Published on 12, July, 2020
I thought we could start a thread for sharing facts we love or find interesting/fun. Next time we're due to be in a social situation where it might be expected to share a fact as part of introducing ourselves, we can have this thread as a resource to look through so we have something ready. And at least as importantly I think, this can also be a space for info-dumping favourite facts about special interests. I'll start:
Whale songs, much like accents and dialects in humans, are specific to particular regions.
At sunrise and sunset, when the Sun is sitting on the horizon, it is actually fully below the horizon. The atmosphere is bending the light enough to make it look like it is above.
This years iGnoble awards are out and one of them was for the scientists who found that hair whorls, like that at the crown of your head, are more likely to grow in a clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and ant-clockwise in the southern hemisphere! I'm sure theres some important information in there, but I'm not sure what?
Yes for next time around, we can choose if we like the after effects less than the pleasure of eating whatever food gave us a bad bum?
Clouds are classified by species. I love this because it's like they're their own kingdom of life.
Because each of an octopus' arms contains a brain, they can all operate independently.
Ha ha - but for next time around, maybe?
The Microbrachius Dicki, or M. Dicki, is the first creature to reproduce sexually, and is believed to have populated the waters of what is now Scotland. So if anyone ever asks you what Scotland's greatest contribution to the world is... well...
Well I would think by then it would be a tad late.
Apparently it's something to do with us being able to detect things that aren't good for us.
I'm not checking!
We have taste buds in our bums!
The Rag and Bone man that used to drive around ringing a bell to collect unwanted household items actually originated from The Plague. Men would drive a horse drawn cart, ring a bell and shout "bring your dead".
Bees communicate through dance and, in the darkness of the nest, vibrations.
Sea otters are adept at using tools, particularly pebbles which they carry in their pouches and use to break shells open.
Sea otters are helping to mitigate coastal erosion by eating a crab that eats the seaweed that protects the cliff.
Ancient Greeks didn't use napkins when eating - they wiped their fingers on bread and then threw it to the dogs.
Good dinner party conversation starter? Maybe - You could also point out the environmentally friendly aspect of their behaviour - no waste!
The Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas, could have lived in extreme luxury in the Imperial Palace of Constantinople, but under his gem-encrusted purple robes he wore a monk's hair shirt and at night he slept on the floor, due to his extreme religious asceticism.
There is a type of (very tiny) frog called a glass frog which can make itself transparent when it sleeps. It does this by collecting the vast majority of its red blood cells into its liver, and expanding and contracting them at will to prevent clots.
Chameleons change colour primarily for communication rather than camouflage. In males, brighter colours can be a mating display or sign of aggression. In females, they indicate a `No` to mating, while paler colours mean consent or surrender. Chameleons change colour by altering the distance between crystals in their skin, with brightness increasing the closer the crystals are packed together.