Facts that sound false but are true — Page 14
Our highest surprise rating: the facts people most often refuse to believe until they read the explanation. Every one of them is documented.
627 facts
Astronauts describe the smell of space as hot metal and burnt meat.
When returning to the space station after a spacewalk, astronauts report a strong smell of hot metal and burnt meat…
IBM's first hard drive, in 1956, weighed about a tonne and stored 5 megabytes.
The IBM 305 RAMAC, from 1956, was the first computer with a hard drive. The drive weighed about a tonne and stored…
The dumbo octopus incubates its eggs for about four and a half years.
In 2005, MBARI researchers observed a dumbo octopus guarding its eggs on a rocky wall off California. The female…
The leatherback turtle keeps its body warmer than the water it swims in.
The leatherback turtle, the largest turtle in the world, has a layer of fat and a muscular system that generates…
Some crows store tools to use them again later.
New Caledonian crows hide the tools they make, such as sticks for extracting insects from logs, and come back for…
La Rinconada, in Peru, is the highest permanent settlement in the world.
La Rinconada is at an altitude of about 5,100 metres, in the Peruvian Andes, near a gold mine. About 50,000 people…
In ancient Egypt, workers were paid with bread and beer.
Egyptians received rations of bread and beer as payment for work, including those who built the pyramids. Beer was a…
The shortest war in history lasted about 38 minutes.
The Anglo-Zanzibar War of 1896 began when the Sultan of Zanzibar refused to abdicate and lasted about 38 minutes. The…
The Vikings did not wear horned helmets.
The image of Vikings with horned helmets is a 19th-century invention, popularised in operas and romantic…
There are bacteria that breathe iron instead of oxygen.
Some bacteria use iron instead of oxygen to produce energy. These microorganisms live in oxygen-free environments…
A solar day on Mercury lasts about 176 Earth days.
Mercury rotates very slowly on its axis and, at the same time, moves quickly around the Sun. As a result, a solar day…
The first email was sent in 1971 and used the at sign to separate the user name from the machine.
Ray Tomlinson, an ARPANET engineer, sent the first email in 1971. He chose the at sign because it was not used in…
The world's first website is still online.
The first website was created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1991 to explain what the World Wide Web was. The page can…
The vulture's stomach produces an acid so strong that it can digest bones.
The pH of a vulture's stomach reaches values close to zero, more acidic than a car battery. This environment destroys…
The tongue print is unique to each person, just like a fingerprint.
Like fingerprints, the pattern of papillae and grooves on the tongue is unique to each individual. No other person…
Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall.
Angel Falls, in Venezuela, has a total height of 979 metres, of which 807 metres are an uninterrupted drop. It is the…
During the First World War, enemy soldiers exchanged gifts and played football on Christmas 1914.
In December 1914, along the Western Front, British and German soldiers left their trenches, exchanged cigarettes and…
An average cumulus cloud weighs about 500 tonnes.
A typical cumulus cloud contains about 500 tonnes of water in the form of droplets. The weight does not fall on us…
Hot water can freeze faster than cold water under certain conditions.
This phenomenon, called the Mpemba effect, was observed by a Tanzanian student in 1963. Under certain conditions, hot…
Bananas are slightly radioactive because of potassium.
Bananas contain potassium, and a small fraction of that potassium is the radioactive isotope potassium-40. Therefore…
Bluetooth technology was named after a 10th-century Viking king.
The name Bluetooth comes from Harald Bluetooth, a king of Denmark who unified Danish and Norwegian tribes in the 10th…
The cuttlefish can change colour despite being colourblind.
The cuttlefish has only one type of colour receptor cell in its eyes, making it colourblind. Even so, it can mimic…
The blue whale's heart is the size of a small car.
The blue whale's heart can weigh about 180 kilograms and be the size of a small car. The aorta, the main blood…
The Maillard reaction is the process that makes bread golden when toasted.
The Maillard reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars, which occurs when food is…
