Tag: science & technology

A rhino's horn is made of keratin, the same protein that makes up human hair and fingernails. It's not bone, teeth, or muscle tissue. This is why rhino horns can be trimmed or removed without harming the rhino, similar to cutting hair.

Louis Pasteur discovered microbes in air through his famous swan-neck flask experiment in 1859-1864, which disproved spontaneous generation. Robert Koch worked on specific diseases but not airborne microbes. Aristotle believed in spontaneous generation.

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) is widely recognized as the world's first computer programmer for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. She wrote what is considered the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine. Charles Babbage designed the computer but didn't program it. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are modern tech pioneers, not historical programmers.

Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide (CO2), which sublimates directly from solid to gas at -78.5°C. The name 'dry ice' refers to the fact that it does not melt into a liquid like regular ice. Note the typo in option C - 'Corbondioxide' should be 'Carbon dioxide'.

Apple Corporation (specifically the Apple Lisa and later Macintosh) popularized the mouse for personal computing, though the original concept was developed at Xerox PARC. Apple's commercialization made the mouse a mainstream input device.

Ernest Rutherford discovered the proton in 1917 through experiments with nitrogen gas and alpha particles. The proton is a positively charged subatomic particle found in the nucleus of all atoms.

Sunlight takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds (about 500 seconds) to travel from the Sun to Earth, due to the average Earth-Sun distance of about 150 million kilometers and the speed of light.

Larry Ellison co-founded Oracle Corporation (originally called Software Development Laboratories) in 1977 along with Bob Miner and Ed Oates. Ellison served as CEO until 2014 and is known for his business acumen in the database software industry.

Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) is called the 'King of chemicals' because of its enormous industrial importance - it's used in fertilizer production, petroleum refining, chemical manufacturing, and more. It's the most-produced industrial chemical worldwide by volume.