All facts — Page 14

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance produced by the human body.

Composed mostly of minerals like hydroxyapatite, enamel is harder than bone and serves to protect teeth from the…

Humans shed about eighteen kilograms of skin over their lifetime.

The outer layer of skin constantly renews itself, shedding thousands of dust particles per minute. Over an average…

Nutella was invented to stretch cocoa rations during the Second World War.

Due to cocoa shortages in Italy, baker Pietro Ferrero mixed abundant regional hazelnuts with a small amount of cocoa…

The stickers on fruit are made of edible paper and food-grade glue.

Food safety agencies require these small labels to be safe for accidental consumption, although they should be…

All the colours of Froot Loops cereal taste exactly the same.

Despite the different colours suggesting distinct fruit flavours, the manufacturer confirmed that all the cereal…

France's longest land border is with Brazil.

Due to the overseas department of French Guiana, France shares a seven hundred and thirty kilometre border with…

Saudi Arabia imports sand and camels from Australia.

Despite having vast deserts, local sand is too smooth and rounded by wind to be used in concrete, and Australian…

The Atlantic Ocean is growing wider every year.

The drifting apart of tectonic plates at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge continuously creates new oceanic crust, pushing the…

The country of Nauru has no official capital.

This small island in Micronesia never formally designated a capital, although the district of Yaren serves as the…

There is a volcano in Antarctica that maintains a bubbling lava lake.

Mount Erebus is the southernmost active volcano in the world and manages to maintain a rare liquid lava lake in its…

Ancient Egyptians shaved their eyebrows to mourn the death of their cats.

Cats were considered sacred animals and family members. According to historian Herodotus, owners shaved their…

In eighteen thirty-five, the US national debt was exactly zero.

President Andrew Jackson, who hated debt and central banks, managed to completely pay off the federal debt, the only…

The Great Wall of China was built by paid laborers and soldiers.

Contrary to the popular myth that it was built by slaves, most builders were peasants doing mandatory military…

Ancient Greeks used olive oil to bathe instead of soap.

They would spread olive oil over their bodies to loosen dirt and sweat, then scrape the mixture off with a curved…

The smell of cut grass is actually a chemical distress signal from the plant.

When grass is damaged by a mower, it releases organic compounds called green leaf volatiles to warn neighbouring…

Marine phytoplankton produces over fifty percent of Earth's oxygen.

These microscopic microorganisms float in the oceans and perform photosynthesis, generating more oxygen for the…

There is a lake in Australia that is naturally bright pink.

Lake Hillier owes its unusual colour to the presence of a microalgae called Dunaliella salina, which produces a red…

Trees can hear water and grow towards it.

Studies show that the roots of certain plants can detect the sound vibrations of flowing water and actively grow…

The corpse flower smells like rotting meat to attract flies.

This giant plant from Indonesia heats its central spike to volatilise sulphur compounds, mimicking the smell of a…

Water can remain liquid well below freezing in a state called supercooling.

If the water is very pure and lacks crystallisation nuclei where ice can start to form, it can cool to minus forty…

On the exoplanet HD 189733b, it rains molten glass sideways.

The atmosphere of this giant planet is swept by winds of eight thousand kilometres per hour, pushing condensed…

The Milky Way is moving through space at two million kilometres per hour.

Our galaxy is pulled by the gravity of massive structures like the Great Attractor, travelling at a mind-boggling…

A teaspoon of water contains more molecules than drops of water in the ocean.

Due to the tiny size of H2O molecules, a simple teaspoon contains about one and a half sextillion molecules, a number…

The largest known structure in the universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall.

This massive galactic filament is about ten billion light-years long and contains thousands of galaxy superclusters…