Fact Book

Many tribes around the world have practised trepanning since the Stone Age. It involves drilling a hole in the skull, often with a stone, to ease headaches by letting out evil spirits. People frequently survived, as many skulls have been found with several such holes, some partially healed.

14729. Science Facts

In 1962, a Dutch doctor decided to try trepanning. He used an electric drill to make a hole in his own head.

14730. Science Facts

Sundew plants have lots of sticky tentacles. When an insect lands on them, it can't escape and the glue on the plant digests the insect's body, feeding the plant.

14731. Science Facts

In 1986, 92 people were killed in Bangladesh by giant hailstones weighing up to 1 kilogram (2 pounds 3 ounces) each.

14732. Science Facts

Sometimes frozen blocks of toilet waste flushed from aeroplanes fall to earth.

14733. Science Facts

The scientific name for fear of slime is blennophobia.

14734. Science Facts

The English rhyme Ring-a-Ring-o'-Roses dates from the time of the bubonic plague.The ‘roses' refer to red spots that appeared before boils started, the ‘posies' to flowers people carried around to counteract the bad air that they thought caused plague, and the sneezing was an early symptom.

14735. Science Facts

In the Middle Ages, people thought they could cure the medical condition rheumatism by carrying a dead shrew in their pockets.

14736. Science Facts

The Fore people of Papua New Guinea traditionally eat the bodies of their dead relatives, including the brain. During the 1950s to 1960s an outbreak of the disease kuru was traced to the practice and people were dissuaded from enjoying the usual funeral meal.

14737. Science Facts

Scientists are working on a design for a spacecraft that will be partly fuelled by burning astronauts' faeces.

14738. Science Facts

Some babies are born still enclosed in the sac that holds the fluid in which they develop in the womb. It used to be considered a sign of good luck.World War II leader Winston Churchill was born like this.

14739. Science Facts

In the nineteenth century, arsenic was often used to create green colouring. A cake with green icing, coloured with arsenic, killed children who ate it at a birthday party, prompting chemists to ask for laws about what could be used in foods.

14740. Science Facts

A new design for a rat trap sends a text message to a pest controller when it kills a rat, so that the rat can be quickly removed before it starts to decompose and smell.

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People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain. .. More >>