Most drivers have the basic driving laws down pat (e.g., red means stop and green means go), and hopefully they also have a decent idea of some of the lesser-known rules buried in the back of their state’s handbook. However, there are plenty of municipalities out there with strict and/or obscure traffic codes that not only trip up visitors, but may even leave residents scratching their heads. Here are nine such laws from around the country that are likely to catch even the most diligent rule-followers off-guard.
It’s Illegal To Run Out of Gas in Parts of Youngstown, Ohio
Running out of gas is a bummer anywhere, but the city of Youngstown, Ohio, adds a legal burden to those already dealing with the indignity of blocking traffic. Per section 331.44 of the city ordinances, “No person shall operate or permit to be operated any vehicle within the congested district bounded by Chestnut, Walnut, Boardman and Commerce Streets without sufficient fuel to drive the vehicle from the district.” There are offenses of increasing severity levied on those who apparently didn’t learn their lesson the first time around.
You Are Not Allowed To Honk Your Horn at Night Outside Certain Venues in Little Rock, Arkansas
Wondering what the heck is taking the waitress so long to hand over your sandwich? If it’s a few hours after normal dinner hours in Little Rock, Arkansas, you better not lean on the horn to find out. As explained in city codes section 18.54, “No person shall sound the horn on a vehicle at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9:00 p.m.”
Using Obscenity Within Earshot of Someone Else Is a No-No in Rockville, Maryland
Most of us have unleashed some colorful language when reacting to inconsiderate or reckless drivers on the road, but a little extra restraint is required when passing through the city limits of Rockville, Maryland. Per ordinance 13-53, “A person may not profanely curse and swear or use obscene language upon or near any street, sidewalk or highway within the hearing of persons passing by, upon or along such street, sidewalk or highway.”
It’s Against the Law To Cruise Past the Same Spots in Westminster, Colorado
Feel like showing off your wheels and checking out the hotties as you breeze through the streets of Westminster, Colorado? Just make sure you don’t retrace your tracks after the sun goes down. As stated in ordinance 10-1-18, “It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a motor vehicle, or as owner of a motor vehicle to permit its operation, past a traffic control point three times in the same direction within any three-hour period between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m.”
A Rider Cannot Race Horses on Rhode Island Highways
Riding a horse is generally fine and dandy across the compact state of Rhode Island, but be prepared to pay the price if you steer that mount onto a highway and get him up to a gallop. Per state law 11-22-11, “Every person who shall drive any horse over any of the public highways, for the purpose of racing or trying the speed of the horse, shall be fined not more than twenty dollars ($20.00) or imprisoned not exceeding ten (10) days.”
It’s Illegal To Let Your Chickens Cross the Road in Quitman, Georgia
The Southern hamlet of Quitman bills itself as “Georgia’s Camellia City,” and apparently it’s also the place where old jokes go to die. According to section 8-1 of the city codes, “It shall be unlawful for any person owning or controlling chickens, ducks, geese or any other domestic fowl to allow the same to run at large upon the streets or alleys of the city.” In other words, it’s illegal for chickens to cross the road!
Camels Are Not Allowed on Public Highways in Nevada
You might think this had something to do with the shenanigans emerging from Las Vegas, but it’s actually the result of a U.S. Army experiment gone awry. In the 1850s and ’60s, Army leaders imported camels to Nevada with the intent of training these creatures to shoulder supplies for Uncle Sam. However, when it turned out the camels presented a threat to horse traffic, the state legislature in 1875 passed an act that made it “unlawful for the owner or owners of any camel or camels, dromedary or dromedaries, to permit them to run at large on or about the public roads or highways of this State.”
It’s Against the Law To Hug a Driver in Washington State
Sometimes it feels like the world could use more hugs, but you’ll need to be careful about spreading the love while in transit through the Evergreen State. As explained in section 46.61.665 of the Revised Code of Washington, “It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a motor vehicle upon the highways of this state when such person has in his or her embrace another person which prevents the free and unhampered operation of such vehicle.”
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A piece of technology that needs little introduction, television has fundamentally changed our lives. International news now feels visceral, we have seemingly endless entertainment options, and the world is quite literally at our fingertips. These seven facts explore the surprising history, technology, and culture around one of the most important gadgets of the past century.
While many people associate television with the U.S.’s post-World War II economic boom, the technology actually dates back much earlier. Although some underlying discoveries that would eventually find their way into early televisions first appeared in the 1870s, and many different inventors were working on the technology in a variety of countries), one notable breakthrough came via German inventor Paul Nipkow in 1884. Nipkow developed a disc with a spiral of holes that could scan images for television broadcasting. Although Nipkow never created a working television set, the technology underpinned some early TV systems. The technology got a big boost when German inventor Karl Braun created the cathode ray tube in 1897, which later became a television display device. In 1906, American inventor Lee de Forest created the amplifying triode valve, which could amplify weak video signals. All of these disparate technologies finally coalesced into the first working mechanical televisions in the 1920s.
In the early days of this world-changing technology, inventors, marketers, and viewers didn’t quite know what to make of the strange new product. According to the BBC, some of the early names (before the 1920s) for what we now call television included Radiovision, Seeing by Wireless, Distant Electric Vision, Phototelegraphy, The Electric Telescope, Visual Listening, Telectroscopy, Hear-Seeing, Telephonoscope, Audiovision, Radio Movies, The Radio Kinema, Radioscope, Lustreer, Farscope, Optiphone, and Mirascope.
One of the first words describing images transmitted over telephone or telegraph wires was “telephote” in the 1880s, although the idea was merely hypothetical at the time. “Televista” was tried slightly later. However, the term “television” — a portmanteau of the Greek tele, meaning “far,” and the Latin visio, meaning “vision” — was coined at the 1900 Paris Exposition in Paris. Once imported into English, the word faced stiff competition as the moniker of choice, but eventually it stuck.
A Botanist Accidentally Discovered the Underlying Tech for LCDs While Studying Carrots
In 1888, Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer was busy studying cholesterol (cholesteryl benzoate) extracted from carrots when he noticed something unexpected. He saw that the substance had two melting points (strange) and that it could reflect polarized light as well as rotate the polarization direction of light (stranger). German physicist Otto Lehmann, who studied the fluid under a microscope, noticed that it had crystallites inside. This was the first liquid crystal ever discovered. (That’s the “LC” in the “LCD” panels in your modern television.) Of course, being a botanist, Reinitzer didn’t exactly have technology on the brain, and the science world even refused to believe in the existence of liquid crystals for decades. It wasn’t until 1962 that U.S. technology company RCA began experimenting with LCDs and their light polarization attributes, which historians point to as the beginning of modern LCD technology.
The Launch of Telstar 1 in 1962 Revolutionized Television
While NASA jockeyed with the Soviet Union in the rush to reach the moon, a different major moment took place. On July 10, 1962, NASA launched a satellite named Telstar 1. The tiny satellite’s primary mission was to provide the first transatlantic television feed between the U.S. and Europe. (Before that, television news reels had to be sent by airplane, and were often several days out of date.) With its successful transmission, the era of satellite TV had dawned. Although Telstar 1 lasted only a few months before it was damaged and had to be decommissioned, it spawned nearly two dozen sequel satellites bearing its name, and the little satellite that changed the world is still orbiting Earth to this day.
Mr. Rogers Saved the U.S. Public Broadcast System in 1969
The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, set the path for the creation of educational broadcasting — most famously in the form of the Public Broadcast System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). While the Johnson administration supported the need for funding educational content as a public good, President Richard Nixon, who was elected in 1968 and was famously hostile to the media, wasn’t nearly as keen, and proposed cutting funding to the nascent experiment.
On May 1, 1969, Fred Rogers — better known by his television persona Mister Rogers — testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications to ask for $20 million in funding to solidify PBS’s future. The show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood had only been on air for a little more than a year, and during the hearing, Rogers defended PBS by saying, “I’m very much concerned … about what’s being delivered to our children in this country … and I give an expression of care every day to each child.” After Rogers’ speech, chairman of the subcommittee and Rhode Island Senator John Pastore replied, “I think it’s wonderful … looks like you just earned your $20 million.”
The Average Cost of a 30-Second Super Bowl Commercial Is $7 Million
In 1941, during a broadcast of a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, the watch company Bulova aired the world’s first true television commercial. The 10-second ad was simple: a black and white map of the U.S., a Bulova watch face resting at its center, and a voiceover saying, “America runs on Bulova time.” After paying for air charges and station charges, the ad cost the company about $9, or around $200 today.
Modern television has come a long way … and so have the prices. Today, the fees for commercials are in part dictated by what program they run alongside. In 2023, for example, a 30-second commercial during ABC’s The Bachelor cost $153,429; the same commercial running during Sunday Night Football would set you back $828,501. Of course, the Super Bowl has always been the biggest time of the year for TV commercials, and in 2023, advertisers paid an average of $7 million for just a 30-second spot.
The World’s Largest Commercial TV Is as Big as a Double-Decker Bus
When it comes to television technology, a lot has happened over the course of a century. In 1928, British television pioneer John Logie Baird introduced his Televisor, the first commercial television; the image on the screen was roughly 6 inches by 2 inches.
Fast forward 93 years to 2021, and the South Korean electronics company LG announced the world’s largest commercial television, the Extreme Home Cinema. At its biggest size, this monstrosity can stretch up to a 325-inch diagonal — about as big as a London double decker bus. It’ll reportedly cost you around $1.7 million.
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A lot has changed about office work in the last several years, but many rules of etiquette are the same, albeit with a few tweaks. If you’re trying to stand out in the professional world, it pays, sometimes literally, to know a few pointers. A little bit of thoughtfulness can go a long way toward landing a dream position and getting along with your peers.
These etiquette tips cover the job search, interviews, meetings, and day-to-day life in the office, from the proper way to address cover letters to how to handle Zoom meetings like a pro.
Handshakes Are Still Standard, but Refusal Is Fine
Handshakes have been around for thousands of years, and they might be around for another millennia or two. It’s still customary to shake hands as a greeting in professional settings, although the COVID-19 pandemic has made it a little easier to decline touch. You can get out ahead of a handshake with another firm, warm greeting like a wave or a nod with your hand on your heart. (If you are going to be shaking some hands, however, be sure to practice some good hand hygiene and wash up first.)
Address Cover Letters to the Hiring Manager (When You Can)
Resumes may be getting screened by AI now, but if you make the cut, your application is still going to be viewed and vetted by human beings — and that’s when a cover letter is going to help you stand out. One way to make it pop is by addressing it to the hiring manager for the position, aka your potential new boss, who is likely going to be reading it. If the name of the hiring manager is not obvious in the posting, there are ways you can suss it out, such as through a LinkedIn search, a company directory, or even a phone call. If you’re not confident about who to address it to, a “Dear Hiring Manager” should suffice.
After a great interview, it’s polite to send a quick follow-up message to say thank you. It gives the hiring managers a great second impression to go with the good first one. It doesn’t have to be a snail-mailed card — it might not even make it to their desk before a decision is made, anyway. A quick email telling them it was great meeting them and letting them know how excited you are about the position should suffice.
Misspellings were one thing in the time of typewritten memos, but now that spell check is standard pretty much anywhere text exists, it’s worth giving your communication an extra glance before hitting the send button. Try reading your emails under your breath if you keep missing errors. While you’re at it, double-check the names of anybody you’re addressing against their signatures or contact information.
When you send an email to multiple recipients, stop and consider whether the entire group needs to read every reply to your initial message. If the answer is no, you should place most or all of the recipients in the BCC (blind carbon copy) field. Those who need to be kept fully in the loop can go in the “to” or CC field; then, when somebody hits “reply all,” their email will just reach you and whoever else isn’t on BCC. A reply-all to everybody can clog up inboxes and make it easy to miss important information.
Video meetings are increasingly a part of everyday business life, and they come with their own etiquette rules. One best practice is to join meetings with your camera on to show that you’re present and make things a little more like an in-person meeting. If it’s a massive all-hands where you’re not presenting anything and only a few people are doing all the talking, it’s less gauche to turn off the camera — although you might want to leave it on for the first few minutes to be polite.
In virtual meetings and, if you still have them, on conference calls, be aware of whether you’re on mute or not — in most cases, you should stay on mute unless you’re actively speaking. A pet, child, phone call, unexpected visitor, or crunchy snack can derail a meeting, especially on video, when a little sound can put your camera on the main screen for other attendees.
If you receive praise for an accomplishment that isn’t solely attributable to you — maybe you were part of a team, or just managed the people responsible — make sure you call out anybody who pitched in. Your colleagues will feel appreciated, and your honesty likely won’t go unnoticed, either.
Just because one person eats lunch at their desk and checks their email at 11 p.m. doesn’t mean it should be expected of anybody else. Let people in your professional life draw their own boundaries as long as everybody’s getting their work done — anything else is a recipe for resentment and burnout. This is best practice for anybody you interact with at work, but especially for anybody working below you, who may see after-hours communication as an expectation that they need to work late.
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For something that’s almost as ubiquitous as sneakers, high heels are pretty controversial. A staple of feminine business wardrobes and club wear alike, heels are beloved by many, although maybe not by podiatrists. They’re now largely considered fashion statements, yet they have surprisingly practical — and masculine — origins.
How did high heels come to be? What then-cutting-edge technology made stiletto heels possible? Where did the most iconic designers of high heels get their inspiration? These nine facts about high heels might give you a newfound appreciation for one of the most storied styles of footwear.
While they’re typically considered feminine today, high heels started as functional footwear for men. In the 10th century, Persian men wore heeled shoes on horseback because they clicked into stirrups, which helped them stay steady when firing arrows in battle. The extra height didn’t hurt, either. The style spread to Europe in the 17th century, after PersianShah Abbas I went on a diplomatic tour to Spain, Germany, and Russia. In Europe, they were considered a sign of masculinity; women began wearing them because adopting masculine styles was trendy at the time.
Practical riding heels — for example, cowboy boots — are still in use today for all genders, although they’re not typically advertised as high heels.
At first, Europeans adopted high heels in much the same way Persians did — for stability in horseback riding. As the 17th century went on, however, heels started to rise in usage among the aristocracy, particularly in France. There’s no way you could do manual labor, or even walk very far, in ornate 5-inch heels, so only people of leisure would wear them.
French monarch Louis XIV was pretty short, and wore heels — 4-inch red ones, specifically — as a symbol of his authority. Sometimes, his heels were even decorated with battle scenes. Red dye was expensive, which made what was already a status symbol even more glaring. In 1670, the king issued a decree that only members of his court were allowed to wear red heels, which meant that (theoretically) you could tell who was in royal favor just by looking at their shoes.
16th-Century Venetian Women Wore Bizarre Platforms
In early 16th-century Venice, women wore a strange precursor to the heel: the chopine, a high platform shoe designed to protect feet from muddy streets. The height of the shoes may have been associated with the level of nobility of the wearer. One pair at a Venetian museum is a full 20 inches high — imagine the prestige!
Even at shorter heights, chopines were a luxury item, and usually required an attendant to walk next to the wearer to help them stay steady.
Images of what would later be called stiletto heels, named for a small Italian style of dagger, appeared in erotic art in the early 20th century, but engineering hadn’t come far enough at that point to make actual stilettos that people could walk on.
After World War II, new materials and techniques, some designed for aircraft carriers, made ultra-thin heels possible. High heels had previously often been made of wood, which can only support so much weight without cracking, but in the postwar era, shoe designers increasingly turned to steel for its incredible tensile strength. Designers figured out steel shanks, a load-bearing part of the sole that supports the foot and takes the pressure off the toe and heel. Multiple designers released stiletto heels in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and fashion historians are still divided on which designer actually came first. As plastic technology improved in the 1960s, designers were able to make lightweight heels with plastic shanks instead.
Credit: David Livingston/ Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
Louboutin’s Red Soles Were Inspired by Nail Polish
One of the most sought-after makers of high heels is Christian Louboutin, known for his signature red soles; his wares are sometimes called “red bottoms.” It may seem like a nod to Louis XIV’s luxurious color preference, but according to the brand, it was more of a fortunate accident. The story goes that Louboutin was working on prototypes in the early 1990s, but was unhappy with the black soles on the shoes, which he thought made them look clunky. As he was having that thought, his assistant was painting her nails red — so he snagged the bottle and painted the bottom of the shoe. The rest is history.
High Heels Change Your Posture — Short- and Long-Term
One reason for the popularity of high heels is the way the wearer stands and walks in them. With the feet at an angle and body weight pitching toward the toes, different muscle groups have to fire to stay upright. The back arches, the chest puffs forward, the bottom sticks out, and calf muscles tighten. This creates what some consider an attractive shape, but staying in that position for too long too regularly can have serious consequences. Regular use can result in foot injuries, including bunions and hammertoe, as well as long-term changes to hip muscles, the lumbar spine, and even leg bones.
Credit: Edward Berthelot/ Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
Coco Chanel Was in Her 70s When She Released Her Iconic Slingback
One of the best-known creations to come from the Chanel fashion house is the two-tone slingback heel with a beige body, black toe, and sturdy 2-inch heel. Coco Chanel designed the black toes, inspired by the black toes of sailors’ shoes and sturdy sporting sandals, to help hide scuffs, minimize the foot, and elongate the leg. They’re a mainstay for the brand even years after Chanel’s death — but they were released in 1957 during a second act for the designer, who was 73 or 74at the time.
Credit: Footwear News/ Penske Media via Getty Images
Manolo Blahnik’s Hangisi Shoe Was Inspired by Josephine Bonaparte
Designer Manolo Blahnik’s most sought-after footwear is the Hangisi shoe, a luxurious-looking heel with a decorative buckle on the toe. The shoe hit the market in 2008, and was popularized by the Sex and the City film that came out the same year.
Blahnik designed the shoe after seeing portraits of Empress Josephine Bonaparte and her sister-in-law Pauline and noting their opulent footwear, likely designed by the House of Leroy, Josephine’s preferred fashion house. White the style comes in many fabrics, each bejeweled buckle contains exactly 144 Swarovski crystals.
Fittingly, the shoe is now in a royal portrait of its own: Catherine, Princess of Wales, wore an emerald green pair posing for a painting alongside her husband, Prince William.
Sarah Anne Lloyd
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Sarah Anne Lloyd is a freelance writer whose work covers a bit of everything, including politics, design, the environment, and yoga. Her work has appeared in Curbed, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Verge, and others.
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Did you know that Americans didn’t start eating bananas — perhaps one of the most popular healthy snacks — until the late 19th century? Or that for many years, sailors considered the fruit bad luck? Those are just two of the bite-sized facts about snacks we’ve rounded up from across the website. Which of your favorite spud snacks were created to reduce waste? Which treats have been to space, or might spontaneously combust in transit? Find out these and more noteworthy nuggets below.
McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets Actually Come in Four Shapes
Think McDonald’s chicken nuggets shapes develop randomly from the raw pink goo? Think again! The nuggets actually come in four shapes, although they’re all a little rough around the edges: the boot, the bow tie, the ball, and the bell. They come out of a rotating mold and everything. After getting shaped and dropped on a conveyor belt, they’re breaded and slightly cooked before going out to restaurants, where they’ll finish cooking and be served to customers.
Citrus growers often bundle together bunches of oranges in mesh bags, which you may have noticed are made from red plastic. It’s no coincidence: Red bags against orange peels create an optical illusion that makes the fruit appear more vibrantly hued and enticing. The trick works for other citrus — like mandarins, clementines, tangerines, and even some grapefruit — though not all. Yellow citrus, like lemons, are often sold in yellow or green bags to create a similar color-popping effect.
The O’s of Froot Loops come in a variety of fruity colors, as if they each represent a different fruit flavor. However, the color is the only real difference among those O’s, because the flavor is the same throughout the box. You may still taste a difference between the colors, but it’s probably because your vision tells you to expect something different.
Speaking of fruity misconceptions, it’s always been spelled “Froot Loops” — contrary to a popular belief that the name changed because of a lawsuit over the cereal’s lack of real fruit.
Bananas made their U.S. debut in Philadelphia in 1876, sold to fairgoers attending the Centennial Exhibition (the first world’s fair held in America). For 10 cents, visitors could purchase a foil-wrapped banana and get a taste of a fruit many had never seen before. Today, bananas are one of the most popular fruits among American snackers, who consume an average of 13.2 pounds per person each year.
Ever wondered why doughnuts have holes? Historians aren’t certain why (or when) the doughy centers disappeared, but one theory suggests it may have been to help the pastries cook more evenly. According to food lore, American sailor Hansen Gregory created the doughnut’s modern shape around 1847 while at sea; by his account, doughnuts of the time were twisted or diamond-shaped and often cooked faster on the outside than in the centers. Removing the dense middles helped create uniformly cooked treats that fried quickly and didn’t absorb as much oil.
Potato Chips Were Nearly Discontinued During World War II
In the midst of World War II, the U.S. War Production Board was tasked with making the most of limited materials for the war effort, pausing manufacturing of noncritical foods and items. One of the items on the chopping block: potato chips. The snack was initially considered “nonessential,” a move that would stop factories from producing potato chips until the war ended. However, chip manufacturers lobbied to rescind the ruling and even secured contracts to produce chips for troops overseas and workers in manufacturing plants. One such company — Albany, New York’s Blue Ribbon potato chip brand — chipped in about 7 million pounds of crisps to the war effort in just nine months.
The Word “Sandwich” Likely Gets Its Name From a Real-Life Royal
John Montagu (1718-1792), the British noble who served as the fourth Earl of Sandwich, was a politician and postmaster. He’s also credited as the inventor of the sandwich. Humans have arguably been combining bread with savory fillings for thousands of years, but Montagu is said to have inspired the dish’s official term. (His noble title, meanwhile, comes from a place name that means “sandy harbor.”) One 18th-century account claimed Montagu popularized sandwiches by requesting sliced meat and bread as a meal so that he could continue gambling, though other accounts say the earl likely also consumed sandwiches while working at his desk. With his title used as a description, sandwiches exploded in popularity throughout Europe, soon served to nobility and civilians alike.
It turns out there’s a price to pay for how tasty and nutritious pistachios are: Under the right circumstances, they can spontaneously combust. This beloved nut is especially rich in fat, which is highly flammable. Thankfully, that only becomes a problem when pistachios are packed too tightly during shipping or storage. It’s important to keep the nuts dry lest they become moldy — but if they’re kept too dry and there are too many of them bunched together, they can self-heat and catch fire without an external heat source.
Though exceedingly rare and easy to avoid if the proper instructions are followed, pistachio self-combustion is a real enough concern that the German Transport Information Service specifically advises that pistachios “not be stowed together with fibers/fibrous materials as oil-soaked fibers may promote self-heating/spontaneous combustion of the cargo.” Don’t worry, though: It won’t happen in your pantry with just a few bags, which means you can indulge in the shelled snack of your dreams without worrying about their flavor becoming unexpectedly smoky.
No, it’s not your imagination — Coke actually does taste different (and many would say better) at McDonald’s restaurants. This is largely due to the way it’s packaged. While the actual flavoring is identical to the flavoring at other restaurants, McDonald’s gets its Coke syrup delivered in stainless steel tanks instead of the more common plastic bags, which in turn keeps the syrup fresher. McDonald’s also filters its water prior to adding it to the soda machines, and calibrates its syrup-to-water ratio to account for melting ice. In addition, McDonald’s utilizes wider straws than normal, allowing more Coke to “hit your taste buds,” according to the company.
Popping an afternoon snack of popcorn in the microwave generally isn’t a messy affair, considering most popcorn cooking is contained to a bag. But if it wasn’t, you might have to watch out for flying kernels, since popcorn can pop as high as 3 feet while it transforms from kernel to puff. However, the tiny grains don’t just fly straight skyward as they expand; high-speed recordings of popcorn as it cooks show that the kernels actually flip like a high-flying gymnast, thanks to starches that push off a cooking surface and propel the corn into the air.
The way popcorn transforms from a hard nugget to a soft and springy morsel can seem like magic, except scientists say it’s really just a trick caused by heat and pressure. Each kernel has three parts: the germ (seed) found deep within the shell, the endosperm (a starch section used to nourish the germ if planted), and the pericarp (aka the hard exterior). Moisture and starch are also packed into each tiny kernel; when heated, that microscopic amount of water creates pressurized steam. By the time a popcorn kernel reaches 350 degrees, the pressure is too much to contain and the pericarp explodes, causing the starchy endosperm to expand outward. When the process is finished, the resulting popcorn has puffed up to 40 times its original size.
Although it wasn’t invented in and isn’t made in Utah, Jell-O has been the official snack of the Beehive State since 2001. Utahns are known to consume more Jell-O per capita than folks anywhere else in the U.S., even rallying to take back the title when Iowa surpassed their consumption in 1999. The state’s reasons for honoring the jiggly gelatin dessert are endearingly wholesome, including it being “representative of good family fun, which Utah is known for throughout the world.” During the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, an enamel pin shaped like a bowl of green Jell-O became an official souvenir, and is now a coveted collector’s item.
The spongy, cream-filled cakes we call Twinkies were first created in 1930 in an attempt to put unused bakery pans back into production. Creator James Dewar was a manager at the Continental Baking Company outside Chicago, where he noticed the factory’s strawberry shortcake-making equipment sat idle once strawberry season ended. Dewar used the pans to bake small cakes injected with cream fillings, naming his invention Twinkies after seeing a billboard for Twinkle Toe Shoes.
All Modern Apples Are Descended From a Single Wild Ancestor
All varieties of the domestic apples we know and cherish stem from a single wild ancestor, Malus sieversii. Though the apple was originally found in the foothills of the Tien Shan mountains of Central Asia, its seeds may have spread from its native region via birds and bears. Sometime after the fruit’s domestication more than 4,000 years ago, apples made their way to Europe and beyond by way of pre-Silk Road trading routes. In the early 20th century, Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov traced the modern apple’s origins to the forests outside Almaty, Kazakhstan. Today, the town still celebrates its status as the birthplace of this botanic marvel.
It may be hard to fathom today, given the sheer breadth of the current cookie operation, but Girl Scout Cookies were originally homemade. A troop in Muskogee, Oklahoma, baked and sold the first cookies in a school cafeteria in 1917, and other troops soon followed suit. A few years later in 1922, a Chicago-based magazine called The American Girl published a recipe to be used by Girl Scouts all over the country. It was just a simple sugar cookie containing butter, sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla, flour, and baking powder, but it was a hit with consumers.
Throughout the 1920s, Girl Scout Cookies were baked by troop members with help from their parents and members of the local community. The treats were subsequently packaged in wax paper, sealed with a sticker, and sold for 25 to 35 cents per dozen. It wasn’t until 1934 that the Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia Council became the first council to sell commercially baked cookies; within two years, the national organization began licensing the cookie-making process to commercial bakeries.
Many of the oysters commonly used for food, including European flat oysters, Pacific oysters, and Atlantic oysters, change sex during their lifetimes — sometimes a few times. European flat oysters alternate based on seasons and water temperature. In other species, most oysters are born male and eventually the population evens out. Most older oysters are female, but some change back at some point. The exact mechanism that makes this happen is still something of a mystery.
What do Neil Armstrong, tortoises, and jelly beans have in common? Why, they’ve all been to space, of course. President Ronald Reagan was known for being a connoisseur of the chewy candy, so much so that he provided the astronauts aboard the Challenger shuttle with a bag full of them in 1983 — a gift that resulted in charming footage of them tossing the jelly beans in zero gravity before happily eating them. Reagan was also known to break the ice at high-level meetings by passing around jelly beans, even commenting that “you can tell a lot about a fella’s character by whether he picks out all of one color or just grabs a handful.”
Grapefruits are packed with vitamins and fiber that support heart and gut health, though people who rely on some medications are often warned away from consuming the fruits. That’s because grapefruit juice can affect how medications work. Some drugs, like those for cholesterol and high blood pressure, are metabolized in the body by the CYP3A4 enzyme found in the small intestine. Grapefruit juice can block that enzyme, which stops the medication from breaking down and causes too much to enter the bloodstream. Other drugs, like fexofenadine (Allegra) for allergies, use proteins called transporters to enter cells in the body; grapefruit juice can block this process and cause too little of the drug to circulate, rendering it ineffective.
One Chocolate-Making Brand Created Two Iconic Candies
Chocolate bars are today a candy aisle standard, and a far departure from the earliest chocolate blocks. While bitter and naturally oily chocolate was commonly shaped into bricks during the 18th and 19th centuries, it was sold as an ingredient meant for cooking, not as a stand-alone confection. J. S. Fry & Sons, a British chocolate maker, is credited with molding the world’s first chocolate bar meant for eating in 1847, sweetening the confection with sugar. Nearly three decades later, the Fry brand released the first known hollow chocolate Easter eggs.
If Tater Tots are your favorite fast-food side, you have the ingenuity of two brothers — Golden and Francis Nephi Grigg — to thank. However, when the pair invented the crispy potato composites in the 1950s, they didn’t set out to change snack food history. Instead, their potato creation came from a quest to reduce the amount of food waste produced at their frozen foods plant.
Before becoming successful spud salesmen, Golden and Francis sold frozen corn. Around 1949, they decided to diversify into other fruits and vegetables, and converted a factory in Ontario, Oregon (on the border with Idaho), into a potato-processing plant they were later able to purchase. In 1952, the Griggs launched the Ore-Ida brand, which became popular for its frozen french fries.
The downside to booming french fry sales, however, was the waste left behind. Initially, the Griggs sold vegetable byproducts to farmers as livestock feed, but they soon looked for a way to nourish humans instead. They began experimenting with chopping up the potato scraps, mixing them with flour and spices, then shaping the result into a rectangle with the help of a homemade plywood mold. The first Tater Tots — named, by one account, after an employee won a contest by suggesting “tater” for potato and “tot” for small — debuted in 1956.
This quintessentially American dish actually hails from England, with one of the first known recipes appearing in the late-14th-century manuscript The Forme of Cury. Arriving in the New World with European settlers, the dessert was well known within the borders of the nascent United States by the late 1700s, as evidenced by the presence of two recipes in the 1796 cookbook American Cookery. By the mid-1900s, the combination of advertising and war-fueled patriotism had embedded the “American as apple pie” concept in popular culture.
It’s incredibly common for cereal to be fortified with extra vitamins and minerals, including iron. Just like any other iron — whether it’s in a skillet or a fence — the iron added to breakfast cereal is magnetic. Cereals with a lot of iron in them (like fortified cornflakes) even react to magnets when they’re floating in liquid. While the iron in some whole cereal is enough to be magnetic on its own, for a more in-depth, science fair-style experiment, you could try crushing up cereal and seeing how much pure iron you can pull out of it.
Most of the World’s Chocolate Comes From Two African Nations
While cacao trees are native to parts of South America, most of the world’s commercial crop is grown in Africa. Most farms are located within 10 degrees north and south of the equator, where the finicky trees have access to rainforest-like conditions for consistent temperatures, high humidity, and regular rainfall. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are the world’s leading cacao producers; farmers there grow more than half of the world’s chocolate supply, all of which must be harvested by hand.
Transporting bruisable, temperature-sensitive bananas by boat was no easy feat hundreds of years ago, which could be how sailors became wary of bringing the fruit aboard. Many fishermen and sailors believed that having bananas on a ship invited bad luck, leading to accidents, broken equipment, and a reduction in the number of fish caught. While the origin of the superstition is unclear, some believe it could have started after crew members got sick from eating spoiled bananas or skidded on the slippery peels.
Botanically speaking, a nut is a fruit with a hard shell containing a single seed. The true nuts you might encounter in the produce aisle include hazelnuts and chestnuts. Many of the products sold as “culinary nuts” belong to other botanical classifications. Cashews, almonds, and pistachios are drupes, a type of fruit with thin skin and a pit containing the seed. (Peaches, mangos, cherries, and olives are also drupes.) And the jury is still out on whether walnuts and pecans fall into the nut or drupe category, since they have characteristics of both. Some botanists call them drupaceous nuts.
The moldable treat we’re familiar with today wasn’t always affordable fare for the masses. At one time, its key ingredient — gelatin — was difficult to come by, making any gelatin-rich dish a symbol of wealth and social standing. What’s more, the earliest gelatin dishes weren’t post-dinner treats; in medieval Europe, cooks used gelatin to preserve meats in aspics, making savory jellies similar to modern head cheeses. Extracting gelatin back then was time-intensive: Cooks spent days boiling animal bones and byproducts, then straining the liquid before letting it set into its gelatinous state. This lengthy, involved process meant that gelatin dishes were rarely served at the dinner tables of everyday folks who didn’t employ kitchen staff.
Gelatin’s status as a high-class delicacy would only last a few centuries. Peter Cooper, an inventor who also designed the first American steam locomotive, created a “portable gelatin” in 1845 that was easily reconstituted with hot water. But Cooper was uninterested in marketing his invention, and his gelatin was largely ignored. His creation was eventually sold to a New York cough syrup manufacturer, who added fruit flavors and branded it with its Jell-O name in 1897. By the early 20th century, Jell-O ads promoted the dessert as a low-cost, high-society wonder, and the Great Depression and World War II solidified Jell-O’s versatility as a budget- and rations stretcher — a reputation that has carried on for more than 100 years.
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Even for the most avid explorers, this planet hides more than a few surprises — like that Reno, Nevada, is farther west than Los Angeles. For more earth-shaking information — like which state is simultaneously the westernmost, easternmost, and northernmost in the U.S. — check out the following facts that just might change your perspective forever.
Los Angeles is typically seen as the West Coast city. It is right next to the ocean and it has all those beaches, so it would make sense for it to be farther west than a desert city like Reno, right? Wrong: Reno is actually around 86 miles farther west than Los Angeles, due to the curve of California and the placement of the states.
Asia Is Bigger Than the Moon
The moon isn’t as big as it looks. It’s around 27% of the size of Earth and has 14.6 million square miles of surface area. Although this seems like a lot, it is significantly less than the total surface area of Asia, which is 17.2 million square miles — making Earth’s biggest continent larger than the moon.
Continents Shift at the Same Speed That Your Fingernails Grow
If you were awake during geology class, you will remember that the planet’s tectonic plates are in a state of near-constant movement. This is how the Earth went from having basically one big continent to having seven. For around 40 million years, the continents were in a slow phase, moving away from each other at a rate of about one millimeter per year. Then, about 200 million years ago, things got kicked into high gear and the plates began to move at 20 millimeters per year, which, scientists say, is equivalent to the speed at which fingernails grow.
Mount Everest Is Not the World’s Tallest Mountain
If someone asks you “What is the tallest mountain in the world?” you’d probably answer, “Why, Mount Everest, of course — everyone knows that.” Sadly, you would be wrong. Technically, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level, but it isn’t the tallest in the world. That honor goes to Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Mauna Kea rises up 13,796 feet above sea level (compared to Everest’s 29,035 feet), but it also extends down an additional 19,700 feet below sea level into the Pacific Ocean. That makes it the world’s tallest mountain as measured from base to peak.
Alaska Is the Westernmost, Easternmost, and Northernmost State in the U.S.
This sounds impossible, but we assure you it’s true. From looking at a map, it’s pretty obvious that Alaska is the northernmost state in the country. What’s surprising? The Aleutian Islands between Russia and Alaska boast the westernmost point of the United States, but in what seems like some sort of geographical oxymoron, they are also home to the easternmost point of the U.S. too. An island called Semisopochnoi has a spot that sits so far to the west (around 10 miles west of the Prime Meridian) that it actually becomes the easternmost spot in the U.S. too.
Maine Is the Closest State to Africa
When you think of Maine, its proximity to Africa probably doesn’t come to mind. Surprisingly enough, Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa, as the Quoddy Head peninsula is within 3,154 miles of El Beddouza, Africa. The two are divided by the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean and not much else, so if you ever want to say that you came close to visiting Africa without actually leaving the country, head to the Pine Tree State.
If You Head South From Detroit, You Could End Up in Canada
We can hear you now: “Wait a second — isn’t Canada north of the United States?” And the answer to that is yes … and no. Most of Canada is above the U.S. on the map, but a small part of it reaches down just underneath Detroit. Because of this, traveling south and slightly to the east from a few places in Detroit could bring you to Canada, which may or may not be disorienting.
Alaska Has More Coastline Than All the Other States Combined
Alaska’s just full of mind-blowing facts. According to the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, the state’s coastline stretches for nearly 34,000 miles — more than all of the other U.S. states combined. In case you’re wondering, Florida has 8,436 miles of coast, while Louisiana has 7,721 miles. Of the 30 states that have a coastline, Indiana’s is the shortest — just 45 miles.
When you think of the world’s tiniest countries, the island nations of the Caribbean or the South Pacific might pop into your mind. In fact, six of the world’s smallest countries, or microstates, are located in Europe. The world’s smallest country is Vatican City, inside of Rome, which is home to the Roman Catholic Church and is ruled by the Pope; Italy is also home to the microstate of San Marino, the world’s oldest constitutional republic and sovereign state. The other four European microstates include Monaco on the French Riviera, Andorra in the Pyrenees Mountains, Liechtenstein sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria, and the small archipelago of Malta, which lies in the Mediterranean.
Europe Has a Rainforest
The thought of a rainforest probably conjures up images of stunning flora and fauna found in the Amazon and other tropical locations. But if you travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, you will find Perućica, a rainforest and one of two remaining old-growth forests in Europe. The forest lies within Sutjeska National Park and remains protected. Nicknamed “the Lungs of Europe,” Perućica is home to more than 170 species of trees and bushes, including beech, fir, spruce, and mountain maple, as well as more than 1,000 species of herbaceous plants. Visitors especially enjoy the panoramic views from Vidikovac, a lookout point for Skakavac Waterfall, which falls 246 feet into a forest-covered valley.
The days of Spanish exploration, the Great British Empire, and European colonization are mostly gone, with many countries having long since gained independence from their motherland. Some overseas territories still do exist, however, and Greenland is one of them. It’s technically an autonomous territory of Denmark, as well as the world’s largest island (three times the size of Texas!) if you don’t consider the continent of Australia. Greenland is known for its large ice sheet, expansive tundra, and native Inuit residents.
Europe Is Larger Than Australia
Maps distort our perception of the world, especially in terms of country and continent size, because it’s difficult to project the circular globe onto a flat surface with a high degree of accuracy. For example, the common Mercator map has been criticized for exaggerating the size of countries closer to the poles while downplaying the size of countries and continents near the equator. When you look at the map, Australia appears quite large, making Europe the obvious candidate for the “Smallest Continent Award.” To be fair, Australia is a large landmass that would qualify as the largest island in the world if it weren’t a continent. With all that said, Europe is actually larger than Australia by about 30%.
At Its Closest Point, Asia Is Only About 50 Miles From North America
For those living in North America, Asia can feel like it’s on the other side of the world. The average flight time from Asia to North America is about 16 hours, which is no small undertaking, but the two continents aren’t as far apart as you might think. Asia and North America are only about 53 miles apart at the Bering Strait, a body of water that separates Russia and Alaska. It’s believed that during the Ice Age, the water levels in the Bering Strait fell so low that the area became a land bridge between Asia and North America, which allowed both animals and people to migrate from one continent to the other.
Michael Nordine
Staff Writer
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
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Have you ever wondered about the difference between an ocean and a sea? Or questioned why Australia is a continent instead of an island? You’re not alone. The Earth is so mind-boggling in its size and scope that it fosters genuine curiosity. From the deepest point in the world to the Earth’s real age, here are 15 geography facts you’ve always wondered about.
How Old Is the Earth? (And How Do We Know Its Age?)
Although there is no way to know the Earth’s exact age, scientists have calculated it to be roughly 4.54 billion years old, give or take 50 million years. But how did they arrive at this number? Although scientists have pondered this question for centuries, more recent technological advances have made it easier for researchers to understand the Earth’s age. Above all else, radiometric dating has been the most helpful in figuring out the Earth’s birthday because it allows scientists to pinpoint the age of rocks. The oldest rocks on Earth — 4.03 billion years old — were found in Canada, while Greenland, Australia, and Swaziland are home to rocks that range from 3.4 to 3.8 billion years. To top that, scientists have discovered stardust that’s a staggering 7 billion years old, which means the Earth is relatively young in comparison to the rest of the universe.
What Does the Prime Meridian Denote?
A meridian is an imaginary line that runs from north to south on a map. With 360 meridians around the globe, the prime meridian is the starting point for measuring all other meridians. At a longitude of 0 degrees, it also denotes the separation between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres — with 180 meridians to the east and 180 meridians to the west. The implementation of the prime meridian in Greenwich, England, in 1884 unified the globe in its time and space measurements, resulting in all maps being drawn according to the prime meridian’s longitudinal location.
The Tropic of Cancer is a latitudinal line, also known as a parallel, that runs from east to west around the globe. In addition to the equator, it is one of the five major parallels on Earth (the other three being the tropic of Capricorn, the Arctic Circle, and the Antarctic Circle). Located 23.5 degrees north of the equator, the Tropic of Cancer plays an important role in the sun’s geographical relationship to the Earth. It denotes the northernmost point on Earth where the sun is directly overhead at high noon, which happens annually on the summer solstice (for the Northern Hemisphere) in June. After reaching this point, the sun’s rays travel south until they reach the same angle at the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere, which happens in December on the winter solstice.
Why Is the International Date Line Where It Is?
After the world was divided into time zones, the International Date Late (IDL) became one of the most important meridians on Earth. Located halfway around the globe from the Prime Meridian, the IDL approximately follows the 180-degree meridian, with a few zig-zags here and there. Despite its significance, the IDL’s location was chosen arbitrarily, as it can be found in a section of the globe that is almost entirely ocean. In a sense, the International Date Line also makes time travel real — when you cross it, travelers will either add or subtract 24 hours from their day. However, since the International Date Line has no legal status, countries are free to choose which side they are on, which accounts for the IDL’s disjointed course.
What Is the Difference Between an Ocean and a Sea?
In everyday vernacular, the words “ocean” and “sea” are often used interchangeably. But in geographical terms, the two are quite distinct. While oceans are referred to as the large bodies of water that take up much of the globe, seas are much smaller entities, a term geographers use to describe the location where the land meets the ocean. For example, the Bering Sea is part of the Pacific Ocean, but since it is located between the landmasses of Alaska and Russia, it is classified as a sea.
What Is the Deepest Point in the Ocean?
Located in the Mariana Trench southwest of Guam, the Challenger Deep — named for the first crew to record its depth — measures an astounding 36,200 feet deep, which is three times deeper than the average depth of the ocean floor. Using a sounding rope, the HMS Challenger calculated the trench’s depth to be 26,850 feet in 1875. As more teams flocked to the western Pacific over the years, researchers used advanced sonar techniques to measure the current recorded depth. To this day, the Challenger Deep is the deepest known point on Earth. But with an astounding percentage of the ocean yet to be explored, we never know what other fathomless depths will be discovered in the future.
While they may appear similar, marshes and swamps are technically quite different. Although they both are a type of wetland, a swamp can also be compared to a lowland forest, as it is classified based on the type of tree that grows in its ecosystem. For example, depending on the predominant tree, a swamp can be classified as a hardwood swamp, a cedar swamp, or a cypress swamp (like South Florida’s Big Cypress Swamp). On the other hand, a marsh has no trees and instead is dominated by plants and grasses that thrive on the waterlogged soil. Although many people believe the Everglades to be a swamp, it is actually the largest marsh system in the U.S. — before it was partially developed, it took up an astonishing 4,000 square miles of the Florida landscape.
What Is (Actually) the Tallest Mountain on Earth?
Most people already know that Mount Everest, with a peak that sits 29,035 feet above sea level, soars above any other mountain on the planet. However, if we’re talking about mountains that exist below sea level, then Hawaii’s Mauna Kea blows Mount Everest out of the water, so to speak. At 32,696 feet from base to summit, Mauna Kea is approximately 3,661 feet taller than Everest. The reason Mauna Kea doesn’t receive more recognition for its size? Most of the mountain exists underwater, with only 13,796 feet rising above sea level.
What Is a Geyser? (And Is It the Same as a Volcano?)
A geyser is a hot spring that erupts water and steam, due to pressure that is created underground. Formed as a water-filled tube that connects the atmosphere to the Earth’s crust, a geyser erupts when magma heats the water, forcing it upward towards the Earth’s surface. Although a geyser is not the same as a volcano, they are somewhat related, as a geyser manifests the same sort of activity, with eruptions fueled by magma. However, unlike a volcano, it is easier to predict when a geyser will blow, as it produces notable seismic activity prior to an eruption. As a result, some researchers study geysers to help them understand more information about volcanoes. There are also certain geysers that blow in a timely manner, like the aptly named Old Faithful — a Yellowstone National Park attraction that erupts roughly 20 times a day.
How Is a Cay Different Than a Key?
If you’re curious as to the geographical distinction between Key West in Southern Florida and Ambergris Cay in Turks and Caicos, here’s the short answer: There is no difference. The geographical terms cay and key are a little bit like “tomato, to-mah-to” — the use of the term depends on where you are. Both are derived from the Spanish word cayo, which translates to “key,” and they’re used interchangeably to describe a low-lying island, sandbar, or coral reef. As a tropical destination with over 60 islands and keys, the British Virgin Islands is also home to a “Key Cay,” making it the only place in the world where both terms are used to describe a single place.
Measuring 4,130 miles in length, the Nile River in Africa is often considered to be the longest river in the world, while the Amazon River in South America comes in at a close second. Although past data has shown that the Amazon River is anywhere between 3,980 and 4,000 miles in length, a 2007 expedition claimed the length of the Amazon to be an astonishing 4,225 miles. However, since this measurement has not been internationally recognized, the debate over the longest river in the world continues. As a result, many recognize the Nile as the longest river, but give Amazon the title of the largest river by volume.
Why Is Australia a Continent and Not an Island?
Australia is Earth’s smallest continent — closer in size to Greenland than any other continent. So why did geographers decide Australia was a continent instead of an island like Greenland? For starters, Australia has a much larger landmass than Greenland: roughly 3 million square miles compared to Greenland’s 836,000 square miles. It also sits on a tectonic plate, which is partially shared with Asia, while Greenland is on the same tectonic plate as all of North America. Also, much of Australia’s plant and animal life is endemic to the country, including its Indigenous people. The Aboriginal people of Australia are found nowhere else in the world, while the Indigenous people of Greenland, the Inuit, live on different continents in the Arctic. Altogether, these facts led geographers to classify Australia as a continent, although it is technically an island as well.
Despite being divided into sub-oceans, there is only one ocean in the world, which scientists refer to as the “world ocean.” Historically, cartographers and government officials found it helpful to divide the massive ocean into smaller entities, which is how the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Indian Oceans were named. More recently, the ocean surrounding Antarctica, dubbed the Southern Ocean, has been added to the list. Despite being located in different regions, there is actually no way to tell when one ocean ends and the other begins — because the ocean is a singular continuous body of water. However, there is one exception to this rule. The Southern Ocean is radically different from the rest, with a strong current that surrounds it and notably frigid water, making it easier to recognize where this sub-ocean begins.
How Do Hills Become Mountains?
To learn how a hill becomes a mountain, one must first understand the difference between the two. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is no official distinction between a hill and a mountain, since they are both classified as naturally forming landforms that occur as a result of geological activity. However, traditionally a hill is not considered to be a mountain if the summit is under 1,000 feet. For a hill to eventually become tall enough to be generally classified as a mountain, it must be located on shifting fault lines that cause an increase in size. For example, the Himalayas once used to be small hills that grew — over millions of years — into the tallest mountain range on Earth, thanks to ongoing collisions between two large tectonic plates. Conversely, mountains can become hills after millions of years of erosion cause them to shrink.
Composed of gravel, sand, and silt, eskers are formed after a glacier stops flowing, resulting in long, narrow ridgelines that appear snake-like from the sky. Sweden is home to one of the longest eskers in the world, which stretches for 155 miles and passes through the city of Uppsala. In the state of Maine, eskers often resemble a long, skinny peninsula that divides lakes and bogs, which is why eskers were traditionally used as trade routes for early settlers. Eskers also can also play an important role in road construction. In rugged destinations like Canada and Alaska, builders have used the landform in order to lower construction costs — for example, part of the Denali Highway was built on top of an esker.
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California’s stunning coastline, vibrant cities, and natural wonders beckon artists and adventurers alike. It’s a constant subject of songs, a background to movie plots, and a destination for year-round vacations. Whether you already know the way to San Jose or are just California dreaming, read on for these six facts about the Golden State.
The origins of state names aren’t always clear-cut. Many seem to be pulled from the languages, descriptions, and cultures of the Indigenous people who once lived there (e.g., Massachusetts or Missouri), while others have a distinctly foreign influence (like Maryland or Georgia, both named for British monarchs). California, however, most likely derives its name from a 16th-century romance novel. In a text called Las Sergas de Esplandián (aka “The Deeds of Esplandián”), author Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo relayed the tale of California, a paradise-like island with abundant stores of gold and jewels, inhabited by Black women warriors and their leader, Queen Calafia. Spanish explorers who were familiar with the tale mistakenly believed California to be an island when they first landed on what’s now called Baja California in the 1500s. As they explored farther north, they also called the area “California” or “Alta California” — even once they figured out it wasn’t an island. The name stuck.
California marked its 170th anniversary of statehood in 2020, a milestone possible thanks to the early rush of miners, entrepreneurs, and hopefuls who drove up the region’s population before it was an official state.
The United States first took control of California from Mexico in 1848 following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, an agreement that finalized the end of the two-year Mexican-American War. Almost immediately, news spread about the discovery of gold nuggets in the Central Valley, kicking off waves of arriving prospectors who hoped to strike it rich. By 1849, more than 60,000 people had flocked to California — the minimum population required for any part of the country seeking statehood. Instead of declaring the Golden State a territory (part of the normal process, which allowed the prospective state to bolster its number of inhabitants and usually took several years), Congress expedited California’s status to statehood in just two years, making it the 31st state in 1850.
California has long been the country’s most populated state, first surpassing New York for the record in 1964 when it reached a population of 18 million. Six decades later, the West Coast state has retained the title, recording more than 39 million citizens living within its borders in the 2020 census. California’s population is so large that there’s a good chance you may know someone from the state — an estimated 1 in 8 Americans hails from the Golden State. And while census trends show that California’s community growth is beginning to slow, it’s estimated that its number of residents will still climb before the next federal census in 2030, potentially reaching 42 million people.
California Produces Most of the Country’s Broccoli
Most people experiencing a bit of California dreaming think about the state’s bigger attractions: sun-kissed beaches, bustling cities, and celebrities. But the state is also known for being an agricultural powerhouse that produces a large portion of the country’s food. California farmers are responsible for growing 90% of the U.S. broccoli crop, though that isn’t the state’s most lucrative harvest. Farms in the Golden State are responsible for producing nearly half of the country’s supply of fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts, including high-dollar commodities such as almonds, grapes, berries, and pistachios. More than 400 crops are grown in the state, including experimental plantings of mangoes and agave, which can adapt to the West Coast’s changing climate as the planet warms.
The National Park Service oversees 63 major national parks, spread throughout the U.S., though these spectacular sites aren’t equally distributed throughout the country. Twenty states, including Alabama, Iowa, and Nebraska, have no national parks (though nearly every state has designated historic or cultural sites). California, however, has the most national parks of any state: nine. California’s size — following Alaska and Texas as the third-largest state — means its borders include a variety of ecosystems, from the scorching desert temperatures of Death Valley National Park to the watery islands of Channel Islands National Park. The Golden State is also home to active volcanoes at Lassen Volcanic National Park in the state’s north; the slow-growing, super-sized succulents of Joshua Tree National Park in the south; and the peaks of Pinnacles National Park in between. Four more national parks — Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, and Redwood — along with a handful of historic sites and wildlife preserves, make California a nature lover’s paradise.
California condors are one of the world’s largest flying birds, though at one time scientists considered the 20-pound fowl to be nearly extinct after they disappeared from the skies. The vultures, which have a nearly 10-foot wingspan, were once found across North America, thriving between Canada and Mexico, but their populations dwindled as more settlers ventured west; the massive birds were hunted, and their nests and food supply were disturbed. By the early 20th century, the California condor’s range was reduced to Southern California’s mountains, and their numbers dropped to just 22 birds in the 1980s, when the remaining condors were trapped for breeding programs and the species was declared extinct in the wild. Amazingly, conservation programs led by California’s Yurok Tribe and government wildlife organizations have helped return condors to the skies in growing numbers. As of December 2021, the global California condor population grew to 537 birds, with more than half of them flying free among the Golden State’s wild creatures.
Nicole Garner Meeker
Writer
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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Nestled between the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean, Australia is the largest country in Oceania and the sixth-largest country in the world by land area. But that’s just the beginning when it comes to the many amazing things about this ancient land. From its one-of-a-kind wildlife species to the planet’s oldest civilization, here are seven fascinating facts that you might not know about the Land Down Under.
Australia Is Home to the World’s Oldest Civilization
When Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon landed in Australia in 1606, the first known European to do so, the continent had already been inhabited for tens of thousands of years by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In 2016, an extensive DNA study by Cambridge University deduced that Aboriginal Australians are the world’s oldest civilization. Indigenous Australian and Papuan ancestral groups migrated to Sahul (a prehistoric subcontinent made up of present-day Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania) about 50,000 years ago. Eventually, rising sea levels caused the separation of the islands, and forced the Aboriginal peoples into genetic isolation that developed unique communities.
Around 80% of Australia’s Fauna and Flora Is Unique to the Country
Australia has some of the cutest, most interesting, and most venomous animals on the planet. In fact, thanks to its isolated island geography, over 80% of the country’s plants and animals can only be found here. That includes the cuddly koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats that often feature high on tourists’ bucket lists. Many tourists also hope to spot the notoriously feisty Tasmanian devil, the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial, and the rainforest-dwelling, sound-mimicking lyrebird. Meanwhile, other national animals strike fear into tourists — Australia has approximately 100 venomous snakes, 12 of which can cause fatalities.
Uluru, the World’s Largest Monolith, Extends for Over 1.5 Miles Underground
The most sacred site in Aboriginal culture is the huge red sandstone monolith known as Uluru (or Ayers Rock). This landmark — the largest monolith in the world — is emblematic of the Australian Outback and rises 1,142 feet above its desolate desert surroundings. But what’s perhaps more impressive is that it’s estimated to extend for more than 1.5 miles beneath the Earth’s surface, almost like an iceberg on land. The Anangu people are the traditional owners of this 500 million-year-old rock, and consider it to be a resting place of ancient spirits.
From natural wonders to architectural masterpieces, Australia has an impressive 19 properties on UNESCO’s World Heritage List — more than either Greece or Turkey. You may already be familiar with some of them, as several rank among the country’s most popular tourist attractions, including the Sydney Opera House. Visitors can also get a taste of Australia’s natural beauty at places such as the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, and Fraser Island. They can also catch a glimpse into the nation’s past as a penal colony at the Australia Convict Sites.
Highway 1 Is One of the Longest Highways on the Planet
With wide open roads running along meandering coastlines, cutting through vast deserts, and crossing mountainous terrain, Australia is a dream destination for a road trip. Highway 1 (nicknamed the Big Lap) is a 9,010-mile-long road that follows the coastline in one enormous loop. It connects almost all of Australia’s major cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, and Brisbane. It’s also the second-longest highway in the world, after the Pan-American Highway. One of the many fascinating sections of the highway is the “90 Mile Straight.” This perfectly straight stretch passes through the flat, tree-less landscapes of the Nullarbor Plain between Balladonia and Caiguna, in Western Australia.
The First Australian Police Force Was Assembled of Convicts
When the colonization of Australia began in the late 1700s, there was no recognized formal police force. As a penal colony of Great Britain, there were more convicts than people with non-criminal backgrounds. Upon arrival in New South Wales in 1788, the Royal Navy Marines were given the task of policing, although it wasn’t a role that they wanted. Soon after, Governor Arthur Phillip selected 12 of the most upstanding convicts and created a civilian law enforcement department called the Night Watch. They continued as the Sydney Police until 1862, when they merged with other New South Wales colonial forces.
Golfers with time to spare can play an 18-hole, par-72 course that spans two Australian states. Starting in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the Nullarbor Links feature one hole at each participating town or roadhouse along the Eyre Highway, before finishing 848 miles away in Ceduna, South Australia. The course incorporates the rugged outback terrain of the Nullarbor Plain, and play can often be interrupted by kangaroos and wombats. Golfers should set aside four days to complete the entire course, and clubs are available for rent at each course (for those who don’t wish to carry them for the multi-day journey).
Interesting Facts
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It’s our home and, as far as we know, the only planet that supports life. Earth is also home to some incredible facts: Did you know scientists think that there are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way, for example? Or that the whole world’s population could (theoretically) fit inside Los Angeles? We’ve rounded up some of our top facts about planet Earth from around the site, and they’re sure to make you even more proud to be an Earthling.
If you had to make a model of the solar system in an elementary science class, your nine planets (or eight, depending on your age) were likely perfect foam spheres. While that’s a pretty good approximation, it’s not entirely accurate. The Earth is actually an irregularly shaped ellipsoid — its middle bulges due to the centrifugal force of its constant rotation. Scientists have determined that the Earth’s sea level is actually about 13 miles farther from its center at the equator than at the poles.
The Earth’s Surface Is “Recycled” Every 500 Million Years
Approximately every 27 days, humans replace their skin. The Earth undergoes a similar process — it just takes 500 million years. As tectonic plates ram into each other, creating what are called subduction zones, the plates dip below lighter continental plates. The subducted rock is heated into magma and becomes future lava plumes forming new land masses. Scientists used to believe that this process took nearly 2 billion years to complete, but new analysis of basaltic lava on Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii proves that Earth recycles its “skin” in about a quarter of that time, or every 500 million years.
The Remnants of an Ancient Planet Might Be Buried Inside the Earth
The Earth’s birth some 4.6 billion years ago was a pretty raucous one. Scientists refer to Earth’s first 600 million years as the “Hadean Eon,” a reference to the fact that the planet was little more than a quagmire of molten rock at the time. During this stretch of years, the Earth was also constantly bombarded by planetesimals (small bodies of rock or ice) that existed in the sun’s protoplanetary disk — a dense field of gas, dust, and rock that orbits newly formed stars. One of the biggest of these celestial bodies was a Mars-sized protoplanet named Theia, which scientists theorize smashed into Earth only 30 million to 100 million years after the solar system’s formation. The resulting collision was so cataclysmic that the debris ejected into space formed Earth’s moon (possibly in a matter of hours). In 2021, a geologic survey uncovered mysterious rocks at the base of the planet’s mantle, suggesting that remnants of this ancient run-in might still be found within the Earth itself.
Parts of Antarctica Might Not Have Seen Rain for 14 Million Years
Antarctica is best known as the barren southernmost continent, home to glistening glaciers and snow-packed peaks that never seem to melt. Despite being surrounded by an endless supply of frozen water, the coldest continent on Earth is also one of the driest — so dry, in fact, it’s technically considered a desert.
True deserts typically receive less than 9.8 inches of rainfall per year. Antarctica, which averages just 2 inches of annual precipitation, meets this definition; at 5.5 million square miles, it reigns as the world’s largest and coldest desert. And Antarctica’s harsh climate doesn’t equally share its annual allotment of rain; some areas are practically devoid of showers. The McMurdo Dry Valleys, a snow-free region located west of the McMurdo Sound, are considered one of the driest places on Earth. Some researchers believe the flat-topped hills haven’t seen measurable precipitation or flowing water in 14 million years — an extreme drought that’s unlikely to end any time soon thanks to the placement of nearby mountains, freezing temperatures, and unforgivingly strong winds that can reach up to 200 miles per hour.
The Highest Point From the Earth’s Center Isn’t Everest
What is the world’s tallest mountain? The answer is actually deviously complicated. Most people likely think it’s Mount Everest, and in a way, they’re not wrong. At 29,032 feet tall, the Himalayan giant is the highest point above global mean sea level. But then there’s Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a mountain that stands some 33,500 feet but with more than half of its rocky stature hidden below the surface of the Pacific. And there is a third contender — a mountain that few people could even point out on a map. Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo is only the 39th tallest peak in the Andes, but it has a secret geographic advantage in the form of Earth’s equatorial bulge. The Earth isn’t a perfect sphere (see above) and because of its natural centrifugal bulge around its waistline, this relatively inconspicuous mountain is actually the highest terrestrial point from the center of the Earth — a full 2,072 meters (nearly 6,800 feet) higher than its Himalayan competition.
Maybe the most amazing fact about Earth is that it’s the only planet we know that supports life at all. A lot of things had to go right for this to be possible. For one, our planet is perfectly distanced from the sun in what scientists call “the Goldilocks zone,” because it’s not too hot but also not too cold (most life has a tough time living in temperature extremes). The Earth is also protected from solar radiation thanks to its magnetic field, and kept warm by an insulating blanket we call the atmosphere. And most importantly, it has the right building blocks for life — mainly water and carbon.
While the existence of life is Earth’s most distinguishing feature among all the known planets, moons, and exoplanets, it might not always be an outlier. Scientists have classified some exoplanets as “superhabitable,” meaning they have conditions greater than Earth’s for supporting life. Even places like Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, or Europa, a moon of Jupiter, could possibly be hiding life somewhere on their surface or oceans.
The Majority of Earth’s Human Population Lives in One Hemisphere
Although the Earth’s hemispheres are equal in geographic size, the Earth’s population is not divided similarly. Roughly 90% of Earth’s human population lives in the Northern Hemisphere, which also accounts for most of the planet’s landmass. The Northern Hemisphere is made up of 39.3% land (the rest is ocean) and also contains many of the world’s most-populated cities, while the Southern Hemisphere only is 19.1% land.
Over Half of the World’s Population Lives on a Single Continent
Earth’s continents are similarly unequal in population distribution — it’s estimated that 60% of Earth’s population (4.7 billion people) lives in Asia. Made up of 48 countries, Asia is also home to the two most populous nations in the world, China and India. China is estimated to currently have 1.4 billion people living in the country, while India has around the same. Together, the two countries account for over half of Asia’s total population.
China and India may be the nations with the highest population, but Japan is home to the most populated city in the world. As of 2023, the population of the Tokyo metropolitan area was estimated to be an astounding 35.8 million people, with 40% of the population living in the city center. Greater Tokyo’s population is almost equivalent to the total sum of the 25 most populated cities in the U.S., which adds up to 37.8 million people. It’s also 1.5 times larger than the next most populous metro area, Seoul.
In the lonesome grasslands of Nebraska near the South Dakota border lies the municipality of Monowi. The town’s sole resident is Elsie Eiler, a woman in her 80s who is the town’s mayor, clerk, librarian, and treasurer. As Monowi is an incorporated town for the purposes of the U.S. Census, Eiler receives state funding for municipal road work. However, she has to raise her own funds for the town’s taxes to pay for the street lighting and water.
The Entire World Population Could Fit Inside Los Angeles
The world population grows larger every year, but we aren’t exactly running out of physical space. In fact, all 7.8 billion of us could easily fit inside Los Angeles. Research has shown that you can fit about 10 people into a square meter, crowded-elevator style; Los Angeles is about 1.2 billion square meters, which means that if we all squeezed together, the city could theoretically fit around 12 billion people. However, we couldn’t do much more than pose for a quick photo before going our separate ways, as there isn’t enough space in L.A. for everyone to actually live in such close quarters.
In the Diomede Islands, You Can Cross From One Day Into Another
Seeing into the future is supposed to be impossible. But if you travel to the Diomede Islands of the Bering Strait, the impossible becomes reality. The Diomedes consist of two remote islands, Big Diomede (part of Russia) and Little Diomede (part of Alaska). They’re only 2.4 miles apart, but the international date line runs in between them. That means that when you’re in the Alaskan fishing village of Little Diomede and looking at your Russian neighbor, you’re actually gazing into tomorrow. It’s no wonder these landmasses have been nicknamed the Yesterday and Tomorrow islands.
Coast Redwood Trees Are the Tallest Beings in the World
With a narrow range stretching for about 450 miles, from Big Sur to southern Oregon, coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are the tallest living beings in the world — and one in particular surpasses them all. Named after a titan in Greek mythology and found in California’s Redwood National Park, Hyperion stands 380 feet tall. That’s 65 feet taller than London’s Big Ben and 10 feet taller than the previous record holder, another coast redwood.
A redwood’s size is only one of its many fascinating features. Their root systems are relatively shallow (only 6 to 12 feet deep), but can grow more than 100 feet outward from the trunk, giving them stability against heavy winds and flooding. They’re also old — really old — with some redwoods alive today estimated at more than 2,000 years old. That means they were around during the Roman Republic (“sempervirens” means “always flourishing,” after all). In fact, their age may be one reason these trees can grow so tall.
Many things affect the shape of the Earth. The drifting of tectonic plates form entirely new landmasses, and the Earth’s crust is still rebounding from the last ice age 16,000 years ago. While these minute adjustments go mostly unseen, other shape-altering events — such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and asteroid strikes (RIP to our Cretaceous friends) — are hard to miss. But the Earth also changes shape by the hour, and humans can watch it happen … sort of. Every day (roughly), the Earth experiences two periods of high and low tide, where the gravitational effects of the moon and sun affect the movement of our oceans, and as a result, the shape of the planet, if only temporarily. So even if the Earth’s shape isn’t exactly perfect, it’s certainly dynamic.
About 80% of the Earth’s Oxygen Comes From Plankton
Prochlorococcus, a species of ocean-dwelling phytoplankton, only measures about 0.6 micrometers. It’s the world’s smallest organism capable of photosynthesis — so small that 20,000 or so can reside in a single water droplet. But its impacts are so huge that an estimated one out of every five breaths you take is thanks to this miniscule microbe. Prochlorococcus, along with many other types of plankton (organisms carried along by the tides and currents), create as much as 80% of the world’s oxygen. They also play a big role in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, capturing about 40% of all the CO2 produced. That’s equivalent to the amount that would be captured by roughly four Amazon rainforests.
1% of the Earth’s Mass Contains All Known Life in the Universe
To call our planet one grain of sand on the beach that is the universe would be to vastly overstate its size. Yet however infinitesimal it is in the unfathomably grand scheme of things, Earth is home to all known life in the universe — and all of that life has been found in just 1% of the planet’s mass. That tiny fraction refers to Earth’s crust, which is 25 miles deep and has been home to every life-form ever known.
The Earth Shakes Every 26 Seconds, and Scientists Aren’t Sure Why
Like a lot of strange happenings, it was first noticed in the 1960s: a small seismic pulse, large enough to register on seismological instruments but small enough to go otherwise unnoticed, and occurring every 26 seconds. Jack Oliver, a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, first documented the “microseism” and sussed out that it was emanating from somewhere “in the southern or equatorial Atlantic Ocean.” Not until 2005 was it determined that the pulse’s true origin was in the Gulf of Guinea, just off Africa’s western coast, but to this day scientists still don’t know something just as important: why it’s happening in the first place. There are theories, of course, ranging from volcanic activity to waves, but still no consensus.
There Were Ginkgo Trees on Earth Before the Dinosaurs
There is no tree on Earth like the Ginkgo biloba. It’s the sole survivor of its genus, family (Ginkoaceae), order (Ginkgoales), class (Ginkgoopsida), and even its phylum (Ginkgophyta). In other words, it has no living relatives. Ancestors of the ginkgos now filling our parks and city streets lived on Earth 270 million years ago; for those keeping track, that means the ginkgo predates the Triassic Period (aka the beginning of the dinosaurs) by a cool 18 million years. The gingko is the oldest living tree species in the world — it’s been nicknamed a “living fossil.”
About 75% of the Earth’s Volcanoes Are Located on the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire”
About 1,350 potentially active volcanoes dot the Earth today, and the lion’s share of them can be found along a 25,000-mile-long horseshoe-shaped ribbon that borders the Pacific Ocean. This Circum-Pacific Belt, more commonly known as the “Ring of Fire,” is home to some of the most volcanically active areas in the world, including Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Alaska, and parts of the contiguous United States. These volcanoes are largely formed at subduction zones, when denser tectonic plates slip underneath lighter plates. This subduction turns the Earth’s dense mantle into magma, which eventually bubbles up as volcanoes.
The “Ring of Fire” is also home to about 90% of all earthquakes, and in the past 150 years, deadly volcanic explosions — from Indonesia’s Krakatoa in 1883 to Mount St. Helens nearly a century later — have happened along this dangerous stretch. But although the “Ring of Fire” is known for its destructive nature, it’s also a force of creation. Alaska’s Aleutian Islands are the result of Ring of Fire subduction zones, and many continental mountain ranges, such as the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest and the Andes in South America, also owe their existence to the subterranean drama unfurling just beneath the surface.
There Are More Trees on Earth Than Stars in the Milky Way
Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in his 1980 book Cosmos that there were more stars in the universe than grains of sand on beaches on Earth — a statement that’s both wondrous and impossible to prove. But some scientists pondering similar ideas believe that there may be more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The theory stems from a 2015 study that attempted to determine how many living trees could be found on the planet, by estimating the number of trees living in different environments. Tropical and subtropical forests appear to have 43% of the world’s tree population, nearly double that of frosty boreal forests found in places such as Canada, Russia, and Norway. Other regions, including the temperate biome (central Europe and the U.S. Northeast), generally have the fewest number of trees. The combined estimates per zone lead some scientists to believe that Earth is home to roughly 3 trillion trees. Compared to NASA’s estimate of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, it appears that trees far outnumber the Milky Way’s sparkling orbs.
There’s a Jellyfish That’s Considered Biologically Immortal
Immortality is the dream of ancient mystics and futuristic transhumanists alike, but for humans and most other animals on Earth, the promise of such longevity remains out of reach — that is, unless you’re a jellyfish known scientifically as Turritopsis dohrnii, and nicknamed the “immortal jellyfish.” The life cycle of most jellyfish begins with a fertilized egg that grows to a larval stage called a planula. Eventually, the planula attaches itself to a surface, and forms into a tubelike structure known as a polyp. These polyps eventually bud and break away into an ephyra, aka a young jellyfish, and these floating youngsters then develop into adult medusae capable of sexual reproduction.
Most species of jellyfish call it quits at this point, and eventually die like every other species on Earth — but not Turritopsis dohrnii. Instead, when this creature becomes damaged for whatever reason, it can revert to a blob of living tissue that eventually develops back into a polyp, and once again its developmental process repeats. Of course, this jellyfish isn’t immune to the numerous dangers of the ocean — whether from predators or climate change — but if left to their own devices, these incredible creatures can just go on living forever.
Modern Humans Have Been on Earth Less Than 0.01% of the Planet’s Existence
The Earth has been around for a while — about one-third as long as the universe itself. By comparison, Homo sapiens are the new kids on the block. Earth’s story began at the outset of the Hadean eon, about 4.6 billion years ago. It took 600 million years just for the Earth’s crust to take shape, another 300 million years for the first signs of microbial life to pop up, and about 3.2 billion years after that for life to really get going thanks to the evolutionary burst known as the Cambrian explosion. Several mass extinction events and some 465 million years later, mammals finally took center stage, but modern humans didn’t enter the biological limelight for another 65 million years. With the first Homo sapiens appearing around 300,000 years ago, humans have only been on planet Earth for 0.0067% of its existence.
Earth Is the Only Place in the Solar System Where Fire Occurs
Fire seems intrinsically linked to life on Earth. The fires of the Earth’s molten core formed the land we live on, forests are at their healthiest when they burn in a controlled manner to make way for new life, and even the legendary R&B group Earth, Wind & Fire paid homage to the stuff. In fact, Earth is the only place we know of where fire occurs. That’s because fire requires three things to exist: heat, oxygen, and combustible material. This “fire triangle” is only possible on Earth, as far as we know, because of the planet’s high levels of free oxygen. Travel to other planets and moons in the solar system, and there isn’t enough (or any) oxygen for fire to exist. As for the sun, which some people imagine as a giant ball of fire, it’s actually a giant collection of gas that glows thanks to the complex nuclear fusion occurring in its core.
There’s a Beach in the Maldives That Glows in the Dark
If you were wowed by those glow-in-the-dark stars on your bedroom ceiling as a kid, you may need to book a trip to the Maldives. The small nation of more than 1,000 islands in the Indian Ocean is home to at least one beach, on Mudhdhoo Island, that often glows in the dark — and it’s a completely natural phenomenon. We have ostracod crustaceans (aka seed shrimp) to thank for the effect, as the millimeter-long creatures have the ability to emit a blue light for as long as a minute or more. Though scientists are unsure why they do so, some believe it happens when a mass mortality event occurs.
That gorgeous seed shrimp glow is an example of bioluminescence — light produced by a chemical reaction within a living being. Seed shrimp are far from the only creatures who shine this way: The chemical reactions that create bioluminescence occur in other organisms whose bodies contain luciferin (light-emitting organic compounds; the name comes from the Latin “lucifer,” meaning “light-bearing”). That list also includes fellow ocean-dwellers such as firefly squid and sea sparkles, as well as fireflies, glow-worms, and certain bacteria and fungi on land. Some animals do it to lure their next meal, others as a kind of mating ritual, and still others use it to frighten, distract, or hide from predators. Good thing sharks and bats don’t find the sight as wonderful as we do.
Niger Has the Highest Birth Rate and the Youngest Population
The West African country of Niger has the highest birth rate in the world: Between 2015 and 2020, the average woman in Niger gave birth seven times. Unsurprisingly, this means that Niger has a very young population, with a median age of 15. In fact, with an estimated population of 22.93 million, roughly half of the people who live in Niger are under the age of 14.
Interesting Facts
Editorial
Interesting Facts writers have been seen in Popular Mechanics, Mental Floss, A+E Networks, and more. They’re fascinated by history, science, food, culture, and the world around them.
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