Everything there is to know about our world and beyond cannot possibly be learned in schools and textbooks.
Curious to be enlightened, Redditor JoshB82 asked:
"What's a cool science fact you know?"
The planet is full of some of the most fascinating species. That would also include us humans.
Now, Hear This
"You have ear crystals that work with your ear fluid to maintain your sense of balance. idk why. but it's there."
– feverdream-helpdesk
The Thing About Crows
"Crows are the smartest species of bird with the intelligence of a human 7 year old. They can make lever tools to solve complex problems, use currency, visit their grandparents, and can remember a face for at least 5 years and can mimic sounds they hear."
"They can also pass the snack test: a test where you offer them a small portion of food with the promise of a larger portion if they decline it. Human toddlers and most primates can't pass this test. They're also self-aware."
"Crows are so smart that they'll take something like a walnut, drop it on a busy street for a car to run over it, and then wait for a red light to pick up the seeds. They're also capable of using strategy like simple attack formations flanking and decoys. If a random crow is found dead, the remaining murder of crows will actually split up and find clues that led to that crow dying and try to avenge them."
"Probably the only reason why they haven't waged war on humanity is their ongoing blood feud with owls. Owls are known for stealing their hatchlings and crows have passed on their hatred of owls for multiple generations."
"They hate owls so much that if one is found alone, a murder of crows will go out of their way to show that owl why they earned the name for a group of them. Zoos can't even keep owls and crows in the same aviary without an all-out battle breaking out.
"If you save an owl from a murder of crows, they'll remember your face and pass their hatred of you across multiple generations and across multiple murders in the area. Expect to see sh*t all over your car, bundles of sticks on your windshield and beak marks on your hood wherever you go for multiple city blocks."
– Sol-Blackguy
Dwellers Of The Deep
"Sharks have been on Earth longer than Saturn has had rings."
– rodeler
"Adder: Sharks are older than trees by about 50 million years."
– downtownebrowne
Here's The Buzz
"Bees can see ultraviolet light and plants have different patterns accordingly - to ensure pollination."
– Fl1p1
Want to know interesting facts relating to space travel, astronauts, and our own planet? Read on.
They Hold The Key
"Bears lose basically zero muscle or bone mass in hibernation, scientists believe unlocking their genetic code is the key to long term space travel in zero gravity conditions without adverse effects on astronauts."
– ImpSong
Never Parched
"Astronauts on the space station have little to no sense of thirst. Most wear timers to remind them to hydrate regularly. It's a zero gravity thing."
– Scrappy_Larue
Total Wipeout
"The extinction of dinosaurs was not even close to be the worst of that type. The one before, at the end of Permian period, wiped out 97% of all life on Earth. Talk about hard reset..."
– Tilian1986
One Way Ticket Up
"Helium is mined and is non renewable. Once released into the air it rises up through the atmosphere and is lost to space."
– johngknightuk
Things don't always measure up quite the way you think.
The Weight Of A Cloud
"The average cloud weighs about 500 tons, 80 elephants weigh the same."
– realaliceredlips
Adapting To The Environment
"The Eiffel Tower becomes 15 centimeters taller during summer."
– justsomeone1002
A Different Deck
"There are more combinations of a deck of cards than there are particles in the entire Earth. Not just molecules or even atoms, individual protons, electrons, etc. To put it bluntly, you can safely bet that when you shuffle a deck of cards that combination of cards has never been created before ever or ever will be."
"52 factorial is freaking bananas."
– ThePhabtom4567
Everything has an expiration date. That would include our planet. But rest assured, we're over 2 billion years away from the sun engulfing mother earth.
But can we just stop at the earth's life expectancy? I can't even begin to imagine how long a million years is, let alone two billion when all the world's oceans are all dried up and making our world uninhabitable.
Don't worry though, we'll all have departed long before then. As to what will contribute to the demise of the human race, who knows? I shudder to think about it.
