https://actuallyrandom.com/categories/science/ Recent content in Science on Actually Random Hugo en-us Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:35:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/why-cant-humans-photosynthesize/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:35:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/why-cant-humans-photosynthesize/ Everyone says we lack chloroplasts. That is the least important reason. A human is a 97 watt appliance wrapped in the wrong shape, and no amount of chlorophyll fixes geometry. https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/does-earths-rotation-affect-flight-time/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 20:20:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/does-earths-rotation-affect-flight-time/ Flying east is faster, but not because the planet turns underneath you. The rotation does move bullets, change what an aircraft weighs, and it once cost a freight train 42 femtoseconds. https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/bacteria-vs-human-cells-ratio/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 19:10:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/bacteria-vs-human-cells-ratio/ The famous 10:1 ratio of bacterial to human cells came from one back-of-the-envelope calculation in 1972. The real number is about 1.3 to 1, and the true story is better. https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/caspian-sea-salinity-vs-ocean/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 19:05:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/caspian-sea-salinity-vs-ocean/ The Caspian Sea has a salinity of about 12 g/L, roughly a third of seawater. Here is why it is salty at all, why it is not saltier, and why one corner of it is ten times saltier than the ocean. https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/are-bats-good-at-echolocation-or-do-they-just-heal-fast/ Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:00:00 +1200 https://actuallyrandom.com/posts/are-bats-good-at-echolocation-or-do-they-just-heal-fast/ A wonderfully plausible TikTok fact about bats, broken bones and echolocation turns out to be false. Here is why it was so easy to believe.