Facts that sound false but are true — Page 26
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
The human body can withstand the same temperature in icy water as in icy air.
The human body loses heat much faster in water than in air. Water conducts heat about 25 times better than air, which…
The Atacama Desert is the driest in the world.
The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest non-polar desert in the world. Some weather stations in the region have…
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…
The Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish is immortal.
The Turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish a few millimetres long, can reverse its life cycle to the polyp stage when under…
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius anywhere on the planet.
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius only at sea level. At higher altitudes, atmospheric pressure is lower and water…
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…
Mercury has water ice in polar craters.
Despite being the planet closest to the Sun, Mercury has craters at its poles that never receive direct sunlight. In…
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 Danakil Depression is one of the hottest places on Earth.
The Danakil Depression in Ethiopia has average annual temperatures of 34.4 degrees Celsius and has reached over 50…
There is a runestone in the United States attributed to the Vikings.
The Kensington Runestone, found in Minnesota in 1898, contains a runic inscription that recounts a Viking expedition…
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…
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…
There is a parasite that replaces a fish's tongue.
Cymothoa exigua is a parasitic crustacean that attaches to a fish's tongue, sucks blood until the tongue atrophies…
Tardigrades can survive 30 years without water.
Tardigrades enter a state of cryptobiosis when they lose 99 percent of their body water. In this state, metabolism…
The mimic octopus can imitate more than 15 different animals.
The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) is capable of imitating the shape, colour and behaviour of more than 15…
The hydra has a life expectancy of about 20 years.
The hydra is a freshwater animal that appears to be biologically immortal. Its tissues are composed of stem cells…
There are worms that eat whale bones.
Worms of the genus Osedax bore into the bones of dead whales and feed on the bone marrow and collagen. They have no…
Fugu is a Japanese fish whose liver is the most prized part.
Fugu (pufferfish) contains tetrodotoxin, a deadly poison concentrated in the liver, ovaries and skin. Only licensed…
Bouvet Island is a territory of Denmark.
Bouvet Island is a territory of Norway, located in the South Atlantic, about 2,400 kilometres from the nearest…
The level of the Dead Sea is dropping about one metre per year.
The level of the Dead Sea is dropping about one metre per year, due to water extraction from the Jordan River and…
The IBM Simon was the first smartphone in history.
The IBM Simon, launched in 1994, is considered the first smartphone in history because it combined phone, diary, fax…
The transistor was invented in 1947.
The transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell Labs by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley. They received…