Today I

Found Out

Today I found out what hemisphere you are in does not affect the way water spins down your drain. So why do some textbooks, most tour guides, and pretty much all TV shows like The Simpsons get it wrong?  The myth that water in your drain will spin differently depending on what hemisphere you are [...]

Today I found out humans have a lot more than five senses.  It turns out, there are at least nine senses and most researchers think there are more like twenty-one or so. Just for reference, the commonly held definition of a “sense” is “any system that consists of a group of sensory cell types that [...]

Today I found out how the completely blind dream. It turns out that if they went completely blind before around the age of 5-7 years old, they will typically dream without any visual experiences.  In the very few cases where some report having visual experiences in their dreams, these experiences are more in the abstract [...]

Today I found out that sugar does not make kids hyper.  In fact, it has been proven in numerous studies that it doesn’t affect their behavior at all. In one such study, it was found that mothers who think their kids have been given sugar (even though their kids haven’t been given any), will almost [...]

Today I found out why popcorn pops. First a little background, Popcorn or “zea mays everta” is a special kind of Flint corn, also known as “Indian corn” and sometimes “Calico corn”.  Flint corn is readily recognizable as the kernels have a hard outer shell, likened to flint, hence the name.  This hard outer shell [...]

Today I found out nearly all commercial banana plants are perfect clones of one another and most originate from one single plant from Southeast Asia.   Now to be clear, there are approximately 1000 different types of banana plants in the world today and within each variety most are generally clones of one another, although some [...]

Today I found out a Coffee bean is not actually a bean, rather it is a seed.  Now I know you are saying to yourself right now, “Aren’t beans seeds and seeds beans?”  Surprisingly, that is not the case.  (who knew?)  In fact, though beans are always seeds, seeds are not always beans.  A bean [...]

Today I found out what causes the pain in your side you may occasionally feel while running or doing other jarring activities. This pain, known often as “side stitch” and more technically as “exercise related transient abdominal pain” (ETAP), often occurs while running, swimming, and horse riding, among others; it is caused by various stresses [...]

Today I found out what causes “eye floaters”. For those who’ve never experienced this phenomenon, eye floaters are little oddly shaped objects that appear in your vision, often when one looks at bright light such as a blue sky.  Their shapes vary greatly, but will often appear as spots, cobwebs, or randomly shaped stringy objects.  [...]

Today I found out the difference between jelly and jam. The difference between jelly and jam is that jelly is made strictly from the juice of fruit while jam is made from crushed fruit.  Specifically, jelly is made by crushing fruit, then straining out everything but the juice.  The juice is then boiled, typically with [...]