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The original chainsaw was not used by lumberjacks, but doctors. Before the modern Cesarean section (C-section) was perfected and became safe, doctors had to find ways to help when a baby was too large to pass through the birth canal. In the late 18th century, two Scottish doctors, John Aitken and James Jeffray, developed a tool to make a procedure called a symphysiotomy easier. Provided by: BBC Science Focus

Picasso was not just a painter—he was also a sculptor, ceramicist, stage designer, poet, playwright, and print writer. Provided by FactRetriever.com

In 1846, Henry David Thoreau had a brush with the law that spawned his other great contribution to American letters. Walking through town, he ran into the tax collector, who demanded that he pay his poll tax. Thoreau refused because he did not want his money going to support the Mexican War, which Thoreau saw as an indefensible attempt to extend the reach of American slavery. Provided by: Encyclopedia.com

Canada geese can travel 1,500 miles in a day if the weather permits. These birds tend to fly around 40 miles per hour during migration, though that can increase up to 70 miles per hour if they catch a strong tailwind. Provided by: Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Elvis Presley was a natural blond. Provided by: HistoryFacts.com

Electrons might live forever. Scientists have estimated the minimum lifetime of the electron is about 6.6 × 1028 years – this is 66,000 ‘yottayears’. Since this is about 5 quintillion times the age of the Universe, even if electrons don’t live forever, they may as well do!

Beavers don't actually live in dams. Technically, beavers live in a lodge that they build behind a dam, within a deep pool of water.

The Mozilla Firefox logo is not a fox; it's actually a red panda. One of the red panda's nicknames is the red fox. Provided by FactRetriever.com

While the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, seasonal lag means that the coldest period usually follows the solstice by a few weeks. Provided by FactRetriever.com

In 1942, Enrico Fermi, an Italian physicist, led the

In 2019, a South Korean man was arrested for operating a fake lottery site. He and a group of 14 others had stolen over $41 million from over 340 individuals who had visited the site. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Eating foods high in monounsaturated fats (such as avocados and nuts) is linked to higher general intelligence and better brain connectivity. Provided by FactRetriever.com

A grasshopper's ears are found not on its head, but rather, on its belly. Provided by FactRetriever.com

At 2,500 miles (4,000 km) long, the immense system of Martian canyons known as Valles Marineris is more than 10 times as long as the Grand Canyon on Earth. Provided by Space.com

The Judiciary Act of 1789 passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, established the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices. Provided by History.com

Neptune has rain made of diamonds. In 2017 scientests reproduced the previously theoretical conditions and observed "diamond rain" for the first time. Provided by: Lawrence Livermore National Labs

Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The average dinosaur lifespan was surprisingly small. The Tyrannosaurus rex, for example, reached full size between 16-22 years old and lived up until 27-33. The largest dinosaurs such as the Brontosaurus and Diplodocus tended to live up to between 39-53 years old, maybe reaching the heights of 70.

While the Santa Maria was the official flagship, Columbus frequently complained about its clumsiness and slowness. His favorite ship was the Nina, which was swifter and smaller. Provided by FactRetriever.com

A bristlecone pine tree nicknamed Methuselah is believed to be the oldest tree in the world. Its exact location is kept a secret to protect it from vandals and tourists. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Octopuses have the largest brain of any other invertebrate. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Finland consumes more caffeine than any other country, with the average adult consuming 400 mg each day. Following Finland are Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Researchers speculate that humans laughed before they could speak. Provided by FactRetriever.com

While Scotland has the highest proportion (13%) of redheads (followed by Ireland with 10%), the United States has the largest population of redheads in the world, with between 6-18 million redheads, or 2-6% of the population. Provided by FactRetriever.com

One in three gamers has experienced fraud while paying online games. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Before the advent of Wi-Fi, the spectrum of radio frequencies used by Wi-Fi were referred to by some as “the garbage bands”—for being largely useless. Provided by FactRetriever.com

During the war, Russia attempted to dissuade the Japanese from approaching their forces by the Yalu River by spreading the false rumor that they had the technology to set the river entirely on fire. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Though it is the most difficult of the visible planets to see, Mercury's existence has been known since ancient Sumerian times, roughly 5,000 years ago. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The longest known cave system on earth is in Kentucky at the Mammoth Cave National Park. It stretches for more than 390 miles, and that’s just what has been explored. Scientists believe it may be over 600 miles long. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The northern hawk owl is able to hear prey as much as 12 inches under the snow. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The American Professional Football Association was formed in 1920; two years later it changed its name to the National Football League (NFL), which would ultimately become the major league of American football. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Sharks kill about 12 people a year. People kill about 11,417 sharks—an hour. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten is the largest zoo in the world both in terms of number of species (1,500) and animal population (14,000). Germany boasts more than 400 registered zoos. Provided by FactRetriever.com

There’s no such thing as a straight line. Zoom in close enough to anything and you’ll spot irregularities. Even a laser light beam is slightly curved. Provided By: BBC

Your signature could reveal personality traits. A study in 2016 purports that among men, a larger signature correlates with higher social bravado and, among women, a bigger signature correlates with narcissistic traits. Providec by: BBC

Deaf people are known to use sign language in their sleep. A case study of a 71-year-old man with rapid eye movement disorder and a severe hearing impairment showed him using fluent sign language in his sleep, with researchers able to get an idea of what he was dreaming about thanks to those signs. Provided by: BBC

The Moon looks upside down in the Southern Hemisphere. Compared to the Northern Hemisphere, anyway. This means that the ‘Man in the Moon’ is upside down in the Southern Hemisphere and looks more like a rabbit. Provided by: BBC

Finland is the happiest country on Earth. According to the World Happiness Report, it has been for six years in a row. It’s not really surprising, given that Finland is the home of Santa Claus, reindeer and one sauna for every 1.59 people. Provided by: BBC

You can yo-yo in space. In 2012, NASA astronaut Don Pettit took a yo-yo on board the International Space Station and demonstrated several tricks. It works because a yo-yo mainly relies on the laws of conservation of angular momentum to perform tricks, which, provided you keep the string taut, apply in microgravity too. Provided by: BBC

Bacteria on your skin cause your itches. Specifically, bacteria known as Staphylococcus aureus can release a chemical that activates a protein in our nerves. This sends a signal from our skin to our brains, which our brain perceives as an itch. Provided by: BBC

Researchers discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans, a millimetre-long creature with just 302 neurons, researchers have created ‘liquid neural networks’ . Provided by: BBC

Polar bears aren’t actually white. Surprisingly, underneath all their white fur, polar bears actually have jet-black skin.

Starfish don’t have bodies. Along with other echinoderms (think sea urchins and sand dollars), their entire bodies are technically classed as heads.

Fish form orderly queues in emergencies. When evacuating through narrow spaces in sketchy situations, schools of neon tetra fish queue so that they don’t collide or clog up the line. Scientists interpreted this behaviour as showing that fish can respect social rules even in emergency situations, unlike us humans.

There are about 97,000 public schools and 49 million students across the United States. Provided by FactRetriever.com

There are more bacterial cells in your body than human cells. The average human is around 56 per cent bacteria. This was discovered in a 2016 study and is far less than the earlier estimates of 90 per cent. As bacteria are so light, however, by weight, each person is over 99.7 per cent human.

Most ginger cats are male. There are roughly three ginger male cats to one ginger female. This is because the ginger gene is found on the X chromosome, meaning female cats would require two copies of the gene to become ginger whilst males only need one.

The Industrial Revolution allowed people to work longer and year-round. Labor was no longer tied to the season or natural lighting. Provided by FactRetriever.com

There’s a planet mostly made from diamond. Called 55 Cancri e, it's around twice the size of Earth and some 40 light-years away from us within the Cancer constellation.

Animals can be allergic to humans. Animals can be allergic to our dead skin cells – dander. These allergic reactions can be just like ours, too, including breathing difficulties and skin irritation.

Mirrors facing each other don't produce infinite reflections. Each reflection will be darker than the last and eventually fade into invisibility. Mirrors absorb a fraction of the energy of the light striking them. The total number of reflections mirrors can produce? A few hundred.

The biggest butterfly in the world has a 31cm wingspan. It belongs to the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly, which you can find in the forests of the Oro Province, in the east of Papua New Guinea.

You remember more dreams when you sleep badly. Research suggests that if you sleep badly and wake up multiple times throughout the night you will be more likely to recall the content of any dreams you had. You are also more likely to remember a dream when woken from one.

You could sweat when you're anxious to alert others. One theory suggests we've evolved to sweat whilst anxious to alert the brains of other people around us so they are primed for whatever it is that's making us anxious. Brain scans have revealed that when you sniff the sweat of a panic-induced person, regions of the brain that handle emotional and social signals light up. When you're anxious your sympathetic nervous system releases hormones including adrenaline, which activates your sweat glands.

Approximately 63% of youth suicides in the U.S. are kids who live in a home without a father. Provided by FactRetriever.com

After Joachim Neumann, a civil engineering student, escaped East Berlin by pretending to be a Swiss tourist, he spent the next five months digging a tunnel from West to East Berlin. He ultimately helped his girlfriend and 57 other people escape. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Laura Scudder created the first modern bag of potato chips in 1953. Previously, they were sold out of wooden barrels or scooped from behind glass counters. Provided by FactRetriever.com

In 1894, Russian scientist Marie Mikhaïlovna de Manacééne conducted one of the earliest experiments on extreme sleep deprivation. She found that when she deprived puppies of sleep, they all died within four or five days, despite every effort to keep them alive. The younger the puppy, the more quickly it died. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Unlike many mammals, bears can see in color. Provided by FactRetriever.com

While the Grand Canyon as a whole is considered to be a semi-arid desert, it is so large that it contains five habitats: boreal forest, ponderosa forest, pinyon-juniper woodland, desert scrub, and riparian. Provided by FactRetriever.com

If someone reports their company for tax evasion in the U.S., he or she will receive 30% of the amount collected. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Unlike many mammals, bears can see in color. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Colonial Americans either gave credit to each other or relied on credit from banks in England, so there were no banks in the United States until after the Revolutionary War. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The Barbie doll’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, and she is from Willows, Wisconsin. Her birthday is March 9, 1959, when Mattell first displayed her at the New York Toy Fair. [source]

Sunshine originates from a nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun, where hydrogen fuses into helium and mass converts into heat energy. This same nuclear reaction has continued for the past 4.6 billion years. [source]

The idiom "kiss and make up" first surfaced in 1826 and gained initial popularity in 1859. Since then... [read more on Refdesk].

Epinephrine injections are used to treat severe bee sting allergies. Epinephrine is another name for Adrenaline; the active pharmaceutical ingredient in the Epipen or Anapen devices. [source]

In Albania, a group of women called Burneshas live in mountain villages as men to avoid societal restrictions. They cut their hair, wear men’s clothing, practice male gestures and mannerisms, change their names, and swear celibacy. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Researchers have recently found that those who suffer from depression are at risk for low bone mineral density. Depressed women are especially at risk for developing osteoporosis. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Sperm whales can dive as deep as two miles into the water, and their bodies have unique physiological adaptations to allow them to survive the intense cold and crushing pressure of these dives. They can limit circulation to the brain and other organs, slow the heart to 10 beats per minute to conserve oxygen, and collapse the lungs and rib cage to withstand pressure. Provided by FactRetriever.com

It's almost impossible to get too much sugar from fresh fruit. While the sugar in fruit is mostly fructose and glucose (fructose is what's converted into fat in your body), you can't get too much sugar from fresh fruit. Fresh fruit contains a lot of fibre and water which slows down your digestion and makes you feel full.

The most luminous and massive known star is R136a1 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It's 8.7 million times brighter than our Sun. Provided by FactRetriever.com

The Philadelphia Mint can make 1.8 million coins an hour, 32 million coins per day, and 13.5 billion coins every year. The Philadelphia facility is the largest mint in the world. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Sri Lanka's oldest piece of written history is the Dipavasma, a 4th-century chronicle that is believed to have been created by Buddhist nuns. Provided by FactRetriever.com

Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) is regarded as the father of French opera, though he was born in Italy. He pioneered the conducting stick concept, but unfortunately, he hit his foot with a heavy conducting staff. His foot became gangrenous, ultimately killing him. Provided by FactRetriever.com