Facts that sound false but are true — Page 7
Our highest surprise rating: the facts people most often refuse to believe until they read the explanation. Every one of them is documented.
627 facts
Fortune cookies were invented in California, not China.
They were popularized in Japanese-American restaurants in San Francisco in the early 20th century, inspired by a…
Post-it notes were invented by accident.
In 1968, scientist Spencer Silver was trying to develop a strong adhesive for 3M. Instead, he created a weak adhesive…
The bombardier beetle defends itself by firing a chemical spray at about 100 °C.
Inside its abdomen, the insect mixes hydroquinones and hydrogen peroxide in a chamber full of enzymes. The reaction…
Some sea cucumbers expel their own internal organs to distract predators and then grow them back.
When threatened, they contract their body and push out part of the gut and other organs, which act as a decoy. Within…
The Arctic ground squirrel hibernates with its body at about -3 °C, below the freezing point of water.
It is the lowest body temperature ever measured in a mammal. Its blood is supercooled: it cools below zero without…
The archerfish hunts insects resting on leaves above the water by knocking them down with jets of water shot from its mouth.
It presses its tongue against a groove in the roof of its mouth and snaps its gills shut, forming a tube. It hits…
The bar-headed goose crosses the Himalayas and has been recorded flying at over 7,000 metres.
At that altitude the air holds less than half the oxygen found at sea level. These geese have larger lungs…
The saltwater crocodile has the strongest bite ever measured in a living animal.
In a 2012 study, a 4.6-metre male closed its jaws with a force of about 16,400 newtons, roughly 1,700 kilograms…
Clownfish are all born male, and the largest one in the group can turn into a female.
Each anemone hosts a dominant female, a breeding male and several smaller males. If the female dies, the breeding…
Sperm whales sleep vertically, motionless, near the surface of the sea.
Researchers found groups of sperm whales drifting head-up or head-down, not reacting to a passing boat. These naps…
When attacked, the hagfish releases a slime that expands in the water in less than a second and clogs the predator's gills.
Glands along its body release mucus and ultra-thin fibres that unravel on contact with seawater, forming a gel…
In 2021, scientists revived microscopic rotifers that had been frozen for about 24,000 years in Siberian permafrost.
The animals, bdelloid rotifers, were taken from a sample of frozen soil 3.5 metres deep. Once thawed, they started…
Your fingers have no muscles: they are moved by tendons connected to muscles in the palm and forearm.
When we make a fist, the muscles doing the work are in the forearm, which is why it moves when we bend our fingers…
The kidneys filter about 180 litres of blood plasma every day.
All the plasma in the body passes through the kidneys about 60 times a day. More than 99% of the filtered water is…
The lens of the eye never stops growing throughout life.
New layers of cells are added on the outside, like an onion, and the old ones are never removed. The lens becomes…
Even identical twins have different iris patterns.
The texture of the iris forms randomly during pregnancy and is not dictated by genes. That is why iris recognition…
The hippocampus of London taxi drivers grows as they memorise the city's streets.
To get a licence, drivers spend years learning about 25,000 streets for an exam called 'The Knowledge'. Brain scans…
A red bell pepper has more than twice the vitamin C of an orange, weight for weight.
One hundred grams of raw red pepper contain about 128 milligrams of vitamin C, against around 53 in an orange…
Brazil nuts are among the most radioactive foods there are, because of the radium they absorb from the soil.
The deep roots of the Brazil nut tree pick up radium from Amazonian soil, and the nuts can contain up to a thousand…
In the original sushi, the rice was only used to ferment the fish and was thrown away.
'Narezushi' was salted fish packed in cooked rice for months: fermentation preserved it. Only in the Edo period did…
Black peppercorns were found in the nostrils of the mummy of the pharaoh Ramesses II.
Ramesses II died in 1213 BC and the embalmers used peppercorns to help keep the shape of his nose. Black pepper only…
The Romans sweetened wine with a syrup boiled in lead pots, which contained lead acetate.
Grape juice was boiled slowly until it thickened into a syrup called 'sapa' or 'defrutum'. The lead in the pots…
In 1582, when the Gregorian calendar was adopted, 4 October was followed directly by 15 October.
The Julian calendar had drifted ten days behind the seasons. Pope Gregory XIII ordered them removed, and Portugal…
The recipe for Greek fire, the incendiary weapon of the Byzantine Empire, was lost and remains unknown.
Used from the 7th century, Greek fire was sprayed through tubes at enemy ships and kept burning on water. The secret…
