Although there could be any number of things in the natural world waiting to be discovered by adventurous scientists or wandering citizens, even some things that have already entered the annals of public knowledge aren’t as well-known as others.
But while that may be, a little digging into the volumes of the world’s collective knowledge can not only enrich what we know about the world, but bring some facts to light that are interesting all on their own.
And in some cases, what we find out can even change how we see the world at large.
It’s pretty clear that things get incredibly hot in this steel mill, so it stands to reason that this wouldn’t be any ordinary tire.
Instead of a rubber coating that would quickly be reduced to a pile of black goo, this tire is made from a series of specialized chains.
To help prevent flooding, Tokyo has these massive cathedral-like tunnels that redirect water.
This project cost the city about $2 billion , but many consider it worth it, seeing as they use these tunnels around seven times a year and will prevent hundreds of billions of dollars of damage over its lifetime.
This tortoise is about 100 years old, but that’s not the only fact about this picture that stands out.
You’ll notice that the black bear was apparently intimidated enough by this tortoise to hide in this tree.
As the USDA Forest Service confirmed , black bears are actually known to be one of the more timid bear varieties. They are often pretty easy to scare away unless they’ve already developed too much of a familiarity with humans.
Called a trapiche emerald, this emerald was penetrated with black carbon during its formation, causing it to split off into these six sections.
They’re considered one of the rarest forms of emeralds and come in many different shapes, but they all share a similar trait of being divided into six. Imagine this beauty on a piece of jewelry.
If you find yourself exploring remote areas in a South Pacific nation, there’s a distinct possibility that you’ll encounter a sight like this.
Just as there remain thousands of tons of unexploded bombs lying underground in Germany over 70 years after the end of World War II, more planes met untimely ends in the Pacific Theater than either the American or Japanese governments could ever hope to keep track of.
While no one expects death and the aftermath proceedings to be nice, some parts of it are just frightening to think about — like the use of spiked contacts by morticians to keep the eyes of the dead closed.
This is just one of the horrifying and invasive procedures that are done for open-casket funerals . Don’t get me wrong, I respect morticians and all that they do, but a lot of the methods they use can be a little…unkind.
Throughout the 1950s, atomic weapons tests were a tourist attraction for Las Vegas.
As the Smithsonian Channel reported , the city’s population grew by 161% over that decade to 250,000 people.
Although tourists were as attracted by Las Vegas’ then-emerging gambling industry as they are today, they also saw Vegas as one of the only places where they could see mushroom clouds from their hotels.
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Art for the ages, this cave painting in Santa Cruz, Argentina, is over 10,000 years old!
La Cueva de las Manos , or The Cave of Hands , is filled with many other artworks like this dated to around 5000 BC. Many have speculated how the people of the time achieved that “spray paint” look, from the use of animal stomachs to simply spraying paint out of their mouths!
When forests grow and form canopies, you can often spot gaps between trees like this.
According to McGill University , this is the result of a phenomenon called “crown shyness,” where trees will actively avoid growing into each other.
This could either be a response to winds blowing their branches into each other or a result of trees sensing neighbors that might shade them, but trees are more likely to exhibit this shyness when they’re not of the same species.
This is a photo of the world’s oldest bible, the Ethiopian Bible.
Written in Ge’ez, an ancient dead language of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Bible is nearly 800 years older than the King James version and contains 88 books rather than 66. There’s an ongoing project to translate this bible not only into English, but into the 80 languages spoken in Ethiopia, with nine already available!
Sometimes, local authorities will just take a road off the map when it’s found not to be useful.
And while the way the grass has since filled in might suggest there was never a road here to begin with, that stop sign tells us all we need to know.
Time to invest in some blackout curtains, because the midnight sun in the most northern countries means it’s this bright nearly all the time.
This exact photo was taken at 2:30 AM in Norway, despite it looking like a normally timed sunrise anywhere else in the world. Of course, the opposite of this is the extremely short periods of sun in the winter.
These early versions of Coke cans from 1936 seem like an experimental combination of cans and bottles.
Although the packaging seems to suggest that they were intended for family picnics or other such outings, Insider reported that Coca Cola didn’t make canned versions of their beverages publicly available until 1960.
By then, the cans seemed to resemble the kind we keep soup in rather than either these or the models with tabs that we’re used to today. It’s also worth noting that bottled Coca-Cola didn’t look like this by 1936 either.
But whether they ever had a public release or not, it’s clear that Coke cans with bottle caps existed at some point.
Ella Slack works as Queen Elizabeth II’s body double, and has for over 30 years. Before any large event, she goes through the Queen’s motions to make sure everything is perfect.
I guess this makes sense, or about as much sense anything relating to the Queen can make. I’m just shocked that today is the first day I’m hearing about it! What do you think the interview process for this position was like?
This is an incline gravity clock and the way it slowly descends down this ramp allows it to tell time despite having no batteries or mainspring.
The only caveat is that it has to be placed back at the top of its ramp once per day.
These are gouldian finch chicks showing off the bright spots along the sides of their mouths that make it easier for their parents to see and feed them in the dark.
They’re called “finch spots,” and scientists have a few cool theories regarding them. One, they believe all or most bird species have them, they’re just not always visible to humans, and two, they believe these spots to be unique, like fingerprints, so parents can differentiate between their babies!
A hydrophobic powder like the concoction we see here will stay on the surface of water as much as possible.
And even when a hand is forced through and causes it to sink as we can see here, the powder will spring back to the surface as soon as this person pulls away.
It’s unclear exactly what this hydrophobic powder is made from, but research suggests that paper recycling waste known as paper sludge ash can be made into hydrophobic powder fairly easily.
Not an intricate bone carving, these are the teeth of the crabeater seal.
Which, hilariously enough, don’t really eat crab all that much. They feed mostly on krill, where these teeth really help . Like whales, they take a mouthful of water, then the water escapes through the gaps in their teeth while they get to keep all the krill!
New York City is considered the most linguistically diverse place in the world.
Although The New York Times reported that 176 languages tend to be spoken in the city’s public schools, the actual bouquet of languages present in New York City is likely closer to 800.
This includes languages with relatively few remaining speakers such as Kashubian, Bukhari, Chamorro, and even Aramaic, which is the main language that Jesus was believed to have spoken.
This reading chair from the 18th century with all the bells and whistles.
I really enjoy the practicality of this, what with keeping your hands free and having a light close by, but I can feel my posture getting worse just looking at it.
As the result of a jellyfish sting that this person received 20 years ago, the skin around the affected site no longer changes color as the temperature changes.
According to the University of Michigan , it’s not unheard of for jellyfish stings to leave a permanent scar at the site of contact, but this picture makes the potential reality of that scarring clear.
An aerial view of Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, which used to be the most densely populated place in the world.
It started as a Chinese military fort, but became an ungoverned settlement . At only 6.5 acres, it housed over 33,000 people by 1990, but was demolished in 1994.
This ruler contains small pieces of wood from various trees so we can spot the difference between them.
If you’re finding it hard to recognize the names of any of these tree species, that’s likely because you don’t live in New Zealand, where these are native varieties.
After it was thought to be extinct in 1898, the takahē bird of New Zealand was rediscovered in 1948 in a more isolated part of the country.
Specifically, it was found again in the South Island’s Murchison Mountains. Its numbers are still limited, but there are conservation programs in place and its population is growing 10% every year, currently sitting at over 400!
The woman who provided the original voice for Siri wasn’t even aware of the program until it was released.
As Susan Bennett told CNN Business, she recorded a laundry list of lines for Apple, but only became aware of what her voice had been used for when a coworker noticed Siri sounded oddly familiar.
The teenagers that Barbie and Ken were named after were actually a sister and brother.
According to PBS , Barbara and Kenneth Handler were the children of Ruth Handler, who was inspired to create Barbie after seeing a doll with the likeness of an adult woman while on a trip to Europe.
Before then, manufacturers largely made only baby dolls.
Although a chameleon’s eyes aren’t entirely independent of each other, this shows how much ground they can cover at once.
Although chameleons tend to make both eyes focus on something that captures their interest, research shows that they can also accurately track small objects moving in opposite directions.
Sir David Attenborough is the only person to win awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for work in every format.
As you may discover when you read through the list of programs he’s won BAFTAs for, they include projects shot in black and white, color, HD, 3D, 4K, and even VR formats.
The man has truly done it all.
Despite their appearance, the circles on this map all illustrate what consitutes a 500-mile radius in real life.
As Wired explained , bizarre inconsistencies like this highlight the inaccuracies of the projections behind the most common way the world is represented on world maps.
Someone had to represent the world on a map first, and the design that Gerardus Mercator cooked up in the 1500s was popular enough with sailors to set the standard for how we see the world.
Unlike how it’s represented here, Greenland is about the size of Mexico, but maps that are better at reflecting this fact simply haven’t been adopted as widely as Mercator’s.
Although she was about 20 years old when this photo was taken during the 1920s, this woman is still alive today.
As confirmed by the Smithsonian Magazine , that’s because we’re looking at an early photo of Kane Tanaka, who is officially the oldest person in the world at 117 years of age.
We often call carnivorous plants flytraps, but it turns out that their appetites can be larger than that.
At least, that’s pretty clearly the case for this pitcher plant that has managed to eat an entire lizard. That’s not a pleasant way to go, either.
Behold the crystal clear waters of Glacial National Park.
If you’ve ever felt like living in an optical illusion, much like the photo here, your dreams can become reality in northwestern Montana. Be sure to just float on top though — that water’s cold.
This is what a sunset looks like from space.
So every night it looks like the planet is on fire? That really reflects what life on Earth is like. Neat.
The Statue of Unity in India is the world’s tallest statue at 182 meters, or 597 feet.
Reddit user akash07sn described the history and significance of the statue in the comments: “After the independence, Britain left India to all the kingdoms there were before they arrived. [The kingdoms] were called princely states and there were 565 of them. This man, Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel, aka Iron man of India, is the person mainly responsible for uniting the 565 princely states into what India is today. The foundation of a united India is a result of hardship by this man.”
This is lightning that was caused by a volcanic erruption.
In case you needed a reminder that nature is terrifying all the time for no reason. Though this is a long exposure shot which does up the scary-factor, lightning being caused by volcanic ash is certainly possible.
A Greta Oto, or Glasswing Butterfly, has transparent wings!
Native to central and northern South America, not only is the Greta Oto beautiful, but it’s incredibly strong , too. It can carry up to 40 times its own body weight!
As this clock was falling off the wall, it took the wall with it.
Well, not really. It does look like that though. This is an art piece by Daniel Arsham for Fashion Outlets of Chicago, a mall area that commissioned a number of artists to create installations for the building!
The lacrimal punctum is a small hole in your eyelids that drains your tears to your nose. It’s the reason why you get a runny nose after crying.
I always assumed that was your tear duct, as did others in the comments, but apparently tears come from way up in your eye under your eyelid. The human body is mysterious in the worst ways.
The End of the World Cinema in the Sinai Desert, Egypt.
An article written by the photographer, Kaupo Kikkas, tells the story of the cinema. In the early 2000s, a Frenchman in Egypt wondered why there were no theaters in the desert and decided to build one. The local authorities weren’t a huge fan though, and it’s suspected they sabotaged the premier as everything went wrong. No movies were able to be screened, and none have been screened since, leaving the theater to rot in the desert .
Sorvagsvatn, a lake over the ocean.
Admittedly the perspective is a little extreme here , but it makes for a good photo so we’ll allow it. Sorvagsvatn is the largest lake in the Faroe Islands, and it does look like it’s one good rainstorm from turning into a waterfall.
We all go through an awkward stage, like this larval stage surgeonfish that’s completely transparent.
In the little rabbit hole I fell into, I learned that there are quite a few species of fish that are completely transparent as they grow up. Can you imagine if the same happened for humans? If, for a chunk of their life, you could see your baby’s bones?
The discovery of the Statue of Antinous, Greece, 1894.
Colorized by the user who uploaded it (who did a fantastic job), this picture captures the unearthing of the Statue of Antinous . That site was apparently left alone for centuries, with collapsed buildings and multiple landslides hiding the statue from the world.
Swimmers right before they break surface tension.
Fun fact about surface tension: it’s the reason why lava lamps work! The tension between dissimilar liquids (water and liquid wax) causes them to stay separated and thus move independently.
Although you wouldn’t see airlines hand this out to passengers anymore, this photo serves as proof that they once thought nothing of it.
This multi-tool would just have been considered handy before 2001, but the fact that the attached knife is a potential weapon clearly illustrates why United Airlines wouldn’t dream of distributing this among their passengers now.
The seemingly artistic Crowley Lake stone columns, California.
As neat as they are, these weren’t created by carvers or sculpture, but instead by eons-old volcanic activity !
Modern color photography before it was known to be possible, this is a photo of Muhammad Alim Khan, from 1911.
The user who uploaded it explained the process: “Using triple negatives of blue, red, and green filters on glass, combined they create a beautiful color photo.” Muhammad Alim Khan was also the last ruling descendant of Genghis Khan, just as an additional fact.
Mosaic floor of a 2000-year-old sunken Roman palace in Naples, Italy.
Looking at this photo alone gave me a weird existential moment of wondering how much history has been lost to the sea.
