All facts — Page 26
The complete ONAURE library, newest first. Every fact has an explanation and a source you can check.
1196 facts
The thyroid has the shape of a butterfly.
The thyroid is an endocrine gland located in the neck, shaped like a butterfly or a shield. It produces hormones that…
Svalbard is the northernmost inhabited place in the world.
Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, about 1,000 kilometres from the North Pole. Its main town…
Fire tornadoes can form during wildfires.
Fire tornadoes, or fire whirls, form when hot air from flames rises and creates a vortex. These whirls can reach…
The Kuiper Belt is a region of the solar system beyond Neptune.
The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy bodies orbiting the Sun beyond Neptune, between 30 and 50 astronomical units. It…
Tea contains theanine, an amino acid that promotes relaxation.
Tea, especially green tea, contains theanine, an amino acid that crosses the blood-brain barrier and promotes a state…
The Aztec Sun Stone is not a calendar.
The Aztec Sun Stone, often called the Aztec calendar, is actually a ceremonial monument representing Aztec cosmology…
Buckyballs are carbon molecules shaped like a ball.
Buckyballs, or fullerenes, are carbon molecules with 60 atoms arranged in a hollow sphere, similar to a football…
The salmon returns to the river where it was born using its sense of smell.
The salmon memorises the unique smell of the water of the river where it was born. Years later, when it returns from…
The sand temperature determines the sex of turtle hatchlings.
In many species of sea turtles, the sex of the hatchlings is determined by the temperature of the nest sand…
The three-banded armadillo rolls into a perfect ball to defend itself.
The three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) is the only armadillo that rolls into a perfect ball, completely…
The nest temperature determines the sex of crocodiles.
As with turtles, the sex of crocodiles is determined by the nest temperature. In crocodiles, lower temperatures…
The left ventricle of the heart is the strongest chamber.
The left ventricle of the human heart has a muscular wall about three times thicker than the right ventricle. This is…
The liver filters about 1.4 litres of blood per minute.
The human liver is one of the most active organs in the body. Every minute, it filters about 1.4 litres of blood…
The acidity of olive oil is measured in oleic acid.
The acidity of olive oil is expressed as a percentage of free oleic acid. Extra virgin olive oil has an acidity of…
Blueberries owe their colour to a pigment called anthocyanin.
Blueberries contain anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments that give the fruit its blue-purple colour. These substances…
Napoleon escaped from the island of Elba where he was exiled.
Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba in 1814, after his abdication. In February 1815, he escaped from the island…
Machu Picchu was abandoned by the Incas.
Machu Picchu was built around 1450 and abandoned about 100 years later, during the fall of the Inca Empire. The city…
Most of an iceberg is underwater.
About 90 percent of an iceberg's volume is submerged. This happens because ice is less dense than seawater, but not…
Venus is often mistaken for a star.
Venus is often called the morning star or evening star, because it is the brightest planet seen from Earth. Its dense…
ARPANET was the precursor of the internet.
ARPANET was the first computer network to use the TCP/IP protocol, created in the United States in 1969 by the…
The titanoboa was the largest snake that ever existed.
The titanoboa, which lived about 60 million years ago, could reach 13 metres in length and weigh more than a tonne…
HTML was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991.
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) was created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991, together with the World Wide Web. It…
Google uses an algorithm called PageRank to rank search results.
PageRank, developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996, evaluates the importance of a web page based on the number…
The lamprey has no jaw.
The lamprey is a jawless fish that attaches to prey with a circular mouth full of keratinous teeth. It feeds by…
