20 Interesting Science Facts (#3)

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1. The most deadly disease in the world is rabies, it has nearly a 100% mortality rate.
2. There have been less than 10 reccorded cases of people with rabies living to tell the tale.
3. The first vaccination to prevent rabies was developed by Louis Pasteur from dead infected rabbits.
4. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis is a parasitoidal fungus that infects ants and turns them into zombies. I am not kidding!
5. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis makes ants into zombies before bursting through their heads to infect others below.
6. When jellyfish swim in large groups, it is known as a bloom.
7. The parasite cymothoa exigua eats the tongue of its host, then replaces it with its own body.
8. Jellyfish have no blood, no nervous system and no brain.
9. 85% of the population can’t wiggle their ears. It’s a throwback from when we could move our ears independently.
10. Element 101 was named Mendelevium after Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, who created the Periodic Table.
11. Johannes Friedrich Miescher discovered DNA back in 1871 from pus obtained from bandages at his local hospital.
12. We all have a genetic sell by date.
13. Each cell in our body contains roughly 3 meters of DNA. (apart from red blood cells)
14. The haploid human genome contains approximately 20,000 protein-coding genes.
15. Protein-coding sequences account for approximately 1.5% of our genome.
16. There is approximately 3 billion base pairs in the human genome.
17. Mitochondrial DNA in humans only has 37 genes and is only 16.6k bp long.
18. Leucochloridium paradoxum is a parasite that infects the host’s eyes making them look like caterpillars to birds that prey on them.
19. Nematomorpha is a parasite that forces its host to commit suicide.
20. Sacculina turns its host into a transvestite and makes it perform female mating dances.