The world is a big, wonderful place full of facts we never thought possible. For instance, if a pregnant mouse has a sudden medical issue, the fetus will send stem cells to heal the mother, increasing its chances of survival as well. Fetal stem cells have been found in human mothers as well, dubbed by science as microchimerism.
Bright Side dug up some more marvelous facts about nature and its creations, upholding our yearly resolutions to spread knowledge and joy.
1. The heart slows when your face touches water.
As mammals, we can’t breathe underwater, so as part of the mammalian dive reflex, our heart rate goes down in the water — more so if we go underwater. Even splashing the face with water makes the heart slow down, making it a great way to calm down.
2. Fungus can break down plastic in weeks.
It is said that in the future, there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This is why the plastic-eating fungus is great news, and there are around 50 new species of such fungi discovered already. One of the fungi discovered can digest plastic within 2 months, so there’s hope for us yet.
3. Newborn babies can support their own weight.
Newborn babies are strong — strong enough to be able to grasp things in their tiny fists and even support their weight as shown by an experiment done in the nineteenth century. Louis Robinson witnessed babies able to hang from a walking stick, from 10 seconds to 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
4. Koala fingerprints have been mistaken for human ones.
We’ve been told that our fingerprints are unique, and they are. But the fact remains that even though we share a common ancestor with the koala that was alive 100 million years ago, koala fingerprints look very similar to human fingerprints, as do chimpanzee fingerprints for that matter.
5. Snails can sleep for 3 years.
If you thought bears had it good with hibernation, meet the snail. Snails can sleep rather than hibernate for 3 years at a time without needing food. Of course, this is with some snail species, not all of them. Meanwhile, bears usually hibernate for just 4-8 months.
6. Sloths need 2 weeks to digest food.
Sloths don’t only move in slow motion — even their insides move slowly, ostensibly to preserve energy, which is why a sloth’s digestive system takes 2 weeks to process the food it ate. Plus, most of what it eats is indigestible, giving it very little energy from each slowly chewed mouthful.
On the other end of the spectrum lies the shrew, whose digestion takes mere minutes and is done so fast, not much of it is fully digested. This is the reason why shrews eat their own feces. They can die of starvation in a matter of hours if they don’t eat.
7. Your brain ignores seeing your nose.
We can see our nose all the time, it’s just that the brain tends to ignore it because it’s a constant visual stimulus. It’s the same with people who wear glasses. After a while, they simply stop noticing them.
8. Your forearm is the same length as your foot.
If you don’t have the time to try on a shoe, measure it from your elbow crease to your wrist. If it fits or is just a little smaller, it would fit your foot because the length of your forearm is the same as your foot. And this is just one of many human body ratios that are a marvel in themselves, including the fact that your femur bone is one-quarter your height.
9. You can “see” your white blood cells.
If you look up at a cloudless, bright blue sky and see some wiggly things at the periphery of your vision, you’ve just experienced the blue field entoptic phenomenon. The wiggly things are white blood cells moving in the fine blood vessels moving in front of the retina, at the back of the eye.
10. Human beings have striped skin, but only cats can see it.
Human beings have stripes and patterns on the skin too, and they are called Lines of Blaschko, name eponymously by the scientist who discovered them, Dr. Alfred Blaschko. These are closer to tiger stripes, forming more of a V-pattern fanning out from the center to the extremities. These lines are visible under UV light, a spectrum that cats can see too, which is why cats can see you as a striped being as well.
Which of these facts turned out to be a revelation for you? Share your extreme nature facts with us and blow us away.
Preview photo credit Shutterstock.com, Shutterstock.com
The Dangers of the Newest ‘Dry Scooping’ Trend
Love it or hate it, TikTok is a social networking site that has gone viral worldwide. A lot of users visit the app to watch dancing videos, try out fitness trends, or discover new cooking methods. However, trends on TikTok can occasionally be hazardous and misleading. The “dry scooping” fad is one example of this.
Those of you who work out frequently might be familiar with protein powder. Before consuming, it is usually combined with water or another liquid. On the other hand, people are ingesting the powder straight instead of the liquid because to the “dry scooping” fad on TikTok. It is actually highly dangerous, even if it could appear like a time-saver.
To what extent is it dangerous? After attempting the trend, one young woman admitted to suffering a heart attack. Some people have mentioned having trouble breathing when the dry powder gets inside their lungs. The unexpected surge of caffeine associated with “dry scooping” is one of the key worries. Twenty-year-old Briatney Portillo experienced a heart attack subsequent to attempting the trend. “I started to feel tingly and itchy all over my body after I took the pre-workout, which wasn’t a good feeling,” she stated. I chose to ignore it and continue working out since I believed it might be nervousness or a severe panic attack.
But things got out of hand very quickly. Portillo started to feel dizzy, began to perspire a lot, and had severe chest pain that went down her left arm. As soon as she realized she was having a heart attack, she dialed 911. It served as a warning to others and a wake-up call for Portillo.
A significant problem with “dry scooping” is the ignorance about the precise substance being eaten. Pre-workout powders such as this one are not governed by the FDA, according to Dr. Jason Nagata, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. These powders run a serious risk of being tainted with illegal drugs, stimulants, steroids, or other harmful compounds. Abuse of these drugs raises the risk of heart attacks, liver damage, and other severe health issues.
Portillo wishes to raise awareness of the risks associated with “dry scooping.” She stresses that something is not always safe just because it is viewed online, especially if it is being done by so-called “fitness influencers.” The things we put into our body need to be carefully considered. Our youth does not grant us unstoppable strength.
Therefore, let’s put our health and safety first, make wise decisions, and stay away from risky practices like “dry scooping.”
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