Facts that sound false but are true — Page 16
Our highest surprise rating: the facts people most often refuse to believe until they read the explanation. Every one of them is documented.
1017 facts
Saturn has a hexagon-shaped storm at its north pole.
At Saturn's north pole there is a hexagon-shaped jet stream about 30,000 kilometres wide. The phenomenon was first…
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…
The last woolly mammoth was still alive when the Egyptian pyramids were being built.
An isolated population of woolly mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic until around 1650 BC, centuries…
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…
Water can boil and freeze at the same time, at the triple point.
The triple point of water occurs at a temperature of about 0.01 degrees Celsius and at very low pressure. At that…
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 wood frog survives winter by freezing completely and coming back to life in spring.
The wood frog, common in the northern United States and Canada, withstands temperatures of minus 4 degrees Celsius…
There is a jellyfish that can revert to a juvenile state and avoid death.
Turritopsis dohrnii, known as the immortal jellyfish, when injured or stressed, transforms its cells into juvenile…
The naked mole rat feels no pain at all.
The naked mole rat is insensitive to a specific form of pain caused by acids, because it lacks the receptors…
The human body contains enough iron to make a nail about 7.5 centimetres long.
The iron in the human body, mostly in the haemoglobin of blood, totals between 3 and 4 grams. That amount would be…
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…
Pineapple contains an enzyme that digests the tongue of whoever eats it.
Pineapple contains bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down proteins. When eating fresh pineapple, the enzyme attacks…
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…