An interesting facts thread.

[Quaxar]

Polar Bear fur is composed of hollow tubes which trap heat.

Adding to that: their skin is actually black and contrary to what you'll read on various internet sites they are not "all left-pawed", there has been a study of injury patterns in polar bear forelimbs that found more injuries right than left suggesting, if anything, right-pawedness.

And because I just saw a picture of a clownfish... they actually live in colonies with one female and many males and if the female dies the highest-ranking male becomes female. So the concept of a clownfish single father is wrong on two accounts.

Viggo Mortensen almost died twice while filming The Lord of the Rings. First when a knife was accidentally thrown at him (yeah, that badass moment at the end of Fellowship of the Ring wasn't meant to happen), and again when he was almost sucked under by the currents in a river.

Plus he broke two toes right there.
<youtube=6n0Uj41zlhU>
The whole helmet business wasn't scripted at all, he just did and as a result broke two toes, cried out in pain and fell to his knees because standing was too painful.

 

[chinangel]

your hair is made of dead protein taken from your body, so anything you consume can be chemically traced in your hair.

 

[chinangel]

Viggo Mortensen almost died twice while filming The Lord of the Rings. First when a knife was accidentally thrown at him (yeah, that badass moment at the end of Fellowship of the Ring wasn't meant to happen), and again when he was almost sucked under by the currents in a river.

in the Two Towers (I think it is) when samwise is crossing the river, he slips. In reality he stepped on a massive hunk of glass that went through his foot, they nearly had to stop filming and replace him.

 

[Yopaz]

Viagra was discovered by accident when scientists were trying to develop a medication that could raise blood pressure.

The other way around actually. Nitrogen oxide is a compound that expands the diameter of the arterioles and thus gives lower blood pressure as a result.


The sound you hear when you listen to your heart isn't the sound of your heart pumping blood, it's the sound of the heart valves closing causing vibrations as they do so.

Testosterone is actually an inhibitor of its own production so when we take supplements we actually prevent our body from producing it thus explaining why some experience that their genitalia shrink after having used it.

We have removed quite large chunks of the cerebral cortex without observing loss of intelligence, but seeing massive changes in personality. This was what they used in lobotomy and it has been observed in some industrial damages.

LSD was developed in order to make a medicine that would constrict blood vessels for use during surgeries or child birth.

Smell is the only sensation that got instant connection to the cerebral cortex.

 

[Palademon]

The people who invented these words

Lisp
Dyslexia
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

are sadists

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Bananas are actually berries.
Custard can be explode violently.

There are only 22 countries in the world [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html] that have never seen an invasion by the British.

Sorry, that's all I've got right now.

So some slipped the net, we can't have that. Monaco it is so on now, to make it fair you can team up with The Vatican and Lichtenstein if you want

 

[maninahat]

A coal power plant produces a hundred times as much radioactive waste as a nuclear power plant.

Lagomorphs (rabbits, hares etc) have their balls above their penis.

John Wilkes Booth's brother saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.

Strawberries are known as "pseudocarp", or false-fruits, because they have their seeds on the outside of the flesh.

In the Disney film Herbie: Fully Loaded, Lindsay Lohan's breasts were digitally reduced in size to keep within age restriction rules.

 

[Ranorak]

I'm not wearing a shirt as I'm posting this!

That's all I got.

This coming from the guy with a QI avatar!

The developmental fate of every single somatic cell in C.elegans (959 in the adult hermaphrodite; 1031 in the adult male) has been mapped.

We know exactly, down to the minute, when each cell will divide, and into what, from the moment of birth.
C.elegans was the first animal to have it's DNA fully sequenced.

65% of all human genetic diseases have a counterpart in the worm.

 

[evilengine]

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

I'm afraid I beg to differ. The only scene in which the clocks are pointing to 4:20 is in the pawnshop where Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames end up. Every other clock or watch in the movie is different. observe:

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww243/zacs2k/pulp_fiction_clock.png
http://weprofessionalliars.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/pulp-fiction.jpg?w=584&h=302
http://www.interwatches.com/images/blog/img1267020605jhl.jpg

Those are the only ones I could find at short notice. Sorry, I don't mean to sound like a dick.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

A Jelly Fish does not die of old age - it just gets reborn over and over again.

Sharks have two penises.

 

[Quaxar]

A Jelly Fish does not die of old age - it just gets reborn over and over again.

Sharks have two penises.

I think I'm too much into this thread but I do love science and I think our trivia should be a proper one. Also, you have the bad luck that I'm a student of biology who just today listened to a lecture about sharks AND jellyfish. So have my apologies.

Jellyfish are not "immortal" as a species, their usual life-cycle only spans between days and a few months, in captive cases and with proper human treatment they might reach a year or so but it won't go much farther generally. In the wild if it doesn't get eaten by predators it at least dies after reproduction.
What you're referring to is the specific <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula>T. nutricula, which has been shown under lab conditions to be able to revert back to polyp stage thus avoiding the inevitable post-reproductive death.

As for the two-penis sharks I'm not gonna correct you there, just adding that they are actually pelvic fins that got modified into what is called claspers so it is logical they'd have two penis-analogues. I might also say that in two documented cases (one Hammerhead, one Atlantic Blacktip) sharks have been shown to perform "virgin births" or parthenogenesis.

 

[chaos order]

A Jelly Fish does not die of old age - it just gets reborn over and over again.

Sharks have two penises.

I think I'm too much into this thread but I do love science and I think our trivia should be a proper one. Also, you have the bad luck that I'm a student of biology who just today listened to a lecture about sharks AND jellyfish. So have my apologies.

Jellyfish are not "immortal" as a species, their usual life-cycle only spans between days and a few months, in captive cases and with proper human treatment they might reach a year or so but it won't go much farther generally. In the wild if it doesn't get eaten by predators it at least dies after reproduction.
What you're referring to is the specific <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula>T. nutricula, which has been shown under lab conditions to be able to revert back to polyp stage thus avoiding the inevitable post-reproductive death.

As for the two-penis sharks I'm not gonna correct you there, just adding that they are actually pelvic fins that got modified into what is called claspers so it is logical they'd have two penis-analogues. I might also say that in two documented cases (one Hammerhead, one Atlantic Blacktip) sharks have been shown to perform "virgin births" or parthenogenesis.

as a fellow biological student here's 2 interesting videos of animals. The pistol shrimp's hunting strategy and the marine flatworms mating habits.

1.
2.

 

[Vegosiux]

It is possible to pop your eyes out of your skull if you sneeze very hard while managing to keep your eyes wide open.

Wasn't that one busted?

Anyway, every time you move your eyes, you're blind for a split second. The brain basically shuts down the signal from the eyes so it doesn't go crazy from the blur it'd have to deal with.

 

[KillKill]

The shortest war in history is the Anglo-Zanzibar War, it lasted 38 minutes. Around 500 Zanzibari people were killed while British casualties amounted to one wounded Petty Officer.

 

[AngloDoom]

If you were to remove all of the veins, arteries and capillaries in your body and then stretch them out in front of you...

You would die.

 

[maninahat]

Luke Skywalker was originally supposed to be a midget.

Also his original name was to be "Starkiller". But it didn't sound heroic enough.

And could have even been a woman. But women can't be heroes. See also, Indiana Jones might possibly have been a paedophile.

 

[Mr Binary]

Don't know if it's very interesting but, 80% of the time the average person will only wash one of their thumbs when they wash their hands.

 

[Ytomyth]

The indent in your skin, that's on your upper lip and right below your nose, is called a philtrum. This is bordered on both sides by the philtral column, below it is the philtral tubercle and last (but not least xD) the nasal columella on top.

Enjoy the knowledge.