Foxes have whiskers on their legs. This helps them with their bearings, especially when it’s dark outside.
100 Mind-Blowing Helps Facts
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.
Dogs tilt their heads when you speak to them to better pinpoint familiar words. Your dog is tilting its head when you speak to it to pinpoint where noises are coming from more quickly. This is done to listen out more accurately for familiar words such as ‘walkies’ and helps them to better understand the tone of your voice. If a dog doesn’t tilt its head that often (as those with shorter muzzles might), it’s because it relies less on sound and more on sight.
Lobsters are not ‘biologically immortal’, but they do produce an enzyme that repairs their cells and helps their DNA to replicate indefinitely. That’s where the myth comes from.
Dead skin cells are a main ingredient in household dust. Here’s an interesting science fact for you: According to researchers at Imperial College London, humans shed around 200 million skin cells each hour—and they have to go somewhere when we’re indoors. If the idea of skin dust isn’t sitting well with you, you should know that a report from the American Chemical Society found that a skin oil called squalene naturally helps reduce indoor ozone levels by up to 15 per cent.
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.
Your tongue is covered with roughly 8,000 taste buds, each containing up to 100 cells which is what helps you to taste food.
Smelling green apples helps with weight loss. Research stated that the smell can help curb your hunger. The neutral sweet scent that comes from green apples and bananas is enough to temporarily forget about hunger.
Playing dance music helps ward off mosquitoes. According to a study in 2019, the song ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ contains both low and high frequencies that yellow fever mosquitoes dislike. Just dance the mosquitoes away.
Pointing your car keys to your head helps you find your car faster. This is because your head works like a radio transmitter. This then increases the range of the car remote’s signal, thus allowing your car to respond faster.
Applying equal pressure on an egg will prevent it from breaking. It is nearly impossible to break eggs this way because the sides are the strongest part of the egg’s shell. The curved form of the egg helps it distribute pressure evenly which makes the take difficult to accomplish.
Apart from their fur, tigers also have striped skin. A tiger’s stripes are an advantage because it helps break up the outline of its body which makes it hard to spot. They also help camouflage a tiger in the grass while it stalks its prey.
Frogs do not drink water. Frogs do not swallow water like most animals and people do. They absorb moisture through their skin and then secrete a mucus that helps them keep moist.
The human liver has 500 functions. This is also the only vital organ inside the human body that is capable of regenerating. One of the more well-known functions of the liver is producing bile which helps in the process of digestion.
Koalas feed their newborn’s poop. After baby koalas are born, their parents feed them poop. This helps them digest Eucalyptus leaves as they grow.
Spider webs were used as bandages in ancient times. In ancient Greece and Rome, doctors used spider webs as bandages for their patients. Supposedly, spider webs have natural antiseptic and anti-fungal properties, which help with cleaning and preventing infection. It was also said that spider webs are rich in vitamin K, which helps clot blood and close wounds.
Studies have shown that playing Tetris can curb sex, drug, and food cravings. Maybe it’s because the physical and visual representation of “fixing” things to fit just right gives us the illusion of having our sh*t together, or maybe it’s something else. Nonetheless, it’s proven that Tetris helps lessen impulsive behaviour. Carnal desires, no more.
The film’s cinematography enhances the storytelling. The use of shadows, lighting, and framing helps create a visually striking and emotionally immersive experience for the audience.
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from the blowing desert sand. Camels have different ways of adapting to their environment. They have a third clear eyelid that helps protect their eyes from blowing sand. Also, two rows of long lashes protect their eyes.
Butterflies taste with their feet. This may sound strange to us humans but butterflies do rely on their feet to taste food as they have sensors on their feet which helps them locate food for their caterpillars. So, they stand on a leaf to try the taste.
A male lion’s majestic mane helps protect its neck during fights and also acts as a visual signal of strength to other lions.
Lions have excellent night vision, which helps them hunt in low-light conditions and gives them an advantage over their prey.
Your brain is constantly eating itself. Called phagocytosis, this process allows cells to envelop and consume smaller cells or molecules to remove them from the system. It might sound a little scary, but it’s a good thing since it helps our brains preserve grey matter!
Polar bears have black skin, which helps them absorb heat from the sun to stay warm in an Arctic climate, and it likely protects the bears from harmful UV rays.
Dogs have wet noses because they secrete a thin layer of mucus, which helps dogs smell!
Finnish Forest Reindeer hooves have a special scoop that helps them forage through the snow for lichen and moss.
In warmer months, reindeer feast on grasses, mushrooms and plants. In the winter they feast mainly on moss and lichen. Reindeer have a strong sense of smell, which helps them sniff out food underneath layers of snow.
They also have a special bony pouch beneath their throat that acts as a resonator which helps project their howls at great distances, sometimes more than a kilometer! Click here to hear it.
Coral reefs are Earth’s largest living structure. Coral reefs are not only beautiful natural wonders but also the largest living structure on Earth. These underwater ecosystems are made up of colonies of tiny animals called coral polyps, which build calcium carbonate skeletons that accumulate over time and form the complex structures we know as coral reefs. Coral reefs are incredibly diverse and play a vital role in the ocean ecosystem, providing habitat and protection for many species, and acting as a natural barrier that helps to protect coastlines from storms and erosion. Unfortunately, coral reefs are under threat from a range of environmental factors, including ocean acidification, rising temperatures and global warming. ESA research has shown how our ocean waters have become more acidic over the last three decades and how this is having a detrimental effect on marine life. By using satellite technology to measure ocean colour, temperature and salinity, scientists can track changes in ocean chemistry and detect areas where acidification is occurring. Rising temperatures can also have a direct impact on coral reefs, causing coral bleaching, which occurs when corals expel the algae that live in their tissues and provide them with food. Coral bleaching can lead to the death of the coral, which can have knock-on effects on the wider ecosystem.
Visitors to one of Hawaii’s islands can take a shelter dog out on adventures for a day. That’s right; if you head on over to Kauai in Hawaii, you can pick up a shelter dog and take it for walks on the beach, hikes, or just wander around the island! Each dog is geared up with a cute vest that advertises that the dog is for adoption. The dogs also get some much-needed exercise, which, combined with their vest, helps locals adopt them!
Frogs eat with their eyes! If you get close and personal with a frog and watch it eat, you may come away wondering why it closes its eyes every time it swallows. It’s not just that they savour every bite, but it’s biological. Frogs will close their eyes and then retract them down towards their throat, which helps push food down towards their stomach!
The two tiny holes in every BIC pen ensure that the air pressure is the same both inside and outside the pen, which helps the ink flow to the tip.
Individual people can experience time differently, too. You’ve probably noticed how time seems to speed up when you’re racing against a deadline or having fun, and how it tends to drag when you’re bored. This is because when you’re focused on something, like a big work project or a party, your brain pays less attention to how time passes. But when you’re bored, or your brain is less stimulated, you become more aware of the passing of time, making it feel slower. One study proposed that dopamine—the neurotransmitter and hormone that helps us feel happy—may be an additional culprit. It showed that increased dopamine production, which happens when you’re enjoying something, may slow down your body’s internal clock, making time feel like it’s flying by.
Cybersecurity Collaboration Centre: The NSA partners with industry, researchers, and allies to strengthen cybersecurity through the Cybersecurity Collaboration Centre. This collaboration helps address emerging threats.