Want to be the life of your next gathering? Check out our video with over 150 surprising facts that will blow your friends' minds! From quirky trivia to mind-blowing discoveries, you'll have plenty of cool info to share. Ready to impress everyone with your newfound knowledge? Click to watch and become the ultimate fun fact guru! Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
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For more videos and articles visit:
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00:00Now, there are two types of people – those who love olives and those who absolutely don't.
00:00:06So, olive fans, have you noticed that all olives are canned, and you can't seem to
00:00:11buy fresh ones anywhere?
00:00:13Well, the reason for that is simple – fresh olives have such a disgusting taste that no
00:00:18grocery wants to sell them.
00:00:20Yeah, for real.
00:00:22All these cans and oils and chemicals serve to make them edible.
00:00:26Still doesn't work well enough for anti-olive people.
00:00:29Have you noticed that grocery stores don't have windows?
00:00:33There are several reasons for that.
00:00:34First, they want you to spend more time inside and buy more stuff.
00:00:38For this purpose, they create a different atmosphere, cutting you off from the outside
00:00:43world.
00:00:44For example, you can't see it getting dark or raining outside, and you lose track of
00:00:48time.
00:00:49Kind of like in a casino.
00:00:51But there are other reasons too.
00:00:53For example, having windows would decrease available space for shelves with products.
00:00:58Also, direct sunshine can cause products to go bad faster and make labels fade away.
00:01:05Did you know that H&M, the name of the clothing store, is short for Hennes & Moritz?
00:01:10It's a Swedish company that originally was only selling women's clothes, and so it
00:01:15was called Hennes, which means hers in Swedish.
00:01:18Moritz Wildfors owned a hunting apparel retailer, which was then acquired by Hennes' owner.
00:01:24The store started to sell men's clothes too, and the name of the store changed to
00:01:28Hennes & Moritz, or as we know it, H&M.
00:01:33Now some more about marketing.
00:01:34I bet that whenever and wherever you buy your oranges, they're always in a red mesh bag.
00:01:40You rarely see them lying around without a bag.
00:01:43And it's all for a reason – the color of the bag was chosen carefully.
00:01:47When packed in a red mesh bag, oranges appear more orange, and they seem fresher and more
00:01:53appealing to you.
00:01:54So you're more likely to buy them.
00:01:57Lemons are usually sold in green mesh bags for a similar reason.
00:02:00If you pack them in red, they'll look more orange, and green goes better with yellow,
00:02:05making the lemon stand out.
00:02:07There are so many things I don't understand about the world, and one of them is this.
00:02:12Why do chocolate bars, like Mars or Snickers, have those zigzag waves on the bottom?
00:02:18Turns out, well, not surprisingly, that they appear during the manufacturing process.
00:02:23When a chocolate bar is produced, it lies on a patterned belt of an enrober.
00:02:28This machine coats the bar with melted chocolate and then keeps it at a particular temperature
00:02:32to make it freeze.
00:02:34The reason the belt is patterned and not smooth is to recover excess chocolate.
00:02:39When the bar freezes, the prints stay.
00:02:42Now you've probably noticed that old chocolate can turn whitish on the surface.
00:02:46This happens because, with time, liquid fats contained in the chocolate bar, for example,
00:02:52cocoa butter, start to travel up through the chocolate, crystallizing on top.
00:02:57That's the white powder, also known as fat bloom.
00:03:00It's completely harmless, so don't worry about it.
00:03:03And if you really hate it, well, just ship that chocolate over to me, and I'll dispose
00:03:08of it.
00:03:09Orally.
00:03:10Lollipop sticks have those squared holes in their ends for a reason.
00:03:14When candy is put on a stick, some of it goes into the hole, fixating the sweet part.
00:03:19This way, the candy ball, or whatever shape it is, is less likely to fall off the stick.
00:03:25Egg yolks can be different colors, starting with pale yellow and ending with deep orange.
00:03:31What does it depend on?
00:03:32Nope, not the chicken breed.
00:03:34Those only affect the color of the shell.
00:03:37The color of the yolk depends on a chicken's diet.
00:03:40If its food has more yellow and orange pigments, the yolks will be darker.
00:03:45And yeah, yolks of any color are equally nutritional, so no worries.
00:03:50Since we're talking about farms, look at these barns.
00:03:53What do they have in common?
00:03:54Yep, the color red.
00:03:56And it seems like a trend.
00:03:58There were times before a wide variety of paints became available when people had to
00:04:03make their own paint for their barns.
00:04:05Years ago, farmers were sealing barns with linseed oil, which is orange in color.
00:04:10And to that oil, they also added milk, lime, and rust.
00:04:14Rust was available and handy, and it had the power to get rid of moss and fungi.
00:04:19Together, these ingredients turned the mixture red, and that was used as paint.
00:04:24Nowadays, it's just a tradition many still follow.
00:04:28You've probably noticed those little rubber hairs on car and bike tires.
00:04:33Any special purpose?
00:04:34Well, no.
00:04:35They appear during the tire manufacturing process.
00:04:39Rubber is mixed with carbon black and put into an iron mold.
00:04:42Then it gets spread all over the mold under high air pressure.
00:04:46To make a good tire, the rubber should cover all the surfaces equally.
00:04:50But there's a problem.
00:04:52Air bubbles can form between the mold and the rubber.
00:04:55To make sure it doesn't happen, and help extra air escape, tire molds have little holes
00:05:00all over them.
00:05:01Some rubber gets in there, and once the tire is ready, it turns into those little hairs.
00:05:07No one cares enough to remove them because that would be useless work, and those hairs
00:05:11don't harm anyone.
00:05:13Those little black dots on car windows are called frits – nothing to frit about.
00:05:18They're supposed to make the surface of the glass rougher so that the adhesive can
00:05:22stick and glue the glass to the car frame better.
00:05:25The black enamel also blocks UV light that can melt the adhesive underneath the bands
00:05:29around the window.
00:05:31The black bands heat up faster than the transparent glass.
00:05:35And luckily, the little dots are there to help distribute the temperature evenly.
00:05:40Now, buses have such huge steering wheels for a reason.
00:05:44Buses are bigger than cars, and also weigh heavier.
00:05:47So it's harder to turn a bus around, and you need way more strength to do so when you
00:05:52drive a car.
00:05:53A bigger steering wheel, which has a bigger radius, allows the vehicle to turn more easily.
00:05:59And it requires less force than you need should the wheel be smaller.
00:06:04Trucks have big steering wheels for the same reason.
00:06:07Also, buses usually have those bright patterns on their seats.
00:06:11The reason is actually pretty disgusting.
00:06:14Those patterns are supposed to hide stains on the seats.
00:06:17The brighter the seat is, and the more patterns it has, the harder it is for a passenger to
00:06:21notice stains.
00:06:23Even better, the patterns are usually so bright that no person wants to look at them for long
00:06:28enough to spot the stains.
00:06:30So yeah, the patterns are literally there to make you look away.
00:06:34And if you still do look, to make the dirt less noticeable.
00:06:38Can I please hear a EWWWWW?
00:06:41And that's the exact reason why hospitals and hotels use white sheets – to show how
00:06:46clean they are and how high their standards are.
00:06:49We all know there's light in refrigerators – I bet you've tried to peek inside to
00:06:53catch it turning off at least once.
00:06:56Yeah.
00:06:57But the freezer, on the other hand, doesn't have any light inside.
00:07:01So why is that, we have to ask?
00:07:03Well, the main reason is that installing an additional light in the freezer costs the
00:07:07manufacturer money.
00:07:09It might not seem like much, but keep in mind that it's not just a matter of one light,
00:07:14but also the wiring, the fixture, the switch, and so on.
00:07:18And manufacturers want to save as much money as possible.
00:07:21Besides, no one really needs a light in the freezer.
00:07:24It's not like you browse your freezer as often as the main part of the refrigerator.
00:07:29Also, in older freezers, ice crystallizes in the compartment, meaning that the light
00:07:34would get covered with ice anyways.
00:07:37Maybe that's why there was no light initially, and then it just stuck, or froze.
00:07:42Many backpacks have a diamond patch with two parallel cut-out slits on the front.
00:07:47It's made for your convenience.
00:07:50You can attach something like a water bottle or a pair of shoes to this slit.
00:07:54It comes in especially handy when you go hiking.
00:07:57Imagine not having to hold all these things in your hands, cuz you're gonna need your
00:08:01hands to fight off the bears!
00:08:03Hey, just kidding.
00:08:06Some men wear shoes with hidden heel lifts to look taller.
00:08:09Such shoes can make a person up to 6 inches taller.
00:08:13They look like regular shoes, but inside, they have this extra insert.
00:08:17Sometimes, such an insert is glued down.
00:08:21Sometimes it's removable, and you can choose the height you need yourself.
00:08:26When the Titanic hit the iceberg and sank sometime later, the Atlantic Ocean was around
00:08:3028 degrees Fahrenheit, which means the water was below its freezing point.
00:08:35No wonder so many passengers didn't make it.
00:08:40Some birds have a row of bristles protruding from the edges of their eyelids.
00:08:44Those bristles can probably be called eyelashes, but while human eyelashes are modified hairs
00:08:49meant to protect the eye, bird eyelashes are modified feathers.
00:08:55Identical twins don't actually have the same fingerprints, so you can't blame your misdeeds
00:09:00on your sibling after all.
00:09:02Different factors during development in the womb, like the position of the womb, umbilical
00:09:06cord length, and the rate of finger growth, impact fingerprints.
00:09:12Earth's rotation speed is changing.
00:09:14It's slowing down right now while we're talking.
00:09:17It means that, on average, the length of the day gets 1.8 seconds longer every century.
00:09:23600 million years ago, a day lasted a mere 21 hours.
00:09:29Most world maps are wrong.
00:09:31On the majority of maps, they still use the Mercator Projection, which was the first developed
00:09:36in 1569.
00:09:38But this method is very inaccurate and makes Alaska look as large as Brazil, while in reality,
00:09:45it's five times smaller.
00:09:47As for Greenland, it looks 14 times larger than it actually is.
00:09:51For a map to be precise, it would need to be life-sized and round, not flat.
00:09:58Ants don't have lungs.
00:10:00They breathe through tiny openings known as spiracles.
00:10:03An ant may have nine or ten of those on each side of the body, depending on the species.
00:10:10The average color of the universe is poetically called cosmic latte.
00:10:15In a 2002 study, scientists discovered that the light coming from other galaxies averaged
00:10:20into a beige color that was very close to white, just like the drink beloved by many.
00:10:28There is such a thing as minus decibels.
00:10:30The quietest place on Earth is Microsoft's anechoic chamber in Redmond, USA.
00:10:36The level of sound there is minus 20.6 decibels.
00:10:40Such chambers are built out of heavy concrete and bricks and are placed on springs to stop
00:10:45vibrations from entering the chamber through the floor.
00:10:50Bananas are radioactive!
00:10:52Wait, where did you go?
00:10:55It's not that bad.
00:10:56Bananas are rich in potassium, so each banana is slightly radioactive due to the natural
00:11:00isotope potassium-40.
00:11:03On the other hand, your body contains around 16 mg of potassium-40, so you're actually
00:11:09about 280 times more radioactive than that poor banana.
00:11:13But in any case, your body gets rid of that excess potassium-40 from a banana within several
00:11:18hours.
00:11:22There's simply no such thing as a straight line.
00:11:25You just need to zoom in close enough and you're bound to spot some irregularities.
00:11:29Even a laser light beam is a bit curved.
00:11:34In emergencies, fish form orderly lines.
00:11:37For example, when evacuating through narrow spaces in dangerous situations, school of
00:11:42neon tetrafish queue so that they don't crash into one another or clog up the line.
00:11:48Scientists think that this behavior means that fish can respect social rules even in
00:11:52emergency situations, unlike us humans.
00:11:58Hippos can't swim.
00:12:00These animals have large bones.
00:12:02These bones are so big and dense that it makes hippos barely buoyant at all.
00:12:06So these animals don't swim.
00:12:08Instead, they perform something like a slow-motion gallop on the riverbed.
00:12:14Hippos can also sleep underwater, thanks to a reflex that allows them to rise to the surface,
00:12:19take a breath, and sink back down to the bottom without waking up.
00:12:26Lego bricks can withstand compression better than concrete.
00:12:30A regular plastic Lego brick can support the weight of 375,000 other bricks before it breaks.
00:12:38Theoretically, it could allow you to build a tower more than 2 miles in height.
00:12:42But if we decide to scale this up to house-sized bricks, the price would be exorbitant.
00:12:49If you ever go to space, you can take your yo-yo with you.
00:12:52In 2012, NASA astronaut Don Pettit took a yo-yo on board the International Space Station
00:12:58and used it to show some tricks.
00:13:01You see, a yo-yo mostly relies on the laws of conservation of angular momentum to perform
00:13:06tricks.
00:13:07And if you keep the string taut, these laws apply in microgravity too.
00:13:12There's a theory that claims that we sweat when we're anxious, to alert the brains of
00:13:17other people that they're primed for that danger that's making us feel anxiety.
00:13:22Brain scans have revealed that when you sniff the sweat produced by a panicking person,
00:13:26regions of the brain responsible for emotional and social signals light up.
00:13:31And when you are anxious, your sympathetic nervous system produces hormones, including
00:13:36adrenaline, which switches on your sweat glands.
00:13:40There are rainbows on Venus, and they're called glories.
00:13:44A glory looks like a series of colored concentric rings and is caused by the interference of
00:13:49light waves inside droplets rather than the process of reflection, refraction, and dispersion
00:13:54of light, which produces rainbows.
00:13:59Protons look like bagels, spheres, peanuts, and rugby balls.
00:14:03In other words, protons come in different shapes and sizes.
00:14:06Their appearance changes based on the speed of quarks, smaller particles within them.
00:14:12If you look at the moon while being in the southern hemisphere, it will seem to be upside
00:14:16down, and the men on the moon will look more like a rabbit.
00:14:21You will remember more of your dreams if you sleep badly and wake up many times throughout
00:14:25the night.
00:14:26You're also more likely to remember your dream if someone or something wakes you up in the
00:14:31middle of it.
00:14:33Dogs tilt their heads while listening to people to pinpoint familiar words, like walkies,
00:14:38more effectively.
00:14:39It also helps them to understand the tone of your voice better.
00:14:42There's also an idea that if a dog doesn't tilt its head often, it's because it relies
00:14:47more on sight and less on sound.
00:14:52Mirrors facing each other won't produce infinite reflections.
00:14:56Each next reflection will be darker than the previous one, and eventually, they will fade
00:15:00into invisibility.
00:15:02Mirrors absorb just a fraction of the energy of the light falling on them, so the total
00:15:07number of reflections mirrors can produce is around several hundred.
00:15:12You can smell ants, since many species of these insects produce strong-smelling chemicals
00:15:17when they feel threatened or angry, or when they're being squished.
00:15:21Trap-jaw ants release a chocolatey smell when they're crushed, and citronella ants give
00:15:26off a lemony odor when they're threatened.
00:15:31Giraffes hum when they want to communicate with each other.
00:15:34Researchers think that this low-frequency humming might be a form of contact call between
00:15:39individuals that have been separated from their herd.
00:15:42It can also help giraffes find each other in the dark.
00:15:45But the coolest thing about these magnificent animals?
00:15:48Some scientists think that they can sleep-talk, too!
00:15:54And a cool bonus story for you!
00:15:57About a marathon runner who took over 50 years to finish the race!
00:16:01Japanese marathoner-runner Shizu Kanakuri was selected as one of the two athletes that
00:16:06Japan could send to the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
00:16:10But Kanakuri shockingly disappeared during the marathon race!
00:16:14It turned out that after a rough 18-day-long trip to Stockholm, first by ship and then
00:16:19by train, the man was exhausted.
00:16:23During the race, he stopped running because his condition simply didn't allow him to
00:16:27run further.
00:16:28The athlete stumbled into a nearby garden party where he drank orange juice and stayed
00:16:32for a while to recover.
00:16:34Later, Kanakuri was so embarrassed by his failure that he returned to Japan without
00:16:39notifying anyone, including race officials.
00:16:43So Swedish authorities considered him missing for 50 years before finding out that he was
00:16:48peacefully living in his home country.
00:16:51In 1967, the athlete was offered the opportunity to finish his run.
00:16:56He accepted.
00:16:5754 years, 8 months, 6 days, 5 hours, 32 minutes and 20.3 seconds after he started the race,
00:17:05he completed the marathon.
00:17:07It was a long trip.
00:17:08Along the way, the man got married, had 6 kids and 10 grandchildren.
00:17:13Let's admit it, who hasn't enjoyed leftover pasta when not in the mood to cook something
00:17:20fresh?
00:17:21But most people don't know about the most efficient way to microwave this pasta.
00:17:26It'll heat evenly if you dig a hole in the middle, making the dish look like a large
00:17:30donut.
00:17:33To keep your pastries fresh, cover them with a slice of bread.
00:17:37If you want to keep your cookies in a bag, put some bread inside.
00:17:40This will keep them soft and prevent them from drying.
00:17:45You can use rubber bands to tie plastic bags.
00:17:48Or you can cut the top of a plastic bottle.
00:17:51Place it over an open bag this way and just screw the two parts shut.
00:17:56When making yourself a BLT, which stands for bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, lace the
00:18:01slices of bacon together this way.
00:18:03This way, your sandwich will have proper coverage.
00:18:08The best way to slice bread is upside down, starting on the tougher side.
00:18:13This way, you'll preserve the shape of the loaf.
00:18:15You should also wait until the bread has cooled down to room temperature before cutting it.
00:18:23When you're having drinks outside, cover the glasses or cups with cupcake liners.
00:18:27This will stop all kinds of bugs from getting into the drinks.
00:18:32Try putting ice cream containers in Ziploc bags before storing them in the freezer.
00:18:37If you don't do this, the next day, you'll have problems scooping the product.
00:18:42Inside the plastic bag, your ice cream will remain soft.
00:18:48Instead of opening a bag of popcorn the traditional way, rip a hole in the side of the bag.
00:18:54This way, your hands won't get greasy.
00:18:58Ever dreamed of a perfect sandwich where nothing sticks out and the filling is spread evenly?
00:19:03Here you go.
00:19:04Simply cut round sandwich fillings in half.
00:19:07This way, they'll cover the entire surface of the bread.
00:19:13It's possible to turn the metal plate on your stapler's base.
00:19:16If you rotate it, stapler pins will be bent outward.
00:19:19It'll allow you to staple something only temporarily, and the staples can be easily removed later.
00:19:27Separating pomegranate seeds can be quite challenging, but not if you use this method.
00:19:32First, take a very sharp knife and make four to six score cuts going from the top to the bottom,
00:19:38cutting through the skin, but not the fruit itself.
00:19:41Then, fill a bowl with warm water.
00:19:44Submerge the pomegranate in this water bath.
00:19:47This will prevent the bright red juice from staining your clothes and everything around if any seeds burst.
00:19:52Then, gently crack the pomegranate open along the score lines.
00:19:56Then, just pull each section outward.
00:20:01There's a way to hold a burger without it falling apart in your hands.
00:20:04Put your three middle fingers on top and your pinky and thumb at the bottom.
00:20:08This will keep all the filling inside.
00:20:12Pulling the trash out of the can or putting inside a new plastic bag may turn out to be very tricky,
00:20:18but by drilling a few holes in the trash can, you can make this task much easier.
00:20:24This way, air can enter the trash can beneath the seal of the plastic bag.
00:20:28It'll make it impossible for the bag to vacuum pack itself into the can.
00:20:35Try eating your cheesy snacks with the help of chopsticks.
00:20:38This way, there won't be any grease on your fingers.
00:20:43If you stash away your garbage bags, fold them into a neat origami triangle.
00:20:48This will save you space.
00:20:52The right way to eat a cupcake is munching on it like you would a sandwich.
00:20:56First, pull the cupcake out of the wrapper.
00:20:59After that, break off the bottom of the pastry and place it on top.
00:21:03This will allow you to enjoy the frosting in every bite.
00:21:09Some boxes of chocolates have little dents in between the holes for candies.
00:21:13If you push such a dent, the chocolates surrounding it will pop out of their compartments.
00:21:20If you need to microwave two bowls at the same time, place one of them on top of a cup.
00:21:27When munching on chicken wings, debone them by holding, twisting, and pulling out the two bones.
00:21:35After opening a cereal box, some people transfer its entire contents into a separate container.
00:21:41Others fold the plastic and put the bag back in the box,
00:21:44hoping to finish it before the cereal goes stale.
00:21:46But here's another, much better technique.
00:21:49Here you go. As simple as that.
00:21:54When using a blender, fill it with the liquids first.
00:21:57Only after adding your milk, coconut water, or yogurt, put berries inside, fruit, or spinach.
00:22:05When you're crossing out some words, don't just draw lines over them.
00:22:08This won't help if someone wants to figure out what you wrote.
00:22:11Instead, write other letters over the words.
00:22:17Hold your piece of pizza so that it forms a U-shape.
00:22:19This will prevent the thing from flopping over.
00:22:24You can usually find some silica gel in bags, shoes, and many other things you buy.
00:22:29This gel is placed there to absorb excess moisture.
00:22:33Don't throw the packages with the gel away.
00:22:36Every time your shoes get wet, place the gel inside.
00:22:38Your shoes will dry much faster than they would otherwise.
00:22:43From now on, you can skip the chip clip.
00:22:46Here's a fast way to keep your snacks fresh.
00:22:48Just make several folds to prevent the bag from opening, like this.
00:22:54Ranger rolling, which means rolling up clothes while packing,
00:22:58can help you save a lot of space in your suitcase.
00:23:00It'll also protect your things from wrinkles and make your bag more organized.
00:23:05Use this method for pants, t-shirts, pajamas, swimsuits, and casual clothes.
00:23:10Unfortunately, it doesn't work for oversized clothes like sweaters.
00:23:16You can use a clothing or tension rod
00:23:19to hang spray bottles inside the bathroom cabinet and save space.
00:23:25The hole in a ruler can be useful if you want to hang the device on a hook.
00:23:29You can also place a pencil tip in this hole if you need to draw a perfect circle.
00:23:36If you need to fill a container with water and it doesn't fit in your sink,
00:23:39a dustpan will come in handy.
00:23:41Just position it in a way that will funnel the water straight into the container below.
00:23:48Instead of slicing a watermelon, try cutting it crosswise.
00:23:51Now you have a convenient way of eating a watermelon stick,
00:23:55and the juice won't make a mess all around.
00:23:59By using ice cubes for your iced coffee, you dilute your drink, and it loses its flavor.
00:24:05Try coffee cubes instead. They're very easy to prepare.
00:24:08Pour some coffee into the ice cube tray and freeze it.
00:24:13Apparently, there's even a correct way to eat chips.
00:24:17Nah, it's not as simple as popping them into your mouth.
00:24:19If we talk about such chips as Pringles,
00:24:22try placing them on your tongue with the concave side down.
00:24:25It's usually more flavorful than the other.
00:24:28Another trick, slide a long piece of paper into the can and then carefully pull it out.
00:24:34Here's your makeshift Pringles tray.
00:24:38A staple will effortlessly keep your key ring open while you tack on new keys.
00:24:44Most kitchen shears have metal plier-like teeth in the middle between the handle grips.
00:24:49They can help you crack nuts, crab shells, and other tough products.
00:24:53You can also open jars and bottles or remove herb stems with their help.
00:25:00The easiest way to eat mangoes is by cutting them into cubes.
00:25:03This way, you don't even need to peel the fruit.
00:25:08To untie a knot really fast, twist the loose end as much as you can and push it through the knot.
00:25:16The best way to peel a banana is by starting from the bottom where the black spot is.
00:25:21This makes the whole experience much neater.
00:25:23No more squished bananas and annoying strings.
00:25:29Sometimes you need to get away from your computer but don't want to keep logging back in.
00:25:33Put your mouse over the top of an analog watch.
00:25:36The mouse will perceive the ticking second hand's movement
00:25:39and this will prevent your computer screen from turning black.
00:25:44Try breaking in your shoes by putting them on while wearing thick socks
00:25:48and then blow-drying the tight areas.
00:25:52Activated bamboo charcoal can help you remove unpleasant odors and bacteria.
00:25:57Put it in a mesh bag and leave it in the room you need to freshen up.
00:26:00No more costly air purifiers.
00:26:04You can keep your cold meals cold and your food fresh by making a DIY ice pack.
00:26:09Take a sponge and fill it with water.
00:26:12Then put it in a plastic bag and leave it in the freezer.
00:26:15Once the sponge is frozen, it'll stay this way for a long time.
00:26:19Keep in mind that you should use a watertight bag and a fresh sponge.
00:26:24You can reuse your old curtain rings by placing them on a hanger.
00:26:28Then put your scarves or anything else that will fit through them.
00:26:31This will help you save space
00:26:33and make it easier for you to look through the things in your wardrobe.
00:26:37Your tummy acid can chow down on a razor blade like it's no big deal.
00:26:42Some penguins can totally out-hide us humans.
00:26:45And you could potentially turn a jar of peanut butter
00:26:48into a rocking diamond ring to pop the question to your boo.
00:26:52Sounds crazy.
00:26:53Well, it's all true.
00:26:54If you're itching for more facts like these and want to learn why salty crackers
00:26:58are more of a tooth hazard than sugary treats, then stay tuned.
00:27:05Mattresses get heavier over time.
00:27:07As we sleep, our mattresses soak up all our skin oils, sweat, and tears.
00:27:13Yes, I also cry at night.
00:27:15This creates the perfect environment for dust mites, fungi, and bacteria to thrive.
00:27:21Over five years, your mattress might collect up to 880 pints of body fluids.
00:27:27Dead skin is another big weight-adding factor too.
00:27:31With one and a half million skin cells shed hourly,
00:27:34these flakes pile up and become a feast for dust mites.
00:27:37An average used mattress could be home to up to 10 million of these critters.
00:27:42Your spilled coffee makes your mattress heavier too.
00:27:45Foam layers in a mattress trap the liquid and add to its weight.
00:27:49If you know Miss Piggy from The Muppets or Yoda from Star Wars,
00:27:53you'll instantly recognize their unique voices.
00:27:56It's hard to believe they have anything in common, right?
00:27:59Well, Frank Oz spilled the beans in 2021 in his interview.
00:28:04Starting with The Muppet Show and Sesame Street,
00:28:06Frank gave life to characters like Miss Piggy, Cookie Monster, Grover, and more.
00:28:11Then he ventured into the galaxy far, far away to voice Yoda
00:28:15and even came up with the alien's iconic way of speaking.
00:28:19Let's say you decided to move to the healthy side
00:28:22and started munching on carrot sticks instead of your regular, not-exactly-healthy snacks.
00:28:28Suddenly, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror
00:28:31and realize that your skin has a subtle orange tint.
00:28:35Say what now?
00:28:36Nope, you're not dreaming.
00:28:38All that beta-carotene in orange fruits and veggies can give your skin a temporary glow-up.
00:28:43Don't worry though.
00:28:44Just switch up your snacks and the oompa-loompa look will fade in no time.
00:28:49Some people believe there's no such thing as too much garlic.
00:28:52And they're right!
00:28:54For a fun science experiment, try tasting garlic through your feet.
00:28:58The American Chemical Society claims it's totally possible.
00:29:02Cut a piece of garlic, place it in a bag, put your bare feet inside, and wait.
00:29:08Thanks to a compound called allicin,
00:29:10the garlic will travel through your skin to your mouth and nose.
00:29:14Kids of identical twins share a special bond.
00:29:17Being considered both cousins and half-siblings,
00:29:20this unique relationship is due to their genetic similarities.
00:29:23They inherit similar DNA from their identical twin parents.
00:29:28While legally they are cousins, genetically, they're more like half-siblings.
00:29:33In fact, they share about 25% of their DNA, double the amount shared by regular cousins.
00:29:39This makes them more genetically related than typical cousins,
00:29:42but not as close as full siblings or identical twins.
00:29:47A man in the U.S. has been surviving on nothing but 20 potatoes a day for two months.
00:29:54Chris Voigt from Washington State Potato Commission wanted to show
00:29:57that potatoes aren't just a bunch of carbs, but are actually good for you.
00:30:02You may think that eating spuds alone may make you gain a few extra pounds,
00:30:06but Chris shed some pounds and lowered his cholesterol instead.
00:30:10By the way, in theory, you could even survive eating taters and butter only.
00:30:15Not only are potatoes cool on Earth, but scientists have also made them cool in space.
00:30:20They're the first plants ever grown beyond Earth.
00:30:23In the early 90s, there was an experiment about growing potatoes in space.
00:30:28The study aimed to understand how microgravity conditions affected the growth of potatoes.
00:30:34Potatoes were chosen for their resilience to different climates
00:30:37and ability to thrive in extreme conditions.
00:30:40We need our stomach acid to be super acidic to break down all the variety of foods we eat.
00:30:47It's so strong that it can even dissolve some metals.
00:30:51For example, razor blades dissolve in stomach acid pretty quickly.
00:30:55After 24 hours, they're already 63% gone.
00:31:00Double-edged blades can be broken within 15 hours,
00:31:03while single-edged blades disappear in just two hours.
00:31:06Batteries are safe, but pennies don't even get a scratch.
00:31:11Good thing our stomach has a protective layer of mucus and bicarbonate to keep everything in check.
00:31:16The reason we're taller in the morning than at night is the intervertebral discs in our spine.
00:31:23These discs are mostly water, and throughout the day,
00:31:26they get squished down from all the bending and twisting we do.
00:31:30But when we sleep, our spines get a chance to recover.
00:31:33Scientists have found that there are some pretty big gaps between adult brains and teenage brains.
00:31:39One key player in this brain game is the prefrontal cortex.
00:31:44This part of the brain handles important stuff like decision-making and impulse control,
00:31:48but it's not all grown up until you hit your 20s.
00:31:52Adults have their prefrontal cortex,
00:31:54and it's the part of the brain that controls the way we think and act.
00:31:58If a cow ever smiles at you, you're going to be in for a shock.
00:32:02They don't even have upper front teeth.
00:32:04Instead, they have a special dental pad that helps them munch on grass like a pro.
00:32:10When it comes to chewing, cows have it down to a teeth.
00:32:14But it's not all grown up until you hit your 20s.
00:32:17Adults have their prefrontal cortex in full swing,
00:32:20helping them make smart choices and think things through.
00:32:23When it comes to chewing, cows have it down to a science.
00:32:29They have sharp incisors at the bottom of their mouth for cutting grass
00:32:32and molars at the back for grinding it all up.
00:32:35It all works smoothly, like a quality food processor.
00:32:40Researchers have discovered a penguin species that lived 37 million years ago
00:32:44and would have been as tall as most humans.
00:32:47This giant penguin, also known as the Colossus penguin,
00:32:51stood at a whopping 7 feet tall from toe to beak tip and weighed as much as 250 pounds.
00:32:59To put that in perspective, today's biggest penguin,
00:33:02the Emperor penguin, is only 3.6 feet tall and weighs between 50 and 100 pounds.
00:33:09The researchers have also found the longest recorded fused ankle foot bone
00:33:13and parts of a wing bone from this ancient species.
00:33:17With their larger build, these giant penguins were able to dive underwater
00:33:21for longer periods of time, up to 40 minutes, to hunt for fish.
00:33:27Every year, people around the world take about 1.81 trillion photos.
00:33:33That's around 57,000 photos snapped every second,
00:33:37or a whopping 5 billion pics snapped daily.
00:33:41These days we take more photos every two minutes than were taken in the entire 19th century.
00:33:47Cheese!
00:33:49In Singapore, researchers gave cyborg cockroaches a spin in the desert
00:33:53to try them out for search and rescue missions down the road.
00:33:57Turns out, a team of 20 roaches decked out with computer backpacks
00:34:01can actually work together as a swarm.
00:34:04The scientists were able to steer the roaches by sending commands through the backpacks,
00:34:08thanks to a cool new algorithm they came up with.
00:34:11These high-tech bugs could be a real game-changer
00:34:14in disaster situations when it comes to sniffing out survivors.
00:34:19What do peanut butter and an engagement ring have in common?
00:34:23Both of them contain diamonds.
00:34:25Scientists have learned how to turn peanut butter into diamonds.
00:34:29They extracted oxygen from CO2, got carbon,
00:34:33and then put it under intense pressure, forming diamonds in the end.
00:34:37Double-stuffed Oreo cookies aren't double-stuffed, in fact.
00:34:41A math teacher, Dan Anderson, weighed 10 regular Oreos,
00:34:4510 double-stuffed Oreos, 10 mega-stuffed Oreos, and 5 wafers.
00:34:50Turns out, double-stuffed Oreos are only 1.86 stuffed Oreos.
00:34:56Next time you ditch your favorite candies because of your fear of cavities,
00:35:00think twice about what you replace those candies with.
00:35:03Crackers are even more harmful for your teeth than sugar.
00:35:06It's not sugar, but acid that decays the teeth enamel.
00:35:09Sticky crackers produce that acid.
00:35:12It's a good environment for bacteria.
00:35:14They're gonna feast in between your teeth.
00:35:18Water is something that just can't go off.
00:35:21How come there are these expiration dates on water bottles, then?
00:35:25The expiration date on mineral water doesn't refer to the water.
00:35:28It's about the bottle that can actually get expired.
00:35:32The thing is, over time, it starts leaking some chemicals that aren't quite safe.
00:35:39So, you're on a desert safari, but things don't go as planned.
00:35:46Now, you've run out of water in one of the hottest and driest places on the planet.
00:35:52You might think you can get some water from a cactus.
00:35:54But sorry, that's just a myth.
00:35:57In fact, most cactuses have protective chemicals inside them
00:36:00that can make you sick if you try to eat them.
00:36:03There are only a couple of exceptions.
00:36:05The prickly pear and one type of barrel cactus called the fishhook barrel cactus
00:36:10have milder chemicals and could give you some water if you really needed it.
00:36:15Now, if you believe you can escape an alligator if you run in a zigzag,
00:36:19well, I need to disappoint you.
00:36:21This isn't true either.
00:36:22Just run as fast as you can.
00:36:24Alligators rarely chase humans on land.
00:36:28They prefer to ambush their prey in the water, where they are faster and more agile.
00:36:33After all, they can swim at 10 miles per hour.
00:36:36So, the chance of an alligator chasing a human on land is very low.
00:36:40This zigzag running advice is more of a joke than a serious survival strategy.
00:36:47Don't believe the myth claiming you can survive a wild animal attack
00:36:51if you pretend to not be alive.
00:36:54Okay, in the animal kingdom, playing dead is a common defense tactic.
00:36:58Some animals even excrete certain odors to enhance the illusion and deter predators.
00:37:03Yet, for humans, that's different.
00:37:06Investigation into 14 different types of animals in North America
00:37:10revealed that, in most situations, it's crucial to stay alert and knowledgeable
00:37:14to be able to take the right actions in time.
00:37:18The next popular, but false, idea is that polar bears hide their noses with their paws while
00:37:23hunting.
00:37:24People think they do it because their black noses are easy to see against the ice
00:37:29while their fur blends in.
00:37:30However, experts have spent years using telescopes to watch polar bears hunting seals in the Arctic.
00:37:37They've observed them for a long time, even up to 24 hours,
00:37:41and have never seen them cover their noses like that.
00:37:44Unless they have to sneeze.
00:37:45Eh, just joking.
00:37:47Another belief is that running downhill will save you from a bear.
00:37:51This is based on the idea that their shorter front legs struggle to run downhill.
00:37:56In reality, bears are incredibly fast runners,
00:37:59capable of reaching speeds of over 37 miles per hour.
00:38:03And they can sprint downhill just as easily as uphill.
00:38:06So, you'll need another strategy.
00:38:09The myth that vehicle headrests are designed to be detachable and sharp to break windows
00:38:14is false.
00:38:15The primary function of a headrest is to prevent neck damage in a crash.
00:38:20Research and documents about the headrest design don't mention any feature for breaking windows.
00:38:25Plus, not all vehicles have removable headrests,
00:38:28and those that are detachable are not necessarily sharp.
00:38:35Touching a baby bird will make its parents abandon it.
00:38:38Actually, birds have a limited sense of smell.
00:38:41So, they're unlikely to detect human scent on their babies.
00:38:45This misconception often leads people to leave fledgling birds alone,
00:38:49thinking they're helping.
00:38:50But in reality, these young birds might need assistance.
00:38:54But also, it's common for young birds to leave the nest before they can fly well,
00:38:58and their parents usually to continue to feed them on the ground.
00:39:02If you find a baby bird that has fallen out of its nest,
00:39:05it's best to leave it alone as the parents are likely nearby
00:39:09and will continue to care for it.
00:39:12The widespread belief that humans use only 10% of their brains is a myth too.
00:39:17Advanced neuroimaging tools, like PET scans,
00:39:20show that the entire brain is active, even during sleep.
00:39:24These scans reveal continuous activity across the brain,
00:39:27involved in functions such as regulating, interpreting, and acting.
00:39:32This debunks the idea that large parts of the brain remain inactive.
00:39:37The myth that shaving body hair makes it grow back thicker and darker is false.
00:39:43When you shave facial or body hair, it doesn't change its thickness,
00:39:46color, or rate of growth.
00:39:48Shaving just leaves hairs with blunt tips.
00:39:52These newly cut, blunt tips might feel coarser or stubbier as the hair grows out.
00:39:57During this phase, the hair may seem more noticeable and could appear darker or thicker.
00:40:02The tall tale that daddy long legs are the world's most venomous spiders
00:40:07is just a bit of an overstatement.
00:40:09These critters aren't even true spiders.
00:40:12They have been wrongly accused of packing a dangerous venomous bunch.
00:40:16In fact, they don't have venom glands at all,
00:40:18and their tiny fangs can't even break human skin.
00:40:21They're not venomous, but they're venomous enough to kill you.
00:40:25They're not venomous, but they're venomous enough to kill you.
00:40:28The belief that everyone in medieval times kicked the bucket in their 30s is way off.
00:40:34Life expectancy is just an average.
00:40:37Back then, a lot of people didn't make it past childhood
00:40:40due to things like rampant infant mortality and risky childbirth.
00:40:44But now, with the advent of modern technology,
00:40:46it's clear that life expectancy is just an average.
00:40:49It's not as bad as it used to be, but it's not as good as it used to be.
00:40:53Due to things like rampant infant mortality and risky childbirth.
00:40:58But if you went through those early life hurdles and hit your 20s,
00:41:01you had a decent shot at seeing your 50s or even 70s.
00:41:05Most of our medieval life expectancy data comes from noble dudes,
00:41:09who often ended up as battlefield statistics, skewing the numbers.
00:41:14Soap is often seen as the arch-nemesis of cast-iron cookware,
00:41:18but let's bust that myth with a little kitchen science.
00:41:21The fear is that soap will take away the precious seasoning
00:41:25that makes cast-iron pans non-stick and awesome.
00:41:28Modern soaps are much gentler than those old lye-heavy ones
00:41:32that started this whole non-soap-on-cast-iron rule.
00:41:35Today's soaps won't harm your pan's seasoning, especially if it's well-established.
00:41:45The old wait-an-hour-after-eating-before-you-swim rule
00:41:48is more of a misconception than a medical must.
00:41:52The idea was that swimming right after a big meal could lead to cramps.
00:41:56But in reality, it's not a hard rule.
00:41:59Sure, your body diverts blood to your stomach for better digestion,
00:42:03which could, theoretically, leave less for your muscles, increasing the risk of cramps.
00:42:08But for most people, a little light post-snack swimming isn't a recipe for disaster.
00:42:15Bundling up because you think cold weather causes colds?
00:42:18Well, it's not exactly the air that's to blame.
00:42:21It's true that we often start sniffling when the temperature drops,
00:42:25but it's not the cold itself doing the deed.
00:42:27The real culprits are the viruses that cause colds,
00:42:31which just happen to love those lower temperatures.
00:42:34So while chilly weather provides a cozy playground for these germs,
00:42:38catching a cold still requires catching the virus.
00:42:41In other words, it's not the frosty weather,
00:42:44but the frosty-weather-loving viruses that you need to watch out for.
00:42:48Oh look, it's that time again when a Facebook privacy hoax makes the rounds,
00:42:53convincing people that a simple copy-paste can magically protect their data.
00:42:58Yes, the classic, I-do-not-give-Facebook-permission spiel is back.
00:43:03Charming users into thinking this status update is a legally binding shield against privacy breaches.
00:43:09Spoiler alert, it's not.
00:43:11These posts claim that declaring sovereignty over your personal content on your timeline
00:43:15will stop Facebook from using your photos, information, and messages.
00:43:20Facebook's actual policies and user agreements,
00:43:23which everyone agreed to by signing up, still hold the real power.
00:43:30Shaving a double-coated dog is okay?
00:43:33No, it's a big no-no, with some lasting downsides.
00:43:36These dogs have a soft undercoat and a tougher topcoat.
00:43:40Shaving messes up their growth balance,
00:43:43leading to a mismatched and not-so-pretty coat.
00:43:46Plus, there's only a 50-50 chance the double-coat will return to its former glory, if at all.
00:43:52Contrary to popular belief, shaving doesn't cool them down.
00:43:55It actually wrecks the coat's natural air circulation system.
00:43:59Other risks include matting, sunburn, and impaired temperature regulation.
00:44:04The coat might never look or feel the same again.
00:44:08Go for a de-shedding treatment.
00:44:10It removes excess undercoat, helps your dog stay cool,
00:44:15and keeps the coat in top shape, all without the drama of a full shave.
00:44:21It's time to look at common misconceptions and myths associated with treating frostbite.
00:44:26Rubbing frostbitten skin cannot help.
00:44:29It can actually worsen the condition and lead to tissue damage.
00:44:32The idea that hot water should be used for re-warming the affected areas is wrong, too.
00:44:37Use lukewarm water instead to avoid burns.
00:44:44In a supermarket, you pass by a shelf with eggs and try to decide which ones are better.
00:44:50The white ones or the brown ones?
00:44:51There's practically no difference between them.
00:44:54The egg's color depends on the breed of the chicken.
00:44:57These birds produce two different color pigments.
00:44:59You can take eggs of any color because the nutritional components of the eggs are almost
00:45:04the same.
00:45:05So, what came first?
00:45:07The brown egg or the white egg?
00:45:09Never mind.
00:45:10It's enough to use a small amount of toothpaste to brush your teeth, the size of a pea.
00:45:15But the ads show that you have to cover the entire toothbrush with paste as a marketing
00:45:20ploy.
00:45:21Manufacturers want you to buy a new tube faster.
00:45:24A plane leaves white lines behind in the blue sky,
00:45:27thanks to the condensation of carbon dioxide, steam, and burning fuel.
00:45:32In winter, heated air visibly comes out of your mouth.
00:45:36The same principle works here.
00:45:38It's always icy at the altitude where planes are flying.
00:45:41Exhaust and hot air comes out of the turbines.
00:45:44When it collides with cold air, it creates thick lines of steam.
00:45:48Almost all hotels have white bedsheets.
00:45:51They choose this color specifically to show how high their standards of cleanliness are.
00:45:56The whiter and brighter the sheets are, the more luxurious the hotel seems.
00:46:01It's much easier to see dirt and stains on white linen.
00:46:03It's like proof that you've checked into a cleaned room.
00:46:07Gasoline looks like a rainbow in a puddle because it can't mix with water.
00:46:12It forms a thin membrane over it.
00:46:14When light reflects from it and the water at the same time, you've got a rainbow.
00:46:19The Do Not Disturb sign on your hotel room door is not a requirement but just a suggestion.
00:46:25Maids and staff have the right to go there if they suspect something's wrong,
00:46:30especially if you don't remove the sign for 24 hours.
00:46:34Why do clocks go to the right?
00:46:36The sun is the main reason.
00:46:38In ancient times, when people invented the sundial, the sun's shadow was moving to the
00:46:43right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
00:46:47Mechanical clocks were first invented in the Northern Hemisphere,
00:46:51so it always goes right.
00:46:52Or, as we now say, clockwise.
00:46:55Why are the cups at parties colored red?
00:46:58Because it helps you quickly find your drink on the table among snacks and drinks,
00:47:02and all those other red cups.
00:47:04Here's a hint – write your name, Michael, on the cup.
00:47:08If your name is Michael.
00:47:09Also, red is considered a color that provokes action.
00:47:13At the psychological level, it seems the red cup is commanding you,
00:47:17Hey, drink me up!
00:47:19They believe yellow taxis have their roots in 15th-century Italy.
00:47:24One postal businessman used yellow cabins for delivering mail.
00:47:28He wanted everyone to recognize his carts.
00:47:31About 60-80% of people, mostly age 15-25, occasionally have goosebump-induced
00:47:38déjà vu moments.
00:47:40It's fleeting and unpredictable, and scientists are still not 100% sure why it happens
00:47:46and can't control it.
00:47:47To understand it better, they tried to create memories for patients under hypnosis.
00:47:52Then they asked them to forget or remember the memory,
00:47:55and it made them experience déjà vu later.
00:47:58Other scientists tried to recreate it in virtual reality
00:48:01with scenes in games that looked alike.
00:48:04The experiments made them believe déjà vu is your memory playing tricks on you.
00:48:09You get into a situation that's similar to a real memory that you have,
00:48:13but you can't remember it completely.
00:48:15Your brain notices the similarities and leaves you with a strange feeling of already seen.
00:48:21That's how déjà vu translates from French.
00:48:24Another version is that it's a memory glitch.
00:48:27It's more likely to happen when you're stressed.
00:48:29So when you're under pressure or have a lot of information to process at once,
00:48:34some of it can end up in long-term memory instead of short-term memory.
00:48:39So you take your best friend Max to the doggy park.
00:48:42He meets the labradoodle of his dreams, and they start playing together.
00:48:46Peaceful tail wagging quickly grows into biting each other.
00:48:50Oh no, they're going for the necks!
00:48:52You grab Max and rush back home.
00:48:55Well, in fact, there was no need to rush home.
00:48:58Playing with open mouths is called mouth wrestling or jaw sparring.
00:49:02It's a healthy way of interaction between dogs.
00:49:05They inherited this habit from their wolf ancestors.
00:49:09When a dog is a puppy, it has to learn some important skills, including fighting.
00:49:13Mouthing is just an imitation of it.
00:49:16When a puppy matures, it will know how to protect itself and respect boundaries of other doggos.
00:49:22All the chasing, wrestling, growling, and face biting
00:49:25is a way to socialize with others and have fun in the dog world.
00:49:29It's something like sibling rivalry and playful fights in the human world.
00:49:33Cute kittens and cats under the age of 2 also practice mouthing.
00:49:38They often tumble over each other and bite one another's necks to let their hunter instincts out.
00:49:43In the wild, cats are fast and merciless, and they can't hide it behind all the purrs in the world.
00:49:50Play biting with other kitties can also teach your little Mr.
00:49:53Biscuit to be more gentle when it plays with you and other humans.
00:49:56So, it's all good.
00:49:58Cats like to sharpen their claws on your furniture to leave a visual mark on their territory.
00:50:03They also do it to let their claws renew and stretch their back and shoulders.
00:50:08The couch seems perfect for it because it's not too short and is sturdy enough.
00:50:13Well, you gotta find a good replacement with the same qualities
00:50:16to let your kitty scratch and release its emotions.
00:50:19Cats freak out when they see a cucumber because it looks too much like their long-time enemy,
00:50:25snakes.
00:50:25They're naturally programmed to jump up in the air to protect themselves from a bite.
00:50:30Anything that looks similar, from toys to eggplants, causes a similar reaction.
00:50:35It's never a good idea to show them things like that for fun.
00:50:39It can really mess up their mental health.
00:50:42Fish have gills and fins, but they don't have necks.
00:50:45Instead, they have a series of bones that connect their skull and shoulder girdle.
00:50:50One of the reasons for that is it would be really hard to be fast while swimming
00:50:55if they had a neck waggling back and forth.
00:50:57Plus, the moment a creature similar to a fish developed a neck,
00:51:01science automatically classified it as another group of animals.
00:51:05That means the official definition says if a creature has a neck, we can't call it a fish.
00:51:11The oldest neck scientists have on record belongs to one unusual creature that lived 375
00:51:17million years ago.
00:51:19It was part fish and part tetrapod, which is a term for an animal with four limbs.
00:51:24Now, rain won't always make the ground wet.
00:51:27There are very hot and dry areas where rain can evaporate even before it gets to the ground.
00:51:33It's something called phantom rain.
00:51:35You can see dense curtains of drops coming from above,
00:51:38but at the same time, nothing's on the ground, and none of the water reaches the living beings.
00:51:44Rats laugh when you tickle them.
00:51:46They mostly giggle when being tickled, and during one experiment where researchers tickled them,
00:51:51they even chased after their hands in a playful manner.
00:51:54All of the great apes, which is a group that includes gorillas, orangutans, bonobos,
00:51:59and chimpanzees are ticklish too, and generally respond to tickling with a pretty distinctive
00:52:04human-like laugh.
00:52:06Penguins, dogs, meerkats, and many others also seem to pretty much like it.
00:52:12Different nations have different systems when it comes to vehicle registration,
00:52:16including license plate color.
00:52:18Australia goes with an unlimited palette when it comes to plates.
00:52:22They include many different motifs and designs.
00:52:25In the UK, cars have two possible number plate colors – yellow at the back of a vehicle
00:52:31and white at the front.
00:52:32Both have black characters.
00:52:34It wasn't always like this.
00:52:36Number plates in this country used to have either white or silver characters.
00:52:40But starting from 1979, all vehicles must have the exact plates we see today for a reason.
00:52:47Every registration plate must be made from reflective material.
00:52:50So, if the number plate at the back of your car is white, it might reflect white light,
00:52:55which is not legal.
00:52:57Elephants have enormous ears, and normally they can hold them out to scan noise back and forth.
00:53:03But there are sometimes distant vocalizations and noise they can hear with their feet.
00:53:08When they detect something that's far away, elephants freeze and lean forward.
00:53:13They transfer weight to their front legs and may even lift up a front foot.
00:53:18Hearing with your toes!
00:53:20That's quite a feat!
00:53:23Fun fact!
00:53:23Olympic synchronized swimmers, now renamed artistic swimmers, don't usually wear swim caps.
00:53:29When they compete, they put Knox gelatin in their hair.
00:53:33The result resembles unflavored jello.
00:53:35Athletes mix the gelatin with water, and it turns into a gooey mixture.
00:53:40After that, they comb and brush the substance into their hair,
00:53:43pull it into a bun, and put a headpiece over it.
00:53:46When it all dries, it becomes really hard, and swimmers' hair doesn't fall out when they swim.
00:53:52They often add glitter and other decorations to make their hairstyles even more exciting.
00:53:57The blanket octopus is called this way because of the females of the species.
00:54:02They're super-sized and rarely seen.
00:54:04They have a long fleshy cape which encloses their tentacles.
00:54:08Female octopuses are large, up to 6.5 feet in length.
00:54:12Thanks to this cape, they look even larger and much more intimidating to potential predators.
00:54:17But the coolest thing about these creatures is that the male blanket octopus grows to
00:54:21be a mere 1 inch in length, which is smaller than a walnut!
00:54:25This makes the blanket octopus a species with the largest gender size difference
00:54:30in the entire animal kingdom.
00:54:33Red Bull has published a video showing the so-called world's fastest camera drone
00:54:38following a racing car around Silverstone's Grand Prix circuit.
00:54:42The Dutch Drone Gods are a company that custom-built the manually piloted drone
00:54:47designed specifically for keeping up with cars moving at speeds of over 186 mph.
00:54:53It took more than a year for Red Bull and the Dutch Drone Gods to create a drone
00:54:57that could accelerate twice as fast as a Formula 1 car,
00:55:01reaching this breakneck speed in just 4 seconds.
00:55:04The drone's top speed is almost 220 mph.
00:55:09Recently, scientists have concluded that water might not be wet.
00:55:13You see, wetness is usually defined as a liquid's ability to maintain contact with a solid surface.
00:55:19It means that the water itself isn't wet, but it can make other objects wet.
00:55:25Okay…
00:55:27The Maldives' 1,000 rufia banknote has captured the attention of people from all over the world
00:55:33and received a lot of praise for its stunning design.
00:55:36The note features the striped pattern of the skin of a majestic whale shark
00:55:40and a green sea turtle against a vibrant blue backdrop.
00:55:44It's already been called the prettiest currency in the world.
00:55:50Now, wearing a tie might be more dangerous than you think.
00:55:53It can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5%,
00:55:57making you dizzy and nauseous, and causing headaches.
00:56:00Ties can also increase the pressure in your eyes if it's too tight.
00:56:04Plus, they're great at transporting germs.
00:56:07Gotta think again whether following that dress code is so necessary.
00:56:12A young girl from Washington broke a Guinness World Record
00:56:16by putting on 45 sweaters at a local library.
00:56:19Sophia Hayden pulled on each sweater individually all the way down to her waist
00:56:23before moving on to the next one.
00:56:25It was done to comply with Guinness World Record rules.
00:56:29She also had to make sure that none of those sweaters was ripped
00:56:32since damaged items didn't count.
00:56:34As a result, she broke the record for the most sweaters worn at once.
00:56:39The previous record was 40 sweaters, and it was set by a French 11-year-old boy in 2022.
00:56:45Later, Sophia's mother admitted that it had been tricky
00:56:48to gather enough sweaters for that attempt.
00:56:50The sweaters were then donated to charity.
00:56:53Now, it was Louis XIV of France who is believed to have brought salt and pepper together,
00:56:59forming the basis for modern cooking.
00:57:01At that time, only rich people could afford to add pepper to their meals,
00:57:05and the king liked his food to be lightly seasoned with just salt and pepper.
00:57:14Our Sun produces a sound, but, sadly, we can't hear it.
00:57:18It's emitted in the form of pressure waves,
00:57:21and their wavelength is measured in hundreds of miles.
00:57:24It means they're far beyond the range of human hearing.
00:57:29Now, while we're on the topic of space, let's discuss the fact that
00:57:32our solar system has a wall surrounding it.
00:57:35Well, kind of.
00:57:36It's called the heliotaut.
00:57:38And it's the region of space where solar wind isn't hot enough
00:57:41to push back the wind of particles coming from distant stars.
00:57:45That's why this region is often considered the boundary
00:57:48between the solar system and interstellar space.
00:57:52Another space fact for you.
00:57:54Comets smell like rotten eggs.
00:57:56I know, ew.
00:57:57Other smells that might surround them are those of burning matches and even almonds.
00:58:02That's because of the traces of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia,
00:58:06sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen cyanide found in the makeup of some comets.
00:58:11In 2016, promotional postcards were even made carrying the pungent scent of a comet.
00:58:18Now, in any career field, the average worker is productive
00:58:21for around 60% of their working time each day.
00:58:25But if we talk about office workers, this percentage drops drastically.
00:58:29One study determined that the average office worker is productive
00:58:33for a mere 2 hours and 23 minutes per day.
00:58:36The thing is, employees are interrupted in general every 3 minutes and 5 seconds.
00:58:41And it takes people a whopping 23 minutes to get refocused after an interruption.
00:58:46It means that employees get 3 minutes of work done
00:58:49for every 26 minutes they spend at their workplace.
00:58:52Unbelievable.
00:58:54No wonder that statistically, people working remotely are much more productive.
00:59:00Scottish soccer team Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club
00:59:04is known for using cameras with AI ball tracking to livestream their matches on YouTube.
00:59:10Well, once, in a 2020 match against R-United to be precise,
00:59:14when a camera repeatedly tracked an official's bald head,
00:59:18mistaking it for the soccer ball.
00:59:20Uh-oh, what a blunder!
00:59:24Now, speaking of sports, football teams wearing red kits reportedly play better.
00:59:29Accordingly, the color of your attire affects not only how you're perceived by others,
00:59:34but also how you feel.
00:59:36A review of football matches in the past 55 years has shown that teams wearing red
00:59:41consistently play better in home matches than teams dressed in any other color.
00:59:48One more awesome story connected to sports.
00:59:51In order to draw some of the most wanted criminals out of hiding,
00:59:54the U.S. Marshals Service once came up with an offer Crooks couldn't resist.
00:59:59They invited them to the Super Bowl.
01:00:02In December 1985, more than 100 people came to the Washington Convention Center
01:00:07after receiving a letter informing them that they had won tickets to the largest sporting
01:00:12event in the country. According to the invites, they had been selected randomly from a clearinghouse
01:00:18list of D.C. residents and were supposed to receive two tickets to the Redskins vs. Bengals
01:00:23game that day. But to get in, they had to come to a pre-game party to collect their tickets.
01:00:29And guess what? The plan worked like a charm. Over 100 criminals were arrested,
01:00:34which made Operation Flagship one of the most successful in U.S. police history.
01:00:41Now moving on. Your brain is eating itself non-stop. Wait, don't panic yet. It's a totally
01:00:47normal process known as phagocytosis. During this process, cells envelop and consume smaller
01:00:53cells or molecules to remove them from the system. Luckily, phagocytosis isn't harmful.
01:00:59It actually helps preserve your gray matter, keeping it in top shape. Boy, I could use more
01:01:04of that. Giraffes are 30 times more likely to get hit by lightning than people. Between 1996 and
01:01:122010, there were just 5 documented lightning strikes on giraffes that ended tragically.
01:01:17But if we consider the fact that the population of the species was just 140,000 at that time,
01:01:23it makes for around 0.003 lightning casualties per 1,000 giraffes each year. This is 30 times
01:01:31more than the number of tragic accidents involving lightning strikes that happen to people.
01:01:37Animals experience time differently from us humans. To smaller animals, the world around
01:01:43them moves more slowly. For instance, salamanders and lizards experience time not as fast as,
01:01:49let's say, dogs and cats. All because of the perception of time, which depends on how quickly
01:01:55the brain can process incoming information. And finally, snails do have teeth. Between
01:02:021,000 and 12,000 to be precise. These teeth aren't like ours though, so there's no need to
01:02:07picture snails with silly toothy grins. Snails' minuscule teeth are all over their file icons.
01:02:14So there. A flea is probably way faster than you think. It can accelerate more quickly than the
01:02:22space shuttle. A jumping flea can reach dizzying heights of up to 3 inches in only a millisecond,
01:02:28which is insanely fast. Acceleration is the term that stands for a change in speed
01:02:34of a certain object over a period of time. You measure it in Gs. Gravity at Earth's surface
01:02:40creates an acceleration of 1 G, which is 32.2 feet per second squared. The space shuttle
01:02:47accelerated at about 5 G. But when fleas jump, they experience an acceleration of 100 G. The
01:02:54difference is so huge because the flea's body contains a certain type of stretchy rubber-like
01:02:59protein. It allows the insect to store and release energy when it's most needed. Remember
01:03:05those yellow plastic bumps you can see along the edge of a train station platform? We officially
01:03:10call them TGSIs, which stands for Tactile Ground Surface Indicators. They may not look that big,
01:03:17but it takes a crew of workers to install them. First, they need to grind the old yellow line
01:03:23off the platform. Then they temporarily bolt a steel straight edge into place.
01:03:28This helps the workers know where they should drill holes. They need to have a special drilling
01:03:32rig that will create the holes with the proper spacing. Once they complete all the holes,
01:03:37a curious-looking grid appears on the ground. Then the workers start hammering in plastic dimples
01:03:43one by one. These bumps are part of the Platform Edge Warning Surface. Their purpose is to give
01:03:49a warning to vision-impaired people and let them know that they've gotten too close to the edge of
01:03:54a train platform. Lightning has an incredibly high temperature of about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit,
01:04:01which is five times hotter than the surface of the sun. Generally, it strikes more than 8 million
01:04:07times a day all over the world, which is approximately 93 lightning strikes per second.
01:04:12Despite popular misconception, it is possible for lightning to strike the same place twice.
01:04:17It also tends to aim for objects that are isolated, tall, and pointy. For instance,
01:04:23the Empire State Building gets hit up to 100 times a year. Are you one of those people who
01:04:29associate citrus smells with being clean? That's because in the past, people often used lemons for
01:04:35household cleaning. Its juice contains citric acid that dissolves lime scale and helps bring the
01:04:41shine back to such things as copper pans. That's why people extracted lemon oil from the peel
01:04:46and used it in wood polish. Even after commercial detergents and cream cleaners appeared on the
01:04:52market, people still preferred to add lemon oil for its pleasant scent. Boeing uses potatoes when
01:04:58they're working on improving their in-flight Wi-Fi. You can't make people sit for days at a time
01:05:03while new Wi-Fi systems are being tested, but they still need something that could mimic the
01:05:08conditions of passengers on a flight. So, why not take potatoes? It's a perfect choice because
01:05:14due to their water content and chemistry, these vegetables absorb and reflect radio wave signals
01:05:20the same way our bodies do. You may see lily pads as pretty delicate things that float peacefully on
01:05:26the surface of the water, like leaves. It's hard to believe that such a leaf can support a weight
01:05:31of 70 pounds. It's as much as a large dog, like the Bergamasco Sheepdog or Bernese Mountain Dog,
01:05:37weighs. But if you want a lily pad to hold this weight, you need to distribute it evenly across
01:05:43the surface of the leaf. For example, by placing a sheet of plywood on top of the lily pad. Even a
01:05:49single T-Rex seems rather scary, right? Now, picture 2.5 billion of these fierce dino kings wandering
01:05:56around different locations all over Earth. Scientists believe that's how many of them
01:06:01probably roamed our planet in total. But they didn't all exist at the same time. There have
01:06:06been more than 127,000 generations of these dinosaurs over a couple of million years.
01:06:12Still scary though. The moon is very far away from us. Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter are even farther.
01:06:19The solar system is huge. Our home Milky Way galaxy is even bigger. And don't forget that
01:06:25there are many other galaxies out there that we'll probably never find, even though scientists keep
01:06:30discovering new space objects all the time. But only 5% of the universe is visible. This visible
01:06:37part includes planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and other space bodies. We can't see the rest of it
01:06:43and have no idea what it might look like. A huge part of the universe, more than 70%, consists of
01:06:50dark energy. Dark matter makes up 25%, but that's something people can't detect. Dark matter doesn't
01:06:57interact with ordinary matter. It's also invisible and doesn't emit light or any form of electromagnetic
01:07:04radiation. But scientists believe it exists because of some unusual gravitational effects
01:07:10galaxies and galaxy clusters experience. For example, according to the laws of physics,
01:07:15stars located at the edge of a spinning spiral galaxy are supposed to orbit way more slowly than
01:07:21those that are close to the galactic center. The center of a galaxy is a spot where the largest
01:07:26amount of visible matter is concentrated. But stars travel at approximately the same speed,
01:07:31regardless of their location in the galactic disk. And this only makes sense if you assume
01:07:36that the stars at the edge of a galaxy are under the gravitational effects of some unseen mass.
01:07:43This mass might be hiding in a halo surrounding the galaxy. Did you know people can produce venom?
01:07:49Well, obviously not at the moment, but technically that's something humans could do. All reptiles and
01:07:56mammals are capable of doing that. We mostly see this ability in such creatures as snakes, spiders,
01:08:02or slow lorises, which are the only venomous species of primates we know about.
01:08:07Biologists have found a shared genetic past between venom and saliva, which means that
01:08:12venomous reptiles and mammals have a distant common ancestor. Saliva glands are like empty bowls,
01:08:19while venom glands are those same bowls filled with venom. We're not missing some special
01:08:24mechanisms or genes. We don't have special proteins that could help us fill those bowls.
01:08:29It means that anyone and anything that has salivary glands could potentially become venomous,
01:08:35from mice all the way up to people. There's a reason we all enjoy the smell of rain.
01:08:41This smell even has a special name, petrichor. Water doesn't have any particular smell, but when
01:08:47it rains, the air gets filled with a pleasant aroma. This happens because of special molecules,
01:08:53geosmin, soil-dwelling bacteria create. So you look outside and notice that it's raining.
01:08:59At this moment, small air pockets are forming. They contain tiny amounts of these molecules.
01:09:05The rain first traps and then releases such air pockets. By doing this, it sends these molecules
01:09:11into the air. Then they travel all over the place and produce that trademark rain smell.
01:09:16By the way, rain isn't always droplets of water. It can actually rain fish, frogs,
01:09:22or some other odd things you wouldn't expect to be falling from the sky. Such cases are rare,
01:09:27but they do happen, especially during powerful thunderstorms. Tornado winds can be so powerful
01:09:33that they will propel objects and animals high into the air. And eventually, they all have to
01:09:39go down. One small town in Australia reported hundreds of fish falling from the sky back in
01:09:452010. There are planets out there that don't have regular rains either. On Venus, as well as on some
01:09:52other planets and moons, the rain is made of methane and sulfuric acid. There's even a planet
01:09:575,000 light-years away from us where raindrops are made of iron. Deep within Uranus, Saturn,
01:10:04and Neptune, it might be raining diamonds. It's hard to prove it because the outer planets of
01:10:09our solar system are really difficult to study. But scientists assume that extreme pressure on
01:10:15these planets might crystallize carbon atoms, turning them into diamonds. They go so far as
01:10:20to believe that 2.2 million pounds of diamonds might form on Saturn every year. There's a small
01:10:26town in Norway that is located north of the Arctic Circle. There, the sun doesn't set at all in the
01:10:32period between May 18th and July 26th. That's why the inhabitants of the place want to eliminate
01:10:38the entire concept of time. During that period, it's always light outside and people act accordingly.
01:10:45If you came there and were walking in the middle of the night, let's say at 2 a.m., you could see
01:10:50people playing soccer, mowing lawns, painting their houses, or going for a swim. People can use just a
01:10:57small percentage of the total amount of water on our planet. It's true that about 71% of Earth's
01:11:02surface is covered with water. But we can only use 0.3% of that water. The rest is in ice caps,
01:11:10glaciers, oceans, soil, or floating in the planet's atmosphere. Which means it's not accessible to us.
01:11:17I hate to break this to you, but the sun isn't really yellow. Technically, the light it gives
01:11:22off is white. It's all because of the atmosphere, our atmosphere. There's an effect called Rayleigh
01:11:28scattering. That's when the gases in the atmosphere bend the light. The same effect is the
01:11:33reason why the sky seems to be blue or why sunsets look like a stunning combination of reds and
01:11:39oranges. On a lighter note, if you go into space, you won't immediately be weightless. Scientists
01:11:45mostly agree that space begins where our atmosphere is more or less a vacuum, which is 62 miles up.
01:11:51But it's not like you magically become weightless from the moment you pass that point.
01:11:56Let's say you're in a rocket that's speeding up. You'll definitely feel the gravity of our planet.
01:12:02But you'll feel weightless from the moment you start falling down.
01:12:06To orbit something actually means you're falling forever around that particular object. The Moon
01:12:11is orbiting us. We're orbiting the Sun. Our entire solar system orbits around the center of the
01:12:17Milky Way, our galaxy. That's just a crazy cosmic dance where they're all falling toward one another.
01:12:24So, if you're 250 miles above our planet, you'd have to travel 17,500 miles per hour around the
01:12:31Earth to feel continuous freefall. That's the speed at which the International Space Station
01:12:37and people who work there orbit around our planet. Meanwhile, if you turn the thermostat up high,
01:12:43the rate of heating won't increase. It doesn't put more effort in when you set a higher temperature.
01:12:48For example, if you set the thermostat at 85°F, you won't change the heating speed,
01:12:54only the target temperature. If you set it higher, you might end up wasting more energy,
01:12:59and you'd be too hot. The seven spikes on the Statue of Liberty are not there to represent
01:13:05the seven continents and seven seas, as some previously thought. The spikes stand for sunrays,
01:13:11while the circle is there as some halo. It's like when immigrants arrive on a boat,
01:13:16the statue greets them with, hello and welcome. Do you still believe that summer is so warm
01:13:22because, at that phase, our planet gets closer to the Sun? Well, it's a big fat myth. When it's
01:13:28summer in, say, the Northern Hemisphere, our planet isn't actually closer to the Sun. It's the
01:13:33opposite. The Earth is at its farthest point from the Sun during July and at the closest point during
01:13:39January. Summer is warm because our planet is tilted. During its orbit, the Earth's tilt allows
01:13:46the energy coming from the Sun to hit us more directly because the angle is steeper. Now,
01:13:52anteaters don't eat ants through their nose. They rip open ant hills with their claws and get the
01:13:57ants through the holes with their super long tongues. Those can extend twice as long as their
01:14:02entire heads. The tongues are sticky and covered in tiny spikes, so it's not that hard for them to
01:14:08trap those ants. Anteaters manage to swallow up to 20,000 ants on a daily basis. Now, T-Rex didn't
01:14:16have bad vision. Some research showed that they may have had depth perception even better than
01:14:21today's eagles and hawks do. Also, they weren't as fast as they are in the movies. Based on the
01:14:27structure of their body, they were probably moving no faster than 12 miles per hour. Any quicker than
01:14:32that would damage their bones. But that wasn't a bad thing because the T-Rex would go after
01:14:37dinosaurs way slower than itself most of the time. Ooh, that's one beautiful butterfly! Ooh,
01:14:44don't touch it! It won't be able to fly again. No worries, it's another popular myth. It'll live
01:14:50and still fly if you touch it gently. Butterflies have scales on their wings, which means some might
01:14:56shed off if you touch them. But those scales will shed off naturally anyway. Such sheddable scales
01:15:02may be the reason why they manage to escape when a spider catches them in their web.
01:15:07Now, wolves really don't howl at the moon. It might make a good movie scene, but in real life,
01:15:13they howl because they're active during the night. They look up not to stare at the moon,
01:15:18but because that way, the sound they make will travel better. The rest of the wolves will hear
01:15:23them from distances of 6 to 7 miles away. They howl to communicate with them and even have a
01:15:29special sound they make when they lose their pack. Wolf packs don't necessarily have an alpha
01:15:35leader. When more wolves get together, they get competitive and want to dominate others. So,
01:15:40it might seem one always has to end up as an alpha. But when they're in the wild, they stick
01:15:46with their families to help each other. The elder wolves naturally have higher status, similar to
01:15:51many other animal families. Have you ever heard that giraffes only sleep for half an hour a day?
01:15:58Well, it's false. They sleep approximately 4 and a half hours daily. It's fairly normal
01:16:03amongst animals that are active during the day. They tend to lay down and go to sleep for less
01:16:08than 11 minutes at a time. Crocodylia, the order to which crocodiles and alligators belong,
01:16:15can't run as fast as a racehorse. That's a myth. They can reach up to 12 miles per hour when
01:16:20they're on land, but even when they do, they can't move at such speeds for a long time,
01:16:25maybe 60 to 80 feet before they get tired. A really fast human will move at 12 miles per
01:16:31hour while walking, so many people could outrun a crocodile without even breaking into a run.
01:16:37But it's different when they're in the water, when they move at speeds of more than 20 miles
01:16:42an hour. Trying to out-swim them is probably not a good idea. Crocodylia are not lizards,
01:16:49they're not even related. They may look similar, but these two are completely separate orders.
01:16:55Archosaurs have two lineages, one includes birds and dinosaurs,
01:16:59and another one includes crocodiles. Lizards have nothing to do with them, the snobs.
01:17:05Alligators and crocodiles are basically the same. Here's another myth. They do come from the same
01:17:11family and look pretty similar, but they had their last common ancestor 65 million years ago.
01:17:18That's a long, long time ago, back when the primates diverged from species such as bats.
01:17:23They look similar because they have an excellent body structure to survive.
01:17:27It means evolution didn't have to add or remove anything to change that.
01:17:32Sharks can't smell a single drop of your blood from miles away. They do have a highly developed
01:17:38and enlarged brain area that's in charge of smelling odors, true, that allows some of them
01:17:43to detect very small amounts of blood in the water, like a drop in an Olympic-sized swimming
01:17:48pool. But the ocean is so much bigger and it's not that calm, which means it will take the odor
01:17:55away. Sometimes, though, when the currents are favorable and the day is good, a shark will smell
01:18:01the potential prey from a couple of football fields away, but not miles. Now that thing about
01:18:06sharks can't survive if they stop swimming, that's only partially true. Sharks breathe only
01:18:12when they're swimming because that's when they push water over the gills. That's true for some
01:18:16of the shark species, but there are many others that can pump water over the gills and get oxygen
01:18:21without swimming. For example, bottom-dwelling nurse sharks. Now sharks don't have swim bladders,
01:18:28that means they'll sink to the bottom if they stop swimming. But their bodies are adjusted
01:18:32to such conditions, which means rapid descents or ascents won't really harm them.
01:18:38The asteroid belt isn't that dangerous, at least not like in those movies where
01:18:43spaceships are flying through a dense and chaotic field of rocks smashing into each other.
01:18:48The asteroid belt is a zone that's 200 million to 300 million miles away from the Sun.
01:18:53It's a very isolated and lonely void with a lot of space in between. If you pulled all those
01:18:59asteroids from that belt together, you'd get a mass that's maybe 4% of our Moon. That's why
01:19:05astronauts get really excited when they see just one asteroid smashing into one another. At least
01:19:11something's happening there! Your brain can grow new cells. Well,
01:19:16that's kinda true and false at the same time. Most parts of your brain aren't capable of growing new
01:19:21neurons, but some areas can do it. For example, a part called the hippocampus. It's a very important
01:19:28region of the brain for remembering things, learning, regulating how much we eat, and some
01:19:33other vital biological functions. Many other animal species can regrow brain cells across the whole
01:19:39brain, but that doesn't work for us. Some scientists think it might be because we live longer
01:19:45than many other species, which requires a memory we can depend on. Now, that's why the human brain
01:19:51had to find a way to collect experiences across a long span of years. So, new neurons in the
01:19:58hippocampus, for example, could be there for making new memories and learning new things
01:20:03rather than just remembering the things from the past. Those new brain cells help your brain
01:20:08cultivate your past and use it to chart your future. Or just get yourself an elephant – they
01:20:14never forget! Well, I hate to break this to you, but money isn't actually made of paper. Which
01:20:21also proves that money doesn't actually grow on trees. Most banknotes are 25% linen and 75% cotton,
01:20:29which is why they have such a distinct look and feel. Back in the 19th century,
01:20:33money was made of parchment paper. That's why people could very easily counterfeit it,
01:20:38unlike now. The Eiffel Tower is almost 6 inches taller during the summer.
01:20:43When you heat up some substance, its particles start to move more actively and take up a bigger
01:20:48volume. That's something they call thermal expansion. When the temperature lowers,
01:20:53the substance contracts again. Such an effect is more prominent in gases, but you can also track
01:20:59it in liquids and solids, including iron. Because of this, people build large structures like
01:21:04bridges using expansion joints. They allow a structure some leeway to expand and contract.
01:21:11And such changes don't cause any damage. Wow, I have some pants like that!
01:21:15Now, honey can last for thousands of years without going bad. Bees land on flowers to
01:21:21collect sugary nectar. Then they transport it back to their hive and transfer it to other
01:21:26worker bees. These bees reduce the water content of the nectar by repeatedly drinking and
01:21:32regurgitating the liquid. Mmm, bee barf! Special enzymes in their stomachs break down the glucose
01:21:38in the nectar, and it becomes more acidic. Bees deposit this nectar in the honeycomb
01:21:43and start fanning it with their wings so that the water evaporates more quickly.
01:21:48The honey is now highly acidic and low in water content, which keeps it safe from spoiling.
01:21:53The bacteria that can cause the rest of the food to go off can't survive in such conditions.
01:21:59Now, a long time ago, people didn't elevate their mattresses off the floor.
01:22:03This practice started in ancient Egypt and continued in many other cultures. People realized
01:22:09it was cold on the floor, and they could warm their beds easier if they were off the ground.
01:22:14Houses used to be more drafty. Cold air came in from under the doors. There was no central heating,
01:22:20so people had to find other ways to stay warm. Warm air tends to rise, and if you're positioned
01:22:25higher, you won't be as cold as on the floor. Also, this way, people could keep their beds clean
01:22:31more easily. In simple homes, floors used to be way dirtier than today, and all that dirt usually
01:22:37migrated into beds. Continuing now to talk dirty, do you think people are naturally clean and tidy?
01:22:44After all, our ancestors, who lived thousands of years ago, already used latrines and were
01:22:49tidying their hair with combs. And they kept their homes and themselves clean.
01:22:54Our natural need for hygiene and cleanliness is driven by our sense of disgust. That's the
01:22:59very mechanism that helps our body stay safe and protects them from different infections.
01:23:04That's why we're more sensitive to certain smells and things. But we still have some pretty sloppy
01:23:10habits. For example, eating snacks over a keyboard. Ew! I certainly never do that.
01:23:16But there are animals that are even neater than us humans. For example,
01:23:20rattlesnakes like to keep their surroundings tidy. Some of them even use their muscular
01:23:25necks and triangular heads to sweep aside messy grass when they hunt. Many animals like to clear
01:23:31their path when going after their future meal. Reptiles too. Less vegetation increases their
01:23:37chances of catching food. Songbirds also prefer to keep it neat and get rid of uneaten food,
01:23:43eggshells, and other trash in their nests. This way, they also make their homes less visible to
01:23:49their enemies. Meanwhile, out in space, shadows are darker on the Moon than on our planet. That's
01:23:55because the atmosphere on Earth scatters more sunlight. But if you could visit the Moon,
01:24:00you'd observe shadows so dark you wouldn't be able to see where you were going. Also,
01:24:05you'd notice fresh footprints on the lunar surface. People haven't set foot there in a few decades,
01:24:10but the footprints look as if they were left just yesterday. Since there's no water or wind
01:24:16on the Moon, nothing can erase these footprints. So they stay there in their original form for
01:24:22millions of years. So be careful where you step, huh? Earth's core contains enough gold to coat
01:24:28the entire planet. And if you decided to do this, the level of this precious metal would be knee
01:24:34high. For thousands of years, people have been mining gold and platinum, together with a bunch
01:24:39of other precious metals, from underneath our planet's surface. That's why we have depleted some
01:24:44of the minerals in certain areas. But Earth still has a huge number of such deposits, especially if
01:24:51you get closer to its core. That's because of countless meteorites that collided with our
01:24:56planet during the period of its formation. Those meteorites contain different minerals, including
01:25:01gold. Back then, Earth was still in its molten state, which is why most of the gold, a heavy
01:25:07element, sank deep into its core. And the silicate mantle positioned over the core trapped
01:25:13really huge amounts of gold and some other minerals. Unfortunately, most of them are
01:25:17kind of out of reach now, since we talk about 1,800 miles below the surface and temperatures
01:25:23of thousands of degrees. Too hot, in other words. Sure, if you were about to go into space,
01:25:29one of the first things you'd think of would be your spacesuit. But do you know that it's
01:25:34possible to survive in space even if you aren't wearing any protection? Well, don't get your hopes
01:25:40up yet. It lasts for no more than 15 seconds. That's how long it would take you to lose
01:25:45consciousness, because oxygen will stop coming to your brain. In 1965, one technician accidentally
01:25:52depressurized his suit inside a vacuum chamber. He lost consciousness after 12 to 15 seconds.
01:25:5827 seconds later, his suit luckily got repressurized. The man later said that he
01:26:04remembered the moisture on his tongue started to boil. He also lost his sense of taste,
01:26:09and it didn't come back until 4 days after the accident. Now, you can't hold your breath in
01:26:14space either, so that won't save you. Your lungs will rupture at one point because the air inside
01:26:20will expand. The oxygen in other parts of your body will start to expand too, which means you
01:26:26will balloon up to twice your regular size. Almost like Dudley Dursley's Aunt Marge from
01:26:31Harry Potter. Well, not quite. You won't explode only thanks to your elastic skin. It will keep
01:26:37holding you together. And the liquids in your body will start vaporizing pretty quickly too.
01:26:42Doesn't that sound pleasant? No! The ocean has its iconic blue color thanks to sunlight. When
01:26:49the sun shines, the water absorbs longer orange and red wavelengths of light and reflects shorter
01:26:55blue light waves. This is only possible when there's a huge amount of water. So, the more water
01:27:00you have in one place, the bluer it becomes. That's why the water you pour in your glass
01:27:06has nothing in common with this beautiful ocean blue color. The ocean performs many
01:27:11important functions. For one thing, it produces 50-80% of all the oxygen on our planet,
01:27:17which means it keeps us alive. But it also helps the Internet to function. So, when you're laughing
01:27:24at a funny dog video or binge-watching your favorite series, yep, thank the ocean for that.
01:27:29The majority of the cables that power the Internet, and therefore allow people from all over
01:27:34the world to use it, run underwater. Those are submarine communications cables. Miles and miles
01:27:41of wiring criss-crossing the ocean floor. There are special homes for putting all that in place.
01:27:47They're designed specifically for that purpose. To make sure nothing damages the cables and your
01:27:53Internet, people need to put them on relatively flat stretches of the ocean floor. The cables also
01:27:59need to be away from old shipwrecks or large ocean ecosystems. Some of these cables have a special
01:28:05coating that protects them from damage. This way, no hungry sharks or curious fish have a chance to
01:28:11munch on the wiring. Now, trees talk. Well, not exactly like people do, but they have their own
01:28:17way of communication. Their roots are connected through an underground network of fungi. That
01:28:23network got its name of the wood wide web. Thanks to this network, trees can share resources with
01:28:30one another. That's how they talk. They use these fungi to transmit nutrients and water from one tree
01:28:36to another. For example, there's a mother tree or another tree that's stronger and older than others
01:28:42in the forest, so it shares some of its nutrients and sugars with small trees growing nearby.
01:28:48Thanks, mom! Now look at all these insects flying around on a nice sunny day. Do you think they get
01:28:54sunburned? Well, those that spend most of their time in the open don't. They have dark exoskeletons
01:29:01that contain melanin. That's how they block UV rays. But insects that live underground and in
01:29:06the water, or nocturnal creatures, have paler and thinner skin. If they spend too much time outside
01:29:12during the day, they can indeed get sunburned, or even worse, they could get eaten.
01:29:21Everyone loves a good landmark, the Roman Colosseum, the ancient city of Machu Picchu,
01:29:27the Giza Pyramids. But have you ever wondered how it once looked way back in the days when they were
01:29:33built? Or even in the time they were covered in ivy and forgotten by humanity? Buckle up,
01:29:39because we're heading on a time travel adventure to the world's greatest archaeological sites.
01:29:45Our voyage begins in South America, deep inside the Peruvian mountains. Behold the city of Machu
01:29:52Picchu. Machu Picchu is a monument to the ingenuity and power of the Inca civilization.
01:29:59During its prime, the Inca civilization stretched 2,500 miles along South America's coastline from
01:30:05modern-day Ecuador all the way down to Chile. And Machu Picchu was located at the heart and
01:30:11center of it. The historic site was constructed at around 7,000 feet above sea level, more or less
01:30:17around 1450 BCE. The gated city consisted of around 150 buildings made of stone. The Incas
01:30:25managed to build temples, houses, and even a complex aqueduct system to irrigate the entire
01:30:31town. And yes, they did all that without the help of wheels or any instrument made of iron. The
01:30:38housing model is somewhat similar to stone houses we see nowadays, with the difference that the
01:30:43Incas didn't use any cement to stick together the blocks of stone. Yet, they fit seamlessly on top
01:30:49of each other. Not only that, the Incas must have developed a rudimentary yet effective anti-earthquake
01:30:56technology, since in the event of a quake, the rocks would shake without falling out of place.
01:31:02If Machu Picchu had been built today, it would have cost over 70 million dollars to finish the
01:31:07entire thing. The purpose of the site is still a mystery to many historians. Theories suggest that
01:31:14it could have been built as a ceremonial site, a safety base for the Inca people, or even a retreat
01:31:19for royalty. What we know for a fact is that in the 16th century, 100 years after Machu Picchu was
01:31:26built, its population abandoned it, with tree roots taking over the majority of the site and keeping
01:31:32it hidden from humankind for over four centuries. It wasn't until the 20th century that the world was
01:31:38reintroduced to Machu Picchu, when a Peruvian farmer led Yale University professor Hiram Bingham
01:31:44III to visit the site. Since then, Bingham and many other explorers dedicated their lives and
01:31:51research to studying the archaeological wonder of Machu Picchu. Now, for the next stop on our
01:31:59time-traveling vehicle, the city of Pompeii in Italy. Pompeii has crowded our collective
01:32:05imagination for many years. The eruption of the Mount Vesuvius volcano in 79 AD and the destruction
01:32:12of an entire city is hopefully not something that will happen again. But I bet you're wondering,
01:32:18what did Pompeii look like on its last day? It took 18 hours for Pompeii's streets, markets,
01:32:25houses, and forums to be buried under millions of tons of volcanic ash. Thanks to some clever
01:32:31scientists, we discovered that the lava and ashes that covered Pompeii on its very last day
01:32:36actually helped to freeze the city in time. Different from ice, the cloud of ashes did not
01:32:42preserve the city intact. But as the items disintegrated over 2,000 years, they left voids
01:32:48under the earth. Archaeologists found that if they filled these voids with plaster, the shape of the
01:32:53buried city would soon reveal itself. And that's exactly what happened. Of course, it was nothing
01:33:00like the bustling city of 12,000 people that had existed for many years before the fateful eruption.
01:33:05Pompeii was a vibrant and rich municipality. The site's ruins revealed that many areas of Pompeii
01:33:12boasted impressive houses, some with balconies, which was a sign of great wealth at the time.
01:33:18And believe it or not, even some artwork survived the eruption. Archaeologists found well-preserved
01:33:24frescoes and murals of mythological creatures, all indicating that members of the high society
01:33:29lived there. Ruins show the city even had thermal baths and showers made with luxurious materials.
01:33:36Oh, and apparently, the people of Pompeii had amazing teeth. Yes, archaeologists could see
01:33:42even that tiny level of detail from the plaster molds they recovered from underground.
01:33:48Still in the Italian territory, we find one of the world's biggest tourist attractions,
01:33:53the Roman Colosseum. It was built as an amphitheater during the reign of Emperor Vespasian
01:33:58around 70 A.D. It wasn't until 80 A.D. that Vespasian's son, Emperor Titus, inaugurated the
01:34:06Colosseum. The monument was something to behold, with 157-foot-tall walls, over 80 entrances,
01:34:13and the capacity to host 87,000 people. All social classes and groups were welcome at the Colosseum,
01:34:19and this partly explains why it flourished for so many centuries.
01:34:24During the decline of the Roman Empire, around the 6th century A.D., the Colosseum started being
01:34:29neglected and abandoned. The monument was looted, and some of its columns and stones were used to
01:34:36build infrastructure elsewhere. Only one-third of the original Colosseum still remains, and,
01:34:42if it's big now, imagine what it once was. Greece was home to one of the world's largest empires.
01:34:49At the height of this empire, literally and historically speaking, more or less 2,400 years
01:34:54ago, the Greeks built a citadel known as the Acropolis. The Acropolis, which is composed
01:35:00of historical buildings, is considered to be one of the biggest landmarks of Western civilization
01:35:06to date. Tourists that visit the capital city of Athens today may be faced with yellowish and
01:35:11broken pillars of the Parthenon standing way up high in one of the city's hills. But way back
01:35:17when it was built, between 447 and 432 BCE, the imposing and majestic Parthenon was purely white
01:35:25as the entire monument was built with gleaming white marble. The statues inside were made of
01:35:30gold. The Parthenon is a 23,000 square foot temple held up by 69 marble columns. The largest blocks
01:35:38of marble are massive, weighing around 10 tons each. And the most surprising fact is that the
01:35:45marble didn't come from Athens, but from a nearby site that stood 10 miles from the Acropolis,
01:35:51known as Mount Pentelikon. Historians intrigued by where the primary material for building the
01:35:57Acropolis came from, found tiny and big blocks of marble all scattered around the floor of Mount
01:36:02Pentelikon. There was also a paved road that the Greeks had built to carry the rocks around.
01:36:08But perhaps the most impacting monument of all times is located at the heart of the Middle East,
01:36:14outside the Egyptian city of Cairo. The pyramids are considered one of the seven wonders of the
01:36:20ancient world. The Giza pyramid complex was built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu around 4,500 years
01:36:27ago. Between 20,000 to 30,000 people took part in the construction process. It's composed of three
01:36:34pyramids. The massive monument is made out of approximately 8,000 tons of granite
01:36:40and over 550,000 tons of mortar, which gives it the appearance it has today. Would you believe
01:36:47me if I told you that the pyramids didn't always look like this? Far from it. They were shiny white
01:36:53with a golden triangular tip at the top. This is because the Egyptians used over 6 million tons of
01:36:59limestone to cover the entire rocky, step-like structure, all so that they could gleam white
01:37:05under the unforgiving sunlight of Egyptian skies. The Pyramid of Khufu remained the tallest
01:37:10structure on Earth made by humans for over 3,800 years. It was the only eight-sided pyramid in
01:37:17Egypt and was believed to align with Orion's belt. It's considered to be the most aligned
01:37:22construction facing north. In 1979, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
01:37:30Let's head on down to the Indian city of Agra to quickly visit the Taj Mahal. You may know it as
01:37:35the Taj, but it can also be called by its more endearing name, a teardrop in the cheek of time.
01:37:42The Taj took over 22 years to build and was commissioned in 1632 by Mughal emperor Shah
01:37:49Jahan as a declaration of love for his third and favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It was made with
01:37:56ivory-white marble, and amazingly, due to tight conservation, it still remains very similar to
01:38:02what it was when it was built. I think all this talk of landmarks got me thirsty for some traveling.
01:38:08What about you? Tell us in the comments below if you've ever visited some of these sites
01:38:13or which interesting landmarks you'd add to this video.
01:38:16Braces for dogs, unimaginably colorful shrimps, fireworks spitting fish. The animal kingdom is
01:38:23full of surprises that prove that nature has the most inventive mind. A single strand of hair can
01:38:30hold up to three ounces, meaning theoretically, all the hair on your head could hold the weight
01:38:35of two full-grown elephants. Some snails can sleep for up to three years, but they usually get
01:38:44in 13 to 15-hour snoozes and wake up with a 30-hour boost of energy. Periodical cicadas come
01:38:51out of their underground shelters every 13 or 17 years. This is a biological adaptation so that no
01:38:58other animal can depend on them as a food source. Most animals' lifespans are shorter. Scientists
01:39:05theorize that early humans lost their fur so they wouldn't overheat while hunting. We instead
01:39:11evolved to store fat to keep warm, which is why your head is covered in long, thick hair. There's
01:39:17no fat on your scalp. Dogs can wear braces to fix their teeth, just like humans. And you might not
01:39:24believe it, but this invention has existed for over 30 years now. Dogs can also have dental
01:39:30fillings if they chipped one of their teeth in case of cavities and crowns. The smallest monkey
01:39:37in the world, the pygmy marmoset, could hug your thumb like a tree trunk. Owls are the birds able
01:39:44to see the color blue, and they don't exactly have eyeballs like humans. Theirs are more like eye
01:39:50tubes since they can't move inside the eye socket like your eyes. An owl must rotate its whole head.
01:39:58Butterflies feel smells with their feet, snakes with their tongues, and octopuses with their arms.
01:40:06Blind mole rats live underground and send each other information by banging their heads on the
01:40:10tunnel walls. Reindeers change their eye color depending on the season. Their eyes are golden
01:40:18in the summer and blue in the winter. Bees show the location of pollen source to other bees with
01:40:25a waggle dance. The fastest registered human punch is 45 miles per hour. A mantis shrimp strikes at
01:40:3550 miles per hour. These creatures also have 16 light-sensitive cones in their eyes against
01:40:42our three, and thanks to that they can see colors unimaginable for us humans.
01:40:47They're very colorful too, even to our eyes, and how they see each other is beyond our wildest
01:40:53fantasies. Pistol shrimps, however, beat their relatives in power because they close their big
01:40:59right claw with such speed that it creates a white hot air bubble underwater, and it's literally
01:41:05hot. The temperature of this tiny bubble momentarily reaches almost that of the surface of the sun.
01:41:13The oldest tree we know is called Methuselah. It's 4,700 years old. This thing was a sapling
01:41:20in the 27th century BCE. Dolphins sleep with one half of their brain resting while the other
01:41:27remains alert. Horses have one heart like you and me, but they have a heart-like organ at the bottom
01:41:35of each foot called a frog. It pumps blood up the leg every time the horse stands on it.
01:41:43Many types of seahorses are similar to chameleons, not only because of their ability to change color,
01:41:49but also in that their two eyes move independently from each other. Some seahorses can't change color
01:41:56at will, but they're born with color to blend with their habitat. For example, red for coral or green
01:42:03for algae. Baby flamingos are grayish-white. Algae and seafood they feed on contains a substance
01:42:12called carotenoids, and thanks to it, over time, flamingos acquire pink plumage. It's the same
01:42:19substance that's present in carrots, and your skin can turn orange too if you eat too much of it.
01:42:25The black and white color of a zebra doesn't help it hide from predators. What it does is help avoid
01:42:31bites from dangerous insects, such as tsetse fly. A fly sees a zebra, but when approaching, it flies
01:42:37by or crashes into the animal and bounces off. Nobody knows exactly why this happens. One theory
01:42:43says that the black and white coat of a zebra creates an optical illusion that confuses insects.
01:42:49Thanks to their tallness and good eyesight, giraffes can see danger approaching from afar.
01:42:55Their head is like a watchtower, and they warn each other of the threat in a very unusual way
01:43:00with the help of their low humming sound. Seagulls can drink salt water. There are salt-secreting
01:43:09glands near their eyes. These glands purify seawater very quickly, and the salty residue
01:43:15that comes out through the nostrils. Perhaps the most impossible creature in the world is a
01:43:21jellyfish. It doesn't have any sensory organs we're used to, like eyes, ears, and nose. It has
01:43:27no skeleton, but most importantly, it hasn't got a brain or a heart. Its body is almost entirely
01:43:35made of water. That's why if you take a jellyfish out of the sea and put it on the shore, it will
01:43:40soon melt. At the same time, there's a species of jellyfish that can live forever in a safe
01:43:46environment. Horseshoe crabs have two eyes on the sides of their head, five more on top of their
01:43:54shell, two near their mouth, and one on the tail. The latter is used as a photoreceptor.
01:44:00It catches the sunlight and tells the crab if it's day or night outside.
01:44:04Hippos don't get their skin burned in the blazing sun because they produce their own sunscreen.
01:44:10It's kind of pink sweat that covers their whole body. Kangaroo rats can go without water for
01:44:17years and sometimes even throughout their entire lives. They live in extremely arid deserts and
01:44:23get all the water they need from the seeds and plants they feed on. Plumed basilisk lizards have
01:44:30an uncanny ability to run on water. First, their hind feet are equipped with long toes with fringes
01:44:37of skin that can spread out in the water. As a result, a bigger surface of the lizard's foot
01:44:43comes into contact with the water. Then it pumps its legs incredibly fast when it runs on water.
01:44:49This creates little pockets of air that prevent the animal from drowning by keeping it on the
01:44:54surface. The cardinal fish has been called firework spitting for a reason. When this little
01:45:01critter guzzles too many ostracods, a type of zooplankton, the tiny creatures start to glow
01:45:06inside the fish's body due to their bioluminescence. As a result, the cardinal fish becomes more visible,
01:45:13exposing it to predators. That's why the fish spits the ostracods out, which looks like it
01:45:18breathes outbursts of bluish fire. Opossums are immune to snake venom. The secret is a peptide
01:45:27that helps these critters neutralize dangerous chemicals. This is why snakes are a favorite treat
01:45:32on opossum's diet. Meerkats have dark patches around their eyes, but these black circles aren't
01:45:39just there to make the critters more adorable. They also function as built-in sunglasses.
01:45:45The dark fur on the patches blocks the blazing sun, so meerkats can gaze directly at the sky.
01:45:52On top of that, the sentry, a meerkat that watches out for birds and other predators,
01:45:57can easily see danger and alert its mates. Salmon are skilled navigators who could put most drivers
01:46:04to shame. However, this competition wouldn't be fair. After all, salmon can sense the planet's
01:46:10magnetic field and use this knowledge if they get lost. Dingoes have rotating wrists, just like
01:46:17humans. This helps them climb trees, use their paws like hands to catch food, and even open doors.
01:46:25Sponge crabs are the icons of style in the animal kingdom. They dig and cut into sea sponges to make
01:46:32their very own hats. The purpose of this hat is protective though. Sponge crabs use them to hide
01:46:38from predators and protect themselves against bites. Flying squirrels glow under UV light,
01:46:45emitting pink light. It happens because they can absorb light and emit it back in another wavelength.
01:46:53Yo-ho-ho! A pirate's life for me! Let me stop you right there. If you think being a pirate or a
01:46:59sailor back in the old days was so cool, here's the harsh truth. It was not all about singing
01:47:06sea shanties and embarking on epic voyages across the seven seas to find the fountain of youth or
01:47:12caves filled with gold. It wasn't actually that cool being at sea all the time, and I have five
01:47:18compelling reasons to prove you some. Let's dive in, pun intended. Now imagine this. You're so
01:47:26excited. You've been waiting for this day to come, and finally it's official. You're going to become
01:47:31a real sailor. The captain tells you to get ready because the next day you're going to set sail on a
01:47:37journey that is expected to take somewhere around six months, if you're lucky that is, because
01:47:43storms and singing mermaids could complicate things. You pack a few things. Now let's pause this daydream
01:47:51for a quick second because here comes problem number one. What I mean by packing a few things
01:47:56is just the clothes on your back. Sailors would only have one set of clothes that they almost
01:48:02never washed during the entire voyage. That's because they believed that dirt and grease would
01:48:07protect them from winds and rains. Okay, back to the thought experiment. You kiss your family goodbye
01:48:14and head to the port where your new home is waiting. One of your crew members not so warmly
01:48:19welcomes you on the deck and shows you where you'll be sleeping. This makes you start doubting your
01:48:25choice of becoming a sailor in the first place because after seeing it you're certain that this
01:48:30is not going to be a five-star hotel comfort level kind of experience. So here's problem number two.
01:48:39The ships were absolutely crammed. Back in the day sailors would have to accept living in such
01:48:45conditions whether they were working for a big name like Christopher Columbus or not. The Niña
01:48:51and the Pinta were two of Columbus's ships and the best sailing vessels of their time.
01:48:56Yet again this didn't change the fact that they were so small that men had no place to sleep.
01:49:02Which gives us problem number three. Having to sleep next to one another on a crowded deck where
01:49:08they could barely move was not so great for sailors health conditions and going below deck to escape
01:49:14the snoring of their fellow shipmates was not an option because there was no fresh air there.
01:49:19In addition you could always come across a rat there so kiss personal hygiene goodbye and in case
01:49:26you're wondering how rats got there those little rascals are actually good swimmers. Also sailors
01:49:32were at sea no matter the season or the weather so they were often cold and wet which also made
01:49:38it hard for them to stay healthy and strong. Speaking of health conditions brings us to
01:49:44problem number four and it's food and hunger. Sailors didn't have their own mini fridges with
01:49:50different kinds of condiments back then like the compartments luxury cruises have these days so
01:49:56they had to come up with ways to store enough food that would last for months or even years.
01:50:02Due to that their food options were limited. It definitely wasn't like the food prepared by
01:50:07Michelin star chefs. One of the most common food options on ships was salted meat which wasn't as
01:50:14chewy as you might imagine or a biscuit called hardtack also called sheet iron or worm castles
01:50:21and there's a reason for all these creative nicknames. Hardtack was essentially a mix of
01:50:27water and flour baked into a cardboard flavored cracker. They were brick like and the only way
01:50:33they could be eaten was if they were softened with water. If only sailors could dip them in their
01:50:39afternoon tea right? Sometimes these biscuits would still be extremely dense then sailors would
01:50:45have to slam their fists down on them to break them into smaller pieces to be able to eat the
01:50:50stuff. As long as hardtack was kept dry it rarely got spoiled. The sailors would be able to eat them
01:50:57after a year if they had any left but most of the time it would be extremely hard to keep them dry
01:51:03inside wooden casks and then they would get infested with bugs that would leave small holes
01:51:08behind. However sailors would still eat them anyway, have to take protein from somewhere.
01:51:15By now you might have figured out that there were no fruits or vegetables in a sailor's diet.
01:51:20This caused vitamin deficiency in many sailors. So those toothless pirates and sailors in the
01:51:26movies you see? Yep it's all because of poor nutrition and the iron hard crackers probably
01:51:32didn't help either. But when sailors ran out of food not having a balanced diet was probably the
01:51:39least of their concerns. Back in the old times a voyage could take way longer than expected due to
01:51:45weather conditions. There could be no winds to push the ship further or a powerful storm could shake
01:51:52the ship and the waves and water could destroy the food storage. So when such a situation happened
01:51:58sailors could easily run out of food. Well they could throw the net into the ocean and catch some
01:52:04fish right? But sailors didn't eat fish even in the face of starvation. Many captains mentioned
01:52:10this in their log books which were basically captains diaries. The problem was not that sailors
01:52:15couldn't get fish. In fact many different kinds of fish were caught in their nets but they had to
01:52:20throw them all back into the sea. During the exploration era Antonio Pigafetta mentioned in
01:52:27his log book that the ship's crew caught an unbelievable amount of fish but they didn't eat
01:52:33any of them. Also in the same journal he mentioned that 40 of the sailors lost their lives. Naturally
01:52:40sailors thought that only poisonous fish were dangerous and because of that they were inclined
01:52:45to eat only the fish they knew. But even a well-cooked tuna could be poisonous and they had
01:52:51to learn it the hard way. But it's not like they didn't have any methods to check fish. Spanish
01:52:57sailors for example put silver coins on it. If the silver changed color they considered those fish to
01:53:03be poisonous therefore inedible. So they would toss them overboard. Other sailors would place the fish
01:53:11they caught on the deck and observe if flies or other insects came to feast on it. If they didn't
01:53:16land on the fish this meant that it was poisonous but if insects did come they considered it safe to
01:53:22eat. The problem of eating fish caught in the open sea dates back to as early as the 7th century BCE.
01:53:30Imperial healers in ancient China knew that eating fish was the reason why some sailors
01:53:35lost their lives. But they couldn't prove that the fish were poisonous and the mystery remained
01:53:41unsolved up until the 19th century. In 1886 a Cuban doctor finally figured out that some fish
01:53:48contained poison in their tissues and muscles even though they were considered a safe to eat breed.
01:53:55That kind of poison is actually something that is found in plankton. Some fish can eat this
01:54:00plankton without being affected. They store it in their bodies and as they grow the rate of the
01:54:06poison increases within them and this is something that doesn't go away no matter how long one cooks
01:54:12the fish. If you still think that life at sea back in the old days sounds exciting this fifth problem
01:54:19will convince you otherwise. Let's say you've managed to get along with your roommates, stay
01:54:25clean and healthy and eat regularly. But there's always a risk of getting caught by pirates and
01:54:32they didn't ask for things kindly. So if you didn't want to end up as food for sharks you
01:54:38would have to raise the white flag and simply join them. Not the career you were planning right?
01:54:48Good luck scrubbing the deck for the rest of your life!
01:54:56So get this if someone managed to uncoil all the DNA in the human body
01:55:01it would stretch out to around 10 billion miles. Hey do the math! That's twice the distance from
01:55:07Earth to Pluto. And that's not the only awesome thing our body is capable of.
01:55:12Trillions of nerve connections are powering your memory non-stop. According to studies,
01:55:17after looking at two and a half thousand images for a mere three seconds most people can recall
01:55:23if they have seen these pictures with 92% accuracy. Wow! Your body glows emitting tiny
01:55:30amounts of fairly visible light. This glow is the product of biochemical reactions going on
01:55:35inside your organism. The light waxes and wanes throughout the day. But even though it is visible,
01:55:41you can't detect it with the unaided eye. From 1 to 6 pounds of your body weight is made up of
01:55:48bacteria. And from 100 million to 1 billion bacteria can live on just one tooth in your mouth.
01:55:55So please brush. It's impossible to taste your food without saliva. All because the chemicals
01:56:01in your food must be dissolved in saliva before they get detected by your taste buds.
01:56:07Even though it sounds like a myth, eating too many carrots can indeed turn your skin orange.
01:56:13Carrots have high amounts of beta-carotene. That's a compound that can cause keratinemia.
01:56:18If you have too much of this compound in your bloodstream, it'll hold onto parts of your body
01:56:23with thicker skin. I'm talking about the soles of your feet, your knees, elbows, palms,
01:56:28and even certain areas around your nose. But worry not, this condition is not dangerous.
01:56:34You can easily reverse it by decreasing the amount of beta-carotene-filled food you consume.
01:56:40The chin muscles, scientifically known as the mentalis muscles, look pretty quirky,
01:56:45giving us mixed feelings. Just look at these creepy tiny tentacles. And still,
01:56:50they make it possible for us to create all kinds of facial expressions
01:56:53that involve the lips, chin, and cheeks. And yes, they are the culprits behind those weird wrinkles
01:57:00and crevices on the skin of your chinny-chin-chin. All because these muscles don't pull on themselves,
01:57:06but yank on the skin. People can live without some organs,
01:57:10leading a normal life. The human body consists of singular organs and those that come in pairs.
01:57:16And speaking of the latter, you'll only need one of those to survive.
01:57:20Your small intestine is actually not so small. It's taller than you, measuring around 23 feet.
01:57:28The cornea, that transparent front cover on your eyes, doesn't have any blood supply. Instead,
01:57:33it receives oxygen directly from the air. Human beings develop their unique fingerprints
01:57:39very early in life, while they're still embryos, just 3 months after being conceived.
01:57:44By the way, even if fingerprints get badly damaged, they tend to grow back to their
01:57:48original pattern. All people are born with a diving reflex. It can get activated and
01:57:54shut bodily functions if one is drowning or is submerged in the water. The human brain
01:58:00is by no means smooth. But if you decided to flatten all those wrinkles covering it,
01:58:05the brain would be the size of a pillowcase. But not as useful.
01:58:10Newborn babies only blink once or twice in a minute. For comparison, a grown-up person blinks
01:58:15at least 10 times within the same time. Our lungs are the only organs that can float on the water.
01:58:21All because they're made up of around 300 million balloon-like structures called alveoli.
01:58:27Also, even if we're perfectly healthy, our lungs are never completely germ-free or sterile.
01:58:33Your nose is a superhero! It's your very own heater, filter, and humidifier. This organ is
01:58:39lined with tiny bone-like shells called turbinates. They contain blood vessels capable of heating the
01:58:45air and goblet cells that can help humidify the air. Also, the air you breathe gets filtered in
01:58:50your nose before going further to your lungs. Now, every time you eat something, your esophagus,
01:58:57the organ your food travels through to reach the stomach, moves in a series of wave-like
01:59:02contractions, pushing the food forward. This is known as peristalsis.
01:59:08There's a bond between your digestive system and your brain, the gut-brain axis. This is why
01:59:13stress or brain issues can affect the way your body digests food. Now, even though hiccups are
01:59:19typically harmless and resolve by themselves after a couple of minutes, they aren't exactly
01:59:24pleasant. So, you should probably know that they might occur because of changes in temperature.
01:59:30The density of your brain increases throughout your whole life. All because new neural
01:59:35connections pop up. They appear because the structure of the brain keeps changing too.
01:59:41If you don't want to sneeze, press the skin on the bridge of your nose with your fingers.
01:59:45When you do it, your brain receives an alarm signal. Very quickly, it puts the brake on all
01:59:50those other processes, including the sneezing reflex. By the way, studies have found that
01:59:56sneezing is your nose's way to reset. A sneeze reboots the cells that line the inside of your
02:00:02nose. They're called cilia. The part of your brain that's responsible for vision is in the
02:00:08back of your head. Interestingly, the right side of your brain controls the vision on the left side,
02:00:13and vice versa. If you're in some loud place, for example, in a club or at a concert,
02:00:20close your ears to better hear your friends. Push the tragus, which is that pointy skin-covered
02:00:26cartilage in front of the ear canal, into your ear. Then turn this ear toward your friend.
02:00:32On average, when a person snores, the sound doesn't get louder than 60 decibels. That's
02:00:37as loud as a regular conversation. But sometimes, the noise level can reach 80 decibels. That's
02:00:43as loud as a working food blender. Just like salamanders regrow their tails,
02:00:49humans might be able to regenerate cartilage. That's the rubber-like stuff surrounding your
02:00:53joints. Scientists have recently discovered that cartilage could repair itself. This process is
02:00:59likely to be the most effective at the ankle, not that effective in the knee, and the least
02:01:04effective in the hip. If a person has asnosmia, which is also called smell blindness, they don't
02:01:11distinguish and detect smells. Your eyes never stop moving while taking in visual information.
02:01:18Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see the whole picture. These movements go unnoticed
02:01:23because your brain is a great video editor. It stabilizes the images and connects tons
02:01:27of fragments into one smooth video. The liver is the only human organ that
02:01:34can regenerate completely. Even if it's a mere 25% of the original liver weight,
02:01:39the organ can get back to its full size. Your mouth burns when you're snacking on
02:01:45pineapple because while you're eating this fruit, it's eating you back. Well, kind of.
02:01:50Pineapple is the only known food that contains bromelain. That's an enzyme
02:01:54that breaks down proteins. Luckily, your stomach acid knows how to deal with the offending enzyme.
02:02:01Now, we also have bacteria that can produce electricity living in our intestines.
02:02:06These bacteria give off electrons, which creates tiny electrical currents.
02:02:10This might be the bacteria's way to generate energy.
02:02:14Deja vu might actually be something like a brain processing lag.
02:02:21There's a theory claiming that it might happen when your brain is moving information from one
02:02:26part to another. If there's even the tiniest delay in that process, your brain will get
02:02:31the same information twice. In this case, it'll process it as an event that happened before.
02:02:37The DEC2 gene mutation allows people to have just a few hours of sleep a night
02:02:42and still feel great. They don't get tired and never sleep in. On average,
02:02:47such people wake up at 4 or 5 a.m. No more than 5% of the world's population has this feature.
02:02:55Your ears might pop or even hurt when you're on an airplane.
02:02:59You can solve this problem by simply chewing some gum. This opens up your eustachian tube.
02:03:05That's a small passage that connects your throat and your middle ear.
02:03:08Opening this passage helps equalize the pressure in your ears and puts an end to the popping.
02:03:13You can also yawn to open up the eustachian tubes.
02:03:17Your feet are likely to become bigger with time. Just like your nose. And your ears.
02:03:22You see, when people grow older, ligaments and tendons in their feet weaken.
02:03:26This makes the arches flatter, and the feet become wider and longer.
02:03:32That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like
02:03:37and share it with your friends. Or if you want more,
02:03:39just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!