17 Random Facts That Are So Bizarre That They Sound Fake

Most of the cells in your body aren't human.

The world is a wonderful, weird place. Heavy emphasis on the "weird."

Peacock

^^^ Me, talking to platypuses.

And I want to celebrate that weirdness! So, here's 17 facts that will remind you that how bizarre the world truly is.

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1. Our human ancestors almost went extinct 900,000 years ago.

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A little less than a million years ago, the species from which we evolved had a major population decrease from 100,000 individuals to a mere 1,280 individuals. For around 117,000 years, the population remained that small. 

2. That "metallic" smell on coins doesn't come from metal, it comes from you.

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Freshly minted money barely has an odour. However, as it gets passed from hand to unwashed hand, it gathers our bacteria and oil from our skin. As the oil breaks down on the coin's surface, it releases that "coin" smell we all know too well. Thanks, I hate it!

3. There's a species of caterpillar that basically uses antifreeze to survive the cold winters.

Warner Bros.

Woolly bear caterpillars are cold-blooded, so they can't regulate their internal temperature. To make matters worse, water expands when it freezes. If a cell gets too cold, the water inside that cell will freeze and enlarge, rupturing the cell membrane. So, these clever caterpillars undergo an amazing biochemical process to avoid that nasty fate. First, they fill their cells with glycerol, an alcohol compound that lowers the freezing point. It's a bit like salting the pavement to prevent them from freezing over. Then, they squeeze out some of the water from inside their cells, so it freezes in-between their cells rather than inside their cell membrane.

During the winter, the woolly bear caterpillar will, in fact, freeze over. But, thanks to their nifty antifreeze trick, their cells remain perfectly healthy. When the weather warms, the caterpillars safely thaw. They're kind of like the Captain America of insects! 

4. Oh, and while we're on caterpillars: their spit can break down plastic.

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Plastic can take hundreds of years to naturally degrade. Luckily, the wax moth caterpillar, also known as the wax worm, might offer a potential solution. A 2017 study reported that the enzymes in wax worm saliva can chemically break down polyethylene, the most commonly-produced plastic in the world. Maybe The Very Hungry Caterpillar was a radical climate text all along.

5. Despite not having brains, jellyfish can still learn new things.

FOX

The Caribbean box jellyfish is a tiny, tiny creature (seriously, it has a diameter of just 1cm) with 24 eyes. Like all jellyfish, they have a nervous system but no brain. Despite being small and brainless (relatable), these cool sea creatures can still learn from past experiences.  Scientists created an optical illusion for their jellyfish test subjects by lining their tank with grey and white stripes. To a Carribean box jellyfish, those stripes look like distant mangrove roots. At first, the jellyfish kept bumping into the walls of the tank. After just a few minutes, however, the jellyfish started avoiding the walls. In other words, unlike me, jellyfish can learn from their past mistakes! 

6. One day, 600 million years from now, the Earth will experience its last solar eclipse.

BBC America

From Earth, the Moon appears to be roughly the same size as the Sun. That's because even though the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, the Earth is 400 times closer to the Moon than it is to the Sun. But, the Moon and Earth won't always be so close!

Much like two high school sweethearts over summer vacation, the Moon and the Earth are growing apart. Every year, the Moon gets 3.8 centimetres (about 1.5 inches) farther away from the Earth. The farther away the Moon gets, the smaller it will appear in the sky. Eventually, the Moon won't be able to block out the Sun. The only "eclipse" surviving humans can watch will be the third movie in the Twilight saga.  

7. Computers existed during Julius Caesar's lifetime.

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While digital computers didn't come around until the 20th century, analogue computers have existed for a while. Julius Caesar was born in 100 B.C.E. The oldest known mechanical analogue computer was built somewhere between 150-100 B.C.E. It's called the "Antikythera Mechanism," and it was used to predict eclipses and other astronomical positions. 

8. A single cloud can weigh over a million pounds.

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Although they look light and fluffy, a single cumulus clouds can weigh around 550 tons, or about 1.1 million pounds. Despite being heavier than 157 fully grown hippos, clouds are significantly less dense than air, allowing them to float. 

9. It's possible for water to be simultaneously freezing and boiling.

ABC Network

At a specific temperature and pressure, water will reach its "triple point." At the triple point, water can be a gas, a liquid, AND a solid. 

You can see a video of the phenomena below:

youtube.com

Pretty cool, right? Water basically just said, "You can't define me. I'm going to be Everything, Everywhere, All At Once." Honestly, I love it for her.

10. There's a planet made of burning ice.

DreamWorks Pictures

33 light years away from us, there's a planet called GJ 436 b (Elon and Grimes are taking notes for their next baby name). It's an absolutely scorching hot planet, with temperatures of about 800 Kelvin (526.85° Celsius), and researcher's suspect that the planet is mostly made out of water. Despite the hard temperatures, the water remains a solid because, much like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury, it's under massive amounts of pressure. 

11. 57% of the cells in your body are not human.

Fox

They're microbes! Bacteria, virus, and fungi (oh my!) co-exist throughout your body: your skin, your lungs, and, of course, your digestive tract. The microbiome in your gut alone weighs around 2kg. But don't worry! These symbiotic microorganisms are here to help. Without them, we'd have a much harder time digesting food, fighting off disease, and producing essential vitamins. TL;DR: Christina Perri lied. She's not "only human", she's also a bunch of bacteria. 

12. It's possible to live with only half of your brain.

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A hemispherectomy is a surgery typically performed on young children with epilepsy. The procedure removes or disconnects half of the patient's brain. But here's the amazing bit – the remaining active portion of the brain will rewire itself to compensate for its missing half. 

13. Without saliva, we wouldn't be able to taste anything.

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When you eat something delicious – like a HobNob – you're not directly tasting the biscuit itself. You're tasting the HobNob chemicals that have dissolved in your saliva. It's only after the food chemicals have dissolved in our spit that that the taste-receptors on our tongue can detect any flavour.

If you're skeptical, you can test this fact out by drying your tongue with a paper towel and then trying to eat  something – you'll be surprised by how "off" it tastes.

14. The mantis shrimp has the fastest punch in the world.

Columbia Pictures

Their punch has a speed of 50mph, and it's powerful too! Even though they're only four inches long, these tiny shrimp can punch through their glass tanks. Their speedy punch is even more impressive when you remember the drag of water. Long story short, the next Golden Gloves champion might just be a crustacean!

15. When Western Australia collided with Northern Australia, it created pink diamonds.

20th Century Studios

More than 90% of pink diamonds are found in Australia, and, for the longest time, scientists didn't understand why. A new study offers a compelling explanation. 1.8 billion years ago, the landmasses that we now know as Western and Northern Australia squashed into each other. The impact created some major heat and pressure underground. There were diamonds, deep in the Earth's mantle, and all of that heat and pressure actually moved the carbon atoms inside the gemstone. As a result of the distortion, the diamonds went from clear to pink. Pink, as it turns out, is a colour of endurance. 

16. The smell of lavender and pumpkin pie can increase penile blood flow by 40%.

Fox

A 2014 study examined how smells impacted sexual arousal in men, and it turns out that some scents are hornier than others! Lavender and pumpkin pie was the most stimulating, but "black liquorice and doughnut" also had a strong impact. I want to personally thank this study for forever ruining my favourite Thanksgiving dessert. 

17. Researchers gave worms spider genes and now they can spin silk that's as strong as Kevlar.

Sony Pictures

While spiders make amazing webs, they're hard to farm because they keep eating each other and they only produce a small amount of silk. Silkworms, on the other hand, have been farmed for centuries – but their silk is very fragile. So, a scientist named Junpeng Mi decided to pull a Hannah Montana and get the best of both worlds by inserting spider genes into silkworms. Now, these little worms are spinning silk that's six times tougher than Kevlar.  One day, this silk might be used as surgical thread or as material for bulletproof vests. 

In the next Spiderverse film, I want to see at least one Spider-Worm character (ideally played by Heidi Klum).

What are your favourite weird science facts? Tell us about them in the comments below.