Mind Blowing Facts you should know but you don't - Part 1
1. How many nostrils have you got?
Four. You have four nostrils, one pair on the outside, the other on the inside. They are called 'Choannae' which is Greek for funnels. They are connected to our throat and without them, we couldn't breathe through our noses.
You see we evolved from fish, and this observation is what led to the discovery. Fish breathe in water, hence, they have a forward facing pair to suck water in, and another to push it out, kind of like exhaust pipes. In our case, as we became land animals and could breathe the air directly, we did not need the other pair on the outside. Spectacularly, these pairs gradually made their through our teeth, somehow, and settled inside the head.
2. Where is the driest place on earth?
Yep, it is Antarctica. There are parts of the continent that have received no rainfall in-behold- two million years.
This is a place called Dry Valleys and it is completely devoid of snow and ice and it doesn't rain there At All.
Amazingly, Antarctica also happens to be the wettest and the windiest place on the planet.
Wind speeds there are the fastest ever recorded, and the ice amounts for seventy percent of the world's fresh water.
3. Where is the highest mountain?
It is the highest mountain in the solar system and in the known universe as of yet, it is called Olympus Mons, or Mount Olympus and it is in Mars.
It is 14 miles(22 km) high; almost thrice as high as Everest, 388 miles(624 km) across.
Its base is wide enough to cover all of Arizona.
4. What is the largest living thing?
It is a mushroom called honey fungus and it isn't too rare.
You might have seen one on a dead tree stump.
Let's hope it doesn't grow to a size of 2200 acres, like the one in Malheur National Forest in Oregon. Which also happens to be between 2000 to 8000 years old. Most of it is underground in the form of Mycelia(roots)
5. How long can a chicken live without its head?
Just about two years.
You haven't heard of Mike the headless chicken?
He got his head sliced off on September 10th 1945, but somehow the axe missed his jugular vein and left enough brain stem attached to his neck. Enough to live two years.
He went on to become a celebrity, making 4500$ a month; his price was set at 10,000$.
He was fed with an eyedropper. One person that knew him well had commented "He was a big fat chicken who didn't know he didn't have a head."\
He would have lived even more, had his owner Lloyd Olsen not forgotten the eye dropper at a previous day's show when Mike choked to death, unable to clear his airways.
6. What is the most dangerous animal that has ever lived?
That's right, a female mosquito.
It is estimated that as many as 45 billion people have been killed by mosquitoes. That is about a little less than half the human beings who have died as of yet.
Even today one person dies of a mosquito inflicted disease every twelve seconds. Malaria, yellow fever, dengue, encephalitis, filariasis and elephantiasis are the ones that claim most victims; however, mosquitoes are known to carry more than a hundred potentially fatal diseases.
I cannot even begin to tell you how lucky we are that the mosquitoes cannot transmit AIDS.
When an AIDS victim is bitten by a mosquito, the virus enters the insect's body and somehow gets dissolved in it's stomach. If the day comes that the Human Immunodeficiency Virus were to somehow resist the mosquito's stomach juices and live through just enough time until it bites another healthy guy, humans will be in deep trouble. Very. Very. Deep. Trouble.
Find more facts here
- Mind Blowing Facts you should know but you don't - Part 3
3nd instalment: A list of facts very rarely known. The ones that you think you know, you know wrong. Don't believe me? Find out. - Mind Blowing Facts you should know but you don't - Part 4
4th instalment: A list of facts very rarely known. The ones that you think you know, you know wrong. Don't believe me? Find out. - Mind Blowing Facts you should know but you don't - Part 2
2nd instalment: A list of facts very rarely known. The ones that you think you know, you know wrong. Don't believe me? Find out.