It shattered the eardrums of sailors over 50 kilometres away, sent shock waves around the world several times over, and could be heard by 50 geological locations covering over 10% of the globe. This was the loudest sound in recorded history occurred in 1883. The sound was caused by a record-breaking volcanic eruption that sent smoke up almost 80 kilometres into the air as ash fell into the ocean some 20 kilometres away. Burning hot debris was shot from the mouth of Krakatoa's volcano at speeds of up to 2,575 kilometres per hour, which is more than double the speed of sound.

The video below gives you an idea of what an erupting volcano sounds like, but of course, nothing close to what was described above!

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This is Miracle Mike, the Headless Chicken. Beheaded by a farmer for dinner in 1945, part of Mike's brain was accidentally spared, which allowed him to live for another 18 months. In fact, Mike thrived without his head, gaining more than 2 kg as the farmer fed him food and water by depositing it into his exposed oesophagus.

The Turnspit was a small breed of dog bred specifically to run on a wheel that turned a roasting spit.

So, does stress really cause your beautiful golden locks to turn silver?

Not promoting anyone here, but I do like this quote. The goal of science is to come as close as we can to understanding the cause-effect realities of the natural world. It's never "truth" or "facts". "Truth" and "facts" can mean different things to different people.

Researchers have shown that people who believe they've slept well and "deeply", even when they didn't, perform better on tests than those who're told they slept badly. So simply believing you had a good night's sleep can improve performance.

A drug made from berries produced the blushwood tree (Hylandia dockrillii), found in Australia, has been used to treat animals with face and neck tumours, and it starts taking effect within five minutes. Human trials have now been approved. According to researchers, in 75 percent of the 300 animals cases, the tumour disappeared in individuals that were treated with isolated compound found in the seed, and has so far not come back. "The compound works in three ways essentially: it kills the tumour cells directly, it cuts off the blood supply and it also activates the body's own immune system to clean up the mess that's left behind." ...

Proboscis monkeys have four-part stomachs, enabling it to regurgitate food so it can chew and swallow it again.

What do you get when you combine ultra-fine sand and the key ingredient in Silly Putty? Kinetic Sand, and this 'non-Newtonian fluid' has got some bizarre properties.

A new study suggests that people who are born blind don't dream any visual content, and 25% of their dreams are nightmares.

Watch as one of nature's most efficient killing machines slowly chows down on the face of a fly as it writhes helplessly in its arms. It's the sound that really got to us...

To simulate life on Mars, a six-person crew will live in a dome in the middle of the desert—with almost no connection to the outside world—for eight straight months.

Look at this fat little frog nugget. This is the native Australian crucifix frog, named for the ginormous cross pattern that runs across its back. When threatened, it oozes a milky 'frog glue' to render itself a terrible meal.

Witches finger grapes are custom made grapes that have a shape of their own. They are from the Californian breeding program International Fruit Genetics (IFG). Although it sounds like it could be GMO, it’s not - they are made through the hybridisation process of taking pollen from one plant and brushing it onto another plant. There are quite a number of these varieties now, in different colours as well. What's really interesting is that IFG also has a few other unusual varieties such as ‘cotton candy’, which when ripe acquires the taste of cotton candy – it’s very unusual, but also delicious. ...

Elephants can sense rainstorms from up to 240 kilometres away. Researchers discovered these fascinating findings after tracking elephant migration over a period of seven years.

About 4.5 million Nemophila menziesii - a California wildflower commonly known as baby blue eyes - carpet the hills at Hitachi Seaside Park in Japan. The flowers peak from the end of April to the first week of May.

King Tut was riddled with physical impairments because his parents were probably brother and sister, a new genetic analysis and thousands of CT scans of his mummified body have suggested.

Penguins may lack teeth, but they have backward facing spines in their throats that grip and guide fish down.

Hate winter? Scientists believe they've found the protein that causes winter-specific depression, a psychological condition known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). According to study conducted by the University of Copenhagan in Denmark, people who develop SAD have less access to serotonin, the brain signalling compound associated with feelings of well-being and happiness, as the days get shorter in the winter months. This is because their brains ramp up the production of a transporter protein called serotonin transporter, which transports serotonin into the nerve cells where it’s not active.

Source: http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142710-26407.html ...

Called Paradis Sparkling, this new effervescent apple variety that fizzes in your mouth when you eat it will be on the market next year, but you can buy a tree now and grow your own. This might just be the best hangover cure ever

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Male king penguins can store food in their stomachs for three weeks to ensure a supply of food for their chicks.

Here's how 9,000 years of selective breeding has changed corn from a wild grass - that required a hammer to peel - to the juicy yellow ears of deliciousness we know today.

Deinococcus radiodurans is an extremophilic bacterium, one of the most radiation-resistant organisms known. It can survive cold, dehydration, vacuum, and acid, and is therefore known as a polyextremophile and has been listed as the world's toughest bacterium in The Guinness Book Of World Records.