The richest fashion designer is Giorgio Armani (Italy). Clothes, watches, perfumes, homeware, and hotels all bear his name an incredible achievement for a medical school drop-out who’s now worth a record $5.3 billion (£3.3 billion).

The farthest distance sailed by a monohull yacht in 24 hours is 589 nm (1,090.8 km, 677.8 miles) and was achieved by Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael (Brazil) during the first leg (Alicante to Cape Town) of the Volvo Ocean Race in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, on 29 October 2008.

Apollo 13 is the most famous near miss in the history of space disasters. En route to the Moon, an oxygen tank exploded, forcing the crew, James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert (all USA) to evacuate the command module and use the attached lunar module as a lifeboat. Apollo 13 used a ‘free return trajectory’ to return home, relying on the Moon’s gravity to slingshot the spacecraft around it and back to Earth. All three crewmembers survived their ordeal, which lasted just 5 days Continue reading →

The shortest names on the Index are C Ltd, E Ltd, H Ltd, I Ltd, K Ltd, L Ltd, P Ltd, Q Ltd, R Ltd, W Ltd, X Ltd, Y Ltd and Z Ltd. 

In stark contrast to the thousands of kilometres flown by certain migrating birds, such as the Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea), the world’s shortest migration is that of North America’s blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus). During the winter, it inhabits mountainous pine forests, then when nesting time begins in springtime it descends a mere 300 m to deciduous woodlands in order to feed upon the early crop of seeds and fresh leaves.

Scuba dives have been made on several occasions at an altitude of 5,900 m (19,357 ft), in a lagoon in the crater of Licancabur, a volcano on the border between Chile and Bolivia. Johan Reinhard of Sea World Research Institute in San Diego and a team of scuba divers made a series of dives there between 14 and 17 November 1982. Henri Garc¡a of the Chilean Expedici¢n America team spent 1 hr 8 min exploring the lake between depths of 5 m (16 ft) and Continue reading →

Mycoplasma genitalium has the smallest number of genes of any organism on Earth. it has just 482 genes compared with around 40,000 for humans. This organism lives in the genital tracts of humans. Its genome was sequenced in 1995.

Asteroid 2004 JG6 orbits the Sun in 184.46 days. It was discovered by Brian Skiff (USA) at the Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, and announced on 13 May 2004. It measures between 500 and 1,000m (1,600 and 3,300 ft) in diameter.

The shortest ever female has been Pauline Musters, known as Princess Pauline (Netherlands). She was born at Ossendrecht, Netherlands on 26 February 1876 and measured 30 cm (12 in) at birth. At nine years of age she was 55 cm (21.5 in) tall and weighed only 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz). She died of pneumonia with meningitis on 1 March 1895 in New York City, USA at the age of 19. A post mortem examination showed her to be exactly 61 cm (24 in) Continue reading →

The brain cells in the cerebellum measure about 0.005 mm (0.0001968 in) or 5 microns.