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A scientific fact/tidbit you recently learned that you thought was interesting

catsmate said:
A swan's neck contains 26 vertebrae.
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Swans are herbivorous but do occasionally ingest invertebrates and small fish.

A swan eating a minnow will have approximately 66 vertebrae in its neck.

Isn't science amazing?!
 
catsmate said:
:) :thumbsup:
Indeed, like (IIRR) all mammals. Though they have a twenty kilo heart and some interesting valving to prevent problems when they lower their heads.
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Three-toed sloths can have upto 10 cervical vertebrae.
 
lobosrul5 said:
That isn't equivalent to cannot dream = death sentence. I believe I went a couple or 3 years where if I did dream, I could not recall it.
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You always dream. You usually don't remember them because they're boring. People who have been woken up while they are dreaming tend to report very mundane things - getting a cup of coffee, reading the newspaper. You remember the dreams that are weird and dramatic, because they are weird and dramatic.

Or so Richard Wiseman said on a recent episode of his podcast.
 
It's not just the boringness; it's also the fact that the memory-saving part of your brain isn't operating, or is operating rather minimally.
 
Dire Wolves weren't wolves at all. Their most recent common ancestor with wolves and coyotes dates back almost 6 million years and they couldn't or at least didn't interbreed with either wolves or coyotes.
 
In a similar vein, Dire Straits weren't straight at all. Their most recent common straight line is the horizon, which as we all know is actually an arc.
 
Thermal said:
In a similar vein, Dire Straits weren't straight at all. Their most recent common straight line is the horizon, which as we all know is actually an arc.
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Well, etymologically, a strait is not straight anyway. It shares its root with "strain," coming from the latin "stringere."

I just learned, rather roundaboutly, after looking up the title of an Italian book my wife is reading, that there is a Mediterranean fish, nicknamed with a ribald Italian term meaning "the king's penis," which routinely changes its sex from male to female and back to male. Also commonly known as the violet fish or "viola," along with finding out a little bit about nature and its wonderful variety, we also now know one thing Shakespeare knew when he wrote Twelfth Night.
 
Moths came first. Butterflies evolved from them, becoming basically a diurnal strain. And butterflies first evolved in North America.
 
I recently was reminded of a pneumonic for knowing whether a moon is waxing or waning: DOC. If the partial moon looks like a D it is heading towards full, O, and if it looks like a C it is past full. So, D is waxing and C is waning. Now I’m wondering if that helpful bit of 7th grade science holds true south of the equator. Hmm.
 
Dr. Keith said:
I recently was reminded of a pneumonic for knowing whether a moon is waxing or waning: DOC. If the partial moon looks like a D it is heading towards full, O, and if it looks like a C it is past full. So, D is waxing and C is waning. Now I’m wondering if that helpful bit of 7th grade science holds true south of the equator. Hmm.
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Sorry... reminded of a what? [emoji12]
 
Human jaw shrinkage - jaws have been progressively getting smaller and oral cavities lower in volume within the past several thousand years.

Kind of scary thinking of all of the people getting braces and having teeth pulled these days. And sleep apnea?!
 
Today I learned, in a thread on this very forum, that anything discovered by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider is a waste of money and will never have any practical application.
 
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