Painterly Pigeons

Hey, did you know that pigeons have an eye for arts? It is true! In 1995, researchers discovered that pigeons could distinguish between different famous artists. Yeah, this study started by teaching birds a few paintings by Monet and Picasso. Once they got familiar with each artist, the pigeons were shown a new painting that they'd never seen before. Amazingly, these birds could tell you exactly who painted it. Did they talk? Hmm, they knew the difference between Monet's impressionist landscapes and Picasso's colorful abstracts.

Oh, but their talents didn't stop there! The pigeons got so good at recognizing these two painters they started identifying similar artists too. Using their knowledge of Monet, these birds could pick out works by Cezanne and Renoir, who were two more impressionist painters. They could do the same thing for Picasso and his cohorts ROC and Matisse. If you think about it, that's better than most people.

Your Second Brain

Have you ever wondered why you get butterflies in your stomach? Turns out that nervous, fluttery feeling comes directly from your brain, but not the one in your head. Hmm, every person has around 100 million neurons in their gut. For reference, that's more than your entire spinal cord, which is why scientists have nicknamed this cluster of neurons your second brain.

So, what does your second brain actually do? It mostly controls digestion, but it can also influence your mood and mental state. The butterflies in your stomach are a great example, but there's one major thing that your second brain can't do: it can't make conscious decisions, and it doesn't know how to be creative or solve problems. Of course, that doesn't mean it's not important. Without your second brain, your body wouldn't make it through a single day.

Widespread Misinformation

Think about these two names: Sherlock Holmes and Winston Churchill. One was a genius detective and the other a British politician. Now, of course, only one of them was a real person. Do you know which? This might sound like a stupid question. Okay, it was a stupid question, but an astonishing number of teenagers got it wrong. Nearly 60 percent thought Sherlock Holmes was a real detective, while another 20 percent thought Winston Churchill never existed.

The Lemon Juice Experiment

Your mouth can tell you a lot about your personality. All you need is a little lemon juice and a cotton ball. Start by putting a few drops of lemon juice on your tongue. Now, swish the juice around for about 15 seconds without swallowing. Huh? Then take the cotton ball and try to soak up all the saliva in your mouth. The amount of saliva you produce tells you what kind of person you really are.

That's because of the reticular activating system or RAS. In response to things like food and drinks, this part of your brain produces saliva. But there's one very important thing that gets your RAS going: social contact. If someone starts up a conversation or gives you a hug, it'll trigger your RAS, and you'll start making saliva. So, what does your RAS tell you about your personality? Well, people with a more sensitive RAS are more introverted, so if you are an introvert, it'll only take a few drops of lemon juice to create a ton of saliva in your mouth. On the other hand, extroverts are a lot less sensitive. You'll need a much stronger stimulus to get the same reaction. So, if you've ever wondered where you fall on this personality spectrum, give this quick and easy experiment a try.

300 Questions

As a child, we're constantly exposed to new things. So, how do we make sense of the strange and unfamiliar world around us? The answer is actually pretty simple: we ask a mind-blowing amount of questions. The average five-year-old asks their mom 300 questions every single day. That number drops to about 150 by age nine, but that's still tens of thousands of questions each year. With so much new information coming in on a daily basis, it's no wonder the human brain grows so quickly.

Stars Never Twinkle

Think about the way people describe the stars. We say they twinkle in the night sky, but they're not really twinkling at all. Their light is stable and constant. The flickering is a mirage created by fluctuations in the Earth's atmosphere. So, as picturesque as it looks, the sky is really just playing tricks on you.

Rain of Fish

We've all heard of raining cats and dogs, right? But what about fish? Once a year, in the small town of Euro, Honduras, thousands of silverfish rain down from the sky. Countless people have seen these animals tumble out of the clouds, but is it really raining fish? Well, it's a little complicated.

This strange phenomenon happens during the country's stormy season, thanks to something called a waterspout. Waterspouts are vortexes like tornados that develop over bodies of water. Just like how tornadoes scoop up dirt and trees, waterspouts pull all kinds of things out of the water, you guessed it, fish! So during a big storm, one of these waterspouts will suck thousands of fish into the sky and then send them flying everywhere. While it isn't really raining fish, Euro's "Lluvia de Peces" is still one of the most amazing natural occurrences in the world.

Powerful Calculator

Think back to those scientific calculators you used. Now, to most of us, these seem like pretty simple electronics. But in the 1960s, your calculator could have sent people to the moon. It's crazy to think about, but the average scientific calculator is six times more powerful than the computer on the Apollo 11. Now, it's true that these devices were built for very different things, but it just goes to show you how much technology has progressed over the years.

Lightning Quick Shrimp

The world record for the quickest punch by any human is forty-five miles per hour. Oh, but we're not the fastest in the animal kingdom. That title is held by peacock mantis shrimps, who throw punches at over 50 miles per hour, and that's underwater! So, how do they do it? These shrimps aren't just tossing their arms out there. They have a complicated spring system built into their shoulders. When they want to throw a punch, they create so much tension that they can launch their claws forward at breakneck speeds.

Furry Fingerprints

Everyone knows what a tiger looks like: orange and white with black stripes. Now, to us, they all look the same, but every tiger has its own unique arrangement of stripes. You'll never find two tigers with the exact same pattern, just like you'll never find two humans with the same set of fingerprints.

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Between Hawaii and California, a giant patch of garbage spans over 600,000 square miles of ocean. That's roughly three times larger than all of France. So, what's it made of? A little over half of the garbage patch is made of fishing nets, and another 20% comes from natural disasters like the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. Unfortunately, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is only getting bigger, and before long, it'll be large enough to be its own continent.

Blood Falls

Antarctica's Blood Falls is one of the world's most bizarre natural wonders. It gets its name from the scarlet stream that flows down the side of a massive glacier. Now, of course, it's not actually blood. That red hue comes from 2 million years of oxygen and heat deprivation. The salt water has such a strong reaction when it's first exposed to the outside air that it changes color. But even if you know the science behind it, it's hard to imagine this waterfall as anything but a cascade of bright red blood.

Full-Body Replacement

You're constantly getting rid of dead skin cells throughout the day. So, how long does it take to shed your entire body? It turns out humans expel their whole outer layer of skin every 45 to 50 days. In other words, your exterior is completely different than it was just two months ago.

The Amazing Diversity of Grass

Most people think of grass as just grass. It's those green blades you find at the park or on the side of the road. Yeah, sure, grass is nice to walk or sit on, but come on, it's not as exciting as those giant trees or colorful flowers.

So very few people know that there are over 600 species of grasses, and most of them look nothing like the green blade that we're used to. Some are thin and feathered like reeds, others are tall and hard like bamboo. Grass may not be the most exciting plant at first glance, but it's a lot more diverse than you think.

Sailing Stones

In Death Valley, the lowest point in North America, a number of strange boulders sail their way from one end of the valley to the other. But how is that possible? How do these giant rocks move hundreds of meters on their own?

This strange phenomenon happens during the winter. Death Valley gets covered in a thin layer of ice, which slides the boulders across the ground. As they slide, their rough bottoms carve trails into the ice. That way, when the ice melts, it looks like the rocks have moved across the valley all on their own.

Summary Table

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