The internet is a bottomless pit information — whatever random thought pops into your head, there’s probably a fascinating detail about it floating around somewhere. But here’s the caveat: some of the strangest truths are about things you’d never even think to look up in the first place.
Like what does something as oddly specific as a surgical smell resemble? Or why on earth were chainsaws originally invented? (Spoiler: not for wood.)
These aren’t exactly the kinds of questions that casually cross your mind during your morning coffee, but once you hear them… you need to know.
So, we scoured this online thread where people were asked to share the strangest facts they know, from our planet and way beyond it. And picked out some of the most mind-bending and wildly interesting ones for you.
#1
If your [urine] stinks like movie theater popcorn for longer than a week you should get checked for diabetes.
Image source: anon, Meg Boulden/unsplash
#2
If your body gets severely low on vitamin c, your old scars will open back up, even surgical scars. It’s because even though they seem dormant and healed they are actually constantly regenerating, which requires vitamin c.
Image source: Foreignfig, Yann Khatchadourian/unsplash
Before Reddit threads, before Wikipedia tabs, before Google even… there was a time when looking something up actually required effort. You didn’t just casually spiral into “why do octopuses have three hearts” at 2AM and find the answer while still wrapped in your blanket.
You had to get up, walk to a shelf, pull out a heavy encyclopedia, and hope the answer existed somewhere between A and Z.
Knowledge was curated and limited. And there was a clear sense that information lived in certain places, and belonged to certain authorities.
Even historically, knowledge moved quite slowly and socially.
Before the written forms developed, information was actually passed from person to person, and generation to generation. Known as oral tradition, this was how stories and myths were carried through memory and repetition across cultures.
People learned about animal behavior, weather patterns, food sources, and potential dangers purely through word of mouth. Basically, you had to be in the right place at the right time to pick up information that could quite literally save your life.
#3
Babies bounce. their bones are soft enough that instead of thudding, they bounce a little.
retro-orange:
Oh man, this reactivated a memory of my BIL dropping my then 3 month old nephew. The bounce and the silence in the room when he just laid on the carpet face first. Kiddo is 25 now and is fine but I just viscerally remembered the look on everyone’s faces before baby started crying.
Image source: elly996, Juan Encalada/unsplash
#4
The smell of cutting into a human skull is eerily similar to that of opening a fresh bag of Fritos.
You either learn to hate Fritos or get hungry around the smell of skull dust.
anon:
My husband worked in a funeral home and said when they are cremating a body, it smells like Burger King.
Image source: okifur, The_Thundertaker/reddit
With the internet, all the info in the world is right here at our fingertips. It has become collaborative and is constantly evolving. But most importantly, it has become accessible.
And with online threads and social media posts, knowledge is starting to feel less like research and more like storytelling again.
Like a digital version of people sitting around, swapping the weirdest things they know. Except now the audience is endless and the stories never really stop evolving.
#5
Marie Curie’s body will continue to emit radiation for another millennium and a half.
You have to sign a liability waiver if you want to see anything she owned because she was so radioactive.
Image source: anon, Henri Manuel
#6
The United States Government has a plan for collecting taxes after a nuclear explosion!
Tbh, If a taxman came to my house after a nuke went off, I’d probably just eat him.
Image source: OccultOddBall, Mohamed hamdi/unsplash
#7
Lots of folks have accessory spleens, one or two, size of peas. You could have wee tiny extra spleens and never know.
Image source: A-D-T-P, Mikael Häggström
Whether it was ancient storytellers, encyclopedia editors, Wikipedia contributors, or anonymous Reddit users, we all have the same instinct. We like knowing about things that make us wonder. We like passing them on.
And for some reason, we really, really like the weird and strange ones.
There’s actual research behind why this happens.
Studies show that curiosity comes from a gap in what we know. When we come across something that doesn’t quite make sense, our brain wants to fill in the missing piece. It’s strongest when we understand just enough to realize there’s more to learn, but not enough to fully explain it.
Strange facts give us just a slice of information, which is enough to catch our attention, but not enough to feel complete. So we naturally want to know more.
#8
Cats prefer for their food to be far from their water, because in the wild, carcasses in still water may signify infection.
Image source: pdrpersonguy575, Augusto Pinheiro/unsplash
#9
Whale milk has the consistency of cottage cheese.
Image source: jxj24, Getty Images/unsplash
#10
If you smell fish and there’s no fish around (or people that smell like fish), then your insulation is burning.
Source: 10 years working at a hardware store.
Image source: Tidbits1192, Getty Images/unsplash
Once you’ve started digging for info (like reading this listicle), your brain kind of lights up. Studies show that when people are curious, they actually remember information better. They don’t just absorb the info they were curious about in the first place, but even unrelated details they learn at the same time.
We actually spend a huge chunk of our lives doing exactly this.
We’re constantly feeding that need to know more, whether it’s through watching the news or videos, reading articles, or going down internet rabbit holes.
Curiosity is also linked to how we make decisions, because this is what pushes both humans and animals to find different ways to figure things out.
That’s why these strange facts actually matter.
You’ll read one thing, it’ll spark a question, and that question will lead to another. Before you know it, you’re learning without really trying and it doesn’t feel like studying or effort. Yet, your brain is still making connections in the background and retaining info.
#11
Banana artificial flavoring is based on a type of banana that went extinct due to low genetic diversity, which is why it tastes completely different from real bananas.
Image source: 8edhead, SuretyBringsRuin/reddit
#12
Chain saws were invented for child birth and were held by one hand and was manually spun by the other. They cut a tiny piece of the pelvis off to let the baby come out easier.
Image source: grimgrum420, Benjamin Brunner/unsplash
#13
An ear infection left untreated can grow and sit for years on end, slowly eating away at your ear canal. If untreated long enough the erosion causes skin cells in your ear unable to escape so they build up into a benign cyst called a cholesteatoma. Left untreated this can grow and affect balance, facial movement and eventually lead to [fatal] infection.
Source: Had a Cholesteatoma removed 3 months ago from untreated ear infections in my early years.
Image source: cohen63
We did some digging to figure out why something random or slightly strange instantly grabs our attention. And why regular, everyday information just doesn’t hit the same way.
Studies show that a big part of it comes down to novelty. Our brains are wired to notice things that are new and unexpected, even if they are slightly weird.
Encountering something new also taps into the brain’s reward system, the same one linked to dopamine (the chemical behind pleasure and motivation).
This dopamine hit makes us feel good for noticing something unusual, and motivates us to explore it more.
Back in the day, that might’ve meant spotting a rare animal in the forest or realizing that a strange cloud formation meant a storm was coming.
Now, it shows up as reading that wombat poop is cube-shaped or that chainsaws were invented for childbirth.
#14
Kids under 5 years will often try to hide from a fire, instead of running.
Firefighters find the bodies.
ziggy-23:
When I was a firefighter we specifically trained for this and in training we were told to always search under beds and behind closets or any tiny space a child could hide during a victim search.
Image source: Corgi_with_stilts, Kyle Cleveland/unsplash
#15
A [deceased] person’s fingerprint can’t be used to open a laptop– there needs to be heat behind it.
Source: I’m the IT person in my family, and when my grandfather [passed away], all of the family photos, his will, and all the other important documentation was on his fingerprint-locked laptop. My 16 year old self had to sheepishly hand the laptop to the medical examiner and ask her to see if she could get his fingerprint to open it. It didn’t work.
Image source: TSIDAFOE, Ahmad Ardani/unsplash
#16
Your face is a crumple zone. If you fall forward, even really hard, you can avoid a concussion and brain damage though you may have 20 bone breaks in your face and skull.
Image source: expat-brit
Our curiosity developed from survival instincts, and while today it may just be to get little doses of happiness or pass your time, some of these facts can actually save someone’s life.
Because that dopamine hit that you get from coming across new info is actually released in key memory areas of the brain, like the hippocampus. This makes it easier to encode and retain information.
In animal studies, introducing something unfamiliar just before or after a learning task helped mice remember things they otherwise would forget. That tells us novelty can boost memory retention, not just attention.
Studies on humans also show that exposing people to new scenes or experiences, like visiting a new place, improves their ability to remember unrelated facts or words encountered around the same time.
“There are times when people feel they can take in a lot of new information, and other times when they feel their memories are terrible,” says Charan Ranganath, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis.
“This suggests that once you light that fire of curiosity, you put the brain in a state that’s more conducive to learning. Once you get this ramp-up of dopamine, the brain becomes more like a sponge that’s ready to soak up whatever is happening.”
#17
If a person is hung upside down for too long it can actually [end] them. Their organs will put extra pressure on the lungs and heart making breathing difficult and heart issues. The blood will rush to your head and could cause brain bleeds. The body is very fascinating.
Image source: meow1983, Getty Images/unsplash
#18
There’s a company that turns [deceased] bodies into an ocean reefs.
Image source: offbrandH20
#19
A comma (more specifically the lack there of) cost thousands of elderly and disabled individuals thousands of dollars or prevented them from getting medical care in the 2000s and 2010s in the US.
The Oxford comma is a comma placed immediately after the penultimate term in a series of three or more terms. It is not necessary to be grammatically correct but it can lead to ambiguous interpretations of certain sentences. In this particular example, the US congress ratified a Medicare law around 1999 that stipulated each person is entitled to X amount of dollars to cover “occupational therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy.” It was supposed to mean that there were 3 separate amounts that could be applied to each service separately with the funds resetting with the calendar year. But because there was no comma between speech therapy and physical therapy, those services were forced to share the same pool of funds. This means that an individual that needed both services (like a stroke patient) would burn through those funds twice as fast. To make this worse, back then the law stipulated a hard cap on these funds. Read: when you’re out, too bad, so sad. The hard cap has since been repealed but the comma issue was never fixed. Now they just have to do a lot of extra paperwork to get these services covered. The crazy thing is, this all happened because some dumb intern on Capitol Hill in the 90’s made a typo or simply didn’t now better because they didn’t pay attention in high school English.
Image source: Sach2020, U.S. Government
Another reason we’re especially drawn to things that feel intense or unsettling is because of “morbid curiosity.”
Studies show people choose to look at negative or even disturbing information, even when they don’t have to.
Experts believe that morbid curiosity helps us understand potential dangers in a safe way.
We’re actually exposing ourselves to threat in a low‑risk setting when we read about true crime, watch scary movies, or look up strange facts online. This lets us mentally rehearse how danger works without actually being in danger.
The Roman gladiatorial games or the spectacle of public executions are prime examples to prove that humans have always been fascinated by the morbid.
#20
A daddy longlegs spider can’t see well further than a foot or so. So if it comes dangling down at you, it probably didn’t know you were there. You’re just a coloured blur.
Image source: elly996
#21
Horned lizards squirt blood from their eyeballs as a defense mechanism.
Image source: siissaa, Patrick Mayor/unsplash
#22
Babies are approximately 12.000 calories.
Image source: Okaythatscoolwhatevs, Omar Lopez/unsplash
In social settings, these little knowledge nuggets can actually be conversation starters and show people that you are quite smart. But most importantly, it tells them that you’re the kind of person who’s curious about the world.
It’s a simple way to be engaging and interesting without trying too hard.
These strange facts also remind us that that learning doesn’t have to be serious or heavy… it can be fun and entertaining as well.
And who knows, maybe one of these facts will actually help save someone from danger one day.
#23
In Africa and other places where giraffes live a male will beat a female with his head until she [urinates] and then the male will drink the [urine]to see if the female is able to have babies.
Image source: Reverse_flash_69, Getty Images/unsplash
#24
You can tell the temperature by counting the frequency of cricket chirps.
Image source: ipsatex, Hudson Graves/unsplash
#25
The “snap, crackle, pop” sound that Rice Krispies make in milk is the same sound made by maggots consuming a body.
The human rib cage can compress about two-and-three-quarter inches before it damages internal organs.
Both due to Mary Roach’s book “Stiff”.
Image source: anon
#26
You can literally scratch a hole through your scalp then skull with your fingertip with repeated effort over a few years.
Patient had terrible OCD, was a picker, and always wore a hat. We could see dura mater (brain membrane) when he finally was brought to the hospital.
Image source: everydayANDNeveryway
#27
Blue crabs will eat anything within a few days and will mutilate bones beyond recognition.
jerrythecactus:
This is true for all crabs really. They’re bottom feeders and a main component of their diet is the miscellaneous detritus the come across on the seafloor and on shorelines.
Image source: AmberSoul99
#28
The Pepsi-Cola company once responded to a man who claimed to have found a mouse in his can of mountain dew, stating that due to the high concentration of citric acid, any biological remains left in a can from the canning to consumption time frame would be dissolved before opening.
Image source: anon
#29
Chocolate can be fatal when snorted.
Image source: t_kaid
#30
McDonalds: It costs more to make worm burgers than it does to make them out of beef.
(actually said by McDonalds to refute the claim they were padding out beef burgers with worm meat.).
Image source: anon, Brett Jordan/unsplash
#31
One quarter of all mammal species are bats.
Image source: -mushroom-cat-
#32
The organ the sells for the most on the dark Web is the small intestine at about 800,000 usd.
Image source: anon
#33
Both ants and squirrels can survive a fall at terminal velocity.
Image source: elly996
#34
Your eyes have their own immune system and your body’s immune system can sometimes perceive them as a threat and attack them causing you to go blind.
Image source: YeetThatLemon
#35
One of the worst things you can do to a horse is give them a bunch of medication that causes vomiting. Horses are physically incapable of throwing up and will just lay down as their stomachs erupt. Conversely, giraffes are completely capable of up-shooting their stomach contents through their long boi necks and out onto the lap of your 3 year old making them terrified of giraffes for the rest of their life.
Image source: pro185
#36
Blood works as an egg substitute for baking.
Image source: GentlemanPirate13
#37
Oysters can change from one gender to another and back again.
Image source: ChunkySquidy
#38
The smell of rain is actually a byproduct of a chemical bacteria in the soil produce.
Image source: RosK062307
#39
If you need to dispose of a body in water, you need to cut open their abdomin first. In the bloating portion of decomposition gasses will build up in the chest cavity/abdomin and cause the corpse to float back up to the surface or at least try to.
Image source: PrimadonnaGorl
#40
If you cut off the head of someone, there is a slight chance that if you call their name a few seconds after, their eyes will react by looking towards you.
Image source: Background_Tennis_54
#41
A flamingo head is upside down when it eats.
Image source: Rottingawayinaseat
#42
The two functional fingers on the forelimb of *Tyrannosaurus rex* are homologous to our thumb and pointer finger. This means that *T. rex* were always doing finger guns.
Image source: repKyle1995
#43
Most toilet paper sold in France is pink.
Image source: dracos_lost_patronus
#44
If you break all the bones around the eyes in a human, you can knock their eyes out by hitting them in the back of a head with wiffleball bat.
Eyes literally just shoot out of their skull.
Image source: anuncommontruth
#45
I know a lot of stupid random things, my grandpa buys me these “books of random knowledge” for every holiday lol. A couple off the top of my head:
Ludolph van Ceulen’s life work was to calculate the mathematical constant pi to 35 digits. He died in 1610 and had the 35 digits of pi engraved on his tombstone because he was so proud of his achievement.
Mummy Brown – was a paint color used by artists that contained actual ground up mummies.
Bone Tumors have been found in Egyptian mummies, but so far none with cancer of any internal organs have been found.
Edit:
Thought I’d add a couple more fun facts:
Actor Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and in a ton of other action films) is super smart. He has a master’s degree in chemical engineering and received a Fullbright scholarship to MIT, but left school to become an actor.
The Great Molasses Flood was an incident in Boston in 1919, when a large storage tank with approx 2.3 million gallons of molasses broke open. The resultant wave of molasses swept down the street at about 35mph (56km/h) [unaliving] 21 and injuring 150. For decades afterwards, residents of the area claimed you could still smell molasses on hot days.
The middle initial in Harry S Truman’s name doesn’t actually stand for anything. His parents couldn’t decide on a middle name.
In Canadian radio and tv, there is a law that says one in every 5 songs used has to be from Canadian talent. This helps prevent Canadian songs/bands from being passed over for popular American songs.
Image source: ohheyitslaila
#46
GI Joe, the action figure, is named after a carrier pigeon that won a medal of valor in WWII for saving allied forces embedded in a small Italian village.
Image source: facefullofkittens
#47
If youre ever stuck on an island.. DO NOT eat seaturtles. they are what they eat. and they eat jellyfish which will poison you. it builds up in their system.
edit: it may not be likely that you picked a bad one. but dont do it unless you have to. certain species have more in them than others. and certain turtles do too. its not insanely common, but if youre on an island, you dont take a risk unless you have to.
people who have fished for them and eaten them regularly knew which ones were good and which werent.
remember *if youre stuck on an island* . not many people can distinguish species.
Image source: elly996
#48
You can feel the hip socket from inside the colon and it feels like a perfectly round ball.
Image source: flooble_worbler
#49
There’s a state where water can be boiling and frozen at the same time. It’s called triple point. It’s when temperature and pressure are perfect where the water can be at all 3 states: liquid, solid, and vapor.
Image source: Gunner253
#50
Penguins have knees.
Image source: Alanz_28
#51
Humans taste like pork.
Image source: AutomaticDeal3553
#52
Cows can walk up stairs but can’t walk down them. Hypothetically, a cow could walk into your house and go upstairs and then you’d need to call some kind of emergency service just to get it out (and probably have to rebuild part of your house in the process).
Image source: KailTheDryad
#53
Today at work my coworkers got on me because I knew it a.m. and p.m. meant
A.m. = Ante meridiem
P.m. = Post meridiem
Meridiem it’s just Meridian as you can tell, or the time of day when the sun is exactly overhead.
Image source: anon
#54
If someone grabs you by the hair, the best thing you can do is grab their hand to stabilize it and keep it against your head. Then use your thumb to start peeling their fingers starting at the pinky since the pinky is the weakest. Watch out for the attacker’s other hand, use your free hand to block what you can.
For a human bite release, feed the body part into the person’s mouth as much as possible so that they aren’t getting any air through their mouth and then pinch their nose. If that doesn’t work, use your hand to squeeze their cheeks where their jaws meet.
Image source: BeejOnABiscuit
#55
If you jump into a volcano, you won’t sink like Gollum.
Instead, you’ll skip around like a pat of butter on a hot skillet.
Image source: anon
#56
Horseshoe crab blood sells for around $10,000 a liter and is blue because it’s copper based instead of iron based like ours.
Image source: Cntrl-C-writer
#57
The crack/skull fracture from getting shot in the head reaches the other side of the skull before the bullet does.
Image source: you_dontknow_mylife
#58
A healthy heart doesn’t need a body to beat. As long as it has an oxygenated blood supply, it will just keep going, with or without its owner.
Image source: LinkyDink69
#59
If you look at anything and imagine yourself licking it you can imagine exactly what the texture would be while licking it.
Image source: jaz_999
#60
Venus’ day is longer than its year.
Image source: TriggerTrombone
#61
It takes around 45 pounds of force to rip off a human ear. So a deranged 6 year old could probably get the job done pretty easily.
Image source: anon
#62
A group of flamingos is called a Flamboyance.
Image source: losttraveller23
#63
Some forms of tertiary syphilis remain dormant for years.
Image source: jlcd11147
#64
Raw cabbage leaves can reduce swelling and soreness.
Image source: auntiepink
#65
At the Macy’s in Fresno, behind the make-up counter, there’s a large structure containing some drawer stacks, a back wrap, and space for displays on top. If you remove all the drawers from one of the drawer stacks, a slim man can climb inside and be fairly comfortable to hide in there, if he can get his buddy to put the drawers back.
Image source: VanGarrett
#66
Styrofoam and diesel makes a basic form of napalm.
Image source: anon
#67
The best kind of wood to use to make charcoal to make gunpowder is willow.
Image source: MikeNoble91
#68
Trying to boil water (especially in a microwave) in a smooth glass could result in superheating water beyond its boiling point. This is because of the absence of nucleation sites- little imperfections that provide the disturbance / friction necessary to create a bubble that will rise to the surface and release heat.
I guarantee someone is going to test this out- use a microwave for however long and get the longest wooden spoon that you can- use an oven mit and stand back… introduce the turbulence and it will practically explode into a boil.
Image source: From_Gaming_w_Love
#69
Upwards palm thrust to the nose. Less chance of hurting yourself than a punch, and much higher chance of some bad juju to them.
Image source: jolly-green-shauni
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