Laughing came before language. How do we know? Some researchers tickled baby apes, which, beyond being adorable, showed that they share the same structure as ours and likely arose in our common ancestors millions of years ago. Language came about much later.

Ants weigh more than all humans on earth, with a total weight of 40 billion kilograms.

Your brain burns 400-500 calories a day. That’s about a fifth of your total energy requirements. Most of this is concerned with the largely automatic process of controlling your muscles and processing sensory input, although some studies show solving tricky problems increases your brain's metabolic requirements too.

An elephant is the only animal that can't jump.

At any given moment there are 1,800 thunderstorms happening on Earth.
Over the course of one year, this will amount to 16 million storms across the Earth!

Cockroach can live for over a week without a head until it starves to death

Giraffes can sleep in a unique position - bending their neck and resting their head on their own back, using it as a pillow.

Octopuses can squeeze through most anything.
Because their bodies do not contain bones, an octopus can squeeze through anything so long as their beak can fit.

The backstage laughter of most sitcoms was recorded in the 50s, so you're probably hearing the laughs of dead people

Everything you see happened in the past.
It takes approximately 50 milliseconds for visual information to process in your brain, by the time you actually see something, it already happened.

Rain odour has its own name - petrichor.

Cows are evolutionarily closer in genes to dolphins than to horses.

Peanut butter can be converted into diamonds.
Peanut butter can be converted into diamonds by subjecting it to extremely high temperature and pressure. Be warned- the quality of diamond produced by the peanut butter won't be something to write home about. The resulting diamonds are typically very small and tend to be muddy in color.

Scientists have proven that consuming large amounts of sugar on a daily basis slows down brain function.

The most amazing thing about starfish is that they can change their gender if necessary.

Kakapo is the world's only flightless parrot.

If put in a big enough bath tub, Saturn would float.
Saturn is predominantly comprised of hydrogen and helium gas, giving it an overall density lower than that of liquid water. However, since the planet is not a uniform, rigid object, we can’t be sure that it would float without further experimentation. That’s an experiment that would take an awfully big laboratory!

Gardening is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. Physical activity in the fresh air promotes the production of endorphins - the "happy hormones" that improve mood and general well-being, reduces the risk of certain diseases and normalises sleep.

The only gemstone made up of one, single chemical element is diamond.

Most people spend 30 per cent of their free time daydreaming.