Things You Never Thought About - Until Just Now!

It was an ordinary day.  Doing some MacBook Air surfing when I found a site titled "32 Things You Probably Never Thought About - Until Just Now."  Began reading and thought I would share a few with you, just in case you never found the site yourself.  So...are you ready?  

Why do my fingers get wrinkly when I'm swimming?  It may seem as if your skin is absorbing extra water during a soak in the pool or bathtub, but that's not the case.  Researchers have known since the 1930s that people with nerve damage in their fingers don't prune up the way everyone else does.  In other words, wrinkly fingers don't happen through osmosis, according to Scientific American.  Instead, it's caused by blood vessels below the skin that contract, which seems to have the evolutionary advantage of making it easier for us to pick up wet objects.   For a 2013 study published in Biology Letters, scientists found that subjects with wrinkled fingers were faster at picking up submerged marbles than those with unwrinkled fingers.  

Why do cats climb into boxes?  They do it to feel safe, according to Live Science.  And, it's not just your domestic tabby: Big cats also like to hide in a spot where nothing can sneak up on them.  Tigers and other cats hop into any box big enough to hold them, just like the little kitty does. 

Why do seashells sound like the ocean?  It's lovely reminisce about your beach vacation by listening to the sound of waves in a big conch shell.  Of course, that is isn't the ocean you hear.  The shape of seashells allows them to capture and reflect ambient noise, amplifying certain frequencies, so when you hold one to your ear, you're really just hearing echoes of the quiet sounds that are already surrounding you.  Empty bowls and bottles can also produce similar effects.

Why do we hiccup?  Believe it or not, hiccups might be an evolutionary holdover from our more fishlike ancestors, according to Smithsonian Magazine.  During a hiccup, the muscles we use to inhale contract while our vocal cords are slammed shut by the tongue and the roof of the mouth.  There's no discernible purpose for hiccups in humans, but a similar pattern of movement among amphibians is useful.  When tadpoles are breathing underwater during a stage when they have both lungs and gills, they take a mouthful of water, close the opening to the lungs, and then force the water out through their gills.  In both human and amphibians, the signal initiating hiccup-like activity comes from the brain stem.

What were the first crops humans started to grow?  Crop cultivation probably stared with wild varieties of peas, lentils, an barley that humans already found growing naturally around 12,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East (including modern Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Palestine, southeastern Turkey, an western Iran).

Why are school buses yellow?  The color is officially called "national school bus glossy yellow," and it's standard across the United States.  Back in 1939, at a conference funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, transportation officials from all of the then 48 states agreed on a number of safety standards for school buses, including the color.  Yellow is very visible, even in early morning or late-evening light, and black lettering on a yellow background is easy to read.  It took until 1974 for all the school buses in the country to meet the standards.  

Why are some people left-handed?  90 percent of humans are righties, and it's not at all clear why that proportion continues to hold.  If there were a major evolutionary advantage to being left-handed, more people would have that trait; if there were a clear disadvantage, it would disappear.  The latest thinking among scientists is that a large number of different genes affect handedness, according to Smithsonian Magazine.  Many of the genes that have been studied play a part in the body's left-right symmetry, and certain mutations can lead to unusual organ placements (like the heart being on the right side instead of the left).

Are left-handed people also left-footed?  Footedness and handedness are more often in sync for right-handed people than for southpaws, according to Discover.  Overall, most of us are likelier to favor our right hands, feet and eyes.  People who are left-footed are called "goofy" in board sports such as surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding - they actually place their right foot on the front of the board,    

Why do we say "Cheese" when we're having our picture taken?  Saying the word cheese does make you pull your lips back and show your teeth, so if you're trying to get a lot of people to at least approximate smiling at the same time, it's a good start. 

Why are traffic lights green, yellow, and red?  Red has the simplest explanation: Red has the longest wavelength of any color on the spectrum of visible light, and as such, it's easier to see from far away more than other colors.  Railroad systems used red as a stop signal long before automobiles were on the roads.  Trains originally used a white light to mean "go," but engineers probably had a harder time telling it apart from the light of stars and other lanterns, so green took its place.  Yellow was the original choice for stop signs because it was easier to see than red at night, but as reflective paint, streetlights, and headlights proliferated, the signs were changed over to red.  Yellow is the second-easiest color to see from a distance, so it was added as the "caution" signal in traffic lights.   

Why do we wear wedding rings on our fourth finger?  The traditions of wearing a wedding band on your fourth finger on your left-hand dates back to ancient Egypt.  Egyptians saw wedding bands as a symbol of eternity and believed there was a "delicate nerve" that ran from the ring finger all the way to the heart.  We now know that the heart is an organ for pumping blood, but back then they believed it was the center of our emotions.  Ancient Greeks and Romans followed a similar tradition and passed on the wedding-band finger to us.

Why do we say "Hello" when we answer the phone?  Back in the day, telephone lines would constantly stay open, so businesses could communicate with each other whenever they wanted, similar to walkie-talkies.  The only problem was letting the other side know when you wanted to start a conversation.  Thomas Edison suggested that callers say "hello" when they wanted to let the other person know that they were ready to talk.

Why do old newspapers turn yellow?  If you've ever seen old newspapers piled up at your grandparents' house, you've probably noticed that they eventually yellow.  The paper changes color due to a process called oxidation.  When newspapers are exposed to air and sunlight, a chemical process causes them to absorb more sunlight and darken from white to yellow.   

How do birds know where to migrate?  40% of bird species migrate every year, with some traveling tens of thousands of miles.   Migrating birds can even find their destinations if researchers make them start from unusual locations.  How do they do it?  Some songbirds use a magnetic map to navigate long distances, but nobody knows how they can detect the Earth's magnetic field.  

Why do we sleep?  Although the actual mechanism of sleep is still poorly understood, we do not know why we need to do it.  Brains seem to require downtime in order to stay organized and particularly to strengthen new neural connections that allow us to remember what we've learned.  And we know why we shouldn't go without: Long-term sleep deprivation can cause  hallucinations, psychosis, heart disease, and immune system dysfunction.  "Every physiological system in the body, and every operation of the mind, is powerfully enhanced by sleep when we get it and demonstrably impaired when we don't get enough," 

So there you have a few of the reasons we do things!  I actually learned a few new things myself.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.