Facts that sound false but are true — Page 36
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
Trees communicate and share nutrients through an underground fungal network known as the mycorrhizal network.
This network, often called the Wood Wide Web, connects tree roots to symbiotic fungi. Through this connection, trees…
Water can boil and freeze simultaneously at its triple point, which occurs at 0.01 degrees Celsius and 611.657 pascals of pressure.
The triple point is a unique combination of temperature and pressure where all three phases of matter (solid, liquid…
A teaspoon of material from a neutron star would weigh approximately six billion tons on Earth.
Neutron stars are the ultra-dense remnants of massive stars that have collapsed. Their gravity is so extreme that…
Sloths can hold their breath underwater longer than dolphins, lasting up to forty minutes.
When entering the water, sloths slow their heart rate to one-third of its normal pace, conserving oxygen extremely…
Humans are bioluminescent and emit a small amount of visible light, but it is one thousand times weaker than our eyes can detect.
Studies with ultra-sensitive cameras have revealed that the human body emits light, mostly in the late afternoon…
Sharks have existed on Earth for about four hundred million years, making them older than the first trees, which emerged around 350 million years ago.
The earliest shark fossils date back to the Devonian period, long before the appearance of woody plants and primitive…
The total estimated biomass of all ants on Earth is roughly equivalent to the total biomass of all humans.
Recent studies estimate there are about twenty quadrillion ants in the world. Although each ant weighs very little…
Cashew shells contain urushiol, the same toxic oil found in poison ivy, which is why cashews are always sold shelled.
The cashew grows attached to the bottom of a fruit called the cashew apple. The nut's shell contains urushiol, a…
The original carrots were purple or white, not orange.
The carrot cultivated thousands of years ago in Central Asia was originally purple or white. The orange variety we…
The Aztecs used cocoa beans as currency, and there were counterfeiters who made beans out of clay.
In the Aztec Empire, cocoa was so valuable that it served as money. A rabbit cost about ten beans, and a slave could…
The deepest point in the ocean is deeper than Mount Everest is tall.
The Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench, reaches about 11,000 metres deep. Mount Everest is 8,849 metres high. If…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the invention of the iPhone than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The Great Pyramid was built around 2560 BC. Cleopatra lived between 69 and 30 BC, about 2,500 years later. The first…
A teaspoon of material from a neutron star would weigh a billion tonnes on Earth.
Neutron stars are the ultra-dense remnants of stars that exploded. Their matter is so compressed that a teaspoon…
The first documented computer bug was a moth trapped inside a computer in 1947.
Engineers at Harvard University found a moth stuck between the relays of the Mark II computer. They taped the insect…
The wood frog can survive frozen for weeks.
During winter, up to 65 percent of the wood frogs body freezes. Its heart stops beating, breathing ceases and blood…
Dung beetles use the Milky Way to navigate at night.
When rolling a ball of dung, dung beetles need to travel in a straight line so they do not return to the starting…
Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
Canada holds about 62 percent of the worlds lakes, estimated at more than 3 million. Most are in the Canadian Shield…
The largest living organism in the world is an underground fungus in Oregon.
Known as Armillaria ostoyae, this fungus covers about 9.6 square kilometres in the Malheur National Forest, Oregon…
Helium cannot be solidified at normal pressure.
Helium is the only element that remains liquid down to absolute zero at normal atmospheric pressure. To solidify it…
The first webcam in the world was created to monitor a coffee pot at the University of Cambridge.
In 1991, scientists at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory connected a camera to the local network so they would not…
Wombat poop is cube-shaped, which prevents it from rolling away.
Wombats are the only known animals to produce cube-shaped feces. This unique shape is the result of varying…
There is a giant cloud of alcohol in space, specifically ethyl alcohol, near the center of the Milky Way.
Astronomers have detected a massive molecular cloud in the Sagittarius B2 region, near the center of our galaxy. This…
Horned lizards squirt blood from their eyes to deter predators.
They increase blood pressure in their head to restrict outflow, forcing blood to shoot from the corners of their…
The human liver can regenerate to its original size from just twenty-five percent of its tissue.
The liver is the only internal organ capable of natural regeneration. Hepatic cells multiply rapidly after an injury…