Frederick The Great is perhaps the best on in that battle.
 
TIL that people can actually be born and live without spleens, contrary to potentially popular belief.

Asplenia is the result of a harmful genetic mutation in a ribosomal protein gene "SA". We need two functional copies to have a spleen, but just one defective copy results in being born without one entirely. So these people lack an organ that provides adaptive immunity to bloodborne pathogens and can easily die to infection. Vaccinations are the most reliable way for asplenic people to defend themselves against things that wouldn't be too much of a nuisance for normal people. Your spleen will have to be removed if it's been damaged from traumatic injury: kids who previously had a spleen will be as vulnerable to bacterial infection but adults already developed plenty of immunity by the time their spleen is removed in this scenario, save for the occasional vaccine.
 
I learned the cataloging system, the MARC 21, which is one of the most extensive ways (and time-saving) process of cataloging books. At first, it was confusing, since it's like learning a brand new language, but after a while, I managed to get the concepts.
 
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