Despite their name, no centipedes have 100 legs

           Yes, the prefix centi- does mean “one hundred,” but this is more to imply “a large number” than to be taken as meaning an exact figure.

         In fact, most species of these insects possess 35-39 pairs of legs.

         They can have anywhere from 15 to 179 body segments, with one pair per section. The legs on the segment directly behind a centipede’s head contains a pair of poison-tipped legs ending in sharp claws that are optimized for hunting!

The ancient Greeks knew the earth was round

       It all started as a philosophical concept developed by the Greeks around the 6th century BC. It wasn’t until the 3rd century BC when Hellenistic astronomy came to the conclusion that the earth was in fact physically spherical. 

          At first, there was no real explanation of how the Greeks came up with this conclusion, other than their observation on the change of the stars when they traveled. 

           Pythagoras and Plato taught their students that the world was round but they had no justification or proof. The round Earth theory didn't get a proper explanation until Aristotle (384-322 BC) made three important observations: 

• Every portion of the Earth tends toward the center until by compression and convergence they form a sphere. 
• Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon; and 
• The shadow of Earth on the Moon during a lunar eclipse is round. 

          This knowledge was then passed from generation to generation. It was then spread to the eastern world where they thought that the earth was a flat disk floating in an ocean surrounded by a spherical sky, as explained by the Mesopotamian mythology.

A wallet has been made that only opens to the owner's fingerprint.

        

        Not only will pickpockets be unable to open your wallet, but they will also trigger an alarm! This wallet has a bluetooth alarm. If your wallet moves more than 5 meters from your cell phone, an alarm will go off. This would also be an effective way to make sure you don't lose your wallet, and to drive you crazy!

           This wallet is also super-durable, making it hard for a desperate thief to crack it open. Good thing too: the wallet itself costs $825, likely more money than you will ever be carrying around in it!

A snake with a foot was found in China.

      Dean Qiongxiu found a snake with a "claw" or a "foot" crawling around on the floor. Naturally, upon seeing such an unusual specimen she beat it to death with her shoe, and kept the snake preserved in a bottle of alcohol.

               The snake has been sent to the Life Sciences Department at China's West Normal University in Nanchang for an autopsy, so we can figure out how this mutation happened.

There’s a forest in Japan famous for suicides!

           It’s called Aokigahara, or the Sea of Trees and every year nearly 100 people hang themselves among its dense trees. The forest lies at the northwest base of Mount Fuji and because the trees are so densely packed, there is a renowned absence of animals or wind, resulting in an eerie silence. 

           The forest has always been linked with demons and death throughout Japanese mythology. Every year, usually around March, people walk into the forest with a rope and little else to find a tree to end their life. The forest is so densely packed however, that the government has admitted there are most likely many bodies that are never found. 

            In 1960 the novel “Nami no Tō” consisted with two lovers ending their lives in the forest and ever since suicide rates have skyrocketed. The government has begun placing posters in both Japanese and English throughout the area urging people to reconsider; yet many do not. Every year the government sends a search body of police to find the hanging bodies and has ceased publishing the figure to deter others from following suit.

A snail can sleep for 3 years....

      It is no secret that snails need moisture to stay alive. Because many snails live in dry climates, they have developed a few tricks to survive through dry spells. One of them is extremely long hibernation. 

Even though some snails can even dig underground to get away from the dry air, this might not be enough to keep them alive.

          If the situation is too hot and dry, snails can find a place to hibernate for up to three years until the climate is more suitable for them. Because snails can live for fifteen years, this is a good portion of their life, but not as much as other living things. 

Here's some other facts about snails and how they manage to gather up all the moisture they need to survive:

• Snails are mostly nocturnal, so that the light of day doesn’t burn them out as badly. 
• Because they are hermaphrodites, they don’t need to worry about finding a mate in the dry air. 
• The opening of the snail shell is covered with a slimy gel that prevents much air passage.

Scientists have found soft tissue on dinosaurs that is nearly 70 million years old!

      A Tyrannosaurus rex was recently found in Montana with a shattered leg bone. As paleontologists studied the specimen, one scientist did something that was slightly out of the ordinary. Dr. Mary Schweitzer took fragments of the bone and submerged them in acid in her laboratory. 
       What she discovered was astonishing. The specimen contained bits of tissue, red blood cells, and more. Before this, it was thought impossible that these elements would survive this long. This is the first observation of its kind and scientists around the world are baffled by the findings. 
      The findings could potentially lead to new insights on how dinosaurs evolved, how their muscles and blood vessels worked, and could even settle the debate on whether the animals were warm-blooded, coldblooded –or both.
 Why was this information just discovered? Scientists say it’s so difficult to find and procure the bones in the first place that most did not even think to destroy them in acid! No word on whether they'll be able to get enough DNA out of this tissue to create a theme park, though.