Facts Archive - Interesting Facts

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The average person can probably name a couple of the more famous shipwrecks — maybe the Titanic or Queen Anne’s Revenge — but there are many, many more that have sunk from sight and public recollection. Altogether, it’s believed that at least 3 million such wrecks dot the ocean floors.

Bermuda has the most shipwrecks per square mile of any location on the planet.

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Although Bermuda measures less than 21 square miles, the combination of its location within trade routes and hazardous coral reefs has produced more than 300 shipwrecks off its coast.

If that number doesn’t seem particularly remarkable (humans have been building boats for at least 10,000 years, after all), then perhaps it’s more surprising to learn that less than 1% of these submerged crafts have been explored. Why such a small percentage? Well, the world’s oceans are enormous, reaching an average depth of more than 12,000 feet, and only 28% of the ocean floor has been charted in detail. There’s also the matter of the money needed to launch expeditions to find these vessels. But times are changing in the realm of wreckage discovery: The digitization of archives has made records more accessible, and the development of technologies such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) has rendered the searching process less treacherous for explorers.

So what becomes of most shipwrecks? Some of them are looted for profit, despite legal efforts to preserve the historical value of their artifacts. Some are turned into underwater museums. But most others become reefs — playgrounds for fish and other varieties of marine life. They may not receive the fanfare showered on the wreck of Titanic, but they nevertheless take on new and important functions far below the waves.

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Estimated value (in U.S. dollars) of treasure on sunken ships

60 billion

Age (in years) of the oldest intact shipwreck discovered, in the Black Sea

2,400

Shipwrecks found over 22 days in the Fourni archipelago in 2015

23

Estimated number of shipwrecks across the Great Lakes

6,000

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Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

A 2022 Antarctic expedition found the wreck of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, named ______.

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A 2022 Antarctic expedition found the wreck of explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship, named Endurance.

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The deepest shipwreck was discovered more than 22,500 feet below the ocean’s surface.

Combine cutting-edge technology with the nerve needed to explore the most extreme corners of the Earth, and you wind up finding treasures once thought inaccessible. Such was the case with a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer named Victor Vescovo, who turned his attention from scaling the world’s highest peaks to scouring its deepest depths by way of a first-of-its-kind submersible dubbed the Limiting Factor. In 2021, Vescovo came upon the largely intact WWII destroyer USS Johnston resting some 21,180 feet below the surface of the Philippine Sea. A little more than a year later, Vescovo used the trail of the Johnston and the Limiting Factor’s sonar capabilities to locate another WWII craft, the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts, elsewhere in the Philippine Trench, at a depth of 22,523 feet. Although that latter mark currently stands as the world record for the deepest shipwreck, it probably won’t be long before Vescovo or another intrepid soul ventures even further into the unknown to see what can be uncovered.

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True ambidexterity is the ability to use one’s left and right hands equally well when it comes to tasks such as writing or throwing a ball. This rare trait occurs naturally in roughly 1% of the global population (around 82 million people). In one 2019 study, 1.7% of respondents said they could use both hands interchangeably, far fewer than the 89% who were right-handed and the 9.3% who were lefties.

The study also found a higher predisposition for ambidexterity among males than among females (2.1% and 1.4%, respectively), which some theorize may have to do with the effect higher testosterone levels have on brain development (though this has yet to be conclusively proved). This is just one of several studies on handedness — the tendency to use one hand over another — and while the exact percentages of right-handed, left-handed, and ambidextrous people vary, the results are largely consistent across the board.

Thomas Jefferson learned to write with his left hand at the age of 43.

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Though he was a natural righty, Jefferson learned to write with his left hand after dislocating his right wrist in 1786. The founding father’s left-handed letters were surprisingly legible, though the handwriting slightly differed from those written with his right hand.

The root cause of ambidexterity — or any handedness, for that matter — remains tough to pin down. A 2009 study suggested it may be determined by a combination of genetics and environmental influences (for instance, being taught to write with a certain hand in school). It’s also believed that ambidextrous people possess atypical brain laterality compared to right-handed individuals, which forms during development.

This cerebral asymmetry is arguably why ambidextrous people have a higher propensity toward conditions including ADHD, and why they generally are less proficient than right-handed people in topics such as arithmetic and logical reasoning. Ambidextrous people also possess a unique versatility when it comes to sports, playing music, or performing everyday physical activities.

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Career home runs hit by Mickey Mantle (the most by a switch-hitter)

536

U.S. presidents who were left-handed

7

Percentage of the global population with green eyes

~2%

Longest distance (in miles) walked on two hands

870

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Women and men may have different hand odors.

Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

Despite being left-handed, ______ often played right-handed guitars flipped upside down.

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Despite being left-handed, Jimi Hendrix often played right-handed guitars flipped upside down.

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Leonardo da Vinci wrote from right to left.

Italian, like most languages, is traditionally written from left to right, yet the famed Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci wrote his notes from right to left — a unique style known as mirror writing. Not only was the direction reversed, but each letter was also flipped horizontally as if viewed through a mirror.

Some theorize that Leonardo practiced mirror writing to make it more difficult for people to read his notes and steal his ideas. Interestingly, he used mirror writing only when composing personal notes; if the text was intended to be read by anyone else, he wrote in the standard direction.

Others believe that Leonardo used mirror writing to avoid ink smudges on his left hand, which he used to write. The Renaissance man was a lefty (though some argue he was actually ambidextrous) and was known among his contemporaries as “mancino” — Italian slang for a left-handed person.

Bennett Kleinman

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Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Inbox Studio, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.

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You’ve probably heard people say things like “I’ll be there in a jiffy,” where “jiffy” means a very short period of time — something like the blink of an eye. But it may surprise you to learn that for some scientists, the term has a more precise definition. That definition varies depending on who’s doing the talking: The physical chemist Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) defined a jiffy as the length of time it takes for light to travel 1 centimeter in a vacuum. However, some physicists have defined a jiffy as the time it takes light to travel 1 femtometer — one-millionth of a millionth of a millimeter. By this account, each second contains roughly 300,000 billion billion jiffys.

Ancient Egyptians created today’s 60-minute hour.

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We owe a lot to ancient Egyptians for dividing time into something close to our own clocks and calendars. However, they divided the day and night into 12 hours each, which varied from 45 to 75 minutes long, depending on the season. Our 60-minute hour comes from the Babylonians.

But a jiffy has also been defined outside of physics and chemistry. An electrical engineer, for example, might describe a jiffy as the time it takes for a single cycle of alternating current, which is one-fiftieth or one-sixtieth of a second, depending on the electrical system. Whatever definition holds true, one thing is certain — no one in the history of the world has ever truly accomplished much “in a jiffy.”

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Estimated years the world’s oldest clock, at Salisbury Cathedral, has kept time

640

Year Jiffy Lube was founded, in Utah

1971

“Atoms” — an Old English measurement — in a minute

376

Approximate year the word “jiffy” entered the English lexicon

1785

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Women and men may have different hand odors.

Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

A leading theory suggests that “jiffy” was originally slang for a ______.

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A leading theory suggests that “jiffy” was originally slang for a flash of lightning.

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Technically, a second is not one-sixtieth of a minute.

It’s forgivable to think a second is one-sixtieth of a minute (or 1/86,400 of a day). After all, it’s pretty prominently displayed on every clock and watch ever built. But time isn’t nearly as neat as our timekeeping devices make it out to be. The universe is full of astronomical quirks, and for scientific purposes a second needs to be much more precise than a simple fraction. That’s why, in 1967, scientists changed the official definition of a second from 1/86,400 of a day to “the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.” This is the basic principle behind atomic clocks, super-accurate instruments that use atomic physics to maintain long-lasting accuracy. For some state-of-the-art devices, it would take 15 billion years for the clock to be off by one second.

Darren Orf

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Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.

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More than 200 years after the 10th president of the United States was born, one of his grandsons was still alive. As impossible as that may seem, the math — and biology — checks out. John Tyler, who was born in 1790 and became president in 1841 after William Henry Harrison died in office (possibly of pneumonia), had a son named Lyon Gardiner Tyler in 1853. This son was born to the then-60-something Tyler and his much younger second wife, Julia Gardiner. Lyon then had two sons of his own in his 70s (also with a younger second wife), one of whom — Harrison Ruffin Tyler, born in 1928 — lived to be 96 years old. He died in May 2025.

George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush were the only father and son to both become president.

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The Bushes were preceded in this exceedingly rare feat by John Adams (1797–1801) and John Quincy Adams (1825–1829), the second and sixth presidents, respectively.

It may make this feat slightly less surprising to know that Tyler had 15 children, more than any other POTUS in U.S. history. Tyler’s actual presidency is less remarkable than this biographical oddity, alas — he was referred to as “His Accidency” upon assuming office and wasn’t renominated in the following election. (He was also an enslaver whose profitable plantation ran on the labor of 40 to 50 enslaved people.) Though his grandsons didn’t have major political aspirations, you might say it was in Tyler’s blood to seek office: His father, John Tyler Sr., was roommates with Thomas Jefferson at the College of William and Mary and later served as the 15th governor of Virginia.

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Numbers Don't Lie

Presidents who never had biological children (including George Washington)

5

Age (at death) of the oldest person ever

122

Vice presidents who later became president

15

Presidents who belonged to the Whig Party (including John Tyler)

4

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Twins can be born months apart.

Humans can tell when someone is watching them.

By some accounts, North Dakota didn’t technically become a state until 2012.

Original photo by Pixel-Shot/ Shutterstock

Women and men may have different hand odors.

Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

President John Tyler belonged to the ______ Party.

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President John Tyler belonged to the Whig Party.

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Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt were fifth cousins.

It’s well known that the two commanders in chief were related, but how they were related is less-common knowledge. FDR assumed the presidency 24 years after his fifth cousin left the Oval Office, and their mutual political aspirations were no coincidence: The longest-serving president in U.S. history greatly admired his distant relative and intentionally followed in his footsteps. Teddy largely approved: Upon Franklin’s engagement to Eleanor — Franklin’s fifth cousin once removed — the younger Roosevelt received a note from the elder saying he was “as fond of Eleanor as if she were my daughter; and I like you, and trust you, and believe in you.”

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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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Alaska is big — in more ways than one. Not only is it the largest U.S. state by a wide margin, but it’s also home to the 10 highest mountain peaks in the U.S., far more volcanoes than any other state, and more coastline than all the other states combined. Of the United States’ estimated 12,479 miles of coastline, Alaska accounts for some 6,640 miles all on its own, at least based on one account by the Congressional Research Service. (Coastlines can be notoriously difficult to measure, and counts do vary.)

Alaska’s state flag was designed by a 13-year-old.

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In 1926, the territory of Alaska held a design competition for a new flag. The winner — the Polaris star and Ursa Major (Big Dipper) constellation on a blue field — was created by a 13-year-old boy living in an orphanage. Alaska stuck with the flag when it became a state in 1959.

Alaska’s coastline borders three seas — the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi — along with the Pacific and Arctic oceans, and it rests in some of the most extreme climates in the world. The coasts themselves have been formed over millions of years by fault tectonics, volcanism, glaciation, fluvial processes, and sea level changes. Most of these beaches aren’t usually very balmy: The southeast section of Alaska’s coast is filled with rocky coasts and sheltered fjords, while in the north, sediment from rivers draining from the Brooks Range and the Canadian Rockies forms deltas. Although these rivers are often frozen, wind pushes sea ice along the shore during the coldest months. So if you’re looking for a place to swim, maybe stick to Key West — in the contiguous U.S., Florida has the most coastline of any state, with an estimated 1,350 miles.

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Height (in feet) of the highest wave ever surfed by a human

86

People in the U.S. who live in counties located along the coast

127 million

Miles of coastline in New Hampshire, the least of any coastal state

13

Percentage of U.S. landmass that is Alaska

17%

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______ has the most coastline of any country.

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Canada has the most coastline of any country.

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Alaska is home to 227 federally recognized Indigenous tribes, more than any other state in the U.S.

The U.S. federal government recognizes 574 tribes throughout the country — and 227 of those are in Alaska alone. (The Bureau of Indian Affairs recognizes an additional two.) In fact, nearly one in six Alaskans is considered Native American, which is the highest rate of any U.S. state. (By sheer numbers, California is home to the most Indigenous people overall.) Although the U.S. government has formally recognized Alaska’s 229 tribes, the state of Alaska didn’t follow suit until the summer of 2022, when Governor Mike Dunleavy passed legislation recognizing the tribes and their indelible contributions to the history and culture of Alaska.

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Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.

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In 1954, Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness, thought up a way to reduce pub disputes so bartenders could focus on pouring his company’s signature beers. He suspected that every bar could benefit from a book filled with verified facts and stats about subjects that might arise mid-conversation over a drink. Two events in particular prompted his decision: Earlier in the decade, he and fellow guests at a hunt in Ireland memorably argued about Europe’s fastest game bird, which they had no means of identifying. Then, on May 6, 1954, English athlete Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in less than four minutes, causing public interest in records-related news to surge. Norris McWhirter had served as the stadium announcer during Bannister’s historic run, and Beaver hired both him and his identical twin, Ross McWhirter — another sports journalist — to assemble The Guinness Book of World Records. At the time, the pair had already begun working at a London-based agency that supplied facts to newspapers and advertisers.

The U.S. is the third-largest market for Guinness beer.

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That claim belongs to Nigeria. The dark brew has been sold there since 1827, although in glass bottles rather than cans. The countries that drink more Guinness are the U.K. and Ireland.

The McWhirter twins spent about three months working feverishly on their 198-page compendium. Released in the U.K. on August 27, 1955, the book featured about 4,000 records, ranging from the world’s tallest man to the smallest pub. Eight pages of black-and-white photographs broke up the text, along with a few ink drawings. Although initially meant to be given out for free at bars to promote Guinness, the book became so popular that the company started selling it, soon to great success. To date, more than 150 million books from the series — eventually renamed Guinness World Records — have been purchased, educating readers in 40-plus languages. But the brand is no longer beverage-based: Diageo, the alcohol conglomerate that now owns Guinness, sold Guinness World Records in 2001, and it’s now owned by a Canadian conglomerate called the Jim Pattison Group.

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Minimum Guinness World Records that NYC’s Ashrita Furman — the most prolific record-breaker — has set

600

Length (in years) of the lease Guinness’ founder signed to rent the company’s headquarters in 1759

9,000

Record applications in 2025

49,052

Estimated pints of Guinness lost every year to drinkers’ mustaches, according to a 2000 study

162,719

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From 1976 to 1995, New York City’s iconic ______ Building was home to a Guinness World Records museum.

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From 1976 to 1995, New York City’s iconic Empire State Building was home to a Guinness World Records museum.

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Guinness prompted the Irish government to adjust the trademark of its coat of arms.

All Guinness bottles and cans share the same harp-shaped logo, a nod to a national treasure — a famed 14th-century harp — preserved inside the library of Trinity College Dublin. The harp has been incorporated into Guinness labels since 1862, and the beverage titan trademarked the design 14 years later, although it has been updated over time. A harp (a reference to the same instrument at Trinity College) has also been Ireland’s emblem since the Irish Free State was established in 1922, starring in its seal of state, coat of arms, and coins. In the early 1980s, Ireland’s office of the attorney general suggested attempting to trademark the harp under international intellectual property jurisdictions with the instrument facing in both directions, but the government had concerns that the move would elicit a lawsuit from Guinness, which is associated with a harp that has a left-sided straight edge. So since 1984, the official, nine-string Irish harp is always pictured with its straight edge to the right.

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Although the sky is blue throughout the year, it often looks like a richer blue in the fall and winter, especially at latitudes farther from the equator. Why? Well, the answer has to do with both electromagnetism and the biology of the human eye. As a refresher: All visible colors are tied to some wavelength along the electromagnetic spectrum. When sunlight enters Earth’s atmosphere, gas and dust particles reflect the shorter wavelengths of visible light (such as blue) more than longer wavelengths (such as red). That — and the sensitivity of the human eye to the color blue — is why the sky appears as a cool sapphire.

Boston is considered the U.S.’s fall foliage capital.

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While New England attracts legions of leaf-peepers every autumn, it’s the northern city of Stowe, Vermont, that’s widely regarded as the best place to view fall foliage. Some 850,000 people visit the small town every year in the summer and fall.

As the seasons progress, one part of this equation changes: the sun’s position. As the sun gets lower and lower in the sky during its annual journey back toward the equator (and eventually the Tropic of Capricorn), the angle of the sun’s light hitting the atmosphere causes even more blue light to scatter, while red and green light decrease. That causes the sky to turn an even richer blue. These blue skies are especially easy to see in much of North America as cooler temperatures mean less moisture (and therefore fewer clouds), giving you an uninterrupted view of that deep azure atmosphere.

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Year Irving Berlin wrote the song “Blue Skies”

1926

Max length (in nanometers) of the electromagnetic wavelength our eyes perceive as blue

495

Percentage of U.S. citizens who prefer the color blue — the most of any color — according to one survey

31%

Year the phrase “blue devils” was first recorded; it eventually influenced the name of the “blues” genre

1756

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Women and men may have different hand odors.

Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

The original name for the fall season was “______.”

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The original name for the fall season was “harvest.”

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When leaves change color, they’re revealing pigments that have been there all along.

The multihued splendor of fall foliage is one of the most indelible symbols of the season. Although this process is often described as leaves “changing color,” it might be better to say they’re showing off color that’s always been there. During the spring and summer, a tree’s leaves are green due to the busy work of photosynthesis, which produces the pigment chlorophyll. When trees prepare for the dark and cold months ahead, they stop producing chlorophyll, and as this green color recedes, pigments that have always been present in the leaves, such as carotenoids (orange and brown) and anthocyanins (red and purple), are finally able to shine through.

Darren Orf

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Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.

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Humans tend to adore cats despite some of their more difficult tendencies, which include sprawling across laptops and books, delivering (unwanted) gifts of mice, and begging for a food refill before their bowl is even empty — not to mention keeping their pet parents up all night with loud yowls and frenzied midnight runs. But who can blame a house cat for the mischief they get up to in the wee hours? After all, cats sleep around 15 hours per day, so it makes sense that their bedtime routines don’t align with ours. Cats don’t bank all those hours of rest at once, though. While sleep habits can vary by breed, domesticated cats generally take frequent catnaps lasting 15 to 30 minutes each, followed by bursts of activity, and then occasional periods of deeper rest.

Humans spend about one-third of our lives asleep.

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For humans, sleep is just as vital to survival as food and water, allowing our bodies to rest, heal, and retain information. It’s why we doze so frequently and for so long. Banking seven to eight hours each night adds up quickly; about one-third of our lifespan is spent snoozing.

Feline researchers believe cats’ unique sleeping patterns evolved from their need to store energy between hunts. Prowling for and pouncing on prey is a major energy drain, and resting after hunting and eating allows cats to prepare for their next pursuit. However, cats have developed different styles of sleeping to still be aware of the world around them during their daytime naps. Catnapping felines remain partially awake, can still move their ears and tails, and even keep their eyes partially open to detect danger. When they do doze more deeply, cats experience REM sleep just like humans — one reason scientists believe they dream like us, too.

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Numbers Don't Lie

Estimated time (in hours) humans spend dreaming each night

2

Average hours per day a growing kitten spends sleeping (about 90% of their kittenhood)

20

Estimated percentage of people who snore nightly

25%

Percentage of a cat’s day spent grooming themselves

30%-50%

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Babies sleeps on the bed in white sheets

Twins can be born months apart.

Humans can tell when someone is watching them.

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Women and men may have different hand odors.

Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

Cats are ______ animals, meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk.

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Cats are crepuscular animals, meaning they’re most active at dawn and dusk.

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Koalas sleep the most of any animal.

Cats may spend most of their days lounging around, but another mammal holds the record for sleepiest animal: koalas. These pouched tree-dwellers snooze between 20 and 22 hours per day, waking at night to feast primarily on eucalyptus leaves. While toxic to other animals, eucalyptus is the koala’s primary food source, and it’s tough to digest; the leaves are especially fibrous and light in nutrients. That means koalas require extra rest just to power the digestion process. However, active koalas can use that banked energy to really move around; when spooked, the marsupials can run at speeds up to 18 miles per hour.

Nicole Garner Meeker

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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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On average, twins are delivered just a few minutes apart — but this isn’t always the case. In 1996, for instance, a Maryland woman named Lesa West gave birth to fraternal twins over a reported span of 90 days. On January 1 of that year, Lesa and her partner David welcomed their daughter Molly, who was born premature. After Molly’s birth, doctors were able to stop Lesa’s contractions so she could carry the other baby to full term. Three months later, on March 30, Lesa finally gave birth to little Benjamin. There are also reports of twins born 87 days apart in 2012 and 84 days apart in 1995 and ’96.

Four babies were born at a Rolling Stones concert in 1969.

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On December 6, 1969, the Rolling Stones headlined the Altamont Free Concert in California, alongside Santana, Jefferson Airplane, and others. According to the American Red Cross, four concertgoers gave birth during the six-hour spectacle, which was attended by roughly 300,000 people.

When it comes to triplets, the longest recorded interval between births is shorter, albeit still quite substantial. On September 20, 2004, Kara McBurney of Missouri gave birth prematurely to her son Lorne. Kara then remained in the hospital for weeks until she delivered her son Sullivan 17 days, 18 hours, and 55 minutes later, and her son Isaac shortly after.

In general, twins are delivered earlier than single-baby pregnancies, and less than one in every two twin pregnancies lasts beyond 37 weeks. Once the first baby is delivered, it’s preferable to deliver the next child in about 15 minutes to avoid complications, and the majority of twins are delivered within 30 minutes. It doesn’t always take that long, however: The shortest recorded time between twin births was a Canadian woman named Amanda Dorris, whose twins were born just 22.976 seconds apart on April 6, 2017.

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Numbers Don't Lie

Numbers Don't Lie

Average birth rate of twins per 1,000 live births in the U.S. (as of 2022)

31.2

Most surviving children ever delivered during a single birth

9

Weight (in pounds) of the heaviest baby ever born

22

Percentage of twins who are said to share their own “secret language”

~40%

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Humans can tell when someone is watching them.

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Original photo by Pixel-Shot/ Shutterstock

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Babies are born with around 300 ______.

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Babies are born with around 300 bones.

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African elephants have the longest gestation period of any land mammal.

If you thought being pregnant for nine months was difficult, you should thank your lucky stars you aren’t an elephant. The African elephant has a gestation period of around 22 months, the longest of any land mammal. Asian elephants are also known for their lengthy gestation periods, between 18 and 22 months. But that’s just on land — things get a bit more extreme when you factor in creatures that live in the water. Take, for instance, the Chlamydoselachus anguineus, a shark found off the coasts of Chile and South Africa. This creature is believed to have a gestation period of up to 42 months, possibly due to its intensely cold habitat slowing down its metabolism. On the flip side, there are a few land mammals with gestation periods as short as 12 to 13 days, including the Virginia opossum and the water opossum.

Bennett Kleinman

Staff Writer

Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Inbox Studio, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.

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Original photo by Just dance/ Shutterstock

“I feel like someone is watching me” is a classic horror film trope, but the idea also taps into a biological fact: Humans are good at sensing when someone is looking at them. While some label this gut feeling a kind of sixth sense, it’s really a biological phenomenon known as gaze detection, caused by a complex neural network in our brain. This detection system rests largely in our peripheral vision; the sense dissipates quickly when someone turns only a few degrees away from us. Because some 10 regions of the brain are involved with human vision, and little is known about gaze detection generally, scientists haven’t pinpointed what’s controlling this seemingly uncanny ability — although researchers have detected a dedicated group of gaze-detecting neurons in macaque monkeys.

Carrots are good for your eyes.

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It's a fact

You may have heard that carrots are good for your eyes. While this root vegetable won’t let you toss your prescription glasses, there is some truth to the idea. Carrots contain beta carotene and lutein, antioxidants known to prevent ocular damage by free radicals.

Gaze detection is particularly interesting in humans because our eyes are unlike any other in the animal kingdom. The area around the pupil, known as the sclera, is very prominent and white, which makes it easier to discern in what direction someone is looking. The overall theory as to why humans are so good at gaze detection boils down to the evolutionary advantage of cooperation. Simply put, humans are social creatures, and the detection of subtle eye movements helps us work with others while also helping us avoid potential threats. But because of the evolutionary importance of knowing when someone is looking at you, our brains tend to oversignal that someone is staring at us, when they’re really not. So if you’re ever feeling a bit paranoid, blame your brain.

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Numbers Don't Lie

Numbers Don't Lie

Running time (in minutes) of 1896’s “Le Manoir du Diable,” the world’s first horror film

3

Release year of Rockwell’s hit single “Somebody’s Watching Me”

1984

Distance (in light-years) the James Webb Space Telescope can see

13.5 billion

Distance (in miles) an eagle can see prey with 20/5 vision

2

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Glasgow, Montana, is the most isolated town in the contiguous U.S.

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Most people blink at least ______ times per minute.

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Most people blink at least 15 times per minute.

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Humans have a “sixth sense” called proprioception.

We’re all familiar with the supposed five senses — smell, taste, touch, sight, and hearing — but humans have far more senses than that. One of them is called proprioception, a sense that helps our brain interpret where we are in space. This sense is derived from small receptors (called “piezo2” receptors) located in our skeletal muscles and tendons, which act as a kind of gateway through which mechanical motion enters the nervous system and gives our brains a sense of spatial awareness. Proprioception is what allows you to meander through a pitch-dark room and still have a sense of yourself occupying a particular space; if asked, you could touch your nose, hop on one foot, or do other tasks even though you can’t see. This sense isn’t as easily understandable as the basic five, but it’s a big deal if you’re missing these crucial receptors. In 2019, Vox spoke with someone missing this sixth sense, and she said that when the lights go out, it’s as if “you had a blindfold and somebody turned you several times, and then you’re asked to go in a direction.” So while the human body does an incredible job mapping the world with its five senses, there’s a lot more going on than you may realize.

Darren Orf

Writer

Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.

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