Squirrels can survive a fall from any height.
A squirrel's low terminal velocity of about 23 mph is too slow to be fatal. Their light bodies and bushy tails create enough drag to act like a parachute, while flexible joints abs...
1323 facts
A squirrel's low terminal velocity of about 23 mph is too slow to be fatal. Their light bodies and bushy tails create enough drag to act like a parachute, while flexible joints abs...
Squirrels hide acorns and walnuts in the ground to prepare for winter. Since they fail to recover many of these caches, the forgotten seeds sprout and grow into trees. This process...
To survive harsh deserts, camels extract nearly every drop of moisture from their food. Their long intestines absorb so much water that their waste is almost completely dry. This f...
A camel's nasal passages trap water vapor from its breath during exhalation and return it to the body. This unique system prevents dehydration and humidifies dry air before it reac...
Most mammals maintain a steady temperature, but camels let theirs rise from 93°F at night to 104°F during the day. This prevents water loss by delaying sweat until it is absolutely...
Modern camels are famous for desert life, but their ancestors first appeared in North America 45 million years ago. Their signature traits, like fatty humps and wide feet, were ori...
Most mammals have round red blood cells that clump together when water is scarce. A camel's oval cells are flexible and glide through tiny vessels even in 104°F (40°C) heat. These...
This rapid rehydration is possible because camels have unique, oval-shaped red blood cells. These cells can expand to 240% of their original size without bursting, allowing the ani...
Storing fat in a concentrated hump instead of under the skin prevents the camel from overheating in the desert sun. This reserve can weigh up to 80 pounds and provides energy when...
Vultures scan the ground while watching other vultures in the sky. When one bird dives toward a carcass, others nearby notice and follow. This creates a massive, living surveillanc...
Their stomach acid is powerful enough to destroy pathogens like anthrax, cholera, and botulism. By consuming decaying remains, vultures stop these diseases from spreading into the...
They stay aloft by riding thermals, which are rising columns of warm air. By circling within these currents, vultures gain altitude and glide long distances while using very little...
In 1973, a Rüppell's vulture collided with a commercial jet over the Ivory Coast at 37,000 feet. These birds survive at such extreme heights thanks to a specialized hemoglobin that...
A featherless head prevents blood and bacteria from sticking to the bird while it feeds on carcasses. Bare skin is easier to keep clean and dries quickly in the sun, which helps ki...
Bones make up 70% to 90% of this bird's diet. If a bone is too big to swallow, the vulture drops it from high altitudes onto rocks to shatter it. Its powerful stomach acid can comp...
A vulture's stomach acid is up to 100 times stronger than a human's. This extreme acidity allows them to safely eat rotting carcasses infected with rabies, botulism, and anthrax. B...
This process, called urohydrosis, uses evaporation to lower the bird's body temperature, similar to how humans sweat. The highly acidic waste also acts as a disinfectant, killing b...
Rapid altitude changes create a pressure imbalance between your middle ear and the airplane cabin. Chewing gum triggers frequent swallowing, which opens the Eustachian tubes. This...
Harvested from the mastic tree on the island of Chios, this resin has natural antibacterial properties that fight plaque. It was so popular that the English word "masticate" comes...
Manufacturers use food-grade synthetic rubbers like polyisobutylene to give gum its stretch. This material is more durable and consistent than natural tree resins. Most brands swit...
Your body cannot digest the synthetic rubber base, but it doesn't get stuck. Your digestive system moves gum through your intestines using muscle contractions. It typically passes...
In 1891, William Wrigley Jr. founded his company in Chicago selling soap. To boost sales, he offered free baking powder as a gift. When the baking powder became more popular than t...
Chewing increases your heart rate and delivers more oxygen to the brain. This surge in blood flow can improve short-term memory by up to 35% while reducing stress hormones like cor...
The U.S. military included gum in every soldier's rations to reduce stress and keep teeth clean. Demand was so massive that companies like Wrigley stopped selling to civilians to p...
In 1928, accountant Walter Diemer created a stretchy, non-sticky gum that was originally a dull gray color. The only food coloring he had in a large enough quantity was pink. This...
In the 1860s, inventor Thomas Adams tried to turn chicle—a natural tree sap—into a cheap rubber substitute. When the material proved too soft for tires, he noticed it was enjoyable...
Stone Age people chewed birch bark tar to clean teeth and soothe toothaches. This sticky substance acted like a time capsule, trapping the DNA of the person who chewed it. In 2019,...
Earth is not a perfect sphere, and its mass is unevenly distributed. Variations in density, such as mountain ranges and ocean trenches, create slight differences in gravitational p...
This happens because gravity pulls much harder on your feet than on your head. This massive difference in force, called a tidal force, stretches you into a vertical line thinner th...
Known as gravitational waves, these ripples travel at the speed of light and distort the fabric of reality. When they pass through Earth, they cause everything—including you—to tin...
Gravity never reaches zero. While the force weakens as distance increases, it never truly disappears. This means you exert a tiny gravitational pull on objects billions of light-ye...
At the International Space Station's altitude, Earth's gravity is still 90% as strong as it is on the ground. The station and the astronauts inside are falling toward Earth, but th...
A space object's shape is determined by the tug-of-war between gravity and material strength. When an object reaches a specific mass, its gravity becomes strong enough to crush sol...
Earth is not a perfect sphere. It bulges at the equator, placing you farther from the planet's center where gravity is weaker. Additionally, Earth's rotation creates a centrifugal...
This happens because gravity warps time. The stronger the gravity, the slower time passes. Since gravity is weaker farther from Earth's center, clocks at high altitudes tick slight...
This effect, called gravitational lensing, occurs when a massive galaxy or black hole curves spacetime. When light from a distant source passes through this curve, it bends and mag...
Even though gravity holds galaxies together, it is surprisingly weak. A small refrigerator magnet can lift a paperclip, easily overcoming the gravitational pull of the entire Earth...
Standing 309.6 meters tall, The Shard maximizes urban space by layering different environments vertically. It uses an on-site natural gas plant to generate electricity and recycle...
The world's tallest building has 24,348 windows covering an area the size of 17 soccer fields. A team of 36 workers uses specialized tracks and machines for most of the tower, but...
To preserve a church on the site, the tower was built on massive stilts placed in the middle of its sides instead of the corners. A student's question led to the discovery that dia...
While most skyscrapers rest on solid rock, the Burj Khalifa sits on deep soil. Its foundation uses 192 concrete piles driven 164 feet into the ground. These piles stay stable using...
These elevators can reach the 119th floor in just 55 seconds. To prevent ear pain from rapid altitude changes, the cabins are pressurized like airplanes. The ride is so smooth that...
When the sun heats a building's steel frame, the metal absorbs energy and expands. This process, known as thermal expansion, can cause a skyscraper to grow taller or even lean away...
At 1,454 feet tall, this iconic skyscraper acts as a massive lightning rod. Its steel frame and copper tip safely channel millions of volts into the ground. During one intense stor...
Because the tower is so tall, the sun sets about three minutes later at the top than at the ground. If you watch the sunset from the base and then take the high-speed elevator to t...
Measuring up to 3 feet long, a tiger's tail provides essential balance for its 500-pound body. During a high-speed chase, the tiger swings its tail in the opposite direction of its...
Also known as the Amur tiger, this massive predator can weigh over 660 pounds. To survive the freezing Russian Far East, they have thick fur and a layer of fat for insulation. Thei...
Tigers have a reflective layer behind their retinas called the tapetum lucidum. This structure bounces light back through the eye to maximize what they see in the dark. It is also...
Siberian tigers are solitary hunters that require massive territories to survive. A single male's range can exceed 400 square miles to ensure he has enough food and access to mates...
Unlike most felines, tigers are naturally adapted to the water. They have partially webbed toes that act like paddles, allowing them to cross rivers up to 4 miles wide. In regions...