The Daily Facts

‘Sea level’ isn’t actually level.

As the strength of the force generated by the Earth’s spin is strongest at the equator, the average sea level bulges outward there, putting it further from the centre of the Earth than at the poles. Differences in the strength of the Earth’s gravity at different points also cause variation.

'New car smell' is a mix of over 200 chemicals.

These include the sickly-sweet, toxic hydrocarbons benzene and toluene.

Murder rates rise in summer.

Ever feel angry or in a bad mood when the weather is hot? Well, you’re not alone. Violent crime goes up in hotter weather, and in the US, murder rates reportedly rise by 2.7 per cent over the summer.

Giraffes hum to communicate with each other.

It’s thought that the low-frequency humming could be a form of ‘contact call’ between individuals who have been separated from their herd, helping them to find each other in the dark. Some researchers think they sleep talk too.

You have a 50 percent chance of sharing a birthday with a friend.

In any group of 23 people, two people will share a birthday, according to the maths. To find the probability of everyone in the group having a unique birthday, multiply all 23 probabilities together, giving 0.493. So the probability of a shared birthday is 1 - 0.493 = 0.507, or 50.7 per cent.

Glass sponges can live for 15,000 years.

This makes them one of the longest-living organisms on Earth. The immortal jellyfish, however, could theoretically live forever (but scientists aren’t sure)

It rains methane on Saturn’s largest moon.

Titan is the only moon in our Solar System with a dense atmosphere and the only body except Earth with liquid rivers, lakes and seas fed by rainfall. This rainfall isn’t water, though; it's liquid methane.

Someone left a family photo on the Moon.

When Apollo 16 astronaut Charles Duke landed on the Moon in 1972, he decided to leave behind a photo of him, his two sons and his wife. The photo remains on the Moon to this day.

Beavers don't actually live in dams.

Technically, beavers live in a lodge that they build behind a dam, within a deep pool of water.

The average dinosaur lifespan was surprisingly small.

The Tyrannosaurus rex, for example, reached full size between 16-22 years old and lived up until 27-33. The largest dinosaurs such as the Brontosaurus and Diplodocus tended to live up to between 39-53 years old, maybe reaching the heights of 70.