From this blog post:

When you get a kidney transplant, they usually just leave your original kidneys in your body and put the 3rd kidney in your pelvis.

IPv6 would allow every atom on the surface of the earth to have its own IP address, with enough spare to do Earth 100+ times.

Russia is bigger than Pluto. (Surface area of Pluto: 16.7×10^6 km^2; Surface area of Russia: 17.1×10^6 km^2)

If you melted down the Eiffel Tower, the pool of iron would be less than 3 inches deep (in a square area the same dimensions as the tower base).

John Tyler, who became US president in 1841, has 2 living grandchildren.

Mammoths were alive when the Great Pyramid was being built.

If an atom was the size of our solar system, a neutrino would be the size of a golfball, to scale.

Humans share 50% of their DNA with… bananas.

One of my back legs are the same.

You have no muscles in your fingers.

Or more accurately,you do…

DrP

The bicycle is the most efficient vehicle ever devised.

Actually (I’ve read that) a human on a bike is more efficient than any other propulsion in the whole animal kingdom.

What about a duck on a bike?

Surely a duck on recumbent would be even more efficient?

Duck fact:
Crispy duck is actually Shredded Wheat marinaded in Pernod.

Or more accurately,you do…

DrP

I’ve heard this one thrown around the pub before DrP…can you clarify please?

Each finger may flex and extend, abduct and adduct, and so also circumduct. Flexion is by far the strongest movement. In humans, there are two large muscles that produce flexion of each finger, and additional muscles that augment the movement. Each finger may move independently of the others, though the muscle bulks that move each finger may be partly blended, and the tendons may be attached to each other by a net of fibrous tissue, preventing completely free movement.

Fingers do not contain muscles (other than arrector pili). The muscles that move the finger joints are in the palm and forearm. The long tendons that deliver motion from the forearm muscles may be observed to move under the skin at the wrist and on the back of the hand.

Muscles of the fingers can be subdivided into extrinsic and intrinsic muscles. The extrinsic muscles are the long flexors and extensors. They are called extrinsic because the muscle belly is located on the forearm.

Our doctor is technically correct, the best kind of correct.

Well, if you made a bike that perfectly fit a duck it might end up more efficient, because the wheels would be really small but also because the duck could point his head forward and be really aerodynamic.

I don’t think this has been done though.

EDIT: nope, the internet wins again:

And again:

Hibs have not won the Scottish Cup since 1902………….sorry I just saw the title has “surprising” in it!

Carlisle is further East than Edinburgh.

Truro is further east than Inverness.

Double posts are possible on STW.

There are more calculated possible moves in chess than particles in the universe.

Truro is further east than Inverness.

Truro: 5.05 deg W
Inverness: 4.22 deg W

No it isn’t

The NHS is the 5th biggest employer in the world.

Drity cycling shoes in the sink is wrong, dirty running shoes in the sink is acceptable. Apparently.

More people are killed by coconuts each year than by sharks.

In American and Canadian English, tidbit is the preferred spelling of the noun referring to (1) a choice morsel or (2) a pleasing bit of something. Titbit is preferred everywhere else. Neither spelling is right or wrong. Titbit is older, but tidbit is etymologically justifiable (the first syllable likely comes from the archaic colloquialism tid, meaning tender). And tidbit is not so new itself; it was well established in American English by the early 1800s.

(tit-bit is wrong though).

Info graphic over at gcaptain
gcaptain maersk e class info graphic

Our testicles begin their origins in a similar position to women’s ovaries..
They ‘move down’ something called a gubernaculum.
I like to think they behave like pacman(men?) Munching on a piece of spaghetti…

The body is awesome!

DrP

Also, we have no skeletal muscles in our fingers…

DrP

julianwilson – Member
Humans have between 0.5% and 2% neanderthal DNA, and best guess/explanation for this from scientists is that our homo erectus ancestors fooled around with some of them.

linky

something thats very interesting to come out of the study is that africans also have a trace of neanderthal genes, something that wasnt at all expected

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24988-humanitys-forgotten-return-to-africa-revealed-in-dna.html#.UvEKpPl_tBk

Most birds cannot smell or taste.

Erm..

http://www.nwf.org/news-and-magazines/national-wildlife/birds/archives/2013/bird-smell.aspx

and taste…

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdbrain.html (At the bottom)

But of course, being the interweb…

Can Birds Smell or Taste?

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v71/n1840/abs/071318b0.html

For the first link, the argument regarding taste falls down because birds lack the receptors for capsaicin (the stuff that makes chillies hot). Also, strictly speaking capsaicin doesn’t actually have a flavor anyway. To be fair Birds do have far fewer taste buds than most other species, but they are still there.

The second link is to 1905 letter saying more research should be done. So apart from being out of date, modern research shows the initial assumptions where wrong.

One of the earliest assumptions on birds sense of smell was made testing rotting meat on vultures, by hiding it in bushes. The idea being that the birds would find the carcass if they could smell it. They failed to realise that these vultures actually prefer their meat fresh, so ignored the pungent rotting stuff. They assumed because the birds ignored it, they couldn’t smell it.

Most birds cannot smell or taste.

birds can see the earth’s magnetic field