Up next in 10
Interesting facts about science, math, and much more comprise this episode of The List Show. You'll learn fun facts about archeological discoveries and the world of entertainment. You'll glean insights from cutting-edge research in a number of fields as Erin (@erincmccarthy) lays out 100 interesting facts we learned this year.
Trivia winners and enterprising mathematicians will want to watch. You'll learn an incredible animal fact about bird embryos and get some tips that might point the way to professional success in the new year. This 2019 rewind focuses on the steps human beings continue to take in advancing our understanding of the world around us.
In case you forgot, The List Show is a trivia-tastic, fact-filled show for curious people. Subscribe here for new List Show episodes the first and third Wednesday of each month: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpZ5qUqpW4hW4zdfuBxMSJA?sub_confirmation=1
Don't miss a video! Subscribe NOW: https://www.youtube.com/@MentalFloss?sub_confirmation=1
About Mental Floss:
Mental Floss is where curious people come for trivia-tastic information. Mental Floss produces lists of fun facts, debunks common misconceptions, and tells untold stories from history, science, culture and more.
Website: http://www.mentalfloss.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mental_floss
Facebook: https://facebook.com/mentalflossmagazine
Copyright Notice: This video and YouTube channel contain dialog, music, and images that are property of Mental Floss. You are authorized to share the video link and channel, and embed this video in your website or others as long as a link back to this YouTube Channel is provided.
2025 Mental Floss
100 Interesting Facts We Learned in 2019 | Mental Floss
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Did you know that women might perform better on tests in warmer rooms
0:03
Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy, editor-in-chief of MentalFloss.com. A study published this year in the journal PLOS One found that female students performed
0:11
better on simple math and verbal tests with each degree that room temperature rose
0:15
Female performance on math questions increased a whopping 27 percent at temperatures over
0:19
80 degrees Fahrenheit, versus the results in rooms under 70 degrees. More conditions need to be tested, but it's intriguing evidence that productivity could
0:26
differ between genders based on environmental conditions. And that's just the first of 100 facts we learned in 2019 that I'm going to share with
0:33
you today. We may have learned just how rare supercentenarians, or people over the age of 110, are this year too
0:48
States in the U.S. began introducing birth certificates at different times in the last century, and according to research announced this July, the introduction of these standardized
0:56
records coincided with a 69 to 82 percent drop in the rate of people living to the age of 110
1:02
In other words, a lot of our supercentenarians probably aren't that old and just don't have good
1:07
records of when they were born. Speaking of time, the 10,000-hour rule was dealt a critical blow in
1:12
2019. For years, scholars have questioned the legitimacy of ascribing outside importance to
1:17
the role that 10,000 hours of practice plays in achieving mastery. The idea originally spawned
1:22
from a study published in 1993 which showed the best violinists practiced the most, and
1:28
was made famous in Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. But a replication of the study this year found
1:32
that some violinists could practice as much as better players but still not reach their
1:36
level. To be fair to Gladwell, he never said 10,000 hours of practice was a guarantee for
1:41
mastery, but he did oversimplify the original 1993 study, according to one of its authors
1:46
The bottom line? It probably requires more than just practice to make perfect. If you
1:50
If you do want to make improvements, though, you might try telling your goal to a mentor
1:54
Research from Ohio State University concluded that sharing your goals with someone who you
1:58
consider higher status will make you more committed to those goals. They found this by having undergraduates set goals with a lab assistant who is either dressed
2:06
up in a suit proclaiming to be an expert PhD student or in casual clothes pretending to
2:11
be a local community college student. I may not be higher status than you, but I am curious what your goals for the coming
2:16
year are. Drop your goal for 2020 in the comments. And if you're not a New Year's resolution person, tell us one cool thing you learned
2:22
in 2019. As you might have guessed, our appetite for fun facts is pretty big over here
2:27
We got a few great studies that could help you achieve professional success this year
2:31
Like, in a study of 183 employees, researchers found that those with hobbies after work
2:35
such as playing sports or volunteering, were more proactive during the workday
2:39
And according to a study that sorted 260 undergrads into 78 teams, people tend to like leaders
2:44
who are extroverted, unless those leaders also consider themselves assertive or very
2:48
warm, in which case they're liked less than the typical extroverted leader
2:53
In a study of workplace ethics, researchers found that when participants believe that
2:57
being honest will take more effort, they're more likely to be dishonest
3:01
In a study of 332 individuals, researchers found that people do tend to have a type when
3:06
it comes to romantic partners. They dated people with similar traits on the Big Five
3:09
inventory—openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neurotic Though perhaps unsurprisingly, people high in extroversion and openness to new experiences
3:19
don't stick to a type as often. And it probably won't blow your mind if I tell you that if you spend time outside
3:25
you'll be healthier and happier. But research this year provided an actual amount of time you want to hit to get the
3:30
benefits—120 minutes per week outside. Do that 5,000 times and you'll hit 10,000 hours, which, as we know, might not mean much
3:38
Let's talk space. Until 700 million years ago, Venus may have had liquid water, according to a study presented
3:44
at a conference in September 2019. NASA's Pioneer Venus mission previously hinted that
3:48
water may have been possible on the planet at one time, so researchers did five simulations
3:53
based on the Pioneer Venus' information and found that the planet may have been habitable
3:58
for two to three billion years. An elevator from a low-orbiting point above Earth to the Moon, which would require a 200,000-mile-long
4:05
cable, is not only possible—it would cost only around $1 billion, based on the calculations
4:10
of Zephyr Penoyer and Emily Sanford. That estimate is based on a cable only around as
4:15
wide as a pencil lid, and even so, there are a number of challenges to overcome, from wildly
4:20
varying cost estimates to the danger of orbiting space junk. But supporters of various models
4:24
of Space Elevator contend that these obstacles are surmountable. In 2019, we learned what the furthest object we've ever explored with the spacecraft
4:32
which is 4.1 billion miles from Earth, looks like. Photos were taken of MU69, now renamed
4:38
Arrokoth in 2014, but clearer ones taken this year show it kind of looks like a snowman
4:44
Hey, we photographed a snowman! Similarly, on April 10, we all learned what black holes
4:49
look like when a photo of one, located roughly 54 million light-years away, was released
4:54
The scientists who made it happen received the breakthrough prize in fundamental physics
4:58
which comes with a payout of $3 million. New calculations came out this year that suggested the Hubble constant is around 82.4 kilometers
5:05
per second per megaparsec, much higher than previous estimates. The Hubble constant is essentially the expansion rate of the universe
5:13
What does this mean? Well, for one, it suggests the universe is just 11.4 billion years old—considerably
5:19
younger than the previously believed 13.7 billion years. Like many of these newer pieces of research, though, the findings are still being debated
5:26
Meanwhile, it was also discovered that the Moon is older than we thought. A new study reveals it formed about 4.51 billion years ago—100 million years earlier than
5:35
previously thought. And I have to say, it doesn't look a day over 4.4 billion
5:40
And the Moon is shrinking. This year, scientists discovered that as the Moon gets smaller, moonquakes
5:45
occur, just like earthquakes. We also found a planet about half the size of Jupiter, 31 light years away, that's orbiting
5:51
a star only 12 percent the size of our Sun. It's unique to find a planet this big, let
5:56
alone one that orbits a dwarf star. And if we ever sent astronauts to this planet, they
6:00
would come back different. Well, we already knew that space makes people different in many ways. But thanks to a study
6:05
on astronaut Scott Kelly, we now know that space travel alters the ratios of bacteria
6:10
in the gut microbiome though its composition does normalize after some time back on Earth A cluster of galaxies is a group of galaxies that are held together by gravity In its September 2019 astronomers found a group of 12 galaxies in what known as a protocluster Basically the group is in the early stages of becoming a cluster
6:27
This was the earliest known protocluster ever discovered, which will hopefully shed light on
6:31
how they form and evolve. We also now know more about how the Milky Way formed. Basically
6:35
it slowly collided with another galaxy about 25% of its size and enveloped the entire thing
6:40
a discovery that was announced in 2018. In 2019, researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics of
6:45
the Canary Islands in Spain helped shed more light on this event. By studying our galaxy's stars
6:50
especially extremely old stars found in a sort of halo that was likely caused by that galactic
6:55
collision, they were able to more precisely identify the timing of the collision. They
6:59
hoped to glean insights into, quote, the formation of galaxies more generally
7:03
Let's go from the stars to the stars. This year, it became public that, back in the 90s
7:09
20th Century Fox had hoped that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck would star in Office Space
7:14
And Justin, if you could get me those TPS reports by Monday, that would be great
7:19
In other new news about old movies, Rob Reiner revealed to Entertainment Weekly this year that
7:24
the scene in When Harry Met Sally, in which Harry, Sally, Jess, and Marie are all on the phone at
7:28
the same time, required a whopping 61 takes. Entertainment Weekly also got the scoop that
7:33
there was almost a sequel to My Best Friend's Wedding. Julia Roberts' other best friend in the
7:37
film, George, would have been getting married in the second film. In music news, this year we learned
7:42
that the Doors song, Touch Me, written by Robbie Krieger, was originally called Hit Me, but Jim
7:46
Morrison said, quote, I'm not saying that. People might take me literally. And the iconic cover photo
7:51
of Abbey Road was an idea devised on a deadline within about two days. Some amazing lost works were
7:57
uncovered this year. Stephen Holsher, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, announced the
8:02
discovery of an essay by Langston Hughes that he found while researching an investigative journalist
8:06
The essay, Forward from Life, was about an encounter with a chain gang escapee
8:11
While cataloging the archives of Anthony Burgess' papers, the director of the International
8:15
Anthony Burgess Foundation found the lost, incomplete follow-up to A Clockwork Orange
8:20
titled The Clockwork Condition. And a lost J.R.R. Tolkien work that was found in an Oxford
8:25
basement was published this year. Tolkien's Lost Chaucer contains his commentary on the work of
8:30
Geoffrey Chaucer. Jason Scott Warren, a lecturer at Cambridge, was reading an article on a copy
8:34
of Shakespeare's plays held at the Free Library of Philadelphia when he realized that the notes
8:39
in the margins might identify it as Paradise Lost author John Milton's copy of the plays
8:44
And a Samuel Clemens signature was discovered this year in a three-mile-long cave in Missouri
8:48
People had been searching for the spot on the wall that a young Clemens had signed for decades
8:52
The 2019 book Letters from Hollywood published many newly uncovered letters, including one in which Hattie McDaniel takes on the criticism she received for playing roles
9:00
like Mammy in Gone with the Wind. She wrote, quote, And now, because I had so much fun pronouncing dinosaur names in our episode about fossils..
9:14
This year, geologists and researchers took another look at the area where the crater formed
9:18
from the massive impact that killed the dinosaurs. They found that within minutes, that location was
9:22
covered in over 100 feet of molten rock. An hour later, ocean waters flooded back in
9:27
one, depositing another 300 feet of rock, and then, within a day, the area was hit by
9:31
a tsunami. And you thought your week was rough. A new genus of pterosaur, Cryodrachymboreus, was identified in Alberta, Canada this year
9:40
The reptile, which lived during the Cretaceous period, had a wingspan of at least 16 feet
9:45
And fun fact, its name translates to ice dragon. The Ambopteryx longibrakium was also announced. This dinosaur from 163 million years ago was
9:54
about 13 inches long and had wings like a bat. We also got the Aquilar Hynes palamentis dinosaur, which lived 80 million years ago
10:01
That mouthful of a name roughly translates to eagle-nose, shovel-chin. So if you're a linguistics-loving bully, have fun with that one
10:09
We learned of a giant bird, a member of the Pachistruthio dimanisensis species, which
10:14
lived 2 million years ago. At around 1,000 pounds, it weighed about the same as a modern polar bear
10:20
And at 11 feet tall, it will haunt my nightmares. A study of mosasaurs this year found that the swimming reptiles didn't just use their tails to get around
10:28
Mosasaurs probably had giant pectoral muscles, so they could swim quickly by engaging those pecs
10:34
There are 280 million-year-old fossil footprints in Grand Canyon National Park. New research was published this year on these prints, which were created before dinosaurs came around
10:43
Their likely owners were Ichnotherium, who, before this research, we didn't know could live in the desert
10:48
There are large holes in T. rex skulls, and this year, a team of paleontologists hypothesized
10:53
why that might be. In research published in the Anatomical Record, they laid out their
10:57
evidence that the holes were once likely filled with tissue and blood vessels, which served
11:02
to keep the large T. rex cool. 257 footprints from Neanderthals who lived 80,000 years ago were excavated in France and
11:09
reported on this year. It was previously unclear how many Neanderthals grouped together, but
11:13
these prints led scientists to believe that this group contained 10 to 13 members
11:17
Another of our ancient relatives are the Denisovans, who lived at the same time as Neanderthals
11:22
By using the DNA taken from the finger bone of a Denisovan, some scientists this year came up with a picture of what the ancient people may have looked like
11:30
We don't have much information about the ancient Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley
11:34
which had its peak between around 2600 to 1900 BCE, but this year scientists sequenced the genome of a woman from the civilization
11:41
which revealed their ancestry as well as connections to people all over Eurasia
11:45
The Philistine civilization from between the 12th and 7th centuries BCE is mentioned in
11:50
the Bible. Like the Harappans, they've been pretty mysterious. But this year, DNA from
11:54
ten individuals was acquired and showed that the Philistines trace part of their origin
11:58
to southern Europe. Another group that pops up in the Bible is the Edomites. Thanks to archaeological evidence
12:03
we know that this society was mining copper for tools and weapons in the late Bronze and
12:07
early Iron Ages. This year, it was discovered that the Edomites had a sudden technological
12:11
leap in the 10th century that led to a more efficient, better controlled smelting process
12:16
This punctuated equilibrium model for technological development suggests that, rather than the
12:21
result of a long period of gradual improvement, the improvements in smelting may have been
12:25
the result of a punctuation event. Research suggests that ancient Egyptian influence may have been the cause
12:31
The Monte Alto people lived in ancient Mesoamerica around 500 to 100 BCE preceding the Maya Classic period In the Journal of Archaeological Science this year a study was published indicating that Monte Alto artists not only were aware of magnetism but actually created sculptures that
12:45
incorporated the raw material's magnetic properties. Researchers found this year that as early as the
12:50
Neolithic era, 7,000 years ago, babies would drink ruminant milk out of baby bottles. Ruminants are
12:56
a type of mammal that include cattle and sheep. Some of the unearthed bottles are even shaped like
13:00
animals. Awww. Crocodiles were mummified in ancient Egypt, and a virtual autopsy of one such
13:06
crocodile showed that the animals were likely hunted for the specific purpose of being mummified
13:11
A found photograph of Harriet Tubman taken in the 1860s went on display in the National Museum of
13:16
African American History and Culture in 2019. It was in a photo album that had originally been owned
13:20
by a Quaker schoolteacher and abolitionist. The remains of the last ever slave ship to come to the
13:25
United States, which arrived illegally around 1860, were confirmed to be in the Mobile River
13:29
in Alabama. The Clotilda had taken 110 Africans from West Africa to Alabama before being burned
13:35
by its captain. 1,800 miles below the Earth's surface, there are 4.5 billion-year-old continents
13:41
and this year we learn that they may be the result of an ocean of magma dating to the very
13:45
beginning of Earth's formation. And an entire lost continent the size of Greenland, named Greater
13:50
Adria, was discovered under Europe this year. 100 million years ago, tectonic shifts moved it
13:55
underwater in the Mediterranean. In math, cubing a number means multiplying it by itself two times
14:01
Up until this year, mathematicians were able to represent every number from 0 to 100 as three
14:06
cubed integers added together, or, in the case of numbers like 4, 5, and 13, to prove that such
14:12
a thing was impossible. The exception was the number 42, which mathematicians had failed to
14:16
represent as the sum of three cubed integers, or to prove it impossible. In 2019, two mathematicians
14:22
figured out how to represent 42 in this way, sparking many Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
14:27
related headlines. Another math problem that went unsolved until this year was a theoretical question
14:32
In a lottery in which the winning number is infinite and the number of tickets is infinite
14:36
is there a ticket that always wins? The answer? Nope. We learned 9 trillion more digits of Pi this year thanks to Google employee Emma Haruka
14:45
Ewau, who got us to 31.4 trillion digits total. Calculations done via computer, not by hand, of course
14:52
Speaking of things that go on for a long time, this year we learned that a man can do Tai
14:56
Chi for a full 36 hours. That's what Samuel Michaud did to break the world record for consecutive hours practicing
15:01
Tai Chi. If you think that's impressive, we also now know that a person, specifically Lada Tanden
15:07
can cook for over 87 hours straight. She cooked up 1,600 kilograms, or more than 3,500 pounds, of grains and other dishes for
15:15
around 20,000 people. We also learned that Cam Newton, another record breaker this year, can catch 51 foot
15:22
football's one-handed in just 60 seconds. And we learned that 978 students and teachers
15:27
will show up and floss—the dance, that is—simultaneously if a world record is on the line
15:33
Finally, in world record news at least, we learned not to count out the 90 to 94 age
15:38
group of runners. In July, 91-year-old Diane Hoffman broke a world record for that group
15:43
by running 400 meters in about 2 minutes and 44 seconds, a period of time accounting for
15:48
roughly five ten thousandths of a percent of her time on Earth to date
15:53
Even more amazing, she only started competitive running at the age of 90
15:57
From amazing human beings to other amazing animals. The Crypt Keeper wasp is creepy
16:02
Being a parasite who lives off of other wasps is already freaky enough, but it also travels
16:07
through its host's head. Yuck. And this year, researchers found that the Crypt Keeper wasp can live off of seven separate
16:13
gall wasp species—an unusual ability for a parasite. I actually don't find it that gross. I think it's great
16:21
And speaking of parasites, we already knew about the Ophiocordyceps fungus, which uses
16:26
ants as its host. Invading an ant's body, then getting it to climb up on a leaf, allows
16:30
it to produce many spores. But this year, research revealed that the various Ophiocordyceps
16:35
species share an ancestor species, which infected beetles rather than ants. There are dying poison frogs with white stripes and ones with yellow stripes. That's dying
16:44
with a D-Y-E, by the way. By placing frog models in French Guiana, scientists this year learned
16:48
that white-striped frogs were bothered more by bird predators. This year we learned that
16:53
there are actually three species of electric eel. One of them, Electrophorus volti, can
16:57
create an 860-volt shock, the highest ever recorded from an animal. Birds have different noises for different situations, and we now know that while yellow-legged
17:06
gullparents are communicating about danger, their embryos are paying attention and become
17:10
restless within their eggs. Speaking of which, squirrels eavesdrop on birds. When birds are
17:15
making noise that indicate their surroundings are safe and calm, the squirrels become relaxed
17:20
as well. We learned this year that the typically monogamous convict cichlid fish will mourn a breakup
17:25
Female cichlids were given the opportunity to choose a male partner. Some females were
17:29
then separated from those partners. The separated females were less likely to open a mysterious
17:34
box that may or may not have contained food, which researchers took as evidence of a more
17:38
pessimistic post-breakup worldview. In another lab experiment, neuroscientists discovered that while mice are working on
17:43
a task—like licking an item when prompted—they fidget more as they focus
17:49
Researchers in 2019 revealed that they managed to restore some cellular functions in a pig's
17:52
brain hours after the animal had died. We've known for a while that Venus flytraps have hairs that allow them to sense when an
17:58
insect is nearby, but research from this year showed that they can sense items that weigh
18:02
less than a single sesame seed. The idea that there was only one species of Chinese giant salamander was debunked this year
18:10
There are actually three species. This means that the Andrius ligoi, or the South China giant salamander, is the largest
18:16
amphibian in the world. In a development that overlaps the technological and animal worlds, AI can now distinguish
18:22
the faces of chimpanzees. Conservationists hope that this might help stop illegal chimpanzee trading
18:28
This year we progressed in the search for the Loch Ness Monster. Kind of
18:32
The team took 250 water samples and discovered a large amount of eel DNA in Loch Ness, which
18:37
could point to a large eel being the source of the rumors. According to a study involving MRIs of dogs, when people started breeding the animals
18:45
they changed dog brains. The neuroscientist and lead author of the study Aaron Hecht told the Washington Post quote brain anatomy varies across dog breeds and it appears that at least some of this variation is due to selective breeding for particular behaviors like hunting herding
19:00
and guarding." Mono Lake in the Sierra Mountains only contained two species of animal, as far as scientists
19:05
knew, up until this year when they found eight nematode species in the lake, one of which
19:09
has three sexes—male, female, and hermaphrodite. We learned this year that loons don't mind parenting a duckling
19:16
In northern Wisconsin, a pair of loons was observed looking out for an orphan duck
19:20
The Habetica sylvie bug was discovered in 2019. The name sylvie came from its unexpected discoverer, two-year-old Sylvie Beckers, who'd overwatered
19:28
her mom's flowers. Sylvie's mom was a biology professor, so she was the perfect person to observe the little
19:34
bugs floating up as a result of the overwatering. In the world of medicine, a particular molecular defect that's exclusive to patients with Parkinson's
19:41
disease was discovered this year, which may help with early detection of the disease
19:46
Speaking of disease detection, AI is getting very good at it. A scientific review published
19:50
in the Lancet Digital Health Journal reported that algorithms could correctly diagnose diseases
19:55
87 percent of the time versus healthcare professionals who were at 86 percent. These results were
20:01
valid only in the specific circumstances tested, though, and the methodologies employed may
20:05
have tilted the results. We're probably quite a ways off from AI doctors
20:10
An entirely new autoimmune disease was discovered this year in a nine-year-old patient. It was
20:14
mutation of their genes involving a lack of PI3K gamma. Pinpointing diseases in such a specific way
20:20
helps personalize treatment. In research this year, AI was used to examine the cardiac MRIs
20:25
of 17,000 people. It determined that genes were responsible for 22 to 39 percent of the variation
20:31
in the left ventricle's size and function, which is significant. When that ventricle is unable to
20:35
pump blood, the result is heart failure. Microbiologists discovered a protein that's
20:40
integral to the spread of the common cold in bodies. It's known as SETD-3, and identifying
20:45
it might be the first step in a cure for the cold. If you've made it this far, your reward is 19 more
20:50
rapid-fire facts with no discernible connection. Here we go. Before this year, it was believed that
20:55
hurricanes can only form in wet environments, but new information about atmospheric science has
21:00
revealed that hurricanes can form in dry, cold places. They wouldn't do that on Earth today
21:04
but other planets might experience dry hurricanes. In a study on mouse sleep
21:08
neuroscientists looked at melanin-concentrating hormone-producing neurons, which they now think might be a cause of the brain forgetting information. The neurons fire most during
21:16
REM sleep. That may be why we forget most of our dreams. In 2019, three out of the four
21:21
Bear Brook murder victims were identified by name. This was partially thanks to paleogeneticist Ed
21:26
Green, who can recover DNA from hair without a root—a previously impossible task
21:31
Another cold case was helped along in 2019, this one dating back to 1997. But it wouldn't have been
21:36
solved at all without the help of Google Earth. A man was using it to check out his former house
21:40
in Florida when he spotted a car submerged in a nearby pond. Sure enough, a deceased man inside
21:45
had been reported missing over two decades earlier. In 2019, humans visited the Titanic
21:50
for the first time in 14 years. Based on the footage a deep-sea explorer team took
21:54
some experts now believe it will disintegrate within 30 years. Speaking of shipwrecks, the HMS Terror, which sank in northern Canada during the 1840s
22:01
got its first-ever visit this year. Marine archaeologists found that many of the items
22:06
on board were well preserved, including bottles, plates, guns, and chamber pots
22:10
Scientists created a gel that can regrow tooth enamel, which was previously impossible
22:15
Another amazing lab-grown gel might stop forest fires from spreading. Putting the gel
22:19
which was invented at Stanford, on vegetation will keep it flame-retardant for the entirety
22:23
of wildfire season. For a third lab-grown breakthrough, we have yeast-produced CBD and THC
22:29
which could hopefully be used for medicinal purposes. On that note, thanks to the discovery of wooden bowls containing traces of cannabis this year in
22:36
China, we learned that people have been using it as a drug since at least around 2,500 years ago
22:41
We learned this year that robots can do gymnastics, and it's pretty amazing. Robotics company Boston
22:46
Dynamics posted a video of their robot Atlas doing tricks like somersaults, leaps, and handstands
22:51
like a metallic Simone Biles. I, for one, can't wait until 2025 when we'll learn whether or not
22:56
our robot overlords are benevolent. A research team discovered that a plastic teabag releases
23:01
billions of microplastic particles—100 nanometers to 5 millimeters big—into a cup of tea
23:07
More research is needed on this one, though. Meanwhile, a team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that electric stimulation in lab rodents
23:14
can increase hair growth, which led to their invention—a baseball cap that does the same
23:19
thing to humans, which they are going to test on balding men. All sorts of problems are being solved this year, like when a team in Scotland revealed
23:27
they'd created an artificial tongue, which can taste and identify types of whiskey
23:31
Thanks to Merriam-Webster, we learned that stan is a word in 2019
23:35
They added the word to the dictionary with the meaning, quote, an extremely or excessively
23:39
enthusiastic and devoted fan. The first known use was in the 2000 Eminem song… stan
23:46
Put your picture on my wall, it reminds me that it's not so bad
23:52
This year also gave us a few abbreviations that officially count as words—vacay, sesh
23:57
and inspo. As in, hearing an Instagram influencer use the word inspo to mean inspiration gives me
24:02
upchuck inspo. Scientists estimated the size of the proton this year after a 2010 study cast
24:08
doubt on the previously accepted measurement. Protons have a radius of about 0.833 femtometers
24:14
For the record, a femtometer is one quadrillionth of a meter. We learned that there are officially self-driving mail trucks. In May, the U.S. Postal Service
24:23
tested the trucks and their ability to cart mail from Phoenix to Dallas during a two-week project
24:28
And in other exciting tech news, we learned that drones can be responsible for insulin delivery
24:33
More specifically, a drone containing diabetes medicine was flown 11 miles over water from Galway
24:38
to the Aran Islands in Ireland. Yay progress! And insulin! And Ireland
24:43
We learned a lot here at Mental Floss this year, too. We have an incredible audience of enthusiastic
24:48
curious people. Everyone loves animal facts. And a group that's significantly smaller than everyone
24:53
loves ASMR. In all seriousness, though, it's been a ton of fun to share these facts with you
24:57
and we can't wait to bring you more fun list show episodes in 2020. If you've got an idea for an episode, drop it in the comments
25:03
If you love the list show, consider sharing it with a friend, and remember to subscribe here and hit the notification bell
25:08
so you don't miss our next episode, which is coming out New Year's Day. We'll see you then
#education