28 Counterintuitive Science Facts That We’re Told Flush Backward in Australia

Okay, experts. If you say so
28 Counterintuitive Science Facts That We’re Told Flush Backward in Australia
Add Cracked to Google

These aren’t going to sound true, but we’ve been told they are. We feel a little weird displaying facts that we don’t fully believe, but if some of the best minds on the planet say they’re good, then who are we to doubt them? 

Even our more thorough fact-checking proved their truth but something just doesn’t seem right. They’re just that unbelievable.

Polar Bears

Polar bears are nearly invisible to infrared cameras. The bear's fur is so good at keeping the bear warm, that almost no heat escapes that can be picked up by infrared sensors. Invisibility cloaks are being researched that copy how the bear's hairs work. CRACKED COM

Lobsters

Lobsters don't age. While not exactly immortal, lobsters don't become weaker or stop breeding with age. They just keep growing bigger and bigger, until they're too big for their own good. CRACKED.COM

Chitons

CRACKED.COM chitons have teeth made of metal. Chitons, that are found in the Gulf of Mexico, are the Wolverine of mollusks. Their teeth are made of a metal called magnetite. No other living organism can make any material that tough.

Gliese 436 b

A planet exists made of burning ice. Gliese 436 b, about 30 light-years from us, is made mostly of ice that would burn you to a crisp if you touched it. The strong gravity keeps water so tightly packed that it remains solid, even at a temperature of almost 1,000 degrees. CRACKED.COM

The Barreleye

The barreleye can look through its own head. The top of this deep-water fish's head is see-through. The fish can rotate its eyes and look at the world through it. CRACKED.COM

Io

IO, a moon of Jupiter, has tides of rock. lo has no oceans-but that doesn't mean it has no tides. The gravity of Jupiter and the other moons causes the ground to move up and down the height of a 30-story building. CRACKED.COM

Whiptail Lizards

CRACKED.COM Whiptail lizards are all female. Aspidoscelis, a genus of New Mexico lizards, has no males. They reproduce through natural cloning. Their organisms have mechanisms in place to preserve genetic diversity.

Orcas and Dolphins

Killer whales can learn dolphin language. Orcas who spend time with bottlenose dolphins use more clicks and whistles, and their language becomes a mashup of both species. (So orcas speak dolphin with an accent?) CRACKED.COM

Clouds

A cloud may look fluffy and lighter-than-air but an average cumulus cloud weighs 1.1 million pounds or 500,000 kilograms. That's more than twice the weight of the Statue of Liberty. GRACKED.COM

Water Balloons

Water balloons can stop a bullet! Water slows down the speed of a bullet so much, 5 water balloons in a row can totally stop a bullet (even one from a rifle) CRACKED.COM

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station is more radioactive than a nuclear power plant. This is because of all the granite, which is slightly radioactive. While harmless, the radiation levels CRACKED.COM in the station are still more than allowed for nuclear power plants.

Sperm

A HUMAN MALE WILL PRODUCE ABOUT 525 BILLION SPERM IN HIS LIFETIME. THAT'S AROUND FIVE TIMES THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE EVER LIVED. CRACKED.COM

Electrons

If you add up the weight of the electrons that are used to power up the entire internet, it would add up to approximately 50 grams or 1.76 ounces! IN OTHER WORDS, THE INTERNET WEIGHS ABOUT AS MUCH AS A LARGE EGG! GRACKED.COM

Atoms

REMOVE ALL THE EMPTY SPACE FROM ALL THE ATOMS IN ALL OF THE PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH... ...AND ALL OF US COMBINED WOULD EQUAL THE VOLUME OF A SUGAR CUBE. CRACKED.COM

Particle Flow

GRACKED.COM Particles can flow UP streams of water. The effect is called vertical contamination.

Deserts

THE LARGEST DESERT ON EARTH ISN'T WHAT YOU THINK. ANTARCTICA CONTAINS 90% OF EARTH'S FRESH WATER, BUT KEEPS IT INACCESSIBLY FROZEN. WITH LESS THAN 2 INCHES ON AVERAGE OF PRECIPITATION A YEAR, IT'S ALSO THE PLANET'S LARGEST DESERT. GRAGKED.COM

Breeding Mice

GRAGKED.COM A breeding pair of mice can produce over 100,000 descendants in just one year

The Hubble Telescope

CRACKED.COM THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE ACTUALLY LOOKS BACK IN TIME. WHEN IT TAKES A PICTURE OF A GALAXY 100 MILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY, WE ARE SEEING THE GALAXY AS IT LOOKED 100 MILLION YEARS AGO.

Venus

If you were born on venus you'd celebrate your first birthday before you were even a day old. venus is the slowest rotating planet in the solar System. It can make a complete orbit around the Sun in less time than it takes to rotate just once on its axis. CRACKED.COM

Flea Acceleration

A flea accelerates about 25 times faster than a space shuttle! A flea can launch up to three inches in the air, 38 times its body length, withstanding 100 times the force of gravity (100Gs) whereas one of mankind's proudest creations, the space shuttle, peaks around 4Gs. United States CRACKED.COM

The Sun’s Atmosphere

CRACKED.COM The Sun's atmosphere extends far beyond Earth. So, basically we live inside the sun.

Neck Bones

Whether it's a giraffe or a mouse, pretty much all mammals have the same number of neck bones. CRACKED.COM

Trees

GRACKED.COM 3.04 TRILLION TREES THERE ARE MORE TREES ON EARTH THAN THERE ARE STARS IN THE MILKY WAY. APPROXIMATELY 400 BILLION STARS

Infinities

Not all infinities are the same size. Georg Cantor demonstrated that there are more real numbers than natural numbers, even though there's an infinite amount of each. CRACKED.COM

Alaska

Alaska is the most northern, eastern, and western state in the U.S. EASTERN HEMISPHERE 75° N RUSSIA Alaska 60° N 180° CANADA 165° E Alaska's Aleutian Islands 45° N 165°W USA 150°W 135°W 30° N 30° N WESTERN Florida MEXICO 120°W HEMISPHERE CUBA 20° N Hawaii M While it's obviously the most northern and western state, how is it possible that it's also the most eastern? Well that's thanks to Alaska's Aleutian Islands that stretch across the 180° line of Longitude, into the Eastern Hemisphere. I OFI CRACKED.COM

Tomato Genes

A tomato has about 7,000 more genes than a human being. CRACKED.COM

The Eiffel Tower

As metal expands on heating, the Eiffel Tower is actually 15-17cm taller in the summer CRACKED.COM

Water and the Sun

GRACKED.COM The Sun may be older than Earth, but the water we drink is older than the Sun.

Tags:

Scroll down for the next article

Must Read

VIRAL ON CRACKED

A WEEKLY
NEWSLETTER OF
JOKES + TRIVIA

Forgot Password?