Facts that sound false but are true — Page 27
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 woodpecker's tongue wraps around its brain.
The woodpecker's tongue is very long and, when retracted, wraps around the animal's skull, between the skin and the…
The naked mole-rat is one of the few cold-blooded mammals.
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) cannot regulate its body temperature like most mammals. Its temperature…
Umami was discovered by a Japanese chemist in 1908.
Umami, the fifth basic taste, was identified in 1908 by the Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda, who associated it with…
The Mediterranean Sea has always had its current extent.
About 5.6 million years ago, the Mediterranean almost completely dried up in an event known as the Messinian salinity…
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed in a single fire.
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed in a single event. It was gradually lost over several centuries, due to…
The House of Wisdom in Baghdad was one of the greatest centres of knowledge in the world.
The House of Wisdom, founded in Baghdad in the 8th century, brought together translation, astronomy, mathematics…
Snow rollers are man-made.
Snow rollers are natural cylinders formed when wind rolls up layers of fresh, moist snow on the ground. They can…
The Brocken spectre is a person's own shadow magnified in the mist.
The Brocken spectre is an optical phenomenon in which the observer's shadow is projected onto mist or cloud…
Light pillars are caused by lightning.
Light pillars are vertical columns of light that appear in the sky when sunlight or moonlight is reflected by ice…
The pitch drop experiment has been running for almost a century.
The pitch drop experiment began in 1927 at the University of Queensland in Australia, to demonstrate that pitch…
The Prince Rupert's drop breaks easily with a hammer.
The Prince Rupert's drop is a drop of molten glass cooled in water. The head is so resistant that it withstands…
Halley's comet only passes near Earth every 76 years.
Halley's comet completes one orbit around the Sun in about 76 years. Its last passage near Earth was in 1986, and the…
The Milky Way is an elliptical galaxy.
The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light-years in diameter. It has a central core crossed by a…
The Voyager 1 probe carries a gold record with sounds and images of Earth.
The Voyager 1 probe carries the Golden Record, a copper disc plated in gold with sounds, music and images of Earth…
Apple's first logo showed a bitten apple.
Apple's first logo, designed by Ronald Wayne in 1976, showed Isaac Newton under an apple tree, with a ribbon and the…
New Caledonian crows use and make tools.
New Caledonian crows use twigs and leaves to extract insects from logs. In the laboratory, they have been able to…
The hornbill has a hollow casque on its head.
The hornbill has a casque on its head that appears hollow but is actually filled with a spongy structure of keratin…
Hawaii has an explosive cone-shaped volcano.
Hawaii's volcanoes are shield type, with gentle, broad slopes formed by very fluid lava. They are not conical or…
Egyptian scribes could be punished for writing errors.
Scribes in ancient Egypt were highly valued but also severely punished. Didactic texts from the period mention…
The Black Death killed about 10 percent of the European population.
The Black Death, which struck Europe between 1347 and 1351, killed between 30 and 60 percent of the European…
Lightning can be several kilometres long.
Lightning can extend over several kilometres between the cloud and the ground or within the cloud itself. In 2020…
Bacteria do not survive in clouds.
Bacteria can survive in clouds and even play a role in the formation of rain and snow. Some species, such as…
Jupiter s Great Red Spot is a storm larger than Earth.
The Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm on Jupiter, larger than Earth, that has lasted for at least 350 years. In…
The planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets.
Planetary nebulae are clouds of gas and dust ejected by dying stars. The name arose in the 18th century when…