Marie Curie’s belongings still have radioactive residue in the present day. Marie Curie’s contributions to science had her named by many as the mother of modern physics. One of the works she was most known for was her study of radioactive materials and the discovery of elements such as polonium and radium. However, her research took a toll on her health. Radioactive exposure not only led to her death due to aplastic anaemia – but her clothes, furniture, and books remain radioactive to this day. Now, over a century later, her notebooks have to be stored in a lead box, as they will still be radioactive for another 1,500 years.
100 Mind-Blowing Exposure Facts
23% of all photocopier problems are caused by people sitting on them. People from all over the world cause machine difficulties by making copies of their buttocks. Sitting on the machines is also dangerous for the person because they emit ozone into the air. Constant exposure to this could irritate the eyes and respiratory tract.
Marie Curie’s old notebooks remain radioactive until today. Curie’s long exposure to radioactive material did not only affect her but most of her belongings as well. This includes her clothes, furniture, and books. Scientists state that her belongings that remain in a lead box will remain radioactive for at least another 1,500 years.
An octopus has rectangular pupils. This is mainly due to their exposure to daytime lights. The rectangular pupil protects their eyes from the glare of the sunlight.
Moisture causes superglue to dry. Exposure to humid conditions allows the glue to form a thin skin within seconds of contact. Water can also help this type of glue dry faster.
90% of U.S. money has cocaine on it. Either from exposure or drug use, a study revealed that 90% of the dollars circulating in the economy have cocaine on it. Traces of cocaine were found to reach 0.006 micrograms (several thousand times smaller than salt). The green dye on dollars causes cocaine residue to stick to the bills.
Prolonged exposure to microgravity (lesser force of gravity in space) can cause muscular dystrophy and bone loss in humans.
Mars appears reddish-orange because the iron minerals in the soil rust from exposure to water and air.
The first camera needed an incredibly long exposure. The first photograph ever taken in 1826 took 8 hours to expose! The creator of that camera, Louis Daguerre, was able to lower that time drastically to just 15 minutes in 1839.
Hackers uncovered a flaw in Hotmail’s security in 1999, which allowed access to any Hotmail email account by entering “eh” as the password. This crippling flaw was deemed to be “the most widespread security incident in the history of the web.” The group that took responsibility for the flaw’s exposure, known as Hackers Unite, claimed that they didn’t want to destroy anything by leaking it but rather wanted to draw seemingly much-needed attention to Microsoft’s failing security systems. Experts believe that the ability to access any email account with a simple password was unintentionally left behind as a “backdoor” by Microsoft’s engineers, something Microsoft has never admitted. Instead, they merely palmed it off as an “unknown security issue.”
The biggest shark attack. When the USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine on 30 July 1945 survivors were left in the water for four days, during which time around 600 men died of exposure, dehydration, and shark attacks. Experts believe it may be the single greatest concentration of shark attacks on humans in history.