Bizarre Animals
This mammal produces cube shaped feces, which helps prevent its territorial droppings from rolling away.
What is a wombat?
Under certain conditions, hot water can freeze faster than cold water, a phenomenon named after a Tanzanian student.
What is the Mpemba effect?
This musician was the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, receiving the honor in 1987.
Who is Aretha Franklin?
Some people experience an uncontrollable urge to sneeze when suddenly exposed to bright sunlight, a hereditary trait known by this acronym.
What is ACHOO syndrome?
(Autosomal Dominant Compelling Helio-Ophthalmic Outburst)
In a group of just 23 people, there is approximately a 50% chance that at least two people share this.
What is a birthday?
This animal has three hearts, blue blood, and neurons distributed throughout its eight arms.
What is an octopus?
This element melts at approximately 29.8°C, meaning it can liquefy in the palm of your hand.
What is gallium?
This fictional town is the setting of both The Vampire Diaries and much of its spin-off Legacies.
What is Mystic Falls?
This rare neurological condition causes people to hear sudden, imaginary explosions or loud crashes while falling asleep or waking up.
What is exploding head syndrome?
This mathematical principle explains why a shuffled deck of 52 cards is overwhelmingly likely to be in an arrangement that has never existed before.
What are permutations?
This amphibian can regenerate entire limbs, portions of its heart, and parts of its brain without significant scarring.
What is an axolotl?
This phenomenon causes certain materials to emit light when they are fractured, crushed, or peeled apart.
What is triboluminescence?
This 1997 Radiohead album features the songs “Paranoid Android,” “Karma Police,” and “No Surprises.”
What is OK Computer?
This neurological condition causes individuals to perceive objects or body parts as dramatically larger or smaller than they actually are, and is named after a famous literary character.
What is Alice in Wonderland syndrome?
The odds of finding one of these in nature are often estimated at approximately 1 in 5,000, making finding one particularly exciting.
What is a four-leaf clover?
This parasite replaces a fish's tongue, attaches itself to the remaining stump, and functions as a living substitute.
What is Cymothoa exigua (the tongue eating louse)?
This naturally occurring nuclear phenomenon happened approximately 2 billion years ago in what is now Gabon.
What is the Oklo natural nuclear reactor?
In The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Lucy Gray Baird represents this district in the 10th Hunger Games.
What is District 12?
This rare condition causes a person to develop a foreign-sounding accent following neurological injury, despite never having learned that accent.
What is foreign accent syndrome?
A person has approximately a 1-in-15,300 chance of experiencing this natural phenomenon during their lifetime in the United States, according to commonly cited estimates.
What is being struck by lightning?
This microscopic animal survives extreme desiccation by replacing much of its cellular water with protective molecules, entering a state called anhydrobiosis.
What is a tardigrade?
This quantum mechanical phenomenon allows particles to pass through energy barriers they could not overcome according to classical physics.
What is quantum tunneling?
In Stranger Things, this is the name of the secret Russian operation beneath Starcourt Mall during Season 3.
What is the Key?
This rare genetic disorder causes a person's soft tissues, including muscles and tendons, to progressively turn into bone, sometimes creating a second skeleton.
What is fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP)?
This mathematical concept describes the phenomenon where random events appear to form meaningful clusters, even when no underlying pattern exist
What is the clustering illusion?