Scientific facts are far too often explained in an unnecessarily difficult or dreary way. Either that or they are presented as "fun facts," but then they are completely lacking sources or any guidance to further learning. I seek to rectify this by presenting and explaining various facts in an easy and enjoyable manner. In addition, all the facts on my page have reliable sources, so people will know where to learn more and know that the facts being presented are not misunderstood, made up, or plain "lies for likes."
You seemed to enjoy my last post, and that made me very happy, so here are more! There are even more to be found, both exclusive and public, on my website or Patreon page. You will find more information and my sources there.
More info: fancyfacts.info | patreon.com
#1 Phytoplankton
The rain forests are pretty and important and all, but let's give some credit to these tiny creatures as well!
It is actually estimated that about 70% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced in the oceans, thanks to the photosynthetic activity of phytoplankton.
229points
#2 Go Pandas!
171points
#3 Family Relations
167points
#4 T-Rex In Time
Especially if you grew up with “The land before time” it’s easy to imagine a T-Rex frolicking with a Stegosaurus. However, the Stegosaurus existed about 155-150 million years ago while the T-Rex existed about 68-66 million years ago. They would never have met, unless they met on the set of Jurassic Park or something like that.
160points
#5 Wash Your Hands
I took part in an exercise like this myself at my university, where the antibacterial soap actually removed fewer bacteria than any other soap tested. Even less than the normal soap of the same brand as the antibacterial one.
The point is to wash off microorganisms, not to kill them, so antimicrobial activity is really not necessary. So in the best-case scenario, you probably just pay more for nothing. Worst case, you help the organisms become resistant.
If you really need to make sure, and you want to kill any “leftovers” on your hands (like I needed to when I worked at the pathogen lab at the university), you should wash your hands with NORMAL soap and THEN use alcohol.
154points
#6 Botox
It is very interesting that one of the deadliest poisons in the world, where one single gram of it can kill a million people, is used for cosmetics.
152points
#7 Drunk Bees
For instance, this has happened with the bee populations around the Australian Parliament.
Abrahamson and colleagues have studied the effects of ethanol on bees extensively and found, among other things that honey bees “do not have an aversion to ethanol, will self-administer ethanol, and will consume alcoholic beverages found palatable to humans.” In their research setup, most bees returned to the alcoholic beverage every time, and all bees returned at least 50 % of the time.
Most of their bee subjects consumed the equivalent of a human drinking 11 liters of beer each time they returned to the test site.
Bees also don’t learn to avoid alcohol like many other animals do, by associating the effects of alcohol with the smell and/or taste of the food/drink containing the alcohol.
147points
#8 Owl Hearing
146points
#9 "Airbags"
I have seen a lot of people complain about the air in chips bags, but really this is kind of a blessing in disguise.
I didn’t bother to dig up any scientific research to prove this since I could just show you. I found a free weight and dumped it on a bag of chips I had lying around. Works perfectly, and I enjoyed a whole bag of un-crushed chips afterward. Yum!
139points
#10 Wise Old Lamprey? Nah
121points
#11 Symbiosis
118points
#12 Shark Eggs
Each egg case contains one pup, which takes between six and nine months to hatch. Other egg-laying shark species have different egg shapes.
117points
#13 Hemophilia
99points
#14 Bulging Botulinum
97points
#15 Food Safety
The US Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends cooking burgers to an internal temperature of at least 71.1 °C (160 °F).
95points
#16 Efflux Pumps
Efflux pumps are a really cool way for bacteria to get rid of harmful substances. Bacteria have used them for a long time, for a lot of different substances. They certainly predate prescription antibiotics by a lot. It’s also good to remember that it was nature, not us, who originally invented antibiotics. Like, if a bacteria gets all up in the face of a fungus, the fungus is going to protect itself.
Many bacteria have these kinds of pumps from long ago, but our over-use of antibiotics just makes them more effective against modern drugs and more widespread.
91points
#17 Hákarl
82points
#18 Sparkly
81points
#19 DNA Structure
75points
#20 Vitamin C
74points