People Are Sharing Super Fascinating Facts That Aren't Widely Known — Consider My Interest Piqued

    You learn something new every day!

    Morgan Murrell
    by Morgan Murrell

    BuzzFeed Staff

    Recently, Reddit user u/graybeingsocial asked, "What is a disturbing fact most people are unaware of?" And let's just say there are a lot of things that we can now label under "uncommon knowledge."

    NBC

    1. "Drowning is quiet and most kids drown right in front of the person that’s supposed to be watching them." —opossum-effigy

    someone lifting their hand out of the water as they go under
    Archibald Otic / Getty Images/EyeEm

    According to the organization, Stop Drowning Now, "Drowning is fast and silent. It can happen in as little as 20–60 seconds. Eighty-seven percent of drowning fatalities happen in home pools or hot tubs for children younger than five. Most take place in pools owned by family or friends."

    2. "A wombat's poop is the shape of a cube." —ash-wentworth

    close up of a wombat
    Picture Alliance / dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

    According to Gizmodo, "Bare-nosed wombats can excrete four to eight scat pieces at a time and may poop up to 100 cubes a day."

    3. "Edgar Allen Poe wrote a novel in 1838 in which four shipwrecked survivors, at the point of starvation, choose to resort to cannibalism. So they kill the young cabin boy, Richard Parker, and eat him." — trendz19

    Bettmann / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images

    According to BBC, "Poe summoned up in his story the same name of a man who, 50 years later in real life, would be shipwrecked and — exactly as had been described in the book — eaten by his fellow survivors."

    4. "Approximately five pounds of your body weight is bacteria." —Happy-Map7656

    close up of bacteria through a microscope
    Dowell / Getty Images

    According to the National Institutes of Health, "The human body contains trillions of microorganisms — outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1. Because of their small size, however, microorganisms make up only about 1 to 3 percent of the body's mass (in a 200-pound adult, that’s 2 to 6 pounds of bacteria), but play a vital role in human health."

    5. "The person you marry is the person most likely to murder you!" —Acrobatic-Employ3942

    close up of a wedding cake with a knife in between the plastic bride and groom toppers
    Peter Dazeley / Getty Images

    According to NPR, "The CDC examined more than 10,000 homicides between 2003 and 2014. In female homicides in which the circumstances are known, the killer was a current or former intimate partner about half of the time, the report found."

    6. "Your bones are wet." —throwaway13100109

    a skeleton at a desk
    Ludger Paffrath / Getty Images/ fStop

    According to FactMonster, "Dead bones are dry and brittle, but living bones feel wet and a little soft. They are also slightly flexible, so they can absorb pressure. Like most parts of the body, bones have a network of blood vessels and nerves running through them, and they bleed when broken. Up to one-third of the weight of a living bone is water."

    7. "If your stomach didn't develop a new layer of mucus every two weeks, the acids would cause your stomach to dissolve."

    close up of someone holding their stomach in pain
    Grace Cary / Getty Images

    According to Stat News, "There are intricate forces at play to make sure that when stomach acid is done with your dinner, it doesn’t move on to eating your gut itself. There’s a protective layer of mucus in the stomach that keeps the two warring factions apart with a special neutralizing agent. But when that mucus fails to protect the outer edge of the stomach, it begins to digest itself. You’re probably familiar with the process — it’s what creates ulcers."

    8. "Sharks aren't just older than the first trees but also the rings of Saturn." —herkoemmlich

    a shark jumping out of the water
    USO / Getty Images / iStock photo

    According to Discover Magazine, "Sharks are survivors. An ancient lineage of animals dating back to at least the Devonian Period, from 359 to 419 million years ago, claims they predate much of the life we know today. They came before grass, the dinosaurs, and the mammals. They came before Saturn’s rings formed (between 10 and 100 million years ago.)"

    9. "In the Czech Republic, there is a church that is decorated with the bones of 10,000 dead people." —LifeguardOk4191

    close up of skulls and bones in the church
    Tpopova / Getty Images/ iStockphoto

    According to CNN, "This underground chapel contains a chandelier made entirely of bones, as well as garlands of human skulls. To the left of the chandelier, sits a coat of arms formed from the bones of the Schwarzenbergs, an aristocratic Czech family who once ruled over the city. Meanwhile, a collection of human skulls piled on top of each other stands to the right. Each is accompanied by religious displays arranged out of bone, reminding visitors that the chapel remains a respectful place of worship, despite its rather macabre contents."

    10. "Mites live on your face." —satanistiny

    very close up of a mite with a long body and tiny little hands
    Nanoclustering / Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF

    According to NPR, "It might give you the creepy-crawlies, but you almost certainly have tiny mites living in the pores of your face right now. They're known as Demodex or eyelash mites, and just about every adult human alive has a population living on them. The mostly transparent critters are too small to see with the naked eye. At about 0.3 millimeters long, it would take about five adult face mites laid end to end to stretch across the head of a pin."

    11. "Tumors can grow teeth and eyes." —omegasix321

    a tumor bulging from the skin on a hand
    Stanislav Sablin / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    According to the Cleveland Clinic, "A teratoma is a rare type of germ cell tumor that may contain immature or fully formed tissue, including teeth, hair, bone and muscle."

    12. "A hummingbird's tongue is so long that it wraps around its brain." —Symnestra

    a hummingbird getting pollen
    Webguzs / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    According to Journey North, "When it's not in use, the tongue wraps under the jaw, behind and over the head! The very long tongue is wrapped around its skull on a special structure called the hyoid apparatus, and the middle part is stretchy so it can extend."

    13. Lastly, "Chainsaws were invented to help a woman give birth." —red_phoenix1204

    a chainsaw on a tree stump
    Drew300 / Getty Images/iStockphoto

    According to Business Insider, "Two doctors invented the chainsaw in 1780 to make the removal of the pelvic bone easier and less time-consuming during childbirth. It was powered by a hand crank and looked like a modern-day kitchen knife with little teeth on a chain that wound in an oval."

    Do you know another disturbing or interesting fact that most people are unaware of? Share it with us in the comments below!