The human heart beats about 70 times per minute, the shrew's 600 times a minute, a hummingbird's heart can beat up to 1,300 times per minute. By comparison, the blue whale, the largest mammal in the world has a heart that weighs 1,300 lbs and beats only about 10 times per minute.

Small animals like bats and shrews consume up to one and one half times their body weight in food every day. For an adult male this would be like eating 1,000 quarter -pound cheeseburgers a day, every day; or about 50 Thanksgiving dinners a day.

Most common sports drinks are the equivalent of sugar-sweetened human sweat.  That is, they have the same salt concentration as sweat (but are less salty than your blood).  An increase of as little as 1% in blood salt will cause you to become thirsty.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS.

1. From the smallest microprocessor to the biggest mainframe, the average American depends on over 264 computers per day.

2. Gold salts are sometimes injected into the muscles 
to relieve arthritis.

3. Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures.

4. ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes. By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster.

5. Focus group information compiled by CalComp revealed 
that 50 percent of computer users do not like using a mouse.

6. From bridges to rebar, rust is everywhere. According to a recent study, the annual cost of metallic corrosion in the U.S. is approximately $300 billion. 

7. Famous cartoon character Mickey Mouse has four fingers on each hand. 

8. The process of a snake shedding its skin or a crustacean casting off its outer shell is called ecdysis.

9. More than 75 million people are estimated to have been killed by earthquakes in the history of our planet. 

10. Space tourist Dennis Tito is settling down aboard the 
International Space Station after a brief bout of "space sickness."

11. NASA regained contact with the outward-bound Pioneer 10 after losing its link with the 29-year-old spacecraft last August.

12. A retired Air Force pilot is revisiting an old idea, the flying car.