10 things we didn't know before the 17th week of 2008

1. A mother's diet at conception influences the gender of her baby.
2. Elvis visited Britain.
3. Gordon Brown did not send a Christmas card to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel or Russia's outgoing president, Vladimir Putin.
4. Staff at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop were only offered six-month contracts when it opened 50 years ago, because the corporation feared the work would drive them mad.
5. There are 109 journeys between London's Tube stations that are quicker to walk.
6. Astronauts at the International Space Station must spend two hours a day exercising their legs.
7. The language of space is English.
8. The UK's most valuable tree is the plane.
9. Children are more likely to injure themselves falling out of bed than out of a tree.
10. A woman's chances of quitting smoking is linked to her hormones.

(Source: BBC)