1301
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The Nobel disease is a term for a tendency of Nobel laureates to embrace unscientific ideas later in life. For instance, biochemist Kary Mullis accepted astrology, thought the climate crisis was a hoax and said he once spoke with a fluorescent raccoon who addressed him as doctor.
1302
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Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. ALDOUS HUXLEY
1303
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Because of its use in holy communion, the Vatican has one of the highest per capita consumption of wine of any country.
1304
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Loneliness makes people more sensitive to cold and more likely to order hot soup or coffee.
1305
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The ‘seeds’ on a strawberry are actually its fruit, and inside those tiny fruit are its seeds.
1306
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Word of the Day - KLEPTOTHERMY: the act of stealing someone else’s body heat.
1307
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Despite almost turning to ‘soup’ in the cocoon, butterflies can recall trauma experienced as a caterpillar.
1308
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The Swedish word for bat is ‘fladdermus’, literally ‘flappy mouse’.
1309
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In 1949, the rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun wrote a novel about a manned mission to Mars, in which the leader of the Martian government is called ‘Elon’.
1310
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In Ancient Egypt lettuce had a phallic shape and oozed milky fluids when cut, making it a potent sex symbol.
1311
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A man from Shaanxi province, China, used a hand grenade to crack walnuts for 25 years. He surrendered the ‘nutcracker’ in 2016 after spotting it on a list of illegal explosives.
1312
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Japanese scientists are tackling pollinator loss with drones that shoot pollen-dusted soap bubbles. (Study: bit.ly/3tR7Vlc).
1313
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Banana trees are not trees that bear fruit, they’re technically herbs that bear berries.
1314
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In 1835 a New York newspaper reported a new telescope had revealed bat-winged men living on the Moon. To end the hoax, it claimed the telescope had caught fire.
1315
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Mars sometimes hums, and scientists don’t know why.
1316
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In 1665, physician William Simpson recommended regular glasses of wine to prevent plague and ‘many enormous ideas of fear’.
1317
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Statistician Craig Anderson calculated the cost of completing the Euro 2020 sticker book. To get 90% of the stickers - without swapsies - would cost an average of £893.70
1318
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Mark Twain's definition of a classic was "something that everyone wants to have read but no one wants to read."
1319
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Viking nicknames included ‘desirous of beer’, ‘squat-wiggle’, ‘lust-hostage’, ‘short penis’, ‘able to fill a bay with fish by magic’, ‘the man who mixes his drinks’ and ‘the man without trousers’.
1320
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"It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people." NEIL GAIMAN and TERRY PRATCHETT
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A Quite Interesting Twitter feed from the team behind the BBC TV show QI.
linktr.ee/TheQIElves