Octopuses have three hearts and blue blood
Two hearts pump blood through the gills and one pumps it around the body. Their blood is blue because it uses copper-based haemocyanin instead of iron-based haemoglobin to carry oxygen.
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A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance
Flamingos are born grey or white. The pink comes from carotenoid pigments in the algae and shrimp they eat — a paler flamingo is usually an underfed one.
Read the fact →Sea otters hold hands while they sleep
They float on their backs in groups called rafts and hold paws so they do not drift apart on the current. They also wrap themselves in kelp as an anchor.
Read the fact →Cows have best friends
Studies of dairy herds show cows form close bonds with particular partners and show measurable stress — higher heart rate and cortisol — when separated from them.
Read the fact →A snail can sleep for up to three years
When the weather turns too dry or too cold, some land snails seal their shell with a layer of mucus and go dormant until conditions improve — sometimes for years.
Read the fact →Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump
With four to six tonnes to carry, an elephant always keeps at least one foot on the ground. Even at full speed its gait is a fast walk, not a run.
Read the fact →A day on Venus is longer than its year
Venus takes about 243 Earth days to spin once on its axis but only about 225 Earth days to go around the Sun. It also spins backwards compared to most planets.
Read the fact →There are more stars than grains of sand on Earth
Astronomers estimate roughly 10^22 to 10^24 stars in the observable universe. Every beach and desert on Earth put together holds far fewer grains of sand.
Read the fact →The footprints on the Moon will last millions of years
The Moon has no wind, water or weather to wear them away. Apollo boot prints from 1969 are still crisp; only slow micrometeorite rain will eventually erase them.
Read the fact →Neutron stars are so dense a teaspoon would weigh a billion tonnes
A neutron star packs more mass than the Sun into a ball about 20 km across. Its surface gravity is around 100 billion times Earth’s.
Read the fact →Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach you
Light leaves the Sun’s surface and crosses 150 million km to Earth in roughly 8 minutes 20 seconds. The light you see from the Sun is always slightly old news.
Read the fact →It rains diamonds on Neptune and Uranus
Deep in their atmospheres, extreme pressure squeezes carbon from methane into diamond crystals, which sink slowly towards the core — a diamond rain, confirmed in lab experiments.
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