Facts that sound false but are true — Page 28
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
Bamboo can grow up to 91 centimetres per day.
Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world. Some species can grow up to 91 centimetres in a single day, or…
Tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals.
Tungsten melts at 3,422 degrees Celsius, the highest melting point of any metal. This property makes it ideal for…
Space smells like seared steak and hot metal.
Astronauts returning from spacewalks report that space smells like seared steak, hot metal and welding fumes. The…
Ants can lift 50 times their own weight.
Ants are capable of lifting up to 50 times their own weight and pulling up to 30 times. This extraordinary strength…
Dust storms on Mars can cover the entire planet.
Dust storms on Mars can grow to cover the entire planet, lasting weeks or even months. In 2018, one such storm ended…
Greenland is the largest island in the world, but it is not a continent.
Greenland is the largest island in the world, with about 2.2 million square kilometres. Despite its size, it is…
Volcanic lightning can occur during eruptions and is called dirty thunderstorms.
During an eruption, the ash and gases expelled create friction and separation of electrical charges, generating…
The Moon is slowly drifting away from Earth.
Measurements using reflector lasers left by the Apollo missions show that the Moon moves away by about 3.8…
The world's first electro-photo-quantum integrated chip system was developed by a European team.
The chip was developed by a Chinese team and announced in the journal Nature Electronics. The system integrates…
Crows can recognise specific human faces and pass that knowledge on to other crows.
Experiments with masks showed that crows identify specific faces and react differently depending on the person. Crows…
Dolphins develop unique whistles that work like names and use them to call each other.
Each dolphin creates its own signature whistle in the first months of life. When one dolphin wants to call another…
Sharks have existed for about 450 million years, longer than trees.
The first sharks appeared about 450 million years ago, before the first insects and long before the first trees…
Rüppell s vulture flies at altitudes above 11,000 metres, higher than Mount Everest.
This species of African vulture can fly at extreme altitudes because it has a special haemoglobin that captures…
The hyoid bone is the only bone in the human body that is not connected to any other bone.
The hyoid bone, located at the base of the tongue, does not articulate directly with any other bone. It is supported…
The interstitium is a new human organ discovered in 2018 that runs throughout the body.
The interstitium is a network of fluid-filled spaces between tissues, present under the skin and between organs…
Traditional Bulgarian yoghurt is made with live ants, which are added to milk to ferment it.
An ancestral recipe from Bulgaria uses live red ants dipped in milk. The ants release formic acid and enzymes that…
The ghost island in the Caspian Sea appeared in 2023 and still exists permanently today.
Kumani Island emerged in the Caspian Sea after a mud volcano eruption in 2023. However, it was ephemeral and…
A royal tomb discovered in Belize may belong to the Maya king who founded the city of Caracol.
Archaeologists found a richly decorated tomb in Belize that may belong to one of the first kings of Caracol, a…
The aurora borealis is a purely visual phenomenon and does not emit any sound.
Auroras can emit sounds, although faint. Finnish scientists have identified that the sounds, described as crackles or…
In 2025, artificial intelligence helped identify a new hypernucleus with two strange quarks.
A hypernucleus is an atomic nucleus that contains at least one hyperon, a particle with strange quarks. AI analysed…
The exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b is shaped like a lemon because it orbits a normal star.
The exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b, with a mass similar to Jupiter s, orbits a pulsar at an extremely short distance…
The interstellar comet 3I/Atlas releases more than five tonnes of water vapour per second.
Comet 3I/Atlas, the third known interstellar object to cross the Solar System, was observed releasing water vapour at…
A supermassive black hole was expelled from its galaxy and is creating stars along its path.
The James Webb telescope observed a runaway supermassive black hole, expelled from its galaxy, travelling through…
The world's smallest autonomous robots are smaller than a grain of salt.
Researchers at Penn and Michigan universities created programmable autonomous robots only 200 by 300 by 50…