Do You Know we have plenty of new facts just for you?Share your new found knowledge with your friends and family. You can find more of our Do You Know Series, here.
The Ultimate Chill
The coldest place on Earth is a high ridge in Antarctica where temperatures can dip below -93.2°C.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica is 14.5°C.
Some parts of Antarctica have had no rain or snow for the last 2 million years.
Sand from the Sahara is blown by the wind all the way to the Amazon, recharging its minerals. The desert literally fertilises the rainforest.
The word “desert” comes from the Latin “desertum” which means “an abandoned place”.
Fur-Ever Friends
Humans and dogs first became best friends 30,000 years ago.
Dogs and cats only sweat from their footpads and nose.
Dogs have 13 blood types, horses have eight, cows have nine while humans only have four.
Only female mosquitoes drink blood. Males are vegetarians.
There are 100,000 miles of blood vessels in an adult human body.
The Crop Whisperer
Bodies give off a tiny amount of light that’s too weak for the eye to see.
Norman Borlaug, an agricultural scientist, developed new strains of crops which yielded four times as much food. He is said to have saved the lives of over a billion people, making him one of the most influential men in human history.
Scientists estimate that the nose can recognise a trillion different scents!
The smell of chocolate increases theta brain waves, which trigger relaxation.
White chocolate isn’t technically chocolate, as it contains no cocoa solids or cocoa liquor.
A Cookie Contract
The inventor of the chocolate chip cookie sold the idea to Nestlé Toll House in return for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Earth is the only place in the Solar System where water can be present in its three states: solid, liquid and vapour.
The Soviets took 14 years to drill the world’s deepest hole: it’s 12,262 metres (40,230 ft) deep.
Between 100 and 300 tons of cosmic dust enter the Earth’s atmosphere every day.
There is enough gold at the Earth’s core to coat its entire surface to a depth of 1.5 feet.
A Ripe Old Age
In the U.S., apples sold at stores can be up to a year old.
The world’s most popular fruit is the tomato.
Going to church is good for you: A study found that services lower your blood pressure.
Eighty percent of information stored on all computers in the world is in English.
There are more English words beginning with the letter “s” than with any other letter.
Roman Reign
The word “muscle” comes from Latin term meaning “little mouse“, which is what Ancient Romans thought flexed biceps muscles resembled.
In 2012, divers discovered a 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck that was so well preserved even the food was intact in its storage jars.
By AD 117, the Roman Empire included the whole of Italy, all the lands around the Mediterranean and much of Europe, including England, Wales and parts of Scotland.
The Romans invented concrete, newspapers, books, calendars and central heating.
Romans conquered vast amounts of land in Europe and northern Africa, built roads and aqueducts, and spread Latin, their language, far and wide.
