Following on from our extremely popular top 20 amazing science facts, we have produced another list of facts that are entertaining and educational. These are all facts that are (hopefully) not especially well known to the average person.
1. Fingernails grow four times faster than toenails
2. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people
3. If you rub an onion on your foot – within 30 – 60 minutes you will be able to taste it – this is because it travels through the blood stream
4. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath (if you hold it until you go unconscious, you begin to breath normally as soon as you do)
5. On one square inch of human skin there are 20 million microscopic creatures
6. Armadillos are the only creatures apart from men that can catch leprosy – there are known cases of armadillo to human transfers of the disease
7. A snail can sleep for 3 – 4 years – during which period it does not need food
8. Giraffes can live longer without water than camels
9. The songs of humpback whales can change dramatically from year to year, yet each whale in an oceanwide population always sings the same song as the others [Source]
10. The forces required to remove a foot from quicksand at a speed of one centimeter per second would require the same amount of force as “that needed to lift a medium-sized car.”
11. To test if a pearl is real, you can rub vinegar on it – the composition of the pearl will cause it to bubble furiously
12. Goldfish kept in a dark room turn much paler – and if it wasn’t for the color in the food they eat, they would turn completely white
13. Unlike normal bees, the Queen bee’s stinger is not barbed and can be used repeatedly without harming her
14. Quicksand doesn’t directly kill humans as it is usually not very deep at all – it is the fact that it can be incredibly difficult to remove yourself from quicksand that causes death by the environment – such as exposure.
15. Oysters can change between being female or male
16. Men are over 30% stronger than women on average, especially in the upper body, and men’s brains are heavier than women’s [Source, Source]
I've actually had experience regarding the goldfish one (i took a long vacation and the curtains were closed the whole time…) and now i know why.
Oh, and there are 16 facts (not 15).
The fact that there are 16 facts on not 15 makes the amount of facts 17
And that face makes there 18 facts, and this fact means there are 19….
I better stop there, i think you get the point
joanne #28: i think that means you will spontaneously combust soon.
Some tips i have seen in terms of laptop meomry is always that there are technical specs such as SDRAM, DDR and the like, that must match the specifications of the motherboard. If the personal computer’s motherboard is reasonably current and there are no os issues, changing the ram literally takes under sixty minutes. It’s one of many easiest personal computer upgrade procedures one can think about. Thanks for spreading your ideas.
Great list!
eh not bad list
3rd =D
some good-to-know facts nice
I’m gonna have to try number 3 out, just to see if its real :p
LOL I thought that too.. gona be hard explaining to the people I live with why Im rubbing onions on me feet tho :p
Be sure to discard the Onion when finished c:
You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath (if you hold it until you go unconscious, you begin to breath normally as soon as you do)
hehe…remind me to do this next time when my niece threatens to do this.
#5…makes me want to take a bath now.
#6….how did they get it in the first place…ewwww!
#14….I don’t know about this one…I always thought that quicksand sucked a person completely under.
Great list, Jaime!
I watched a video of a guy who purposely sunk himself in quicksand to show you how to get out of it. He stepped into the quicksand and had to work at getting himself buried up to his armpits and then he worked his way out. Quicksand can be deep but usually isn't. You can actually crawl over quicksand.
darn intalics….oh well.
WOW I totaly have to try the onion thing!
i hate onions.. raw onions..
Wow great list!!
Ahh quicksand scares me so much, it always reminds me of that scene in the Jungle Book
Cool list though
cool list. that onion thing really caught my attention lol
List item 11: Does this ruin the pearl? Better a good-looking fake than a ruined genuine article.
Great list, knew a few of these (giraffe, oyster, male/female, bees and holding breath). But also learned a lot of new trivia. Never knew about quicksand that it usually isn’t deep.
Absolutely love lists like these. It’s a great read for a sunday morning (while I should be studying). ^^
@astraya (27):
Hrm, I tend to cut my fingernails once a week but my toenails much less often (I'd say once a month).
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so …
#10 Why are called quicksand if you must get out slowly?
#14 Why are called quicksand if they kill you slowly?
I suggest to call them cruelly-slow-sand
#4 you begin to breathe normally, not breath.
I don’t want to nitpick, but it is a habit of mine.
and about 14
I think it could happen because of the Archimedes principle not because the dept of the pound.
#3 made me sick – i should be cleaning my shoes more often thanks
As a left hander, I find the right handed dying later a bit annoying! One theory is that in the armed services, weapons are designed for right handed people, left handed people have a disadvantage. Also, it’s only an average – the two surviving Beatles are both left handed.
@apepper
Yes, both of the two surviving Beatles are left handing. But you must remember, one of them got shot.
the title says 15,
but there is 16 facts?
Things that u should not trust.
The News
The holy scriptures
and
Science..
coz they change from time to time,
ehem when are we gonna get the ”ultra- New testament” coz this one is outdated now….
Great list Jamie, I love the “short entry” lists like this one.
Item 6- Thanks for the trivia concerning the armadillo, I shall consider myself warned, if I ever DO get the chance to see one in the wild.–LOL
What’s with your preoccupation towards quicksand?
and finally–I shall NOT be adding onion essences to my footbath, nor foot balm.
at comment 21: Don’t you like a little unexpected free bonus, I do.
#2 is nonsense. The study which concluded this was based on a survey of age-at-death amongst right and left handers. But older people were often forced to be right handed. Once this is accounted for, there is no difference in life expectancy between right and left handers.
#10 – Have you ever actually been in quicksand? Didn’t think so.
On 10 June last year (I just checked) Jamie published a list of body facts. One of them was: “Each finger and toenail takes six months to grow from base to tip.” This seems to imply that finger and toenails grow at the same rate. Sure, fingernails are generally longer than toenails, but not the four times longer that would see fingernails and toenails completely grow in six months each.
I commented back then that the previous week a dermatologist had pulled one of my big toenails off, so I’d get back to you in the middle of December. Another commenter wished me a happy Christmas. The toenail grew at about that rate until it got to the end of my toe, then hasn’t grown since, so I haven’t had to cut it yet, one year (and a bit) after it got pulled off and six months after it was supposed to have completely grown back.
I read somewhere once that if you rub garlic on your palms, you end up with garlic on your breath, for the same reason. Who thought “I will rub onions on the soles of my feet to see what happens?” And why?
i’m ambidextrous so what does #2 say about me?
Fact 13: I remember reading or watching something that said the only species of bee to die when they sting you is the honey bee, whereas there are numerous species of wasps that will die when they sting you, so if you are stung and the insect dies it’s actually more likely to be a wasp than a bee. You should probably check this fact out though not take it as gospel ’cause i’m not too sure.
#11 Pearls + vinegar == no more pearl. I accidentally did this once. I thought my ‘pearl’ was nothing more than a paste construction and I was cleaning all my other jewelry. Now, it may just have been a paste creation that also could be destroyed by vinegar, but historically the ancient Romans had a drink that was pearls dissolved in vinegar.
For anything that doesn’t dissolve in vinegar as most jewelry won’t, a dilution of vinegar makes for a nice overnight soak that is inexpensive and readily available. If you want to entertain kids, use an old toothbrush and make a paste with some baking soda to scrub the stuff. After you have brushed the majority of the dirt off, you put it in the vinegar and let them watch it bubble. Some kids like this enough to want to do the chore for you.
I hope the list author could give us sources of these facts. Only #9 and #16 have them. That’s all I want for this site.
More Power ListVerse!
Great list… I kind of want to try the onion thing now, but I don’t think I will.
Think im going to go test out the onion one on my little sister!
Excellent list, the short entries are brilliant as mentioned above by deeziner # 23.
As far as the armadillo goes – I think I would rather take my chances with him than a Honey Badger.
Thanks Jamie.
Nice list, i’m trying the onion thing right now, wish me luck Hehe
I was taught that you can check if a pearl is genuine by simply rubbing it against one of your teeth. It will have a “grainy, sandy” texture as it rubs past. Not so with a manmade replica. This method is handy, and does not cause any damage to your pearl.
Wear pearls often, the body oils picked up from your skin keeps them lustrous. Lightly wipe them with a clean, soft cloth as you store them after wearing.
Be careful when cleaning your pearl jewelry, some commercial jewelry cleaners contain acids similar to vinegar, and will damage the pearl’s surface. Pay attention to any warnings on the cleaner’s label.
As for the list’s info on vinegar/pearls, I had heard that the ancients dissolved pearls in wine. I guess their wine was a bit bitter.
P.S. Don’t wear your pearl rings while housecleaning, etc. Again you can ruin their lustre through the chemicals in the cleaners used.
There are sixteen facts, not fifteen! Lol.
I’ve heard about the onion one before, but everything else is new.
Interesting list! c;
@deeeziner (23): Do you know what they call the armadillo here in AZ? Nature’s speedbumb. That is the only way I have seen one. On the side of the road.
@joanne (28): Split the difference?
here in south florida the armadillos frequently inhabit marshy, swampy areas and although not seen near my house, i have seen them in the parks.
rtr
ok- I’m now going to rub an onion on my foot. Interesting.
I have a feeling that if you tried the onion thing you would bang like and old man for at least 3 days
It was a good list. I was a little disappointed that there were no chemistry and physics facts (except #10). The list should have been called 15 amazing biological (or even zoological) facts.
This list blinded me with science.
#4 is exactly why so many movies bug me when the killer/murderer just strangles the victim until they go unconscious.
Men may have bigger brains but intelligence is measured by how deep the ridges in the cerebral cortex are. The deeper the ridges, the more intelligent one is likely to be.
Imagine sleeping for 3 years!
I counted 16 facts.
Is the fact about onion rubbing true ??? if yes can you site a scientific source plz.
If the onion bit is true, how come I can’t taste my smelly feet(fortunately)?
Ginger Lee – Hows about the fact that the brain is in proportion to the skull? Geez. Most men are larger than most women, their heads are larger and therefore their brains are too. Proportion is really what’s important. And even that only works when we’re speaking species; in humans it’s the number of connections (synapses) at the cellular level that are key. Something you can’t tell by size or shape. (in a normal brain)
“The implications of this *****ogy for the brain are straightforward. Any program that seeks to relate brain weight, cranial capacity, or some other measure of overall brain size to individual performance ignores the reality of the brain’s functional diversity. Thus, quite apart from the political or ethical probity of attempts to measure “intelligence” by brain size, by the yardstick of modern neuroscience (or simple common sense), this approach will inevitably generate more heat than light. A more rational approach to the issue, which has become feasible in the last few years, is to relate the size of measurable regions of known function (the primary visual cortex, for example) to the corresponding functions (visual performance), as well as to cellular features such as synaptic density and dendritic arborization.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=neurosci.box.1833
Quicksand is so named because it is living, as in “the quick and the dead”. Not because it works fast. It is made of sand or silt, clay and sal*****er.
@aleoper (52):
He specifically stated onion. If he had stated the amazing fact that we could taste anything through our feet, you probably would have laughed at him in this comment section.
not really sure about the left hand fact…
and several “facts” here are wrong jamie!
and you didn’t even give us 20 real facts
I love how in the quicksand picture there’s a warning sign for the quicksand and just a hat lying around.
Good list.
# 48 lab I will complete the sentence for you – Imagine sleeping for 3 years …… and waking up to find that all the women have 4 boobs, and to your utter amazement, after cheaking yourself out, you discover you have also grown 2 extra arms and hands.
Man o man 4 hands – 4 boobs – some soft music – a crate or 2 of vino in a dimly lit hotel room.
Stop dreaming.
@redcaboose (54): I still didn’t get what it meant to say “the quick and the dead” so I checked Wikipedia and found this: “The Quick and the Dead is an English phrase and popular title …, particularly to describe the act of gunfighting. This usage was due to a misunderstanding of its original meaning in the King James Version of the New Testament (published 1611), where the phrase is used in 1 Peter 4:5: “…who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” In the English of the era, quick meant “living” or “alive.”