1. Ancient bacteria and viruses can reemerge from melting permafrost.
Certain microscopic pathogens can survive after being frozen for millions of years. If they reach humans and animals, they could lead to new diseases.
2. Warning! This fact will ruin all jokes about doctors’ bad handwriting to you.
Around 7,000 people die every year because of doctors’ bad handwriting - according to data from 2006 by the National Academies of Science Institute. Lucky for us, most medical notes are typed out on the computer these days!
3. Your parents were right when they told you to never stifle a sneeze...
A stifled sneeze can potentially rupture your eardrums, blood vessels in the eyes, or even a brain aneurysm. Although the chances of this killing you are rather low, they are not zero, and we can all agree that a quiet sneeze is not worth the risk.
4. Here’s why crows and ravens are associated with death.
Ravens are known to follow armies, looming over soldiers as they are marching into battle. These carrion birds are very smart, and they could probably understand that an armed conflict is about to start, providing them a big meal. Needless to say, this added to their reputation as harbingers of tragic news.
5. What happens when you get the wrong type of blood during a transfusion.
Mismatching the blood type during a blood transfusion can cause a pretty severe and potentially life-threatening immune reaction. People describe one of the early signs of getting the wrong type of blood as “a sense of impending doom.” If that’s not creepy, we don’t know what is!
6. A rare genetic condition called Situs inversus causes the position of one’s organs to be mirrored
The most common kind of this condition - Situs inversus totalis - affects about 1 in 10,000 people, and it refers to the complete reversal of all of the organs in the abdominal cavity. So, for example, instead of having the heart on the left side of the chest, a person will have it on the right side.
7. Your eyes have their own immune system.
This means that an eye condition that spreads beyond the eyes can make the immune system of the entire body attack the eyes and cause vision damage or even complete vision loss. What makes matters even worse is that the body doesn’t distinguish between the right and the left eye. If one of the eyes gets damaged, immune cells can accidentally attack the healthy eye.
8. The smell of a freshly mowed lawn is kind of creepy.
When a plant becomes damaged, it releases chemicals into the air as a warning signal to other plants. So what you’re smelling when you cut the lawn is a plant’s cry for help...
9. The United States military has officially lost 6 nuclear warheads throughout the years.
The military term Broken Arrow means that a nuclear weapon has been fired, launched, lost, or stolen. There have been 32 Broken Arrows recorded since 1950, and that’s only in the US. Just imagine how many nuclear missiles other countries could have lost without ever disclosing it!
10. Polydactyly is a strong genetic trait.
Polydactyly refers to having more than 5 fingers or toes on each hand or foot respectively, and it occurs in both animals and humans. When not related to a bigger syndrome, polydactyly is a dominant trait. This means that if a child inherits a polydactyly gene from only one of their parents, he or she will be born a polydactyl. So eventually, most people may have more fingers and toes.
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