Random Fascinating Scientific Facts We Just Learned That Made Us Say ‘Really?’ (12 items)

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  (#1) Hooded Pitohui Birds Are Toxic To The Touch

  Papua New Guinea's hooded pitohui is one of the few poisonous bird species. Their toxicity was discovered by ornithologist Jack Dumbacher in 1989. Dumbacher caught some of the birds in a net; then, as Australian Geographic explains,

  As Jack struggled to free the pitohuis from his nets, they scratched his hands and the cuts hurt more than they should have. He put his fingers in his mouth to dull the pain, but that only made his tongue tingle and burn.

  After Dumbacher sent the birds' feathers away for study, they were found to contain batrachotoxins. These neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids can be fatal in high doses and are also found in the skin of poison dart frogs. The birds acquire this toxin from feeding on melyrid beetles. 
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  (#5) The World's Oldest Tree Was Cut Down Because A Scientist Couldn't Accurately Measure It

  In 1964, graduate student Donald R. Currey was studying the Little Ice Age by measuring the cores of various bristlecone pines in eastern Nevada. While coring one tree, Currey's boring instrument became stuck. So, with the permission of the US Forest Service, Currey had the tree cut down to take samples of it.

  Currey, to his everlasting regret, found that the tree was at least 4,862 years old, and possibly older. Later dubbed "Prometheus," this was the oldest, non-clonal tree ever discovered.

  However, in 2013, an older bristlecone pine was finally confirmed, at approximately 5,060 years old.
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  (#12) Tigers Share 95.6% Of Their DNA With House Cats

  In 2013, a team of researchers sequenced the genomes of tigers, snow leopards, and lions. One of the findings was that tigers share 95.6% of their DNA with ordinary house cats. The two species diverged roughly 10.8 million years ago.
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  (#9) There Is No 100% Accurate Method For Determining A Person's Age

  With the level of advanced medical technology available, you'd think there would be some test to determine how old a person is. However, no scientific method has proven 100% accurate. Tests that look at bone growth, chromosomes, white blood cells, and amino acids can put you in the ballpark - and reveal various aspects of a person's health - but can't nail down the exact age. 

  The most accurate test, known as the "epigenetic clock," can now get within two to three years of your correct age. Researcher Kang Zhang told Vox this "method likely won't get much more accurate because of the natural variation that exists between people of the same age."
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  (#11) The Scientific Term For Brain Freeze Is 'Sphenopalatine Ganglioneuralgia'

  That awful sensation in the front of your head when you eat ice cream too fast? You probably call it "brain freeze" or an "ice cream headache," but its technical term is sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. The term refers to a group of nerves located behind the nose that are particularly reactive to pain.

  The exact cause of the brain freeze sensation is unknown, but researchers believe it shares a link with migraines. According to Healthline, the current theory about brain freeze goes like this:

  when the brain is cooled rapidly as a result of ingesting extremely cold food or liquids, it changes the blood flow in the brain. The cold is transferred from the roof of your mouth to the nerves of the brain, and this causes some kind of reaction in the brain.
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  (#3) China's Three Gorges Dam Is So Massive It Can Slow The Rotation Of The Earth

  Though not so much that you'd actually notice. According to Dr. Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center:

  If filled, the [Three Gorges Dam] would hold 40 cubic kilometers (10 trillion gallons) of water. That shift of mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch).

  Dr. Chao's comment comes from a 2005 NASA article that explains how many things affect the rotation and shape of the planet, including earthquakes, weather patterns, and even traffic.

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