Today I found out why mosquito bites itch. When female mosquitoes poke their proboscis through your skin so they can suck some of your blood to be later used to make eggs, they inject you with some of their saliva. This saliva helps them to drink your blood more quickly, because it contains a cocktail of anticoagulants. Once the female mosquito is […]
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Today I found out why the toilet is sometimes called a “John”. The term is thought to derive from Sir John Harrington or, at the least, to have been popularized due to Harrington. (There are a few references of the toilet being called “Cousin John”, as well as many references to it being called “Jake” and other such generic names, […]
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Today I found out what causes muscle soreness after workouts. Since the early 20th century, this specific type of muscle soreness, called “delayed onset muscle soreness” (DOMS), was thought to be cause by lactic acid buildup in the muscles during strenuous workouts where your body’s oxygen supply is depleted. Recent research has shown this is not the case at all […]
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Today I found out, contrary to popular belief, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. The earliest reference to peanut butter being made goes all the way back to the Ancient Incas and the Aztecs, though whether they were the first or not isn’t known (peanuts themselves are known to have been cultivated as far back as 7000-8000 years […]
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Today I found out that the medical term for the irrational fear of being buried alive is called Taphophobia, also occasionally spelled Tephephobia, which means the same thing. Taphophobia derives from the Greek “taphos” meaning “grave”. Today, this would be considered a somewhat irrational fear. However, it wasn’t too long ago that this wasn’t irrational at all. Taphophobia hit […]
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Today I found out the origin of the term “booze”. The first references to the word “booze” meaning “alcoholic drink” in English appear around the 14th century, though it was originally spelled “bouse”. The spelling, as it is today, didn’t appear until around the 17th century. The word “booze” itself appears to have Germanic origins, though which specific word it […]
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Today I found out the biblical expression “40 days and 40 nights” just means a really long time. At the time among the Jews, the number forty wasn’t generally used to signify a specific number, per se, but rather more used as a general term for a large figure. When it was used in terms of time, it simply […]
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