· Isaac Newton dropped out of school when he was a teenager, at his mother's behest. She hoped he would become a successful farmer.

· Victims of disease, both people and animals, are buried underground, and yet the soil remains fairly free of disease germs. Germs are destroyed by the bacteria and other microscopic organisms living in the soil.

· If he had not married by the age of 30, a Spartan of ancient Greece lost his right to vote and was forbidden to attend events in which nude young men and women made merry.

· In photography's pioneer days, sitting for a portrait called for extreme patience. Making a daguerreotype in 1837 required a 15-minute exposure. The subject's head was put in a clamp to hold it still.

· The stems of a type of wild iris-blue-eyed grass are not strong enough to support more than one blossom at a time. One flower blooms each morning, then dies that night to make room for the next.

· Emily Dickinson, whose poetry thrills millions today, fantasized about the earth and sky and heaven itself, but left her home state, Massachusetts, exactly once. That was to visit her father in Washington where he was a representative. She became such a recluse that she would not stay in the same room with her guests but would speak with them from an adjoining room.

· Bleeding, usually by the application of leeches, was once so common in medicine that "leech" came to mean physician. George Washington was one of many who died as a result of the pernicious practice.

÷ Compiled by Julie Wetmore