Bookworms are actual insects that bore holes in books. A major book-feeding insect is a paper louse that feeds on microscopic mould in poorly kept books.
100 Mind-Blowing Holes Facts
Trypophobia is the fear of closely packed holes. Or more specifically, “an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps.” No crumpets for them, then.
The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs. Insects are known to be all sorts of strange, but this is one of the cooler fun facts: The katydid hears with its legs! The katydid’s ears are located on its two front legs. Like the human ear, the ear of the katydid collects sound, converts it, and analyses the frequency.
The plastic tips of shoelaces are called aglets. These tips can also be made of metal. Its purpose is to help make the lace easier to hold when running through the holes of the shoes.
The small holes under frozen pizzas prevent air bubbles from forming in the dough. The holes prevent the dough from being soggy or limp.
Over a dozen skeletons were found in Benjamin Franklin’s basement. In 1998, an organisation called Friends of Benjamin Franklin House decided to restore the four-story Georgian house where Franklin lived in London. However, they discovered a gruesome sight – one of the workers found a human thigh bone. The authorities were brought in, and a total of remains from 15 people were found – 6 of those belonging to children, and all with holes drilled into their skulls. The skeletons date back to 200 years ago then, which was around the time Benjamin Franklin lived in the house. This is one of the most disturbing WTF facts.
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.
The holes in spaghetti spoons have a purpose. The single, circular hole in the middle of pasta spoons isn’t just for draining. It is a measure of the serving size of spaghetti. The amount of dry spaghetti that fits snugly in the hole counts as one serving.
Black holes have theoretical opposites known as white holes. Black holes are known for their voracious appetites; their influence is so strong that even light can’t escape their gravity. But they have a theoretical converse – white holes. They are effectively the opposite of their dark relatives, spitting out light and matter instead of trapping it. So far, they are purely hypothetical objects; astronomers are contemplating how they could form in reality.
Black holes give off light. Venture beyond the event horizon and you’ll not be able to escape the powerful gravity of a black hole. Black holes are objects so dense that not even light can escape their gravitational pull. Yet despite this, black holes can shine brightly, and this may be one of the most contradictory-sounding facts about space on our list. Supermassive black holes can illuminate the centre of galaxies and are known as active galactic nuclei. How can this be? As cosmic material falls into a black hole, it forms an accretion disc that swirls around it. This material gets very hot and glows: it can even power jets of material that shoot out of the black hole into space. This all occurs just outside the event horizon and is one of the ways astronomers can detect black holes even though they can observe them directly.
Monarch caterpillars breathe through holes in the sides of their bodies.
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.
A handful of world-renowned scientists were born in England: Another intriguing fact about England is that it’s been the birthplace of several iconic scientists! Sir Isaac Newton, a household name, was born in Lincolnshire in 1643 and went on to write the laws of motion, gravity and the theory of colour. More recently, Stephen Hawking was born in 1942 in Cambridgeshire. The professor is best known for his theory of exploding black holes which has revolutionised the field of astronomy. These English scientists’ findings are still very relevant for science to this day, with their works being used frequently in education and the industry.