Redditor Not_a_Replicant_ asked:
"What's a cool fact you think others should know?"
Here were some of those facts.
Blood In The Water
"Human's ability smell petrichor (smell of wet earth from rain) is greater than a Shark's ability to smell blood in water."-issaparadox
"Wiki says: The human nose is extremely sensitive to geosmin and is able to detect it at concentrations as low as 400 parts per trillion. Some scientists believe that humans appreciate the rain scent because ancestors may have relied on rainy weather for survival."-broxae
Your Anatomy Literally Doesn't Match
"Muscles do not develop the same in everyone and their exact origins/insertions can differ between people. In some the biceps have three or more heads, as opposed to the normal two."
"Some muscles are entirely absent, such as the psoas minor (found in about 40% of humans) and the sternalis (only 7.8%)."-Ruffled_Ferret
Poisons In The Air
"Acacia trees were shown to send chemical signals to other trees that they were being overgrazed on, causing the other Acacia trees to increase the production of a specific chemical that would kill the animals overgrazing on them."-RustyCopal
"DMT is found in many different types of grass, even. It is found naturally occurring in way more places than people realize, but you'd need quite a bit of grass to extract enough for consumption lol"--Psychonautics
These facts may make you stop and reexamine more of the things you encounter on a day to day basis.
Feed The Dogs--Tuppence A Bag
"Dogs that are slightly underweight live an average of two years longer than dogs that are slightly overweight."-Holybull79
"Scientists also found that mice who were fed all their calories during a single feeding lived longer than those who were fed the same amount of calories but broken up throughout the day."-Lurkay1
Aeronautics
"I always find it amazing that the first flight and first moon landing essentially happened within 65-70 years of one another."
"Also a modern day iPhone has more processing power than the entire computer set up NASA has for that mission."-AmerisaurausRex
"Eugene Aldrin, the father of the famous moon landing astronaut Buzz Aldrin, not only witnessed the Wright brothers' first flight but also went to see his son land on the moon in his lifespan. We've been quick!"-cfitzi
Mr. Sandman-Send Me A Dream
"In the pineal gland in your brain, over time it will start to form tiny calcification, little mineral buildups. There is no known function for these but scientists named it corpora arenacea also known as dream sand."-jimbo-g
"René Decantes believed it was where our rational thought comes from. And possibly where our soul hangs out. (I think the second part is a pretty interesting thought)"-HalpOooos
Defeca Spacea
"There was a phantom poop on an Apollo mission. A poop, floating around, that none of the astronauts said was theirs."-chalk_in_boots
"I'm not in a position to look them up at the moment but the transcript of the conversation is amazing."-stierney49
"https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a410/AS10_CM.PDF page 416"-ACERVIDAE
Or they could simply come to mind one day and bring you a smile you've been needing.
Wrong Or Wright?
"They took a piece of the original Wright flyer to the moon with them on Apollo 11. Also, the picture taken of the Wright flyer during the famous first flight was taken by someone who had never seen a camera before that day."
"That was the first photo he had ever taken. The photographer's name was John T. Daniels. As others have said, all he did was press a button to activate the shutter."
"Having been his first time seeing a camera and his first time seeing an airplane flying, I still think that's pretty mind-blowing."
"Later that day, while retrieving the aircraft after the 4th flight, a gust of wind flipped the plane over. Daniels was caught in the crash but uninjured, while the plane was completely destroyed. Daniels would go on to brag about being the first man to survive a plane crash."
"Unfortunately, the Wrights would eventually experience the first fatal airplane crash too, on September 17, 1908. Thomas E. Selfridge was a US Army lieutenant who was flying with Orville Wright to look into potential military uses for aircraft."
"During the flight, one of the propellers broke apart, causing damage to nearby control structures on the aircraft. Orville did a commendable job controlling the aircraft, but it still crashed nose-first, killing Selfridge and severely injuring Orville."
"An airfield in Michigan was named after him, and you can see a piece of the broken propeller on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force."
"If wikipedia links aren't enough for you, I highly recommend Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies, by Lawrence Goldstone."
"It goes much deeper into the Wright Brothers, their bitter rivalries with other aviation pioneers at the time, and the legal battles that would follow their success for decades to come."-dog_in_the_vent
One Fish, Two Fish
"The Devil's Hole Pupfish!!! It's a critically endangered fish, measuring about 1.2" (30mm) they live in an isolated body of water in the Devils Hole in Nevada. The water temperature is consistently 91 degrees (33*C), which is very warm for most fish."
"Devil's Hole is a water filled cavern stretching into a rocky hillside at an elevation of 2,400 ft, (730m) Devil's hole is over 430 feet deep (130m) and connected to a massive underground aquifer below that- but the Devil's Hole Pup Fish only occupy the upper 80ft of Devil's Hole. It gets much much smaller than that!"
"They primarily eat, live and spawn on a small shelf measuring just 11x16 ft (3.5x5m) with a total area of 176sqft (17.5 m). They have been living in this shelf, as an isolated species for up to 60,000 years!?!"
"They were discovered in 1930, and since then have faced many trials, agriculture trying to drain the water, vandalism, and outright attacks. They are now surrounded by protective fences and surveillance."
"Since 1972 (200 fish) the population spiked at 550 in 1995, but then saw a slow decline- at its lowest count in 2013 it was down to only 35 individuals."
"Thankfully it's back up as of 2019 to 136 individuals. There have been multiple attempts at conversation even going so far as to build an exact replica of the Devils Hole 22ft deep! (6.7m) and have raised many fish there."
"They have a very fascinating history, and remain largely a mystery. For such a tiny fish- millions have been spent on conversation efforts and protections, legal battles and defense."
"I think it's all completely worth it, they are the single most endangered fish on the planet and are completely unique to the Devil's Hole."-umamifiend
Saved From The 'Bies
"Opossums generally cannot get rabies. Their body temperature is too low for the virus."
"Also the stomach acid of a vulture is so highly acidic it kills rabies virus and most bacteria, which is why they can eat dead disgusting rotting things."
"To clarify, I mean vultures stomachs are crazy super powerful and destroy just about anything that gets in contact with the stomach acid, where we would get very sick from eating a rotting racoon."
"Also so happy to see all the interest in opossums and vultures. They are very interesting creatures that are gravely misunderstood and get a pretty bad rep."
"Opossums are master tick destroyers that generally want nothing to do with humans or are pretty chill about us. Vultures are a critical clean up crew that prevent the spread of disease in the environment that rotting carcasses could spread, such as rabies.""-ginpanda
The world is just so cool, that no matter how many facts you do learn, you can always learn more.
So much is going on beneath the surface on our world, and it's up to us to uncover and share each and every very fascinating fact to keep everybody's mind expanding.
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