Past Facts

In United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938), the ruling laid the groundwork for a hidden footnote that would spell out modern civil rights protections. While the main ruling concerned dairy milk marketing, it also established a new standard for courts to consider. In the late 30’s, Justice Stone wanted courts to stop interfering with basic economic laws, so he added a hidden Footnote 4 to tell judges not to be so hands-off. Courts must apply a more exacting judicial scrutiny if a law discriminates against certain rights.

On June 2, 1896, 22-year-old Guglielmo Marconi filed a British patent for wireless telegraphy: sending radio signals without wires. It was not radio as we think of it today, with music and voices. It was closer to wireless Morse-code messaging - and it helped turn radio waves into a communication tool.

Studies show that the average person walks enough to circle the Earth three to four times in their lifetime.

The mantis shrimp may be small enough to fit in your hand, but its strike is unbelievably powerful. Some species can swing their club-shaped claws at around 14 - 23 meters per second, with acceleration reaching roughly 10,000 g. A roller coaster drop is around 2-5 g of force. That speed is fast enough to create cavitation bubbles underwater - tiny vapor bubbles that collapse almost instantly. When they collapse, they release a secondary burst of force, heat, sound, and even a tiny flash of light. So when a mantis shrimp hits its prey, it's not just landing a punch, it's creating a miniature underwater shockwave which can VAPORIZE its prey!

Did you know that bananas grow against gravity toward the sunlight through a process called negative geotropism. This natural upward struggle creates their signature crescent shape.

Scientists found two shark species living inside an active volcano near the Solomon Islands.

Clouds look light, but they are made of countless tiny water droplets spread across a huge area.

Sea otters sometimes hold hands or wrap themselves in kelp so they don't drift away.

Sharks have been around for hundreds of millions of years, long before the first trees appeared on Earth.

Neutron stars are so dense that NASA says just one teaspoon of neutron star matter would weigh about a billion tons on Earth. These objects are the collapsed cores of massive stars, packing up to around twice the Sun's mass into a sphere only about 12 miles wide.

Octopuses are aliens from the ocean. They have 3 hearts and blue blood. They carry oxygen with copper instead of iron in their blood, turning blue when full.

Since peanut butter is incredibly rich in carbon, scientists can actually transform it into synthetic diamonds by subjecting it to extreme heat and pressure.

A domesticated feline, also known as a house cat shares a genome with a tiger at roughly 95.6%. A lot of their distinct behaviors come from their jungle ancestors.