Fact-based Odd Places
Turkey Has a Whole Hillside of White Stone Bathtubs
Hot springs at Pamukkale have spent thousands of years laying a thin white skin of stone down a 200-metre cliff, building a staircase of shallow pools the colour of the sky.
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chemistry
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Fact-based Kitchen Science
Why a Cut Apple Turns Brown, and How Lemon Stops It
The browning on a sliced apple is a tiny chemical alarm that goes off the moment you cut it, and the same reaction helps colour your tea and cocoa.
Fact-based Weird Facts
Hippos Make Their Own Sunscreen
A hippo climbing out of a river shines orange-red in the sun, and that glossy coat is a sunscreen it makes in its own skin, one that keeps germs away as well.
Fact-based Kitchen Science
Why a Bag of Ice and Salt Can Turn Milk Into Ice Cream
Ice on its own is not cold enough to freeze ice cream, but add a few handfuls of salt and the mixture drops far below freezing, all because salt gets in the way of water trying to become ice.
Fact-based Cosmic Questions
Why Do Onions Make You Cry?
An onion sitting on the counter is perfectly harmless, but the moment a knife goes in it starts building a tiny chemical weapon aimed straight at your eyes.
Fact-based Weird Facts
Crush a Wintergreen Mint in the Dark and It Sparks
Bite a hard wintergreen sweet in a pitch-dark room and your mouth will flash blue — a real, repeatable phenomenon with a properly serious name.
Fact-based Weird Facts
There Is No Such Thing as a Raw Cashew
The bag says raw, the shop says raw, and it is not raw — because the shell it came out of holds an oil that irritates skin much like poison ivy does.
Fact-based Weird Facts
The Eiffel Tower Is Taller in Summer
Iron expands when it warms, so the tower grows by 12 to 15 centimetres between a cold winter day and a hot summer one, and its top leans away from the sun while it does it.
Fact-based Weird Facts
Gallium Is a Metal That Melts in Your Hand
Gallium melts at about 29.8 degrees Celsius, well below body temperature, so a small piece of this silvery metal held in your palm turns into a liquid puddle with no furnace or fire required.