15 Scientific Facts You Didn't Know

These mini-facts are based on scientific evidence and for most part should be news to most readers.

1. Raindrops are not shaped like teardrops (as they are almost always depicted in drawings) - they are actually spherical.

2. When something "sublimes", it immediately goes from a solid state to a gaseous state, bypassing liquid state. This is what happens when you throw dry ice into a fire.

3. Gorillas sleep in their nests (pictured above) - they weave together soft leaves and bend tree branches. Males tend to prefer to sleep on ground, while females tend to nest in trees.

4.Champagne does not foam from carbon dioxide, it foams from dust or dust. In a perfectly smooth glass, free from dust molecules, champagne will be completely still.

5. Most digestion takes place in stomach, not in small intestine. This may be reason why a person can overeat while remaining obese.

6. The red juice in a blood steak is not blood - myoglobin is a close relative of blood. By time steak goes on sale, almost all of blood will have been removed from steak.

7. For environment, plastic bags are better than paper bags. The paper bag manufacturing process requires more energy than plastic bag manufacturing process. Recycling paper bags requires more energy than plastic, and paper bags take up more space in landfills. Since landfills are often sealed below surface, paper and plastic are equally difficult to biodegrade.

8. Polar bears are adorable animals. Their fur is transparent (not white), their skin is black (not white), and when placed in a warm, humid environment, their fur turns green with algae.

9. Allergies to pets are usually not related to fur, but to dead skin, saliva, or animal feces. Regular cleaning of pets can greatly reduce allergies.

10. The tongue map is a lie: you can taste all flavors from all parts of tongue. Language diagram taken from a 1901 German newspaper.

11. When you hold a shell in your hands and hear sound of sea, what you hear is actually your own blood flowing through your veins! You can use any cup-shaped object to hear this effect.

12. When you were alive, your brain was pink. It turns gray when you die. Although we describe brain as "gray matter" and "white matter", this is not a completely accurate description of its color.

13. Mercury, a fascinating liquid metal, is not only liquid metal. Gallium (gallium - pictured above) is solid at room temperature but melts when held in hand, while cesium (Cs) and (Fr) - second rarest natural element - can also be liquid at or near room temperature .

14. Dolphins don't drink water. If they drink sea water, they will get sick and may kill them. They satisfy all their fluid needs by eating food.

15. The Soviet Union was first country to send a spacecraft to moon, not United States. In 1959, Luna 2 became first spacecraft to land on Moon. In February 1966, Luna 9, first spacecraft to make a soft landing on Moon, delivered photographs. Four months later, United States landed first spacecraft on Moon (Surveyor I).