21 Incredible Scientific Facts That Defy Logic
Every now and then, a scientific fact can completely take us aback. A single piece of trivia can alter our entire perspective on the world if we dwell on it for a while.
Certain truths about our universe are incredibly hard to comprehend, like how a cloud can weigh more than a million pounds but still hang above our heads. As we go about our day-to-day lives, we don’t often pause to reflect on such things; maybe that’s for the best.
Facts like this could cause a serious lag in your productivity. Don’t blame us if you end up pondering them for the next few hours, or days, or weeks. We’re still stuck on some of them.
1: Identical Twins Aren’t Entirely Identical
Identical twins share the same DNA sequence, but that doesn’t mean they’re entirely indistinguishable. Their fingerprints are actually unique.
Though few of us realize it, fingerprints aren’t entirely genetic. Environmental factors in the mother’s womb can create small changes, which leads to otherwise identical twins having slightly different fingerprints.
2: The Earth’s Rotation Is Changing Speed
You can blame climate change for this one. Polar ice melt causes some of the earth’s mass to redistribute. It has enough of an effect to create an observable drop in the earth’s rotation speed.
The change in speed may not seem significant to us now, but in as little as a few years, scientists predict we’ll have to subtract a “leap-second” from our clocks. In the past, we’ve had to add a second here or there to compensate for Earth’s changing rotational pace due to other factors, but this will be the first time we’ll have to subtract one.
3: Your Brain Is Eating Itself
Many of us think of our brains as static objects. In some way, they define us, and imagining them as ever-changing structures seems bizarre. However, ever-changing is exactly what they are.
Our brains use phagocytosis, essentially eating themselves, to restructure neural connections, stop infections, and shape memory. Researchers believe too little of this pruning during our developmental years could lead to autism.
4: A Cloud Weighs Over One Million Pounds
You probably don’t think of clouds having any weight, given that they float effortlessly above our heads. Yet, clouds are filled with water, an exceptionally heavy substance.
Believe it or not, clouds weigh a lot. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a cloud can easily weigh 1.1 million pounds. It stays afloat because the air beneath it is even heavier, which is another hard-to-grasp realization.
5: Animals Experience Time Differently
When you come home from a long day, do you ever wonder how long your dog thinks you’ve been gone? Surely, they don’t know how to read a clock or set a watch, but how do they experience time?
As it turns out, different animals experience time differently. Whether it moves faster or slower than what we experience depends on how rapidly their nervous systems process sensory information. Smaller animals with quick metabolisms live in a slower-motion world because they process sensory information at a finer resolution.
6: Chickens Can Live Without Their Heads
If you decapitate a chicken, the nerves continue to send stimuli to the rest of the body, allowing it to run frantically for a few seconds. Typically, after that, it drops dead. Except, there’s been at least one chicken who defied the odds.
Dubbed “Miracle Mike,” a chicken in 1945 managed to survive for 18 months without a head. Chickens are technically capable of this feat because their brain stem and cerebellum extend into their necks. This allows them to retain a heartbeat, perch, stand, and run even without a cranium.
7: Wearing a Tie May Reduce Blood Flow to the Brain
Some researchers call wearing a necktie “socially desirable strangulation” because it significantly reduces blood flow to the brain. One 2018 study found wearing one could decrease blood flow by as much as 7.5%.
If you’re not big on wearing a tie, there seem to be additional reasons not to. Beyond limiting blood flow, ties can carry a disturbing number of germs. They can also increase the pressure in your eyes.
8: The Sun Makes Sound
The sun has a constant flow of hot material, which cools and then sinks toward its center. This process is far from silent, but we should be glad we don’t have to listen to it.
Scientists report that the sun sounds like “screaming sirens,” which is far from pleasant. However, even if the soundwaves could reach us through space, we wouldn’t be able to hear them. The sounds of the sun are emitted at a frequency too low for human ears.
9: Our Solar System Has a Wall
When you think of the vast enormity of space, you probably don’t imagine any barriers. But our solar system does have a wall of sorts.
The heliopause is a region of space in which solar wind isn’t hot enough to push back particles from distant stars. This natural boundary is often seen as our solar system’s wall.
10: You Can Die Laughing
People often cite laughing’s health benefits, but laughing isn’t without its dangers. While laughing itself can’t kill, it can trigger other deadly conditions.
Continued, strong laughing could cause a brain aneurysm, asthma attack, seizure, or asphyxiation, among other things. Of course, the odds of these things happening are small, and typically, laughing isn’t detrimental.
11: Chainsaws Were Originally for Childbirth
Two Scottish inventors created the first chainsaw, not for chopping down trees but rather for sawing through pelvises. In 1780, John Aitken and James Jeffray invented the machine to assist mothers who were having difficulty delivering their babies.
Known as a symphysiotomy, doctors typically performed the procedure without anesthesia. Mothers were fully awake and aware of doctors cutting their pelvises in half. It was brutal, to say the least, but one good thing came out of it: the tool worked so well that people began to use it on trees and other hard-to-cut materials.
12: Snails Have Teeth
It is hard to imagine that slimy snails have hard parts outside of their shells, but they do have teeth. In fact, they have thousands of them.
Snail teeth sit on a flexible band called a radula. They’re microscopic and allow the snail to scrape up food particles.
13: Bananas Are Radioactive
Bananas are rich in potassium, and potassium is a naturally occurring radionuclide. In other words, bananas are radioactive.
Luckily, the amount of radiation in a banana is incredibly small. You can eat them without any risk of radiation symptoms.
14: Hippos Can’t Swim
If you’ve ever seen a hippo, chances are they were submerged in water. These animals love being in a cool pond, river, or lake. Yet, they can’t swim.
Hippopotamuses have dense bones and heavy bodies that instantly sink. However, they can still get around at great depths by literally walking across the sea floor.
15: The Moon Looks Upside-Down in the Southern Hemisphere
Many people who have spent most of their lives in the Northern Hemisphere don’t realize the moon is flipped when you head south of the equator. The familiar man on the moon you see in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. isn’t the same in Africa or Peru.
Instead, in the Southern Hemisphere, the “man on the moon” is more of a rabbit. It’s the same moon, but upside down.
16: Cryptic Pregnancies Are Real
Cryptic pregnancy occurs when a woman is pregnant but doesn’t realize it until very late in the pregnancy. Sometimes, they don’t know until labor begins.
It sounds completely impossible, but as many as one in 2,500 women don’t know they’re pregnant until it’s time to give birth. That’s equivalent to the number of women who experience preeclampsia, which isn’t necessarily common but is certainly well-known.
17: You Travel Vast Distances Daily
You don’t have to leave your couch to travel huge distances. If you’re standing at the equator, you’re traveling about 24,855 miles each day, thanks to the earth’s orbit.
If you measure the distance with respect to the sun or the galaxy’s center, it increases to even larger amounts. On top of that, the Earth travels millions of miles each day with respect to cosmic background radiation left over from the birth of the universe.
18: Your Nails Grow Faster in the Summer
Some studies show that fingernails grow faster in the summer than in the winter. There are two possible reasons for this.
It could be that increased blood flow associated with warmer temperatures makes nails grow faster. It could also be that many people choose to relax or take vacations during the summer months, which leads to less nail biting.
19: Animals Can Be Allergic to You
There’s no doubt that humans can have allergies to pet dander. But few realize that pets can have allergies to us, too!
Humans shed hair and skin just like their pets do, and dogs and cats can develop an allergy to their human’s daily shedding. One of the biggest allergens for pets is human dandruff, which can lead to asthma.
20: Platypuses Sweat Milk
Platypuses are unique in many ways. For one, they lay eggs even though they’re mammals. For another, they don’t have nipples.
Instead, to nurse their young, platypus mothers sweat milk. The milk oozes out of glands in their skin and collects on their fur for their young to drink.
21: The Bones in Your Head Make You Hate Your Own Voice
Many people cringe when they hear their voice in a recording. This isn’t just self-consciousness; there’s a scientific reason they don’t like the way their voice sounds.
Normally, when we speak, the bones in our head conduct the sound so that it sounds lower than it actually is. When we hear it on tape, our voice sounds higher than we anticipate. We’re not used to the sound and tend to dislike it.
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