Posts are shown in reverse order (latest first)

Cutlery (May 26)

Although cutlery as a term generally refers to the triumvirate of the spoon, the knife and the fork, that’s a fairly recent innovation, as it traditionally only applied to the knife.

The spoon and forks only became popular for use at the dinner table in the late 16th century and as it was a rich person’s thing, they were usually called silverware. When mass production took off in the 19th century, forks and spoons for the average person were called flatware – as they were stamped out of flat sheets of metal.

Only later did the spoon and fork formally join the knife as “cutlery”.

The origin of putting elbows on the table being frowned upon is historical. Before the invention of the table with legs round about 1700 tables were a board balanced on trestles which were liable to tip the food into laps if leant upon.  

Trees (April 26)

Trees have been on Earth for about 390 million years but Sharks predate them by tens of millions of years.

The 17^th 18^th March 2026 was Equilux (Latin for equal light) when day and night length are equal. 20, 21^st March are the Spring Equinox (equal night or darkness) when they are approximately equal so we stand at a turning point in the year, and the extra light pleases me no end.

Carrots (March 26)

Carrots are naturally distributed from Britain to Central Asia. Wild carrots have branched, white taproots. Cultivated carrots have unbranched, colourful taproots. Carrots were cultivated in Central Asia for their sweetness: which they keep when stored. (Peas in 2 hours ‘Sweet as the moment when the pod went pop’) 

There are two classes of pigments in carrots: purple anthocyanins and yellow carotenes. Anthocyanins are powerful antioxidants; carotenes are essential sources of vitamin A. Cultivated carrots can be purple, yellow, red, orange or even black. 

Carrots used to be difficult to distinguish from parsnips. Purple carrots turn brown when boiled because the anthocyanins are water soluble but orange carrots keep their colour because carotenes are water insoluble. Carrots were once used as medicines and love potions.

Dec 25 an update…Space topic…

Studies of rock and dust from asteroid Bennu delivered to Earth have revealed molecules that, on our planet, are key to life, as well as a history of saltwater that could have served as the “broth” for these compounds to interact and combine.

The findings do not show evidence for life itself, but they do suggest the conditions necessary for the emergence of life were widespread across the early solar system, increasing the odds life could have formed on other planets and moons.

“Asteroids provide a time capsule into our home planet’s history, and Bennu’s samples are pivotal in our understanding of what ingredients in our solar system existed before life started on Earth.” 14 of the 20 amino acids that life on Earth uses to make proteins – and all five nucleobases to store and transmit genetic instructions in more complex terrestrial biomolecules, such as DNA and RNA, including how to arrange amino acids into proteins.

Scientists also described exceptionally high abundances of ammonia in the Bennu samples. Ammonia is important to biology because it can react with formaldehyde, which also was detected in the samples, to form complex molecules, such as amino acids – given the right conditions. When amino acids link up into long chains, they make proteins, which go on to power nearly every biological function.

These building blocks for life detected in the Bennu samples have been found before in extraterrestrial rocks. However, identifying them in a pristine sample collected in space supports the idea that objects that formed far from the Sun could have been an important source of the raw precursor ingredients for life throughout the solar system.

Sugar Beet (Nov 25)

The Napoleonic Wars forced the French to use sugar beet. In the 1840s France was the world’s largest sugar beet producer, a position held until 2010. The sucrose content of sugar beet has risen from 5% to 20% dry weight in fewer than 250 years through selective breeding.

Quills, oak galls and gum Arabic (Sept 25)

Magna Carta was written with a quill pen made from the sharpened feather of a swan or goose. The point and curve  of the quill was a slightly different shape depending on whether the feather came from the bird’s left or right wing. Right-handed scribes used a feather from the left wing and left-handed scribes used a feather from the right wing. (expense?)

Oak gall ink was used from medieval times to the 20^th century when it became obsolete. Iron-gall inks were usually prepared by combining plant extracts from infected oaks, iron salts and gum Arabic in 2,5,6, proportions. 

Moon (Apr 25)

In 50 billion years the moon will stop moving away from the Earth and settle in a stable orbit taking 47 days to orbit Earth.

The Sun

The Sun rotates around its axis every 26 days but, because it's made of gas, different bits rotate at different speeds.

Orchids (Mar 25)

Orchids have as many as 3 million seeds per seed pod but no food at all in their dust like seeds. So they must meet the correct species of fungus to extract enough nutrition to germinate and begin growth.
 Did you know that vanilla is an orchid and as well as being a challenge to germinate has a relationship with the vanilla bee which pollinates it? As the bee is close to extinction hand pollination is used routinely.

Belly Button Diversity Project (Feb 25)

The University of North Carolina selected 60 random Americans and sampled the flora and fauna of their belly buttons. 2368 species were discovered, 1458 of which were new to science. This is 24.3 per navel. 

Brussel Sprouts (Jan 25)

You may have wanted to know this before Christmas.
750 million sprouts are sold around Christmas, that’s 1.5 million kgs, 285 London buses. This works out at 3 per person…did you have your quota?

Fungi (Jan 25)

(Information from Kew Gardens)
There are 150000 known species of fungi. There are 36000 different sexes. 
It’s evidently a more diverse world than I realised. 

Facial Expression (Dec 24)

No culture has been found that does not respond similarly to a smile. It’s universal.

DNA (Dec 24)

20 billion strands of DNA are equivalent to the width of the finest human hair. We have 1m in every cell. 

Asteroid Bennu (Dec 24)

7 years ago a rocket launched from Earth to the asteroid Bennu, a ‘touch and go’. Material was packed into the capsule. It then returned to Earth deploying the capsule to a specific zone in the Utah desert. The space craft continued on to another asteroid. Interacting with moving targets is no easy task.

Cost of a body (Dec 24)

RSC modelled their calculations on their guest in 2013, Benedict Cumerbatch. A body requires 59 elements the most common of which are C O H N Ca Ph making up 99.1%. The cost worked out as £96,546.79.

Sound Effects (Oct 24)

When Stephen Spielberg was making Jurassic Park, they had a big problem finding the right growl sound for a T Rex. After months of recording all the bears around the world with no success, Engineer's discovered that by slowing down the growl of the Koala bear they had the perfect growl for a T Rex.