What are 10 mind-blowing facts?
From the existence of a zombie contingency plan to the expansion of the universe in all directions, here are 10 answers to the question, “What are mind-blowing facts you’d like to share?”
- USA’s Very Real Anti-Zombie Plan
- Some Worker Ants Don’t Work
- Data Storage Capabilities in DNA
- Moonlight is Sunlight
- The First Computer Virus Developed in 1971
- No Two Cats Have the Same Nose
- Cats Can Drink Seawater
- There Are Habitable Planets in the Milky Way
- We Used the World’s First Webcam to Monitor a Coffee Pot
- The Universe Has No Center
USA’s Very Real Anti-Zombie Plan
Pop culture can never get enough of zombies. Audiences around the globe are now watching HBO’s latest The Last of Us series that features zombie-like creatures.
One thing that most people certainly don’t know is that the US actually has a legitimate contingency plan should a zombie apocalypse actually occur. It’s a roughly 30-page-long document that, despite its content, is no joke.
Even the opening line aims to assure the reader that “The Counter-Zombie Dominance” plan isn’t just an amusing prank.
Natalia Brzezinska, Marketing and Outreach Manager, PhotoAiD
Some Worker Ants Don’t Work
Some worker ants don’t work, and scientists only have theories about why this is. Are “lazy” ants part of a reserve force?
Up to 40% of worker ants in a colony may remain idle, and when the University of Arizona biologists removed hard-working ants, their lazy counterparts leaped into action. Source:https://www.interestingfacts.com/fact/63ec007ba96da400083816d
Candice Trebus, Marketing Manager, Social Media and Email, Woodruff Sawyer
Data Storage Capabilities in DNA
Have you known that a single gram of DNA can store up to 215 petabytes (215 million gigabytes) of data? This means a few tens of kilograms of DNA can store all the world’s data.
The container size would be like a couple of pickup trucks. Recent advancements in DNA could enable using DNA as a storage medium for digital information. DNA has several advantages as a storage medium, and it could go with several benefits.
It is incredibly dense (a single gram of DNA can store vast data) and highly stable (DNA can last for thousands of years under the right conditions). It won’t degrade over time, like tapes and CDs.
The DNA information is relatively easy to synthesize and read. While the technology is still in its early stages, DNA storage has the potential to revolutionize the field of data storage and offer a highly efficient, long-term solution for archiving and preserving information.
Nina Paczka, Community Manager, Resume Now
Moonlight is Sunlight
For as long as I can remember, the moon has fascinated me. Moonlight casts a cool glow that differs every night. Shockingly, the moon itself doesn’t give off any light. The light we see is actually a reflection of the sun.
Knowing that the moon doesn’t glow but reflects has not stopped me from admiring it. In fact, it’s added to its mystery.
Source:Dr. Universe: How does the moon glow? -Reece, Pullman, Wash.
Tara Bennet, Astrologer, Clairvoyant, Spiritual Coach, and Compassionate Empath, Mediumchat
The First Computer Virus Developed in 1971
In 1971, an engineer named Bob Thomas created the first computer virus, the Creeper virus, to experiment with the possibility of making a program move between computers on a network.
The virus infected the ARPANET and displayed a message on infected computers. The first antivirus software, called Reaper, deleted the virus, giving birth to the antivirus industry.
Today, computer viruses are increasingly sophisticated, and data breaches are a constant threat. The concern over computer viruses will continue to grow as the use of computers and the internet continues to expand.
Source:Creeper and Reaper – Wikipedia
Burak Özdemir, Founder, Online Alarm Clock
No Two Cats Have the Same Nose
No two cats have the same nose. You will notice minor bumps and ridges if you look closely at your cat’s nose. These prints are as unique as human fingerprints, exclusive to each animal.
If cats let them, scientists could use cat “nose prints” as perfect identification by inking their nose and stamping it on paper. Jokes aside, with rapid technological development, nose print recording is actually gaining some popularity. Interestingly, dogs have the same unique trait; every dog’s nose also has its own pattern of bumps and ridges.
Source:National Cat Day: 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Cats – Freshpet
Agata Szczepanek, Community Manager, LiveCareer
Cats Can Drink Seawater
Cats possess a biological advantage that distinguishes them from humans—their kidneys are much stronger, allowing them to extract salt from seawater and rehydrate themselves. A 1959 study affirmed this by showing that found cats can rely solely on saltwater for drinking to survive.
This ability to filter out salt from water is an evolutionary adaptation, which is important for their survival in the wild.
As the domestic cat’s ancestor, the African Wildcat, lived in desert environments where fresh water was scarce, they had to rely on other water sources, such as saltwater. Therefore, cats can still drink salt water because of their evolutionary history.
Dilruba Erkan, Consultant, Character Calculator
There Are Habitable Planets in the Milky Way
One mind-blowing fact is that there are about 100 billion habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. These results from the study “The Occurrence of Potentially Habitable Planets Orbiting M Dwarfs Estimated from the Full Kepler Dataset and an Empirical Measurement of the Detection Sensitivity” by Dressing and Charbonneau, published in the Astrophysical Journal in 2015.
This means that there could be millions, if not billions, of potential locations for life to exist beyond Earth. Given the vastness of the universe, it’s possible that there could be forms of life that differ completely from anything we’ve ever seen before.
The search for extraterrestrial life is a fascinating and ongoing area of research, and the possibilities are truly awe-inspiring. The James Webb Telescope will look for signs of life by searching for artificial light on exoplanets including our nearest neighbor, Proxima B. What will we find in the years to come?
Karl Perera, Astrophotographer and English Teacher, Astro Imagery
We Used the World’s First Webcam to Monitor a Coffee Pot
Scientists at the University of Cambridge Computer Lab set it up in 1991. Known as the Trojan Room coffee pot, they connected it to the computer network on everyone’s desktop, saving them the disappointment of heading to the break room only to find it empty.
Eventually, the camera and its subject rose to international fame when the World Wide Web was in its early stages. While we mostly use webcams today for online communications, broadcasting, streaming, and monitoring, it was originally a humble coffee pot that started it all.
Source:Trojan Room coffee pot – Wikipedia
Kirkland Gee, Co-Founder, Perfect Extraction
The Universe Has No Center
One mind-blowing fact about the universe is that it has no center. According to current scientific understanding, the universe began with the Big Bang and has been expanding ever since.
However, unlike an explosion in space, the Big Bang did not have a specific center from which it expanded. Instead, the universe expands uniformly in all directions, with no central point or edge.
This means that every observer in the universe would perceive themselves to be at the center of the universe, with all other objects moving away from them. This mind-blowing fact challenges our everyday understanding of space and time and underscores the vastness and complexity of the cosmos. It’s a reminder of how much we have yet to discover and understand about the universe we live in.
Source:Ask Ethan #70: Does the Universe have a center? | by Ethan Siegel | Starts With A Bang! | Medium
Nick Cotter, Founder, newfoundr
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