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As we know, in autumn the leaves of the trees turn red and yellow and later fall off.  But do we know why this is happening?  Basically, plants only grow when there is sunlight, which appears as white light, but is made up of rainbow colors. In summer, the leaves of most plants are green due to the high levels of sunlight. They have the dye chlorophyll, which reflects the green part of the sunlight, which is why the leaves appear green. The other parts of the sunlight are absorbed, ie "swallowed" by the plant and used to convert light into starch (photosynthesis). In addition to chlorophyll, there are other color pigments, namely carotenes (orange), anthocyanins (red), or xanthophylls (yellow). In summer, however, these are usually completely covered by the green chlorophyll. In autumn the solar radiation is weaker, the days become shorter, and the temperatures are lower. As a result, the rate of photosynthesis also reduces. The yellow, red, and orange components of the light...

It can be said that the main reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union was the major economic problems, due to the high spending on the arms race. The centrally controlled economy threatened to collapse, and the member states of the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) demanded more independence and demanded an opening to the West. "Solidarność" union  In the 1980s, protests against the economic situation and the dictatorship of the Communist Party increased in the states of the Eastern Bloc.  In Poland, the Solidarność union (Polish for “solidarity” full name - Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity") was formed at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. It was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognized by the state, and its leader was Lech Wałęsa, awarded with Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.  Lech Wałęsa, August 1980 Solidarność was banned in 1981, but continued to exist underground and campaigned for social rights, democracy, a...

We are used to seeing trucks dumping salt on the road during periods of extreme cold that we almost forget to wonder why. Salt helps fight snow and ice, and so, to secure the roads. But how is this done? When the temperature drops below 0° C, water in liquid form turns into a solid-state (ice). Same we observe when we put water in a freezer. The fundamental difference between liquid water and solid water (ice) is how individual water molecules organize themselves.  In liquid water, molecules (made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom - H2O) are free to move relative to each other.  When the temperature drops below 0 °, these movements slow down until they stop. The water molecules then bind together in a sufficiently durable manner, symmetrically, freezing in the form of ice, solid water. If the cooling process is slow, magnificent ice crystals are created, as the bonds between individual molecules have time to form very symmetrically on a large scale. Now let's analyz...

In general, sleep talking is not very common, since it’s estimated that only five percent of adults are regularly affected by somniloquy. Children talk much more often in their sleep. As they get older, however, the phenomenon usually resolves itself.  Photo: Pixabay.com... It is very rare that we speak clear words or even entire sentences in our sleep, since the speech muscles are actually completely relaxed during sleep. This is why we tend to utter incomprehensible scraps of words or individual sounds when we sleep.  Thus revealing secrets from someone who talks in their sleep is more of a popular film trick. Why do people talk in their sleep? Sleep-talking usually occurs during the dream phases. It can happen that people simply pronounce dreamed sentences aloud. But even when the different phases of sleep are changed, those affected sometimes experience the phenomenon of speaking while sleeping. What we tell in sleep does not necessarily have to correspond to the truth or ...

We have all heard countless times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But there are also people who cannot eat anything in the morning until they are hungry at some point. There is a public debate about whether it is healthy to have breakfast in the morning. Photo: Pixabay.com... A morning booster Breakfast is the first meal that will regulate the whole day. We come from a night we spent on an empty stomach. The body therefore needs energy and to stimulate the absorption of dopamine, which is, so to speak, the starter in the morning. To do this, it must be supplied with the necessary nutrients in sufficient quantity and quality. People who do not consume protein in the morning and are prone to hypoglycemia can quickly experience a drop in concentration and difficulty memorizing in the morning. The first instinct, then, will be to consume sugar and this is a gesture that should absolutely be avoided if you do not want your energy to drop completely afterwards. Photo: ...

As its name suggests, the purpose daylight savings time (changing the time) is to make better use of daylight and therefore save energy. Benjamin Franklin, one of America's founding fathers, mentions the time change in a letter from 1784 "The Cost of Light." Franklin humorously criticized the consumption of candles and suggested waking people up at sunrise to make better use of sunlight. Photo: Pixabay.com For the first time, official daylight saving time was first introduced in Germany in 1916. In addition to saving raw materials, workers in the arms industry should be able to make better use of the days. After the end of the war, the government of the Weimar Republic abolished the time change. In the meantime, countries like France and Great Britain have also imposed daylight saving time on their populations.  The National Socialists reintroduced daylight saving time to support the war economy from 1940 to 1945. In the postwar years with the division of Germany into occ...

During the first wave of plagues in the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great ordered that anyone who sneezed should be blessed immediately, as sneezing was often the first sign of plague infection .  Soon "God bless you" became a custom for occasional sneezes and its still used today.  If we analyze the physiological process of sneezing, it stimulates sudden contraction of the exhalation muscles and thus the expulsion of nasal secretions as well as dust and foreign bodies through the nose and mouth. Due to the large number and high speed of the droplets emitted, possible infection can be spread to a distance up to five meters.  So it's no wonder that we wish each other “good health”. Photo: Pixabay.com Sneezing is a defense reaction against potentially harmful stimuli. Stopping the urge to sneeze is a bad idea for several reasons. How to sneeze properly The speed of a sneeze can easily match a hurricane. The suppression of sneezing can lead to increased pressure in the dra...

Domestic cats have a strong aversion to water. The main reason for this is their fur. Cats can instinctively swim and actually pretty well. If a cat accidentally falls into the water, it will swim straight to the nearest solid surface after a quick orientation. An old Chinese proverb says "All cats love fish but fear to wet their paws".  Even before cats became pets, bathing or swimming in nature was not a behavior that was beneficial for cats. On the contrary: wet fur even gives cats several disadvantages. Photo: Pixabay.com 1 - Cats use their sense of smell to orientate themselves strongly. A wet fur disturbs this and so restricts the orientation. 2 - Cats protect their fur from water. If their thick fur gets wet, the weight increases, which means that the cat is severely disturbed in its balance and flexibility and that it is hindered in the event of a possible escape from danger. 3 - Cats are very clean animals and spend several hours a day grooming their fur. If the fur ...

Why is Neptune blue? -  Due to the composition of its atmosphere, Neptune appears blue, although there is no liquid water on its surface. Therefore its name “Neptune”, god of the sea in Roman mythology, is misleading.  Methane in the atmosphere gives Neptune its color.  Neptune is almost four times the size of the earth, and has an extensive atmosphere consisting primarily of hydrogen and helium. At the low temperatures at the visible upper cloud limit of minus 215 degrees, methane freezes, creating haze particles. That is why the planet appears blue. Photo: Pixabey.com... Neptune is the furthest planet from the Sun in our solar system. While the earth orbits the sun in 365 days, it takes Neptune 165 years. Neptune has a diameter of 49.528 kilometers and although is much bigger, it rotates faster on its own axis than the earth: in 16 hours and 7 minutes instead of 24 hours.  When was Neptune discovered? Neptune was the first planet discovered through mathematical cal...

Eggshells are mainly made of lime, lime is white, that's the basic color of the eggs. Whether a chicken lays white or pigmented eggs is entirely a question of genes.  - The eggshell color is genetically predetermined and it depends on the individual breed of chicken. - Brown eggs have different pigments, white eggs have no pigments. Photo: Pixabey... The breakdown path of the hemoglobin runs in the hen's ovaries. Red pigments, together with yellow pigments of the bile pigment, are deposited on the lime shell of the chicken egg during the breakdown process. If the red and yellow color pigments mix, the eggshell turns brown. The eggs get their color very late: it takes about 24 hours for an egg to form in the chicken's body, but it only gets the pigments in the last 5 hours before it is laid. In the case of eggs from chicken breeds that lack these coloring agents or are less concentrated, the shells remain white. We often hear that brown chickens lay brown eggs and white chic...

The human nose works a bit like thermostatic heater: when it gets cold, warm blood rushes through the nose.  Cold triggers a stimulus similar to that of dust. The nose therefore also reacts with stuffiness. Cold reactions also fall under the responsibility of the nose, which has to fulfill a total of three tasks: filtering air, humidifying it and also warming it when it is cold. This system is similar to thermostatic heating. When the air is cold, temperature sensors in the nose report an under-temperature to the brain. The control center then sends a heating command, and warm blood flows into the so-called turbinates that run through the inside of the nose. They swell and warm the air so that it doesn't reach the lower airways as icy.  Photo: Pixabey.com... At the same time as the turbinates swell, the secretion production in the nose increases. The fluid, which is formed even under normal conditions to keep the mucous membranes moist, usually flow backwards - the nose "runs ...

The eyes and nose are connected by the tear duct. Even when we are not crying, the tear glands produce tear fluid all the time. They do this to keep the eyes moist and clean, but also to supply nutrients to the cornea.  What runs out of the nose is tear fluid.  Photo: Pixabey.com... This tear fluid flows from the outside to the inside, which means that our lacrimal glands supply fluid to the eye. This liquid partially evaporates; on the other hand, it flows off inside, via the tear duct - and this duct ends in the nose. Normally we do not notice this because only small amounts of fluid disappear there and these are lost, so to speak, in the expanses of the nasal mucous membranes.  But when we cry we produce a large excess of tear fluid; the eye then has "high water": a part overflows - these are the tears that flow down the face; but larger amounts of tear fluid also flow away through the tear duct and come out of the nose as salty dripping wetness.

Nitrogen is the nutrient element that plants need most often. Nitrogen is mainly needed for the construction of amino acids and nucleic acids. This nutrient is also involved in the formation of enzymes and plant pigments such as chlorophyll.  In short, Nitrogen is required for a plant to grow.  The growth that comes out of it relates to both length and mass growth. Without nitrogen, neither the necessary building blocks of the plant would be formed, nor could enzymatic reactions take place. In most cases, the plants take up the nitrogen via the roots, whereby the substance is usually in the form of compounds (eg nitrate, ammonium). However, some specialized plants can also process so-called atmospheric nitrogen, which is then available in elemental form. A lack of nitrogen leads to growth inhibitions (metabolic disorders) in the plant, yellowing of the leaves (chlorosis) and finally to the death of leaves (necrosis). Excess nitrogen leads to "fattening" growth at the expense ...

The ozone layer blocks a large part of the sun's rays and prevents too much ultraviolet radiation from reaching the earth. This is vital, because the high-energy ultraviolet rays of the sun can destroy the cells of animals and plants and damage human skin. If the ozone layer in the stratosphere is intact, it acts like a huge protective screen against aggressive UV radiation. The ozone layer in the atmosphere protects the earth's surface from dangerous radiation. However, this protective shield is endangered by chemical compounds, especially CFCs from refrigerators and spray cans. Sunlight and Ultraviolet (UV) Radiation  Sunlight is essential for human health because, among other things, it regulates the daily and annual rhythm and helps supply the body with vitamin D.  However, if you expose your body to excessive solar radiation, damage to health, which is mainly caused by the shorter wavelength ranges, can occur. These include skin cancer, skin aging, eye diseases and the we...

When we drink alcohol, some of it gets into the blood through the mucous membrane in the mouth. Then it goes on to the stomach, where another part is absorbed. The main intake of alcohol takes place in the small intestine. It is conducted into the blood via the mucous membranes there. The blood carries alcohol throughout the body. The concentration in the blood peaks 30 to 60 minutes after drinking.  This means that if we drink a glass of wine, for example, the alcohol concentration in the blood through this one glass is highest after half an hour to an hour.  After that, the alcohol will slowly break down again. Provided we stop drinking after the glass. Those who continue to drink keep the level or increase it. Photo: Pixabey... When the body can no longer handle large amounts of alcohol, it is called alcohol intoxication. Vomiting, breathing problems, and a possible coma are dangerous consequences. Alcohol changes perception and behavior The intoxication ultimately arises i...

Vitamin D is essential for our body. It strengthens the immune system, the bones and supports our muscles. Many people underestimate their physical needs and unknowingly suffer from vitamin D deficiency. The human body produces vitamin D mainly from exposure to the sun. Without this, we would not be able to produce enough of this vitamin. Vitamin D can also be obtained through a healthy diet such as fish, mushrooms, or dairy products. Since the sun is our greatest source of vitamin D, a vitamin D deficiency can be found in many people in the northern hemisphere, especially in winter. Extreme deficiency can lead to bone damage and increase the risk of bone loss (osteoporosis) and bone deformation. The immune system is also weakened so that those affected can become more susceptible to infections. Photo: Pixabay... What is the function of vitamin D in the human body The main vitamin D function in the body is in the area of the bones. Vitamin D promotes the formation and development of bo...

The ancient Greeks were the first to name the Black Sea, and they called it "Inhospitable Sea", since the sea was difficult to navigate, and also at the time, hostile tribes inhabited its shores. With the settlement of Greek colonists at the shore of the sea, its name became “Eύξεινος Πόντος”, or "Hospitable Sea". This name is still used in some Greek sources, but also the name “Μαύρη Θάλασσα” or "Black Sea" is common in many sources. Photo: Pixabey... It has not been established exactly to which of the explanations the name of the Black Sea can be traced back, but is certain that the name comes from the Turkish vocabulary.  When Anatolia was conquered by the Ottomans, they kept the names used by the Genoese and Venetians. They called the Black Sea the "Mare Maggiore", or the "Great Sea". "Mare Maggiore" translated into the language of the Ottomans, means "KaraDeniz". Deniz stands for sea. The word Kara in Turkish ha...

Thermal conduction is a type of heat transfer in which heat is transferred through the body from areas of higher temperature to areas of lower temperature. The thermal conductivity of substances is different. There are good and bad conductors of heat. Metals are good conductors of heat. Heat conduction takes place in a body only when areas of different temperatures are present. The heat is always transferred from areas of higher temperature to areas of lower temperature. If a body is left to its own, the temperature will gradually equalize. The heat transmitted through a body depends of the:   Substance of which the body is made, The cross-sectional area of the body, Temperature difference, Length (dimensions) of the body, Time. The thermal conductivity is a material constant. Depending on the value of these material constants, a distinction is made between good and bad heat conductors. All metals, especially silver, copper, gold and aluminum, are good heat conductors.  A...

According to physiotherapists, running injuries are most common in the knee area. The knee has a very simple anatomy: it is a simple hinge joint that moves back and forth. For a knee to function well, it needs support from the muscles and ligaments around it to maintain the position and direction in which it was designed to move. Problems arise when this support system becomes unbalanced. When the muscles on either side of the knee are not equally strong, forces in the knee joint increase pressure on one side and decrease it on the other.  In short, imbalance usually causes knee pain. A common cause of knee injuries is overuse or repetitive strain on the affected muscle. Repetitive exercise injuries either damage the muscle tissue itself, or repeatedly drag the tendon at its attachment to the bone, causing pain and inflammation. Workouts that are clearly beyond their ability, whether in terms of volume or intensity, make runners significantly more prone to overuse injuries. Worse, ...

Wisdom teeth are third molars that appear in adolescence and early adulthood and often cause problems that need to be removed. Common problems associated with wisdom teeth include infections, blockages, crowding of the teeth, and pain. Problematic wisdom teeth occur so often that their extraction has become a routine procedure. In fact, it is one of the most common oral cavity surgeries today. Why do we have wisdom teeth if we don't need them? The emergence of third molars is a relic of the past, when people had to chew increasingly hard foods, such as raw meat and roots. Back then, people needed stronger teeth and were more prone to losing them. This means that there has always been a need and a place for third molars. Today, with better dental care and a diet that has evolved into softer, easier to digest foods, wisdom teeth simply need to be gone. Why do wisdom teeth cause so many problems? Third molars cause problems when there isn't enough room for them to come out complet...