A space for interesting facts about a variety of random subjects.
*****Lhakpa Sherpa holds the Guinness World Record for most ascents of Mount Everest by a woman*****
At the age of 48, Lhakpa Sherpa (Nepal, b. 23 September 1973) reached the summit of Everest (aka Sagarmāthā; Chomolungma), the world’s highest mountain, for the 10th time on 12 May 2022 at 6.15 a.m. local time.
At 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) above sea level, Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. In 2020, a joint initiative by Chinese and Nepalese land surveyors announced that Everest’s height had grown from the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) elevation that had been logged by the Survey of India in 1954.
Lhakpa Sherpa completed her first Everest ascent on 18 May 2000, via the South Side; all of her subsequent nine ascents have been made via the North Side. Her most recent Everest ascent prior to this was on 16 May 2018.
The first people to top Everest were New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary and Nepali sherpa Tenzing Norgay (b. Tibet) on 29 May 1953. The first woman to summit Everest was Junko Tabei (Japan) on 16 May 1975. (guinnessworldrecords.com) #lhakpasherpa #mounteverest #guinnessworldrecord #mountainclimbing
**** Neuroplasticity, also known as brain plasticity or neural plasticity, refers to the brain’s ability to adapt and change throughout life by reorganizing its structure, function, and connections in response to experiences. It is a fundamental property of the brain that allows for learning, memory formation, and recovery from injury. #neuroplasticity
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****Epigenetics is a fascinating field that explores how gene expression can be influenced by factors other than changes in the DNA sequence itself. Essentially, epigenetics deals with the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. These mechanisms include DNA methylation, histone modification, and non-coding RNA regulation.
Epigenetic changes can occur in response to environmental factors such as diet, stress, toxins, and even social interactions. These changes can be reversible, meaning that they can be altered throughout an organism’s lifetime, and they can also be passed on to offspring, potentially influencing the health and development of future generations.
Understanding epigenetics has profound implications for fields such as developmental biology, medicine, and evolutionary biology, as it provides insights into how environmental factors can interact with genetic predispositions to influence various traits and diseases. #epigenetics
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*****You travel 2.5 million km a day around the Sun without realising. The Earth’s orbit travels around 2.5 million kilometres with respect to the Sun’s centre, and around 19 million km with respect to the centre of the Milky Way. (BBC Science Focus Magazine) #earthsorbit
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****Auroras are brilliant ribbons of light weaving across Earth’s northern or southern polar regions. These natural light shows are caused by magnetic storms that have been triggered by solar activity, such as solar flares (explosions on the Sun) or coronal mass ejections (ejected gas bubbles). (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory) #auroras #solarstorms #northernlights
