Meteorologists use weather balloons carrying radiosondes to measure atmospheric conditions at different altitudes, and these balloons sometimes reach the stratosphere – bursting only when the thin air can no longer support them.
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Louis Pasteur's work on vaccines stemmed from his initial research on fermentation, showing a connection between microorganisms and spoilage.
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Fossil dung (coprolites) can reveal a surprising amount about a dinosaur's diet, including the types of plants they ate and even the presence of parasites.
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Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin was partly accidental; he noticed the mold inhibiting bacterial growth on a contaminated petri dish.
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The LD50, a common measure of toxicity, represents the dose of a substance that is lethal to 50% of a test population. It's not necessarily a precise measure for humans, as species can react very differently.
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Gregor Mendel was also a skilled beekeeper and studied the inheritance of traits in honeybees, though this work wasn't as well-known as his pea plant experiments.
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The accuracy of a sundial depends not only on its design but also on the observer's precise location and the equation of time, which accounts for the Earth's elliptical orbit.
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Many models use specific posing techniques to make their bodies appear longer and leaner in photos, even if they aren't actually that tall or slender.
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The "bystander effect" describes the phenomenon where the more people present during an emergency, the less likely any one person is to help.
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Light curing, used in dentistry and other applications, relies on a process called photopolymerization, where light triggers a chemical reaction that hardens a liquid resin into a solid.
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