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Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy
Most of it is covered in gravel, though it also contains mountains and oases. And he…
Thanks to 3D printing, NASA can basically email tools to astronauts
Getting new equipment to the Space Station used to take months or years, but the new t…
Cows don’t have upper front teeth
They do have molars on top, in the back of their mouths, but where you’d expect uppe…
The current American flag was designed by a high school student
It started as a school project for Bob Heft’s junior-year history class in 1958, a…
The man with the world’s deepest voice can make sounds humans can’t hear
The man, Tim Storms, can’t even hear the note, which is eight octaves below the lowe…
Most Disney characters wear gloves to keep animation simple
Walt Disney might have been the first to put gloves on his characters , as seen in …
Turkeys can blush
When turkeys are scared or excited—like when the males see a female they’re interest…
That tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store pocket watches
The original jeans had only four pockets: that tiny pocket , plus two more on the f…
Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful
Just try to wrap your brain around the second part of this animal fact : Those 457,…
Kleenex tissues were originally intended for gas masks
When there was a cotton shortage during World War I, Kimberly-Clark developed a thin…
Cats have fewer toes on their back paws
Like most four-legged mammals, cats have five toes on the front, but their back paws…
Some octopus species lay 56,000 eggs at a time
On average, a giant Pacific octopus will lay 56,000 eggs at the end of a pregnancy, …
“Running amok” is a medically recognized mental condition
Considered a culturally bound syndrome, a person “running amok” in Malaysia starts w…
The longest English word is 189,819 letters long
We won’t spell it out here, but the full name for the protein nicknamed titin would …
Firefighters use wetting agents to make water wetter
The chemicals reduce the surface tension of plain water so it’s easier to spread and…
Armadillo shells are bulletproof
In fact, one Texas man was hospitalized when a bullet he shot at an armadillo ricoch…
Peanuts aren’t technically nuts
They’re legumes. According to Merriam-Webster , a nut is only a nut if it’s “a hard…
The Windy City nickname has nothing to do with Chicago’s weather
If you live in Chicago, you might already know this random fact, but we’re betting m…
Samsung tests phone durability with a butt-shaped robot
People stash their phones in their back pockets all the time, which is why Samsung cre…
Scotland has 421 words for snow
Yes, 421! Some examples: sneesl (to start raining or snowing); feefle (to swirl)…