All Facts
There are more possible chess games than atoms in the observable universe
scienceThe Shannon number estimates approximately 10^120 possible chess games, while the observable universe contains roughly 10^80 atoms. This staggering number…
Sharks are older than trees
animalsSharks have existed for over 450 million years, predating the first trees which appeared around 350 million years ago. Sharks survived all five of Earth's…
Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood
animalsAn octopus has three hearts: two branchial hearts pump blood through the gills, while a third systemic heart circulates it through the body. Their blood is…
A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance
animalsThe collective noun for flamingos is a "flamboyance" — perfectly fitting for birds known for their vivid pink plumage and theatrical one-legged stance.…
Oxford University is older than the Aztec Empire
historyTeaching at Oxford began around 1096 AD and developed rapidly after 1167. The Aztec Empire was founded in 1428 AD — more than three centuries later. Oxford is…
Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the pyramids
historyCleopatra VII ruled Egypt around 30 BC — roughly 2,500 years after the Great Pyramid of Giza was built (c. 2560 BC), but only about 2,000 years before the…
Australia is wider than the Moon
geographyAustralia measures approximately 4,000 km from east to west. The Moon has a diameter of just 3,474 km. Despite the Moon looking enormous in the night sky, you…
Hot water can freeze faster than cold water
scienceThe Mpemba effect describes the phenomenon where hot water sometimes freezes faster than cold water under the same conditions. First formally described by…
A teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh about a billion tonnes
scienceNeutron stars are the collapsed cores of massive stars and are so dense that a teaspoon of their material would weigh approximately one billion metric tonnes…
Nintendo was founded in 1889
historyLong before Mario, Nintendo was a playing card company. Founded on 23 September 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi in Kyoto, Japan, the company made hand-crafted…
Honey never spoils — edible honey has been found in 3,000-year-old Egyptian tombs
foodArchaeologists have discovered honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that is still perfectly edible after 3,000 years. Honey's longevity is due to its very low…
The first computer bug was an actual bug
technologyOn 9 September 1947, Grace Hopper and her team at Harvard found a moth stuck in a relay of the Mark II computer, causing a malfunction. They taped it into the…
Russia has 11 time zones — more than any other country
geographyRussia spans 11 time zones, stretching from UTC+2 (Kaliningrad) in the west to UTC+12 (Kamchatka) in the far east. The country is so wide that when it's Monday…
Your body produces about 25 million new cells every second
healthThe human body replaces roughly 25 million cells every second. Over a lifetime, you will produce about 3.8 million billion cells. Red blood cells last about…
The voice actor for Bart Simpson is a woman in her 60s
entertainmentNancy Cartwright has voiced Bart Simpson since the show began in 1989. She auditioned for the role of Lisa, but felt a stronger connection with Bart's…
There are more possible iterations of a shuffled deck of cards than atoms on Earth
miscellaneousThe number of ways to arrange a standard 52-card deck is 52! (52 factorial) — approximately 8 × 10^67. The number of atoms on Earth is estimated at around…
Crows can recognise and remember human faces
animalsStudies at the University of Washington showed that crows not only remember specific human faces but hold grudges against people who have wronged them — and…
Humans share 60% of their DNA with bananas
scienceAbout 60% of human DNA is identical to that of a banana. This is because both species share the same basic cellular machinery needed for metabolism and cell…