The only letters that don’t appear on the periodic table are “J” and “Q.”
100 Mind-Blowing Don’t Facts
50% of apartments in Los Angeles don’t come with a fridge. This is legal, as fridges are considered an “amenity,” and therefore, landlords are not required to provide one.
The line “Born and raised in South Detroit” in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin” makes no sense, as there is no South Detroit. Detroit, Michigan, lies on the northern side of the Detroit River, and Ontario, Canada, lies to its south.
There’s a reply to the saying “Liar, liar, pants on fire” – It’s “I don’t care, I don’t care, I can buy another pair”.
The Poodle is one of the cleanest breeds of dogs, making them a great choice for people with pet allergies. They don’t moult much at all, and they rarely smell, either.
The word “barbarian” originally referred to people who don’t speak Greek. The Greeks thought people who spoke a foreign tongue sounded like they were saying “bar bar bar” all the time.
Jellyfish are considered biologically immortal. They don’t age and will never die unless they are killed.
November 17th is known as “Unfriend Day.” On this day, you should unfriend anybody who you don’t know or speak to.
Arizona driver’s licenses don’t expire until you’re 65. You then have to renew in person every five years.
The Lion King was originally called “King of the Jungle” before they realized that lions don’t live in jungles.
Several African countries don’t like second-hand clothes being imported to their countries because it is destroying their local textile industry.
Antarctica is the only continent that turtles don’t live on.
“Strategic incompetence” is the art of avoiding certain tasks by pretending you don’t know how to do them.
Identical twins don’t have the same fingerprints. You can’t blame your crimes on your twin, after all. This is because environmental factors during development in the womb (umbilical cord length, position in the womb, and the rate of finger growth) impact your fingerprint.
Your brain is constantly eating itself. This process is called phagocytosis, where cells envelop and consume smaller cells or molecules to remove them from the system. Don’t worry! Phagocytosis isn’t harmful but helps preserve your grey matter.
Octopuses don’t have tentacles. They have eight limbs, but they’re arms (for most species). Technically, when talking about cephalopods (octopuses, squids etc), scientists define tentacles as limbs with suckers at their end. Octopus arms have suckers down most of their length.
Ants don’t have lungs. They instead breathe through spiracles, nine or ten tiny openings, depending on the species.
Snails have teeth. Between 1,000 and 12,000 teeth, to be precise. They aren’t like ours, though, so don’t be thinking about snails with ridiculous toothy grins. You’ll find the snail’s tiny ‘teeth’ all over its file-like tongue.
Hippos can’t swim. Hippos do have big bones, so big and dense that they’re barely buoyant at all. They don’t swim and instead perform a slow-motion gallop on the riverbed or the sea floor. Hippos can even sleep underwater, thanks to a built-in reflex that allows them to bob up, take a breath, and sink back down without waking.
Starfish don’t have bodies. Along with other echinoderms (think sea urchins and sand dollars), their entire bodies are technically classed as heads.
Fish form orderly queues in emergencies. When evacuating through narrow spaces in sketchy situations, schools of neon tetra fish queue so that they don’t collide or clog up the line. Scientists interpreted this behaviour as showing that fish can respect social rules even in emergencies, unlike us humans.
You don’t like the sound of your voice because of the bones in your head. This may be because the bones in our head make our voice sound deeper.
Mirrors facing each other don’t produce infinite reflections. Each reflection will be darker than the last and eventually fade into invisibility. Mirrors absorb a fraction of the energy of the light striking them. The total number of reflections mirrors can produce? A few hundred.
Electrons might live forever. Scientists have estimated the minimum lifetime of the electron is about 6.6 × 1028 years – this is 66,000 ‘yottayears’. Since this is about 5 quintillion times the age of the Universe, even if electrons don’t live forever, they may as well do!
Beavers don’t live in dams. Technically, beavers live in a lodge that they build behind a dam, within a deep pool of water.
Our dead cells are eaten by other cells in our body. Don’t worry; it’s meant to happen. When cells inside your body die, they’re scavenged by phagocytes – white blood cells whose job it is to digest other cells.
Smells can pass through the liquid. Please don’t try smelling underwater (your nose will not appreciate it), but the smell does protrude through the liquid.
Owls don’t have eyeballs.
Ants don’t have lungs.
We don’t know why, but research shows that in the days leading up to a full moon, people go to bed later and sleep less, reports Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials.
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 most other people don’t. Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th-century journalists who were referring to the fact that its residents were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”
Cows don’t have upper front teeth. They do have molars on top, in the back of their mouths, but where you’d expect upper incisors, cows, sheep, and goats have a thick layer of tissue called a dental pad. They use that with their bottom teeth to pull out grass.
The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks, but baristas don’t write names on the cups. Its receipts say “Store Number 1” instead of “Starbucks,” and its workers need an escort to leave their work posts.
Your brain synapses shrink while you sleep. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Centre for Sleep and Consciousness studied mice to observe what happens to their brains while they sleep. Dr Chiara Cirelli and Dr Giulio Tononi found an 18 per cent decrease in the size of synapses after a few hours of sleep. Don’t worry, though—this nighttime brain shrinkage helps your cognitive abilities.
South American river turtles talk in their eggs. Turtles don’t have vocal cords, and their ears are internal, so scientists believed that turtles were deaf and didn’t communicate through sounds. However, research has found that turtles communicate at an extremely low frequency that sounds like “clicks, clucks, and hoots” that can only be heard through a hydrophone (a microphone used underwater). These sounds even come from the egg before the turtle hatches. Researchers hypothesize that this helps all the turtle siblings hatch at once.
Adult cats are lactose intolerant. Like some humans, adult cats don’t have enough the lactase enzyme to digest lactose from milk, causing them to vomit, have diarrhea, or get gassy. Cats only have enough of that enzyme when they’re born and during the early years of their lives.
Adolf Hitler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Don’t worry, the Swedish politician who sent the letter of nomination in 1939 meant it ironically and withdrew his nomination. In an even more ironic twist, Hitler had banned Germans from accepting the awards four years before his name was thrown in the ring.
Strawberries aren’t berries. Neither are raspberries and blackberries, according to botanists. True berries stem from one single ovary flower and have two or more seeds. Strawberries don’t fit that bill, but bananas, kiwis, and watermelons do.
The world’s largest national park is located in Greenland. There are a lot of weird facts that people don’t know. Northeast Greenland National Park is conveniently also located on the world’s largest island. This remote national park is huge at 375,000 square miles.
5 countries in the world don’t have airports. If you’re a jet-setting traveller, it’s hard to imagine not having an airport nearby for your next family gathering or work event. However, Vatican City, San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and Andorra somehow make it work!
Cucumber slices can fight bad breath. Here’s a weird fact you might know: cucumbers can fight bad breath! If you don’t have a mint on hand, use a slice of cucumber!
Artificial banana flavouring is based on an extinct banana. You may notice that your banana-flavoured food products don’t taste quite like the real thing. This is because the commercially used banana flavouring is based on a type of banana that was wiped out by a plague in the 1950s.
People don’t sneeze in their sleep. While asleep, humans are more prone to sneezing because the mucous membranes swell when lying down. However, the brain shuts down the neuroreceptors that stimulate our sneezing reflex. That way, only very strong stimuli can wake one to sneeze.
A seaman once set a ship on fire to get out of work early. One of the “don’t-try-this-at-home” fun facts: A civil employee once started a fire that ravaged the nuclear submarine USS Miami which was docked at a Naval Shipyard. Though the cause of the fire was unclear at first, civilian employee Casey J. Fury soon admitted to starting the fire for an early dismissal from work. Fury was sentenced to 17 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $400 million in damages.
You can eat the stickers on the fruit. The adhesive used for fruit stickers is FDA-regulated, and the paper is edible. However, don’t forget to wash it first.
Scientists don’t know what causes the shower curtain effect. Picture this: you hop into the shower after a long day. You close the curtains. As you run the shower, you notice that the curtain billows inward. Thus, you discover the shower curtain effect. Until now, scientists haven’t pinpointed what causes this strange phenomenon.
A frog can throw up an entire organ. Frogs don’t have a gag reflex like humans and other animals. Their way of rejecting unwanted elements is way more hardcore: The frog vomits its entire stomach out, dangling it from its mouth. The frog then uses its forearms to clear out all of the stomach’s contents. Finally, it swallows the stomach back down again.
A pound of houseflies contains more protein than a pound of beef. Another little-known fact (Or maybe, just one we don’t want to acknowledge) about insects is that they are a very rich protein source. So much so, that sustainability advocates are calling for insects as a meat substitute.
Only 2 countries don’t sell Coca-Cola. Due to political reasons, North Korea and Cuba do not distribute the world’s most famous drink.
Only 3 countries don’t use the metric system. Namely, Myanmar, Liberia, and the U.S.
Subway footlongs don’t measure a foot long. Man, talk about false advertising. A fun fact you probably don’t know about this beloved sandwich joint is that Subway faced a 2013 lawsuit for their “foot” longs. The food chain explained that the Subway Footlong is merely a brand name and not meant to be the actual measure of the sandwich. The case was then promptly thrown out.
There are more than 200 flavours of Kit Kat in Japan. You can find Japan-exclusive flavoured Kit Kats such as Adzuki (Red bean), Tamaruya Honten Wasabi (Japanese horseradish), Shinshu Apple and more. Don’t forget to bring these exotic flavours home to share with your loved ones on your next trip to Japan!
You need to exceed temperatures of 1000 degrees Celcius to burn a diamond. Diamonds don’t evaporate at high temperatures since they are under atmospheric temperatures. But they can oxidize.
You can fold a piece of paper more than 7 times. Legend has it that with each fold on the paper you make, the thicker the sheet becomes. Eventually, it will become impossible to fold or it will require impossible amounts of energy to complete the crease. But that’s not true at all! This “impossible feat” is achieved by many all over the world. Don’t believe it? Try it yourself now!
‘Metrophobia’ is the fear of poetry. If you don’t remember your literature classes as a good time, you may have had this phobia. The prefix metro- comes from the meter, which refers to the standard structure of a poem.
Newborns can’t cry. A baby’s tear ducts are not fully developed until 1-3 months old. This is why newborn babies scream so loudly – they don’t have any other way to communicate with their surroundings.
Bananas don’t have seeds. This is one of the interesting facts that can send you into an existential crisis: If bananas don’t have seeds, where did they come from? Bananas grow from the small bulbs called suckers that grow from the plant. Once the current crop dies, they can replant these suckers to reap a new plant.
Some bees don’t make honey. Out of the 20,000 species of bees on Earth, only 7 make honey. One of the interesting facts you never thought about.
Horses cannot breathe through their mouths. Horses don’t have an instinct to breathe through their mouths because their soft palate seals their pharynx except when swallowing. Horses can’t breathe through a sealed pharynx, and that is why they only breathe through their nostrils.
Eagles don’t mate while airborne. You may have encountered the myth that eagles mate in the air. However, eagles mate on branches or nests. The fact that people even think it’s possible is just one of the funny facts.
Grapes explode in the microwave. Funny facts disclaimer: don’t try this at home.
A cloud can weigh more than a million pounds. If you’ve ever pictured yourself lying in the clouds, keep this in mind: the average weight of a cumulus cloud is 1.1 million pounds – or almost 500,000 kg! They don’t seem as light and fluffy now, do they?
Cats don’t meow at other cats. Aside from kittens meowing at their mothers, cats only meow at people and other animals.
Platypuses don’t have stomachs. So, platypuses have a duck-like bill, are mammals that lay eggs, and now they don’t have stomachs, either? Truly a WTF animal for WTF facts.
You can always “see” your nose. One of the WTF facts you’ll struggle to unsee: Our eyes always see our nose, but block it out through unconscious selective attention. Think of it as how the rims of glasses don’t bother you.
Flamingos produce milk – kind of. No, they don’t have mammary glands – but flamingos can produce a certain “milk” from their upper digestive tracts. Both male and female flamingos produce crop milk to feed their chicks. This concoction contains protein, fat, and red and white blood cells.
Bald eagles don’t sound like in the movies. If you’ve seen a Western film, the iconic bird screech comes to mind. However, you’d be surprised that it’s not the sound of a bald eagle. The piercing call that most people associate with the bird is a sound made by another bird of prey: the red-tailed hawk. Hollywood uses the red-tailed hawk’s cry because it has a more dramatic effect. Real bald eagles would chirp rather than screeching.
A cockroach can live for weeks after its head has been cut off. If you’ve ever been assaulted by a cockroach, your instincts would be fight or flight – and the brave few who would fight can probably agree that cockroaches can be ridiculously hard to squish and kill. Even with its head cut off, a roach would survive because of its open circulatory system or using tiny holes in its body called spiracles to breathe. Additionally, cockroaches don’t need food like we do, so they’d be able to go for weeks without it.
A jellyfish’s mouth is also its anus. There might be a saying that goes, “Don’t eat where you sh*t,” but that would be physically impossible for jellyfish. All species of jellyfish eat and excrete from the same hole.
Bears don’t poop during hibernation. You might wonder, “How do animals keep in their poop when they hibernate?” Before an animal goes into hibernation, they will eat a lot to sustain them until they wake. So, where does all the food go? Bears keep their food in by eating grass and twigs, creating a plug or stopper in their bowels. With this stopper, they can sleep continuously without having to poop. However, once they wake up, it all comes out.
There are 1,710 steps on the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower has 108 stories and 1,710 steps. However, visitors climb up to the first platform. Not a fan of stairs? Don’t worry – there are two elevators on the Tower.
Tears don’t fall in space. All “free” liquids will float in a spherical shape.
Animals that lay eggs don’t have belly buttons.
People don’t sneeze in their sleep due to their brains shutting down the reflex.
The only letters that don’t appear on the periodic table are J and Q.
Starfish don’t have blood. They circulate nutrients by using seawater in their vascular system.
Most fish don’t have eyelids.
Cats are believed to be the only mammals who don’t taste sweetness.
It won’t be possible to walk on planets like Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn or Uranus as they don’t have a solid surface and are made of gases mostly.
Flamingos don’t bend their legs at the knee. They bend their legs at the ankle!
Identical twins don’t have the same fingerprints. Even though they may look exactly alike, environmental factors before birth such as position in the womb and umbilical cord length impact your fingerprints.
Platypuses “sweat” milk. Since they don’t have teats, milk appears as sweat on a platypus (it’s not technically sweat, though, since aquatic mammals don’t sweat at all).
The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle. We can see why people don’t say this word too often.
Once a chicken lived without its head for 18 months. Perhaps you’ve already heard of Mike the Chicken. Well if you haven’t, you’ll be surprised to find out that in the 1940s, Mike survived because his jugular vein and brainstem were still functioning. But don’t expect this for every chicken. It’s a weird animal fact, but a rare one.
Octopuses don’t have tentacles. Their eight limbs are considered as arms.
Another weird fact about flamingos: is that flamingos don’t bend their knees. What you’re seeing is their ankles being bent.
You can be very pregnant and not know it. About 1 in 500 people don’t realize that they are pregnant until halfway through their pregnancy.
Bananas are radioactive. Because bananas are rich in potassium, they are a little bit radioactive. But don’t worry about this weird science fact. You’re already 280 times more radioactive than a banana.
Owls don’t have eyeballs. They have eye tubes.
But don’t be fooled by their size: they are gentle giants. They graze on water grasses, weeds and algae. They are the only aquatic herbivore.
Cashews don’t grow like other nuts – they grow on cashew apples. The fruit contains a more bitter flesh than other varieties.
HUMPBACK WHALES DON’T EAT FOR MOST OF THE YEAR. Humpback whales in the Southern Hemisphere live off their fat reserves for 5.5-7.5 months each year, as they migrate from their tropical breeding grounds to the Antarctic, to feed on krill.
WE STILL DON’T KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT OUR FORESTS. We don’t know how many tree species there are on Earth, but scientists estimate there are about 63,000 known species. There could be as many as 9,000 tree species still unknown to science.
DEFORESTATION RELEASES CARBON DIOXIDE THAT HAS BEEN STORED AS CARBON IN TREES, ROOTS AND SOIL, MAKING CLIMATE CHANGE WORSE. This creates a feedback loop, as climate change increases the likelihood of deforestation, as the risk of droughts, wildfires and pest infestations increases and stresses the forest ecosystem. There is simply no way we can fight the climate crisis if we don’t stop deforestation.
Axolotls are a type of salamander. However, unlike other amphibians, they don’t lose their gills as they grow, so are unable to live on land and spend all of their lives in the water.
Some young axolotls are cannibals! Yes, the grim reality is that many young axolotls wouldn’t think twice about having a nibble of their brothers and sisters after they’re born. Don’t worry, though, as this isn’t a death sentence, as you’ll discover from fact #11.
It can take thousands of years for a natural beach to be created. Beaches don’t form overnight! It takes thousands of years for them to form. They form because of the water that is moving constantly.
The Apollo missions have left 96 bags of poop, pee, and vomit on the moon. Back in 1969, mankind made history by walking on the moon for the first time. That wasn’t the only first that happened on that momentous trip – it was also the first time literal trash was dumped on the moon. Subsequent voyages to the moon followed suit, leaving behind all their unwanted trash, but it turns out that’s all for a good reason – the returning spacecraft don’t have enough fuel to carry all that weight back!
Roosters have built-in earplugs, so they don’t deafen themselves when they crow. Anyone who’s ever spent a night outside the city knows one thing, and that’s the fact that roosters are loud! Researchers measured how loud roosters do crow and found them to be as loud as 140 decibels – well over the amount needed to cause permanent ear damage and even deafness. When they studied what happens when roosters crow, they discovered that in opening their jaw to crow, their outer ear canals close up, essentially giving them natural earplugs.
It turns out that you don’t need to drink six to eight cups of water per day. Water is without a doubt one of the most important things on our planet, and since around the 1940s, it’s been popularly believed that you should drink about 84 ounces (2.5 litres) of the stuff every day to stay healthy. Researchers have since delved deeper into the issue and concluded that you don’t need to drink anywhere near that much, as you get a lot of water from the food you eat. Instead, you’re merely advised to drink when you’re thirsty and drink extra on particularly hot days.