People Are Sharing Their Most Mind-Blowing Facts, And Here Are 30 Of The Best
As humans, we are continually learning. It's a process, and no matter how much we think we know, there is always something new and fascinating to learn.
Stephanie
- Published in Interesting
As humans, we are continually learning. It's a process, and no matter how much we think we know, there is always something new and fascinating to learn.
After all, how many times have you been to a dinner party where someone has pulled out a "did you know" fact that has completely blown your mind? That being said, there are only so many "tomato is a fruit" and "banana is a berry" facts you can hear before you start getting bored.
Luckily, Reddit user, u/RyanBlitzpatrick, has done us all a huge favor and started a thread on r/AskReddit, asking, "What's a fact that just blows your mind?"
Here are 30 of the best responses he's received!
#1 Dreams
When you dream, one part of your brain is making up the story, and another part is experiencing those events and is genuinely surprised by all the twists in the plot.
#2 That's Old
2006, which doesn’t feel THAT long ago, saw the death of two colossally old tortoises. The first, Harriet, was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos on the HMS Beagle. She belonged to Steve Irwin at the time of her death. Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin shared a “pet.” Estimated to have lived 176 years.
The second, Adwaita, was born before the United States declared its independence from England. Think of it: just 14 years ago, there was a land creature alive that was older than our country. Just incredible.
- Guild N. Stern
#3 Lost In Space
November 2, 2000 was the last time all humans were on the planet together. Since then at least one person has remained on the international space station.
- Scagsy
#4 A Good Year
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year.
Also, that same year, Betty White was already 7 years old.
- Scagsy
#5 That's One Old Tree
The oldest living tree in the world, Methuselah, is 4851 years old.
- Iapetos
#6 Woah
That the Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire.
- Kit Tan
#7 Don't Forget Your Earplugs
The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, traveled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.
That's like you standing in New York and hearing a sound from San Francisco.
#8 What?
If time travel were possible, you would need a time-and-space-machine to survive the trip, otherwise when you traveled back in time, the planet would be at a different point in its rotation around the sun and our solar system would be at a different point in space as it rotates, which means you'd travel back in time and be in an empty part of space.
#9 Let's Go
The International Space station is closer to the earth than San Francisco is to L.A.
#10 Stone Cold Fox
Arctic foxes can survive temperatures as low as -70 degrees Celsius.
- Wubbleyew
#11 It's Pretty Though
If an underwater bubble is collapsed by loud sound, light is produced and no one knows why.
#12 Interesting
Some people don’t have an inner monologue, like they literally don’t have a voice in their head.
#13 That's Some Good Luck
A woman once jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building but the wind pushed her back and she fell on a ledge on the 85th floor. She survived.
- Tivoli
#14 Wait, Do We?
The fact that nobody knows if we all see colors the same way.
#15 They What?
That there are people in the world who don't like music. Not one specific type, but music as a whole.
That both blows my mind and disturbs me.
#16 That's Dedication
I still can’t get over the fact that Teddy Roosevelt got shot and continued to give a three hour speech.
- Hunter
#17 Long Live The Queen
Ant biologists still don't know the maximum life span of most ant queens. They just live too long to keep track, and they're not too easy to keep in captivity. The longest one on record is like 30 years old, and there could easily be species that live longer than that.
- My O My
#18 Tough Termites
There is a termite colony in the Amazon Rain Forest that is the size of Great Britain and is almost 4,000 years old. There are also hundreds of millions of termite mounds.
#19 This Is Not A Joke
The U.S government has an official plan for a Zombie apocalypse. CONPLAN 8888 also known as Counter-Zombie Dominance was written in 2011. And just in case you think it's weird bureaucratic humor, the first line reads, 'This plan was not actually designed as a joke.'
#20 So Many Trees
There are more trees on Earth than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Confirmed by NASA.
#21 Heavy
A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoon of material from one would weigh around 10 million tons.
- pei meow
#22 Hmm
If the timeline of the universe (up to now) was compressed into a year starting on new year's day, Homo sapiens would appear at 11:54 pm on December 31st.
#23 Mito... What?
Mitochondria is only passed down by mother so there's a concept of mitochondrial eve, all humans today have their mitochondrial DNA derived from her.
#24 Banana-berries?
Strawberries aren’t berries. But bananas are.
- pei meow
#25 The Fermi Paradox
With the number of potentially habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, it’s very strange that we haven’t detected alien signals of any kind so far.
There’s lots of theories as to why that is, but my favorite is called the great silence Dark Forest (which sounds way cooler). Basically everyone else out there is being quiet and not transmitting because they know of some danger that we are unaware of, and they don’t want it to find them. Gives me chills.
Edit: It’s interesting that most of the replies here, joking or serious, correspond to legitimate theories on the Fermi Paradox.
- Scagsy
#26 Big Bacteria
That the biggest bacteria species known, Thiomargarita Namibiensis, can have a maximum diameter of 0.7 millimeters, which is big enough for you to see it without a microscope.
That's insane if you consider that your average bacteria species has a diameter of 0.001 millimeters.
#27 Mind Blowing Indeed
How a computer does what it does. Blows my mind how 1's and 0's can do so much. Maybe I'm uneducated, but still mind blowing.
- Johnny
#28 Eek
A pig will eat a whole human body except for the teeth.
- pei meow
#29 The Human Brain
The way the human brain works. These cells that are powered by tiny jolts of electricity are collectively having conscious thoughts, coming up with morals and empathy and every human behavior.
- Rissie
#30 That's Pretty Awesome
That Neutrinos have mass and every second of every day about a billion of them are going through every square inch of your body - but the space between your atoms is so huge there's pretty much a 0% chance they will ever hit you.
- Jus