Facts that sound false but are true — Page 42
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
There are more stars in the observable universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
Astronomers estimate that there are between 10^22 and 10^24 stars in the universe. Even counting every grain of sand…
Sharks have existed on Earth longer than trees have.
The first sharks appeared around 400 million years ago, while the first trees only emerged about 350 million years…
Some turtles can breathe through their rear end during hibernation.
The Mary River turtle in Australia has a specialized cloaca with vascularized papillae that absorb oxygen directly…
The narwhal's tusk is actually a sensory organ with millions of nerve endings.
The long spiral tusk of the male narwhal contains up to 10 million nerve endings that detect changes in water…
The human liver can regenerate even after losing three quarters of its tissue.
Liver cells have a unique ability to multiply and replace lost tissue. Within a few weeks, the organ can return to…
About half of human DNA comes from ancient viruses that infected our ancestors.
Human endogenous retroviruses are remnants of viral infections that occurred millions of years ago and became…
There is a region of Antarctica that has not seen rain or snow for about two million years.
The McMurdo Dry Valleys are considered the most extreme desert on Earth. Katabatic winds evaporate all moisture and…
From a genetic point of view, fungi are closer to animals than to plants.
Fungi share with animals characteristics such as chitin in their cell walls and glycogen as an energy reserve…
The largest known living organism is a fungus that covers nearly nine square kilometres in Oregon.
The fungus Armillaria ostoyae, known as the honey mushroom, spreads through the Malheur National Forest via an…
There is a species of jellyfish that can reverse its life cycle and become biologically immortal.
Turritopsis dohrnii can transform its adult cells into young cells when sick or injured, returning to the polyp…
A lightning bolt can be five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
The temperature in a lightning channel can reach about 30000 degrees Celsius, while the surface of the Sun is around…
In the laboratory, scientists have managed to slow light to just 17 metres per second.
Using a Bose-Einstein condensate made of ultra-cooled sodium atoms, researchers at Harvard drastically reduced the…
If the Earth were compressed to become a black hole, it would be the size of a golf ball.
For an object to become a black hole, its mass must be compressed within the so-called Schwarzschild radius. In the…
The Sun accounts for about 99.86 percent of the total mass of the solar system.
Jupiter and Saturn are the largest planets and hold most of the remaining mass, but even combined they represent only…
There is a molecular cloud at the centre of the Milky Way that contains billions of litres of alcohol.
The Sagittarius B2 cloud, near the galactic centre, contains large quantities of ethanol and ethyl alcohol. It is…
All the electrons circulating on the Internet together weigh approximately the same as a strawberry.
Physicist Russell Seitz calculated that the combined mass of the electrons moving in the global network is around 50…
Humans glow in the dark, but the light is invisible to the human eye.
The human body emits a small amount of visible light due to metabolic reactions that produce free radicals. However…
Pineapple contains an enzyme that digests the proteins in your mouth while you eat it.
Fresh pineapple contains bromelain, a mixture of enzymes that break down proteins. This is why the tongue can feel…
Wombat droppings are cube-shaped.
The wombat intestine has variations in wall elasticity, which molds the feces into cubes. This shape prevents them…
Nutmeg can cause severe hallucinations if consumed in large amounts.
This spice contains myristicin, a compound that, in high doses, affects the central nervous system. Excessive…
Cashews grow on the bottom of an apple-like false fruit.
The true fruit of the cashew tree is the nut, which develops at the end of the floral receptacle. This receptacle…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the pyramids.
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built about two thousand five hundred years before Cleopatra was born. Between the…
Woolly mammoths were still alive when the Egyptian pyramids were being built.
While the Egyptians were erecting the great pyramids, a small isolated population of woolly mammoths survived on…
Some neutron stars can spin six hundred times per second.
These ultra-dense bodies, known as pulsars, conserve the angular momentum of the original star. As they collapse to a…