Useless trivia and facts

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There’s no such thing as zero-calorie foods. Even low-calorie foods, such as celery and watercress, contain more energy than the body needs to process them.

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The Universe's average colour is called 'Cosmic latte'. In a 2002 study, astronomers found that the light coming from galaxies averaged into a beige colour that’s close to white.

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Animals can experience time differently from humans. To smaller animals, the world around them moves more slowly compared to humans. Salamanders and lizards, for example, experience time more slowly than cats and dogs. This is because the perception of time depends on how quickly the brain can process incoming information.

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Water might not be wet. This is because most scientists define wetness as a liquid’s ability to maintain contact with a solid surface, meaning that water itself is not wet, but can make other objects wet.

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Most people stroke cats the wrong way. Research shows they often just tolerate it for the food and attention. The safest spots? Under the chin, cheeks and base of the ears. The worst? Their belly and the base of their tail – touch there and you’re more likely to annoy them than bond with them.

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A chicken once lived for 18 months without a head. Mike the chicken's incredible feat was recorded back in the 1940s in the USA. He survived as his jugular vein and most of his brainstem were left mostly intact, ensuring just enough brain function remained for survival. In the majority of cases, a headless chicken dies in a matter of minutes.

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The raw ingredients of a human body would cost over £116,000. But if you’re prepared to do the refining yourself, a body could cost a lot less – under £100 in fact.

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All the world’s bacteria stacked on top of each other would stretch for 10 billion light-years. Together, Earth's 0.001mm-long microbes could wrap around the Milky Way over 20,000 times.

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Wearing a tie can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5 per cent. A study in 2018 found that wearing a necktie can reduce the blood flow to your brain by up to 7.5 per cent, which can make you feel dizzy, nauseous and cause headaches. They can also increase the pressure in your eyes if on too tight and are great at carrying germs.

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The fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. The 36-letter word was first used by the Roman poet Horace in the first century BCE to criticise those writers with an unreasonable penchant for long words. It was American poet Aimee Nezheukumatathil, possibly afraid of their own surname, who coined the term how we know it in 2000.