No matter how many all-nighters you pull devouring volume after volume of dust-laden encyclopedias, it will never be enough. Because learning is a process, and there’s no end visible on the horizon.
But most of us are just fine with one or two “did you know that?” facts always ready to be served at a dinner table. Except they get old fast and nobody wants to listen to another “banana is a berry,” like, ever.
Luckily, one Reddit user who goes by u/RyanBlitzpatrick did everyone a favor and asked people on r/AskReddit “What’s a fact that just blows your mind?” 3.6K upvotes and 3.5K comments later, the results are in and you’d better get your notebook ready, ’cause these are some of the hand-picked knowledge bites that may honestly surprise you.
#1
When you dream, one part of your brain is making up the story, and another part is experiencing those events and is genuinely surprised by all the twists in the plot.
Image source: jayantadey1996, Quinn Dombrowski
#2
2006, which doesn’t feel THAT long ago, saw the death of two colossally old tortoises. The first, Harriet, was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin when he visited the Galápagos on the HMS Beagle. She belonged to Steve Irwin at the time of her death. Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin shared a “pet.” Estimated to have lived 176 years.
The second, Adwaita, was born before the United States declared its independence from England. Think of it: just 14 years ago, there was a land creature alive that was older than our country. Just incredible.
Image source: harpo-polo, wikipedia
#3
November 2, 2000 was the last time all humans were on the planet together. Since then at least one person has remained on the international space station
Image source: theguy4785, nasa
#4
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year.
Also, that same year, Betty White was already 7 years old.
Image source: Rob_Vegas, wikipedia
#5
The oldest living tree in the world methuselah is 4851 years old
Image source: social-shipwreck, Matthew Dillon
#6
That the Oxford Univeristy is older than the Aztec Empire
Image source: TheRhinoMonk, Samuel M
#7
The sound made by the Krakatoa volcanic eruption in 1883 was so loud it ruptured eardrums of people 40 miles away, travelled around the world four times, and was clearly heard 3,000 miles away.
That’s like you standing in New York and hearing a sound from San Francisc
Image source: armagoei, NASA Goddard Space
#8
If time travel were possible, you would need a time-and-space-machine to survive the trip, otherwise when you travelled back in time, the planet would be at a different point in its rotation around the sun and our solar system would be at a different point in space as it rotates, which means you’d travel back in time and be in an empty part of space
Image source: brad-corp, Herman Rhoids
#9
The International Space station is closer to the earth than San Francisco is to L.A
Image source: BareassedM, NASA
#10
Arctic foxes can survive temperatures as low as -70 degrees Celsius
Image source: Weeneem, Tambako The Jaguar
#11
If an underwater bubble is collapsed by loud sound, light is produced and no one knows why
Image source: 1 -Mark_YU5MAV-, AleGranholm
#12
Some people don’t have an inner monologue, like they literally don’t have a voice in their head.
Image source: DublD96, Matt Gibson
#13
A woman once jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building but the wind pushed her back and she fell on a ledge on the 85th floor. She survived.
Image source: reddit.com
#14
The fact that nobody knows that if we all see colours the same way
Image source: anime_fan77, oh_debby
#15
That there are people in the world who don’t like music. Not one specific type, but music as a whole.
That both blows my mind and disturbs me
Image source: IncertRandomNameHere, Eugene Peretz
#16
I still can’t get over the fact that teddy roosevelt got shot and continued to give a three hour speech
Image source: stevew32, wikipedia
#17
Ant biologists still don’t know the maximum life span of most ant queens. They just live too long to keep track, and they’re not too easy to keep in captivity. The longest one on record is like 30 years old, and there could easily be species that live longer than that
Image source: Broflake-Melter, yokohamayomama
#18
There is a termite colony in the Amazon Rain Forest that is the size of Great Britain and is almost 4,000 years old. There are also hundreds of millions of termite mounds
Image source: Redditor_2017, cell
#19
The U.S government has an official for a Zombie apocalypse. CONPLAN 8888 also known as Counter-Zombie Dominance was written in 2011. And just in case you think it’s weird bureaucratic humor, the first line reads, ‘This plan was not actually designed as a joke.’
Image source: sdsanth
#20
There are more trees on Earth then there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
Confirmed by NASA.
Image source: Spajster
#21
A neutron star is so dense that a teaspoon of material from one would weigh around 10 million tons
Image source: ladies-pmme-nudespls
#22
If the timeline of the universe (up to now) was compressed into a year starting on new year’s day, Homo sapiens would appear at 11:54 pm on December 31st
Image source: vsbobclear
#23
Mitochondria is only passed down by mother so there’s a concept of mitochondrial eve, all humans today have their mitochondrial dna derived from her
Image source: k110111
#24
Strawberries aren’t berries.
But bananas are
Image source: CallumDudo
#25
The Fermi Paradox.
With the number of potentially habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone, it’s very strange that we haven’t detected alien signals of any kind so far.
There’s lots of theories as to why that is, but my favorite is called the great silenceDark Forest (which sounds way cooler). Basically everyone else out there is being quiet and not transmitting because they know of some danger that we are unaware of, and they don’t want it to find them. Gives me chills.
Edit: It’s interesting that most of the replies here, joking or serious, correspond to legitimate theories on the Fermi Paradox.
Image source: azermanus
#26
That the biggest bacteria species known, Thiomargarita namibiensis, can have a maximum diameter of 0.7 millimeters, which is big enough for you to see it without a microscope.
That’s insane if you consider that your average bacteria species has a diameter of 0.001 millimeters.
Image source: Cachuchotas, wikipedia.
#27
How a computer does what it does. Blows my mind how 1’s and 0’s can do so much. Maybe I’m uneducated, but still mind blowing
Image source: VeryAutisticWeeb
#28
A pig will eat a whole human body except for the teeth
Image source: TheTommyKnockerZ
#29
The way the human brain works. These cells that are powered by tiny jolts of electricity are collectively having conscious thoughts, coming up with morals and empathy and every human behavior
Image source: pigeon_q, Jerimee Richir
#30
That Neutrinos have mass and every second of every day about a billion of them are going through every square inch of your body – but the space between your atoms is so huge there’s pretty much a 0% chance they will ever hit you
Image source: ProbablyNotArcturian, Ryan
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