20 Interesting Science Facts (#3)
To hear a interesting fact a day you can follow me on twitter where I use the hashtag #InterestingScience. Click here to see more interesting science facts.
- The most deadly disease in the world is rabies, it has nearly a 100% mortality rate.
- There have been less than 10 reccorded cases of people with rabies living to tell the tale.
- The first vaccination to prevent rabies was developed by Louis Pasteur from dead infected rabbits.
- Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a parasitoidal fungus that infects ants and turns them into zombies. I am not kidding!
- Ophiocordyceps unilateralis makes ants into zombies before bursting through their heads to infect others below.
- When jellyfish swim in large groups, it is known as a bloom.
- The parasite cymothoa exigua eats the tongue of its host, then replaces it with its own body.
- Jellyfish have no blood, no nervous system and no brain.
- 85% of the population can’t wiggle their ears. It’s a throwback from when we could move our ears independently.
- Element 101 was named Mendelevium after Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, who created the Periodic Table.
- Johannes Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA back in 1871 from pus obtained from bandages at his local hospital.
- We all have a genetic sell by date.
- Each cell in our body contains roughly 3 meters of DNA. (apart from red blood cells)
- The haploid human genome contains approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes.
- Protein-coding sequences account for approximately 1.5% of our genome.
- There is approximately 3 billion base pairs in the human genome.
- Mitochondrial DNA in humans only has 37 genes and is only 16.6k bp long.
- Leucochloridium paradoxum is a parasite that infects the host’s eyes making them look like caterpillars to birds that prey on them.
- Nematomorpha is a parasite that forces its host to commit suicide.
- Sacculina turns its host into a transvestite and makes it perform female mating dances.
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