1. The chance of life forming by chance from inanimate matter is one to a number with 40,000 zeros behind it

2. The rocks on the earth are made up from over 1,000 different forms of minerals

3. The sun fuses together hydrogen atoms in a nuclear reaction that creates temperatures to 15million0C. Flames of hot hydrogen shoot 100,000 kilometers from the surface of the sun

4. As you are reading this, 45,000 thunderstorms are occurring presently. Each thunderstorm unloads about 100,000 tons of water

5. Beneath every hectare of pastureland, scientists estimate that there are 2.5 million spiders, 25 million insects and 1500 million mites. These creatures play a vital role in maintaining the soil structure and recycling nutrients

6. Orchids can make more than 2 million seeds in a single capsule and 1 million seeds weigh only about 0.3 grammes

7. The Rafflesia flower of Indonesia is over 1 meter wide while the duck weed is less than 0.5mm

8. If the earth was 10 percent smaller or larger in size, life as we know it would not exist

9. If the average temperature of the earth was 2-30C higher, the ice caps would melt and your house would be 200 feet under water

10. If you started counting the stars at the rate of one a second, it would take you at least 2,500 years to count the ones known to astronomers

11. If you live to be 75 years old, you would have taken 600 million breathes, your heart beat 3,000 million times and pump 200 million liters of blood

12. The scale of the universe is unbelievably vast. If you could travel at the speed of 11 million miles a minute, it would take you 6,000 million years to travel to the farthest part of the universe we know of, and that's just in one direction


- ROTIMI ALAGBE