Useless trivia and facts

lis

Dogs tilt their heads when you speak to them to better pinpoint familiar words. Your dog is tilting its head when you speak to it to pinpoint where noises are coming from more quickly. This is done to listen out more accurately for familiar words such as 'walkies' and helps them to better understand the tone of your voice. If a dog doesn't tilt its head that often (as those with shorter muzzles might), it's because it relies less on sound and more on sight.

lis

If the Earth doubled in size, trees would immediately fall over. This is because surface gravity would be doubled. It would also mean dog-size and larger animals would not be able to run without breaking a leg.

lis

Mercury, not Venus, is the closest planet to Earth on average. On average, Mercury is 1.04 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth compared to the 1.14 AU average distance between Earth and Venus. One AU is equal to the average distance between the Earth and the Sun. Venus still comes closest to Earth as part of its orbit around the Sun, however.

lis

Flamingoes aren’t born pink. They actually come into the world with grey/white feathers and only develop a pinkish hue after starting a diet of brine shrimp and blue-green algae.

lis

You can smell ants. Many species of ants release strong-smelling chemicals when they’re angry, threatened or being squished. Trap-jaw ants release a chocolatey smell when annoyed, while citronella ants earn their name from the lemony odour they give off.

lis

People who eat whatever they want and stay slim have a slow metabolism, not fast. A skinny person tends to have less muscle mass than others, meaning their basal metabolic rate (BMR) is lower than those of a high muscle mass – this gives them a slow metabolism, not a fast one.

lis

There’s a scientist who willingly let insects sting him to find out which hurt the most. Justin Schmidt turned his own body into a research tool to create the Schmidt Pain Scale – and discovered the South American bullet ant delivers the most excruciating sting of all, describing it as like being shot.

lis

Earth is 4.54 billion years old. Using radiometric dating, scientists have discovered that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old (give or take 50 million years). This makes our planet half the age of the Milky Way Galaxy (11-13 billion years old) and around a third of the age of the Universe (10-15 billion years old).

lis

It’s actually fine to drink alcohol on (most) antibiotics. It’s unlikely that drinking alcohol in moderation will cause a big problem if you’re taking a common antibiotic (although there are exceptions, particularly metronidazole).

lis

Electrons might live forever. Scientists have estimated the minimum lifetime of the electron is about 6.6 × 1028 years – this is 66,000 ‘yottayears’. Since this is about 5 quintillion times the age of the Universe, even if electrons don’t live forever, they may as well do!