Fun facts and quirky quirks!

• Flamingos turn pink from eating shrimp because of the beta-carotene content in the shrimp. Flamingos that don't eat shrimp are white and not pink. Beta-carotene is also in carrots. If we humans ate nothing but carrots all the time, our skin would have an orangish tint to it..

• When you are eating a piece of fruit, you are eating a swollen ovary! Yes, that's right...fruit comes from a flowering plant which contains an ovary which will become the fruit! Food for thought: When you are drinking coffee you are drinking fruit juice!


• Giraffes have adapted an extraordinary tongue for obtaining their staple food source, acacia leaves. The tongue reaching up to 3 feet in total length is prehensile allowing it to maneuver around the large thorns adorning the branches of the tree. Recently it was also found that some acacia species adapted a nauseating liquid driving other animals away. By studying stomach contents and dung, researchers discovered a bacteria developed in the digestive system which once again foils the defense of the tree.



• Cadang-Cadang disease, which occurs in coconut trees, is named after the noise the coconuts make when they fall to the ground.



• Many scientists say that the most effective sleeping position is the fetus position. Reason? That position allows the body to experience the best blood circulation.


• The shape of plant collenchyma cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the same - they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.


• If all the molecules of DNA in a single human cell were laid side by side they would stretch for 2 meters but it is all packed into a nucleus 10 millionths of a metre across.