This world is a fascinating place, and every day we discover new things and facts that captivate us. Heck, even the functions of a human body are mesmerizing when you break it down. Now, whether it’s all the workings of a divine being, or it just exists because of science is up to you to believe.
What we can all agree on, though, is that the world we live in is weird, wonderful, magical, and bizarre. Here are 5 such fascinating and weird facts that you wouldn’t have ever thought about.
Ants Vs. Humans
Fact: There are more ants in this world than there are humans.
Your first thought is probably “really?”, but think about it; how many ants can fit in the palm of your hand? They take up such little space, and require the teamwork of quite a few of them just to complete a seemingly easy task of moving a biscuit crumb. So there have to be a lot of them, right? Right. Scientists estimate that there are about one million ants per human being. Given that there are 7.5 billion of us around, I am not even going to attempt to calculate how many ants that is!
Who’s is Bigger?
Fact: The surface area of Russia is larger than that of Pluto.
The largest country on Earth when measure by land mass is Russia with 17,098,322 square kilometers or 6,601,699 square miles. Pluto, on the other hand, has a land mass of just 16,647,940 square kilometers or 6,430,000 square miles. So yeah, it’s true, Russia is larger than Pluto!
Dead or Not?
Fact: Dead people have many bodily functions that continue after death.
You’ve probably heard that a dead person’s hair and nails grow even after death; the truth is that the skin around these areas retract, making them appear longer. But the more bizarre fact is that a dead person can experience other bodily functions like getting goosebumps and relieving themselves. This can be explained by the fact that the air trapped in the body pushes these bodily fluids out once the heart stops beating and the muscles relax, but that doesn’t make it any less creepy or gross.
The Land of Unicorns
Fact: The national animal of Scotland is the unicorn.
The unicorn has been known by the early Scottish for its strength, agility and its ability to defeat other animals like lions and elephants, which is why historians believed that it was used in the early Scottish coat of arms by William I. Although it is a fictional animal, Scotland has adopted the magical unicorn as its national animal, and it’s been so since all the way back in the 1300s!
Lying Fruit
Fact: Strawberries, blackberries and raspberries aren’t actually berries.
The scientific definition of a berry is a fruit that develops from a flower that has one ovary. Fruits that spawn from flowers with more than one ovary are called ‘aggregate fruits’. That is why strawberries, blackberries and raspberries cannot be classed as berries technically. They came to be known so because people have been calling them that since way before scientists came up with how to categorize fruits. But on the other hand, blueberries are berries, and so are bananas, eggplants, and oranges!
