Wacky Facts: Surprising, True & Sourced

Excel 97 hid a flight simulator.

Excel 97 had a hidden flight-simulator Easter egg; Microsoft later stopped adding such hidden features.

2005Git was written in about two weeks.

Linus Torvalds started Git in April 2005 to manage Linux kernel development.

The backpropagation paper that powers neural networks was barely four pages long.

The 1986 Nature paper by Rumelhart, Hinton and Williams, “Learning representations by back-propagating errors”, popularised the method used to train almost every neural network today. The core idea had appeared in earlier work too.

VBA first appeared in Excel 5.0 in 1993.

Before VBA, Excel automation used XLM “macro sheets”. Visual Basic for Applications arrived with Excel 5.0 and gradually spread across the Office suite — and it is still running countless business processes today.

Humans shed about 30,000–40,000 skin cells every minute.

The outer layer of skin constantly renews itself. Dead cells flake off and are a major component of household dust.

Carrots were not originally orange.

Early cultivated carrots were purple or yellow. Orange varieties became popular in the Netherlands in the 17th century.

Git was written in 2005 because a free licence was withdrawn.

The Linux kernel team used a proprietary tool called BitKeeper for free until the licence was revoked. Linus Torvalds wrote Git as a replacement in 2005; within a few months it was managing the kernel.

Ants do not have lungs.

Oxygen enters through tiny holes called spiracles along their bodies and travels through tubes to their cells.

Fingerprints form in the womb and never change.

Fingerprint ridges form by around the 17th week of pregnancy. Even identical twins have different fingerprints.

Humans share about 60% of their genes with bananas — but not how you think.

About 60% of human genes have a recognisable counterpart in the banana genome, reflecting basic cell functions shared by all life. It does not mean we are 60% banana.

The deepest point reached by a diver on one breath is over 200 m.

Free-divers in the “no limits” category have descended beyond 200 m using weighted sleds.

A computer beat the world chess champion in a match in 1997.

IBM’s Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov 3½–2½ in their 1997 rematch. It evaluated around 200 million positions per second using special chess chips — raw search, not learning.

The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth.

Laser measurements using reflectors left by Apollo astronauts show the Moon moves away about 3.8 cm a year.

Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.

It covers about 0.44 square kilometres and has only a few hundred citizens.

Kolkata’s Great Banyan is a forest that has no main trunk.

The tree in the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose botanical garden covers over 1.8 hectares through thousands of aerial roots. Its original trunk was removed in 1925 after fungal decay, yet the tree lives on.

Why it happens

Banyan trees (Ficus benghalensis) send down aerial roots from their branches. When the roots reach the ground they thicken into new trunks that carry water and support the spreading branches. Over time one tree can turn into what looks like a forest, with each “trunk” connected to the same plant.

How we know

The Great Banyan grows in the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden in Howrah, near Kolkata. Its original main trunk was damaged by cyclones in 1864 and 1867 and then by fungal decay, and was removed in 1925. The tree survived through its aerial roots and now has more than 3,000 of them, covering about 1.9 hectares.

Did you know?

The banyan is India’s national tree. Its name comes from “banias”, traders who used to rest and do business in its shade.

Leh gets less rain than many deserts.

Sitting in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, Leh receives around 100 mm of rain a year.

2020A meteorite crater lake in Maharashtra turned pink overnight in 2020.

Lonar Lake was formed by a meteorite impact roughly 50,000 years ago. In June 2020 its water turned pink, which researchers linked to salt-loving microbes (haloarchaea) flourishing as the water level dropped.

Why it happens

Lonar is a crater lake in Buldhana district, Maharashtra, made when a meteorite struck basalt rock around 50,000 years ago. The lake has no outlet, so its water is both salty and strongly alkaline (pH around 10). In summer 2020 the water level dropped, the salt concentration rose, and salt-loving microbes called haloarchaea multiplied. Their pigment, a carotenoid, turned the whole lake pink.

How we know

Scientists from the Agharkar Research Institute in Pune tested water samples in June 2020 and identified the haloarchaea responsible. When the monsoon refilled the lake and diluted the salt, the colour faded back to green.

Did you know?

Lonar is one of very few known impact craters in basalt, the same type of rock found on the Moon and Mars, which is why planetary scientists study it.

A sunflower head is made of up to 2,000 tiny flowers.

Each “seed” position is a separate small flower; the spirals follow Fibonacci numbers.

2023Aditya-L1 is India’s first mission to study the Sun.

Short answer: Aditya‑L1 is India’s first space-based observatory dedicated to studying the Sun. ISRO launched it on 2 September 2023, and it entered a halo orbit around the Sun–Earth L1 region on 6 January 2024.

What does the name mean?

“Aditya” is a Sanskrit name for the Sun. “L1” refers to the first Lagrange point of the Sun–Earth system, a region about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth in the direction of the Sun. The spacecraft does not sit motionless at one mathematical point; it follows a large three-dimensional halo orbit around the L1 region.

Why observe from L1?

From this vantage point, Aditya‑L1 can maintain an almost continuous, unobstructed view of the Sun without the regular eclipses a low-Earth-orbiting observatory would encounter. It is also outside much of Earth’s magnetosphere, allowing instruments to sample solar-wind particles and magnetic fields before they are strongly altered by Earth’s local space environment.

What does the spacecraft study?

The mission investigates the photosphere, chromosphere and corona—different layers of the solar atmosphere. Its goals include understanding why the corona is extraordinarily hot, how solar flares and coronal mass ejections begin, how particles are accelerated and how solar activity drives space weather around Earth.

What are its seven payloads?

Four remote-sensing instruments look toward the Sun. The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph studies the corona; SUIT images the photosphere and chromosphere in ultraviolet wavelengths; SoLEXS and HEL1OS measure soft and hard X-rays. Three in-situ payloads—ASPEX, PAPA and a magnetometer package—measure particles, plasma and magnetic fields near the spacecraft.

Why does space weather matter?

Powerful solar eruptions can disturb satellites, radio communication, navigation signals and electrical infrastructure. Continuous observations help scientists study how an event develops and moves through interplanetary space. Aditya‑L1 is a research mission, not a simple weather siren, but its data can strengthen India’s capacity to understand and eventually predict hazardous conditions.

Important mission milestones

2 September 2023: PSLV‑C57 launches Aditya‑L1.
18 September 2023: the spacecraft begins its journey toward L1.
6 January 2024: halo-orbit insertion is completed.
2 July 2024: it completes its first halo orbit.
Payload suite: four remote-sensing and three in-situ instruments.

Does it orbit the Sun or L1?

Both descriptions need care. The spacecraft and Earth orbit the Sun, while Aditya‑L1 traces a halo path around the moving L1 region in a rotating Sun–Earth reference frame. Regular station-keeping manoeuvres are required because real halo orbits are influenced by perturbations and are not permanently self-correcting.

Evidence and limits

Aditya‑L1 does not travel to the solar surface and is not significantly closer to the Sun than Earth; L1 is only about one percent of the Earth–Sun distance toward the Sun. Calling it India’s first solar mission refers to a dedicated space-based solar observatory. Ground observatories and earlier Indian instruments had already studied the Sun.

Sources

Goosebumps are left over from furry ancestors.

Tiny muscles raise body hair to trap warmth or look bigger — useful for furry animals, not much for us.

1986Halley’s Comet returns every 75–76 years.

Short answer: Halley’s Comet returns to the inner Solar System roughly every 75–76 years. Its actual interval changes because the gravity of planets perturbs its orbit. It last passed the Sun in 1986 and is expected to return in 2061.

Why is Halley’s Comet famous?

People recorded bright appearances of this comet for more than two thousand years, but they did not originally know that the sightings belonged to one returning object. English astronomer Edmond Halley changed that understanding by comparing the paths of comets observed in 1531, 1607 and 1682.

Using Isaac Newton’s new laws of motion and gravity, Halley concluded that the three observations described the same comet. He predicted it would return around 1758. The comet appeared as predicted, after Halley’s death, demonstrating that comets could follow calculable orbits rather than making a single mysterious visit.

Why is the period not exactly 76 years?

Halley’s path is a long ellipse. It travels beyond Neptune at its farthest point and then sweeps through the inner Solar System. The gravitational pulls of Jupiter and other planets slightly accelerate or slow the comet on different passages. NASA lists recorded intervals ranging from about 74.4 to 79.3 years, so “75–76 years” is a useful average, not a rigid timetable.

What is the comet made of?

Its nucleus is a dark mixture of ice, dust and rocky material, roughly 15 by 8 kilometres. When the comet approaches the Sun, heating releases gas and dust. This creates a glowing coma and tails that can extend millions of kilometres. The dust tail follows the orbit, while the ion tail is shaped by the solar wind and points generally away from the Sun.

What happened in 1986?

An international group of spacecraft observed the comet. The European Space Agency’s Giotto probe flew close enough to photograph its nucleus, while Soviet, Japanese and other missions gathered complementary measurements. Earth was not especially close to the comet during that return, so the naked-eye view disappointed some observers even though the scientific campaign was historic.

When can we see it again?

Halley reached its most distant orbital point in late 2023 and is now moving sunward. Its next perihelion—closest passage to the Sun—is expected in 2061. Viewing conditions are predicted to be more favourable than in 1986, although brightness estimates made decades ahead remain uncertain.

Quick orbit facts

Official designation: 1P/Halley.
Average orbital period: about 76 years.
Direction: retrograde, opposite most planets.
Last perihelion: 1986.
Next expected perihelion: 2061.

Evidence and limits

Historical observations can be linked to Halley through calculated orbits, but descriptions from antiquity vary in precision. Future dates are predictions refined as measurements improve. The comet also slowly loses volatile material on repeated solar passes, so its activity and brightness are not guaranteed to repeat identically.

Sources

Greenland is mostly covered by ice.

About 80% of the world’s largest island lies under an ice sheet up to 3 km thick.

Takshashila was a centre of learning 2,500 years ago.

Taxila, in present-day Pakistan, attracted students of medicine, law and politics; Chanakya is said to have taught there.

Cowrie shells were used as money.

Cowrie shells served as currency across Asia and Africa for centuries, including in parts of India.

Istanbul sits on two continents.

Short answer: Istanbul extends across both Europe and Asia. The Bosphorus Strait separates its European and Anatolian sides while bridges, tunnels, ferries and urban systems connect them as one metropolitan city.

Where is the continental boundary?

The conventional Europe–Asia boundary runs through the Turkish Straits: the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles. Istanbul occupies land on both shores of the Bosphorus. Districts west of the strait are described as European, while those to the east are on the Asian or Anatolian side.

Is the city divided in two?

Geographically, yes; administratively and economically, it is one connected metropolis. Commuters cross the water every day by ferry, road bridges and rail. The Marmaray railway tunnel carries trains beneath the Bosphorus, while the Eurasia Tunnel carries road traffic. The strait is therefore both a continental boundary and a busy urban corridor.

Why did a city grow here?

The location controls a water passage between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It also sits on land and maritime trade routes linking the Balkans, Anatolia, the Caucasus and the Middle East. This strategic position helped Byzantium, Constantinople and later Istanbul become capitals and major commercial centres.

Which landmarks are on each side?

The historic peninsula, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace and much of the old imperial core are on the European side. Üsküdar, Kadıköy and Beykoz are prominent areas on the Anatolian side. The Maiden’s Tower stands on a small islet near Üsküdar, visually linking the two shores.

Is Istanbul the only transcontinental city?

That popular wording depends on the definition of continents and municipal boundaries. Other settlements can also be described as crossing continental conventions. Istanbul’s distinction is unusually clear and culturally prominent because a major navigable strait passes through a single enormous urban area.

The crossing points

15 July Martyrs Bridge: the first road bridge across the Bosphorus.
Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge: the second major road crossing.
Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge: a northern road and rail-capable crossing.
Marmaray: a rail tunnel beneath the strait.
Eurasia Tunnel: an undersea road tunnel.

Evidence and limits

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality describes its jurisdiction as having European and Asian sides and gives separate land-area figures for them. The fact is about conventional geographic classification; continents are historical and cultural divisions rather than separate tectonic plates at every boundary.

For residents, the distinction is less abstract: daily journeys, neighbourhood identity and transport planning regularly use the phrases “European side” and “Anatolian side.”