100 Interesting Facts We Learned in 2022 | Mental Floss

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Did you know that bees are now legally classified as fish in California? Conservationists appealed
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for this classification as a creative new way to save the Golden State's bees
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Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy, editor-in-chief of Mental Floss. Welcome to The List Show
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Today we're wrapping up 2022 by sharing a whopping 100 things we learned this year. We'll
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reminisce on everything from interesting AI developments to unintentional art heists. And
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of course, we're all dying to know the results of the 2022 Kids Mullet Championships. Let's get started
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Basically, the California Endangered Species Act protects endangered or rare birds, mammals
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fish, amphibians, and reptiles, but not insects. But elsewhere, California law defined fish as
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wild fish, mollusks, crustaceans, invertebrates, or amphibians. Since all insects are invertebrates
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it seems that they should be classified as fish in the code, too. The logic might not pass scientific muster, but in May 2022, an appeals court ruled that insects
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are indeed fish in the eyes of California law. The decision has paved the way for bees and other
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at-risk insects to gain access to protections they wouldn't otherwise qualify for
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This year, we discovered the world's largest freshwater fish. And no, it wasn't a massive bee
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The Mekong River is home to some of the world's biggest freshwater fish species. And in June
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a new specimen took the crown as the biggest around. Fishermen in Cambodia came upon an
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enormous freshwater stingray and quickly alerted biologists, who rushed to a small island in the
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the river to examine it. The pancake-shaped fish measured 13 feet long, including its venomous
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barb tail, and weighed 661 pounds. It surpassed the former record holder, a Mekong catfish weighing
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646 pounds. After being measured, the jumbo fish was safely released. Meanwhile, in the oceans
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we discovered that octopuses are making the best of a bad situation. A study published this year
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shows evidence of cephalopods using cans, bottles, and other undersea litter as makeshift shelters
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They've also been observed laying eggs in human-made containers and donning the garbage
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as armor when shuffling across the seafloor. They may be fine sleeping in trash, but even
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octopuses have standards. The study found that they prefer intact containers to broken
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ones. And in case it wasn't clear, this is not an endorsement of throwing garbage in
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the ocean. I'm sure octopuses would agree. When you think about renewable energy, your mind might go to wind or solar, but maybe it
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should instead land in a dumpster outside a red lobster. In a 2022 issue of the journal Matter, we learned about a team that created a key battery
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component out of chitosan, a derivative of chitin, which can be found in the exoskeletons
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of crustaceans. The chitosan serves as an electrolyte in the battery, which transports
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positively charged ions between the anode and cathode. Other battery electrolytes take
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far longer to break down than the biodegradable chitosan. Orcas have long been known to stalk blue whales, and this year scientists proved that some
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of those hunts are successful. A study published in January described a pod of 12 to 14 orcas
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off Australia's west coast, attacking and eventually killing an adult blue whale in 2019
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Yes, even an animal twice as large as the largest killer whale couldn't fend off the
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organized predators. So maybe it's no surprise that killer whales are also known to scare off great whites
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and even on occasion, to hunt and kill them. When greeting friends, humans hug or shake hands, dogs sniff each other's butts, and
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dolphins sip each other's pee. In May 2022, researchers at the University of St. Andrews published a study in Science
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advances, explaining that dolphins use urine to determine if their friends are around
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The captive animals in the study would spend three times as long, taste-testing the pee
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their friends had left behind, as opposed to urine from stranger dolphins
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How did researchers glean such insights? Well, to start, as the study explains, dolphins were trained to voluntarily provide urine
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Wait, now I have like 15 more questions. Human urine is a different story
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It turns out our relentless pursuit of gains may be hurting the environment
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in part to fitness fanaticism, Americans consume a lot of excess protein, which then winds
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up in urine in the form of the nitrogen-rich compound known as urea. According to an international
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team of researchers, all that nitrogen is winding up in wastewater, and then in our
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waterways where, according to the paper, it can have negative environmental consequences
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such as eutrophication, toxic algal blooms, and hypoxic dead zones, and result in unsafe
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drinking water supplies. Experts believe we should try not to overdo another protein in
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order to be both health and environmentally conscious. Speaking of protein, a Google-owned AI company recently announced that an AI tool called
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AlphaFold could predict the structure of almost every known protein. That's over 200 million
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varieties in total. A protein's structure is important for its function in cells, and
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scientists often use this information to develop drugs that target proteins' actions. Until
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now, it would usually take scientists several weeks and a big bucket of money to figure out
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the structures of just one organism's proteins. While not perfect, with AlphaFold's open access database, as one researcher remarked
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at the announcement's press briefing, we can just download all the models
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AI isn't just good at science. It's good at art, too. Good enough to win an art competition, at least
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Jason M. Allen created his digital painting, titled Teatra d'Opera Spatiale, using MidJourney
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an artificial intelligence program that interprets text as imagery. The piece placed first in the Colorado State Fair's contest for emerging digital artists
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which stirred up controversy in the art world. As one non-AI enthusiast noted, the artificial
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intelligence Allen used explicitly trained on current working artists, leading some to view
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it as a form of indirect plagiarism. In response to accusations of cheating, Allen told the New
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York Times, I'm not going to apologize for it. I won, and I didn't break any rules. We assume the
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AI program wasn't available for comment. Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa might be the most well-known
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human-made artwork of all time, which for some means it's the most deserving of having cake
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thrown on it. In May, a man dressed as an elderly woman arrived at the Louvre. He entered in a
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wheelchair and then tried to smash the bulletproof glass covering the painting. When that didn't work
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he smeared cake all over the glass and urged bystanders to think of the earth. It was vandalism
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with a message, though it wasn't totally clear what that message had to do with Leonardo da Vinci's
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work. Fortunately, the Mona Lisa was undamaged and is still sitting there smiling. If you thought
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she had a frown, maybe watch our episode about the Mandela Effect and the tricks memory can play
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Meanwhile, in Manhattan, investigators were seizing looted cultural artifacts from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Valued at more than $13 million total, the 27 artifacts, including a $400,000 statue of a Greek goddess and a $1.2 million drinking cup, were confiscated under three search warrants in February, May, and July. This wasn't the first time the Met had displayed stolen artifacts
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In 2017, the Met purchased a stolen golden-sheathed Egyptian coffin from the same illegitimate
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exporters they bought some of the 27 looted artifacts from. The stolen items were returned
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to their countries of origin in September. New Yorkers took another measure to address stolen art this year. Thanks to a new law
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signed by Governor Kathy Hochul, the state will require museums to disclose when they
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know that a displayed artwork was looted during the Nazi era. The new law is intended to make
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it easier for those who rightfully own the art to have it returned to them
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New York museums will now have signage on affected items that shows their status as stolen works
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For an exhibition at Paris's Musée Picasso, artist Oriel Villanova hung a royal blue jacket
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on the wall and filled its pockets with postcards of Picasso's works. The idea was for museum
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visitors to interact with the installation, thumbing through the postcards and even removing
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the jacket from its hook if they liked. But one 72-year-old woman didn't realize the jacket was a
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piece of art, so she took it home and had it shortened by nearly a foot to better fit her
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The unwitting criminal eventually returned to the art show and luckily got off with a warning
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A good rule of thumb to avoid finding yourself in a similar situation Don steal people jackets This year the French agency responsible for rebuilding Notre Dame after its devastating fire announced it had found a treasure trove of items underneath the cathedral floor
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Archaeologists discovered some missing sections of a 13th-century wooden screen that had once separated Notre Dame's choir from the public
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Other parts of the screen found in the 19th century are now in the Louvre. Workers also unearthed graves of apparently high-ranking people
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Scientists threaded a camera into an almost completely intact, human-shaped lead coffin
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and revealed the body inside, with the head seeming to lay underneath a pillow of some kind
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The restorations on the iconic cathedral continue for a potential reopening date in 2024
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This year, it was announced that the shipwreck of the HMS Gloucester, which sank off the coast of
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Norfolk in 1682, had finally been found. It had actually been spotted back in 2007
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but it took some time to verify and secure the wreck. The sinking of the Gloucester was
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a pretty significant event back in 17th century England. The future King James II was on board
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and barely escaped with his life. He's probably also at least partly to blame for mandating
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the course that caused the vessel to crash into sandbanks, leading to the deaths of more
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than 100 people. His political enemies used the disaster to drum up opposition to his rule. You know
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if he can't steer a ship, how can he steer a country? It wasn't enough to keep him off the throne, though he didn't last too much longer. He
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reigned for three years before getting deposed. When polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance, was crushed by sea ice and
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sank in Antarctica in 1915, he and his crew managed to escape to some ice and then an
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uninhabited island. With rescue unlikely, Shackleton and a small outfit then sailed across 800 miles of dangerous
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ocean in a rowboat, hiked across a previously unmapped glacier, and returned to save his men
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It's one of the most heroic and well-known survival stories from the golden age of polar exploration, but one mystery remained
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Where exactly was the Endurance? In March, a British team using remotely operated underwater vehicles discovered the ship's
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final resting place on the Antarctic seabed, about 10,000 feet below the icy surface
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The endurance was upright and in amazing condition. Even the ship's name was clearly visible on the stern
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The shipwreck will remain undisturbed, but the Discovery team is planning educational
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materials and museum exhibits about the find. Europe's severe drought this past summer revealed long-lost artifacts of its history
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The water level and a section of the Danube in Serbia got so low that it exposed the wrecks of
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Nazi warships that had sunk in 1944, still full of unexploded bombs and ammunition. Parts of a
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bridge thought to be built for the Emperor Nero emerged from the Tiber River in Rome
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In Spain, the remains of a town intentionally flooded for a reservoir in 1963 rose out of the
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water virtually intact, while the Dolmen of Guadalparal, a historic stone circle dubbed the
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Spanish Stonehenge, was revealed by another receding reservoir. Babe, wake up! New evidence that ancient Romans used chamber pots just dropped
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When researchers tested a hard crust built up inside a 1500-year-old ceramic pot unearthed
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in Italy, they found eggs of whipworm, an intestinal parasite. In other words, an ancient
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Roman likely deposited the eggs along with other waste in the purported port-a-potty
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As minerals from other fecal matter and urine accumulated and solidified over time, the eggs
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got sealed in. May 23, 2022 was supposedly the end of an era for New York City
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On that day, there was a ceremony for the removal of the city's last remaining payphone
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City officials were there. Artifacts were marked to be sent off to museums where, with any luck, they could get a cake
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thrown on them. It was a whole thing. Except, as the Payphone Project put it, this event was a fake news lie canard spectacle
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And they said you couldn't use four consecutive nouns to describe a payphone-related ceremony
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There are a number of reasons why the celebrated payphone wasn't the last one in town. There
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are still private payphones, as well as four phone booths and possibly some other phones
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that officials just missed. So if your phone runs out of charge and you're in the right
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place, you can still make a call, provided you can find change
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Before streaming and even before records, wax cylinders were the preferred method for
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recording music or voices. Because they're so fragile, surviving cylinders don't usually
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get played. But in April, the New York Public Library got a machine that could safely handle
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It's called the Endpoint Cylinder and Dictabelt Machine, and it allowed the library to place
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cylinders from its collection, including some unlabeled recordings found in a box in 2016
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The cylinders are now being digitized, so future generations can hear what was happening in the
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world way back when. Speaking of sounds from way back when, the era of the iPod officially came to
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an end in May, when Apple announced that it was discontinuing the iPod Touch. They were still
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making those? Some classic rock songs help you rock and roll all night. Others will rock you
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right to sleep. Topping the latter list is Your Song by Elton John. The data comes from a study
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by UK Sleep Guide website Mornings, which used classic lullabies to create a sleep song scale
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that factored in metrics like tempo and time signature. Other classic rock songs that scored
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high include Led Zeppelin's Going to California and Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. The Beatles
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left behind a mess in their makeshift dressing room before their final paid concert on August 29
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1966. During their pre-show meal, they splattered their tablecloth with food and marked it up with
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doodles and signatures. The 56-year-old Lennon features acid-inspired sketches from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Joan Baez, who had joined the
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Fab Four for dinner that night. Starr's autograph is visible in black ink, and Harrison's
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appears in red. McCartney's signature is missing, but there is an inscription reading, Did not lay a hand
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on this table, with an arrow beneath the name Paul McCartney pointing at it
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The colorful piece of memorabilia went to auction in October of this year, where it sold for
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almost $89,000. In 2022, we found out both that James Madison had a crystal flute and what that
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flute sounded like, thanks to Lizzo and Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, who helped arrange the
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unusual opportunity. The pop star played a few notes on the instrument, while twerking, naturally
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at her September 27, 2022 concert in Washington, D.C. The instrument was made by clockmaker Claude
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Laurent and given to Madison in 1813 to commemorate his second inauguration. In addition to being
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incredibly rare, the flute also has a wild history. It was said to have been presented
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to Madison by the Marquis de Lafayette, though this is likely a myth, and may have been one of
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the things Dolly Madison grabbed on her way out of the White House after the British set it on fire
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in 1814. The instrument eventually ended up in the hands of Madison's stepson, who gave it to a
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doctor in his will, likely to settle his debts. Lizzo likened playing the instrument to playing
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out of a wine glass, and noted later that it was so hard to play. For a 200-year-old instrument
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it sounded great. Earlier this year, we found out that Mariah Carey's legal team submitted a
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trademark request for the phrase Queen of Christmas that would cover its use in everything
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from dog clothing to cocktail shakers. The motion didn't sit well with two other long-time queens
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of Christmas. One is Darlene Love, who earned the title during her decades-long tradition of
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performing her signature song, Christmas, Baby Please Come Home, on David Letterman's late-night
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show. The other is full-time holiday singer Elizabeth Chan, who filed a formal declaration
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of opposition with the Trademark Appeal Board. In November, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
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ruled against Carrie, meaning the Queen of Christmas title is up for grabs
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Entomologist Derek Hennon earned the honor of naming a newly discovered millipede after being
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the first to spot it in Tennessee's Fall Creek Falls State Park. So he settled on Ninaria Swiftie
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Ninaria is just the genus, commonly known as Twisted Claw Millipedes. Swiftie, meanwhile
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is a nod to none other than Taylor Swift, one of Hennon's favorite musicians. Gives a whole
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new meaning to the song Shake It Off This year two California high school students used the community science platform iNaturalist to help discover two new scorpion species with the help of Dr Lauren Esposito
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They named one Paroractonus conclusus, from the Latin word for confined, since the creature occupies a pretty small region
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The other is Paroractonus soda, not a nod to the soft drink, sadly, but to the scorpion's habitat
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California's soda lake. Uranus has long been the butt of planetary jokes
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In September, the Twitter account IceGiantMissions, which is not affiliated with NASA, asked the
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public to come up with a name for a hoped-for mission to the planet. Such a mission is a
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priority for NASA in the coming decades, which currently refers to the project with the name
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Uranus Orbiter and Probe. But many Twitter users avoided low-hanging fruit and came up with some
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wholesome ideas to label the hypothetical mission. Caroline, after astronomer Caroline Herschel
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Umyr, a frost giant of Norse mythology, Olympus, home to the Greek gods, and even Tenzing Norgay
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one of the first two mountaineers to summit Mount Everest. Saturn has long-intrigued astronomers
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largely for two interesting features. One, its mysterious beautiful rings, and two
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its very noticeable 26.7-degree tilt. This year, a team of scientists came up with a theory that
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might explain both. They believe that, approximately 160 million years ago, one of Saturn's moons became unstable and moved too close to Saturn, tearing it apart
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This sudden change in gravity might have pulled Saturn from Neptune's gravitational grasp
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leading to the tilt. And the broken up moon, which they have poetically dubbed chrysalis
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would then have provided the icy debris that makes up Saturn's rings. We should note this idea is very much in the potentially interesting stage rather than an
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established fact, but it is pretty cool. This year, NASA finally got around to yzing samples
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collected from the moon 50 years ago. NASA had decided to keep those moon rocks sealed
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until improved scientific techniques were available to them. Ahead of the agency's planned return to the moon later this decade, it decided to open
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them up. By studying the samples, NASA hopes to optimize its protocol for retrieving similar
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materials on future missions. If the Artemis program stays on schedule, the U.S. could land
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astronauts on the moon in 2025, which would mark NASA's first crewed lunar mission since
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1972's Apollo 17, when the old space rocks were originally brought to Earth
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Move over, Hubble, there's a new telescope in town! In July, NASA unveiled the first
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spectacular images from its James Webb Space Telescope, currently in orbit about a million
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miles away from Earth. The spacecraft's giant mirror can grab much more available light than
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Hubble's, meaning it can see farther into deep space and thus further back in time—about 13
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billion years back, in fact. And my head hurts. Viewers who tuned into NASA's live reveal of the
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telescope's first images saw a galaxy cluster whose light has been traveling towards Earth
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since the Big Bang, and a shot of the Carina Nebula, with countless baby stars
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among other mind-blowing sights. While the Webb Telescope looked into the past
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researchers at MIT and their colleagues came up with a tool that could help foster our future on
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Mars. As reported in the journal Science Advances in August, the lunchbox-sized Mars
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oxygen in situ resource utilization experiment, or MOXIE, has proven itself capable of producing
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oxygen on the red planet for more than a year. MOXIE pumped out O2 across seven experiments in
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different atmospheric and environmental conditions, showing that we can use materials from another
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planet to theoretically help sustain human life. This year, scientists revealed the first map of
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what they've dubbed the galactic underworld. Essentially, they have charted an area of the
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universe that is a graveyard for dead neutron stars and black holes that have been flung from
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our galaxy. The underworld stretches three times the height of the Milky Way, and honestly
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if someone else isn't going to write this sci-fi script, I'll do it. Speaking of things that sound like science fiction, NASA's DART, which stands for Double
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Asteroid Redirection Test, completed its mission. What was its mission, you ask? Oh, just to fly
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straight into an asteroid. The DART program is NASA's attempt at protecting Earth from the possible
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threat of an asteroid impact. The craft is meant to push the celestial object the slightest amount
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off its path in order to avoid a direct collision with our beautiful blue marble. The mission proved
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to be a success in regards to aiming a spacecraft at a relatively small object flying through space
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and was shown to have successfully changed the orbit. Scientists are now focusing on how to
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improve the technique, but fingers crossed we never have to use a dart-like project for real
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Or that we never have to send a bunch of oil well drillers onto the asteroid to..
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I pray we do have to do that. In July, we learned that Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura on the original Star Trek
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died at the age of 89. After her groundbreaking performance on the show, Nichols served as an
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ambassador for space exploration, encouraging women and people of color to get involved in STEM
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fields. And her association with space lives on. Her ashes will be taken aboard a Vulcan rocket
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along with those of other Star Trek stars, and blasted into space
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The sci-fi space TV show news doesn't stop there. This year, we found out that Peter Capaldi, who
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played the 12th Doctor on Doctor Who, lobbied the show's producers to get Tom Hanks to make an
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appearance as a new incarnation of the doctor. Hanks, unfortunately, said no, both because his
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schedule wouldn't allow for it and because he thinks an American stepping into the lead of such
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an iconic British show would cause outrage. If you want the secret to a long life, ask a doctor
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Not THE doctor, THIS doctor. Howard Tucker, M.D. Dr. Tucker turned 100 this year, and he's still
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practicing medicine as a neurologist in Cleveland, Ohio. Tucker, who's a veteran of World War II and
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the korean war made it into the guinness world records last year when he became the oldest
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practicing doctor just shy of his 99th birthday he credits avoiding retirement for his longevity
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if that doesn't impress you then consider tucker also took the bar exam and passed it
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at the age of 67. the old adage that if exercise came in a pill every doctor would prescribe it is
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a pretty good chestnut but in canada doctors can come pretty close physicians and medical
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professionals in four provinces can prescribe annual passes to the country's national parks
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as a means of alleviating conditions in patients that could benefit from some fresh air and
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relaxation. Best of all, the passes are free. Residents can, of course, go without a doctor's
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approval, but it'll cost about $72 Canadian, or around $55 USD. If you think walking is just an easy way to get to the market, think again. A study published in
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JAMA Neurology looked at over 78,000 people in the UK who had a walking regimen, and then followed
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up with them for up to seven years. The result? Walking at least 3,800 steps daily reduced the risk
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of dementia by 25%, while walking 9,826 steps lowered the risk by 50%. If you can't do volume
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aim for speed. Walking at 112 steps per minute at a brisk pace for about 30 minutes
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cut the chances of dementia by 62%. If you think your guard dog is only good for woofing at
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intruders, you're not giving your pooch enough credit. A study out of The Ohio State University
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and the University of Texas at Austin found that neighborhoods with a lot of dog owners
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had lower incidences of crimes than burbs without. Why? One explanation focuses on the fact that dog
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owners go for walks, which can promote more community involvement. It's not just the dog
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patrolling the area, but the dog owner that seems to be the deterrent. As any dog owner knows, not
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all dogs are great bedtime buddies. Trying to sleep next to a larger four-legged friend is a
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lot less peaceful than curling up beside a mellow, pint-sized pup. This summer, the secret linen
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store set out to find the absolute worst dog breed to share a bed with. They yzed over
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a hundred popular breeds and rated them based on how badly they shed drooled barked and how much energy they have According to their data Bernese Mountain Dogs make the worst bedmates They huge loud energetic and famously
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shed a lot. If you're curious, the same ysis concluded that the best breed to share a bed with
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is the Maltese. And the best animal, period, is a cat. Get cats! Most dogs that earn a record for
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being the world's oldest hold onto that title for the rest of their lives. That wasn't the case
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with Toby Keith, a Floridian Chihuahua named the oldest dog on Earth by the Guinness World Record
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Committee in April 2022. At 21 years old, Toby Keith had lived well past the life expectancy of
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his species. News of his achievement reached Bob and Julie Gregory of South Carolina, the owners of
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an even older dog named Pebbles. After confirming the toy Fox Terrier's age of 22, Guinness rescinded
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the record from Toby Keith and named Pebbles the New World's oldest dog in May 2022. Sadly, Pebbles
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Pebbles passed away in October, handing the title back to Dobie Keith. I, for one, would like to know the chihuahua's whereabouts at the time of Pebbles passing
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If you give a cat some catnip, there's a good chance they'll start rolling around on the floor with their eyes wide
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It can make them pretty high. But according to a study published in Eye Science in July, the high isn't the only reason
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you'll often see cats rubbing their faces in or chomping on the herb
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Catnip contains molecules called iridoids that plants use to ward off insects
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When a cat rolls around in and chews the plant, it releases a lot of its iridoids, essentially
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covering the kitties with natural insect repellent. Another study taught us a little more about why mosquitoes refuse to leave me alone every summer
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Okay, the study didn't focus on me personally, but I feel the conclusions apply
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There are a lot of folk beliefs about why some people seem to get more mosquito bites than others, but scientists recently tried to put some hard science to the problem
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First off, the researchers found that the mosquito magnet effect is very real
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In the Mosquito Thinks Your Delicious Beauty pageant, one person, subject 33, was found
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to be over 100 times as attractive to the insects as the least attractive people in the dataset
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This preference was stable for long periods of time. The scientists ultimately concluded that the attractive people produce more carboxylic
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acids, which they explain is then turned by skin bacteria into our body odor
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But why carboxylic acids? According to Scientific American, the researchers speculate the mosquitoes used in the study
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like preying on humans. We produce a lot of carboxylic acids compared to other animals, so the compounds might just
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be a giant bullseye, telling my sworn enemies they have found a human
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Next time you go to a networking event, make sure to smell your armpit before you enter the room—not just as a last-minute deodorant check, but for a hint on who you might connect with
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A team from the Wiseman Institute of Science looked into the effect that smell has on forming
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social relationships and came away with two interesting takeaways. One, both a so-called electric nose and a team of very brave volunteers
25:12
found that pairs of instant friends smell more alike than randomly joined pairs
25:16
Two, the e-nose data, when yzed in a computational model, actually was able to
25:21
predict, with roughly 70% accuracy, whether two randomly selected strangers would have a positive
25:26
or negative social interaction. A fair amount of scientific literature is devoted to the role that
25:31
testosterone plays in aggression. But this year, we learned that the hormone can also encourage
25:36
pro-social behavior—in the right context. A pair of neuroscientists from Emory University
25:41
who—irrelevant but adorable side note—are a married couple who conceived of the study over
25:45
a glass of wine—helped conduct an experiment on Mongolian gerbils—animals known to form lasting
25:51
couples and even cuddle after the female becomes pregnant. When they injected the males with
25:56
testosterone, researchers expected that cuddling behavior to decrease, but it actually had the
26:01
opposite effect—turning them into superpartners, in the words of one of the co-authors
26:05
The elevated testosterone gerbils were also more receptive to an intruder gerbil
26:10
Until, that is, they were given another testosterone injection, at which point they
26:14
became more aggressive. The researchers speculated that testosterone may play a role in facilitating quick changes in behavioral dispositions
26:22
The COVID-19 vaccine actually was messing up some people's periods, according to a study published in September. It confirmed the findings of an earlier study
26:30
and the experiences of many people who reported changes to their menstrual cycles on a popular
26:34
period tracking app. The new paper examined that data and found that those who received
26:39
one dose had a cycle that averaged about a day longer than usual. Those that got both
26:43
vaccine shots within one menstrual cycle saw their cycles lengthen, in some cases by eight
26:48
days or more. While researchers don't know the reason, the paper's authors said that the changes didn't
26:53
affect fertility. This year, we also learned more about the exciting possibilities unlocked when mathematics and
26:58
biology joined forces. A team of scientists created a machine learning framework they call
27:03
Dynamo to predict how cells change over time. By looking at the underlying genetic activity and
27:08
developing equations to map that activity onto cell expression, Dynamo was able to make accurate
27:13
predictions about future cell transitions. This could lead to insights around how stem cells
27:17
develop and how blood cells differentiate. As one of the researchers said, we want to be able to map
27:22
how a cell changes in relation to the interplay of regulatory genes as accurately as an astronomer
27:27
can chart a planet's movement in relation to gravity. And then we want to understand and be
27:32
able to control those changes. We've long known that humans aren't the only primate, or other
27:37
animal for that matter, to use tools. But in 2022, we learned that some monkeys use tools for some
27:43
not-safe-for-work purposes. According to a paper published in the Journal of Ethology in August of
27:48
this year, scientists found that some macaques masturbate by rubbing or tapping stones around
27:52
their genitals. People had noticed the macaques in Indonesia's sacred monkey forest sanctuary
27:56
would often gather stones for no clear reason. But after observing the macaques for the study
28:01
the researchers came up with their sex toy hypothesis. About 410 to 660 kilometers beneath
28:07
Earth's surface is the transition zone, which separates the upper and lower mantles. It had
28:12
long been theorized that water may be present in the area, and this year a very rare diamond from
28:17
Botswana helped confirm it. The precious stone was formed in the transition zone, and it carried a
28:22
few bits of mantle materials along with it. Those materials contained water. As one of the study's
28:27
co-authors explained, the discovery brings us one step closer to Jules Verne's idea of an ocean
28:31
inside the Earth. Not exactly an ocean you can swim in, though. More like a solid ocean of hydrous
28:37
rock. Nessie believers rejoiced this year when a new study supported the long-standing theory that
28:42
some species of plesiosaurs lived in freshwater as well as oceans. A team of researchers found
28:47
evidence of several of the aquatic reptiles living in freshwater rivers before the species
28:51
was wiped out. According to some believers in cryptozoology, the Loch Ness Monster is really
28:56
a descendant of prehistoric plesiosaurs. The new research bolsters those claims, in a way
29:01
though it notably doesn't explain how the creatures would have gotten into the Scottish Lake, which is only about 10,000 years old
29:07
A study published this year detailed the discovery of the largest pterosaur of its era. Jarksky
29:12
Anik, which translates to winged reptile or reptile from sky in Scottish Gaelic, lived
29:17
in the middle Jurassic. Fossils found on Scotland's Isle of Skye indicate a wingspan stretching
29:21
eight feet. Though it wasn't as big as the giraffe-sized flying reptiles of the later
29:25
Cretaceous period, it would have dominated the skies 170 million years ago
29:30
It's long been assumed that all late Triassic dinosaurs lived in warm environments, but
29:34
new research published this year counters that. An international team of scientists found
29:39
that the separation of Pangaea 201 million years ago could have triggered a volcanic
29:43
winter. This may have wiped out large species lacking built-in insulation, such as giant
29:48
crocodile-like animals, while allowing feathered dinosaurs to thrive. Millions of years later, with less competition from non-dinosaur reptiles
29:56
dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex were able to dominate the Cretaceous period. So, next time you giggle at a scientifically accurate depiction of T. rex, remember, those
30:04
feathers served a purpose. This year, DNA researchers broke new ground in a long-standing mystery
30:10
DNA from the Somerton Man, an unnamed figure whose body was found on an Australian beach
30:14
in 1948, has been linked to a man named Carl Webb. Derek Abbott, an Australian professor of biomedical engineering, and Colleen Fitzpatrick, an American
30:23
genetic genealogist, used biological remains obtained from the man's death mask to make
30:28
the identification. Carl Webb was born in 1905 in Victoria, the same Australian state the Somerton Man was
30:33
suspected to be from, and he enjoyed reading and writing poetry, linking him to the page
30:38
from the poetry book discovered in the Somerton Man's pocket. The DNA evidence alone doesn't close the case, but it certainly brings researchers
30:45
closer to cracking it. Check out our video all about unbelievable uncracked cases if you're interested
30:50
Over the summer, Velveeta teamed up with BLT Restaurant Group to concoct the Veltini
30:55
It's basically a dirty martini made with Velveeta-infused vodka and garnished with
30:59
Velveeta shells and Velveeta-stuffed olives. The rim is also dripping in—you guessed it—Velveeta
31:05
According to the takeout's Sean Merchant, who tried the cocktail, it didn't take long
31:09
for the Velveeta's fat and chemical components to separate within the vodka
31:13
This he wrote, left the drink with clumps made up mostly of cheese product fat residue
31:18
and other sections that were just sodium citrate-infused martini. Not exactly liquid gold
31:24
We learned about Pumpkin Spice Cup Noodles, which debuted in limited quantities last year
31:28
They were apparently so popular with consumers that they deserved a comeback
31:32
In a blog post acknowledging just how wild the combination of pumpkin spice and noodles
31:37
is, Nissen Foods, which owns Cup Noodles, went a step further than even that, suggesting
31:43
For the full pumpkin spice experience, top it with whipped cream for the quickest, tastiest
31:48
and most outlandish pumpkin spice-in-a-cup experience you never knew you needed. If you'd rather get your pumpkin spice fix in the form of a latte than a cup of noodles
31:56
you might soon be able to sip one on the iconic orange couch from Friends
32:00
This year, Warner Bros. announced their plan to open a chain of Central Perk coffeehouses
32:04
modeled after the fictional cafe. In a statement, Warner announced that the locations will be imbued with the same heart
32:10
and soul as the iconic setting from the series. Central Perk Coffeehouse will be a place for fans—and friends—to slow down and come
32:18
together over great coffee and eats. They intend to open the first location sometime in 2023
32:23
This year, we met Chippy, a robot arm that Miso Robotics built to churn out Chipotle chips
32:28
As of late September, Chipotle planned to test it out at a location in Fountain Valley, California
32:33
And before you lament the loss of those super salty chips in the bag, you should know that
32:37
Chippy is programmed to season them a little unevenly. In late September, Taco Bell called on all fans to help decide which discontinued dish
32:45
to bring back to its menu. the double-decker taco, or the eventual winner, the famed enchilada-burrito hybrid, the Enchurrito
32:51
It amassed 62 percent of some 760,000 total votes, apparently having made waves on Taco
32:57
Bell's menu from 1970 to 2013. Taco Bell locations across the country offered it in November
33:03
In other chain restaurant news, Domino's closed its last Italian location at the end
33:07
of July, after facing rejection in Pizza's birthplace. Domino's had opened 28 locations
33:12
in Italy by early 2020, and it aimed to bring an additional 850 stores to the market by 2030
33:18
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Domino's was hurt by social distancing measures, as
33:22
well as competition from other restaurants that began offering delivery options for the
33:26
first time. According to the company, increased competition in this space is what did them in
33:31
Not Italy's distaste for American pizza. The Eiffel Tower had a bit of a growth spurt this year
33:36
On March 15, a 20-foot antenna was added to its tip, taking the tower's total height from
33:40
1,063 feet to 1,083 feet. It's still not the tallest structure in France. There's
33:45
a Navy transmitting station that tops out at 1,170 feet. But the antenna wasn't meant
33:50
to break any records. Instead, to quote the Eiffel Tower's website, it was to improve
33:55
the quality of digital radio coverage for Paris and the Ile de France region
33:59
The USA Mullet Championships, an annual event that began in 2020, recently hosted its kids
34:05
and teen divisions. In the former category for ages 1 to 12, 8-year-old Emmett Bailey
34:10
grabbed first place. Fittingly, he wants to spend his prize money on a go-kart, which
34:15
I consider the mullet of conveyances. Those who plan to compete in the mullet championships
34:19
in the future might be pleased to know that a team of scientists developed a mathematical
34:23
model to yze how two hairs—or, more specifically in their words, two helically-entwined filaments—can
34:30
best be untangled. The work was inspired, in part, by Professor L. Mahadevan's experience
34:35
detangling his daughter's hair. The researchers are not, sadly, working on creating a better brush, but they are interested
34:42
in possibly developing robotic hairdressers. They also hope to apply their insights to other fields, like textile manufacturing
34:49
The day I trust a robot to cut my hair. Other lessons from the world of math just required playing with paper planes
34:55
OK, that might be a slight oversimplification. But a team of physicists did yze the elements of the ideal paper plane in a study released
35:02
this year. They found that the precise center of mass was a critical component in successful paper
35:06
plane design, which is why paper clips can be so helpful in creating a high-flyer
35:11
By the way, if this research sounds familiar, it may be because one of the paper's authors
35:15
NYU's Dr. Leif Ristroff, appeared in our episode of Kids vs. Science, pitting experts
35:20
against children in a battle for paper airplane supremacy. And if we want to hit more generations of mathematical discoveries, we learned that a
35:27
four-day school week might not be the best route to get there. A study from Oregon State University showed that students on a four-school-day-per-week
35:33
schedule fared worse on standardized math tests than students on a traditional five-school-day
35:38
schedule Associate Professor Paul Thompson the lead author on the study did point out that these learning losses were minimized in four schools that provided extra learning opportunities like extended school days But the data supporting a five week may come as bad news to our country adolescent
35:53
slackers. The Salem witch trials happened between 1692 and 93, and even though we now know that the
35:59
accused weren't witches, the last victim wasn't officially declared innocent until this past July
36:04
thanks to a Massachusetts teacher and her 8th grade civic students. She had learned about
36:08
Elizabeth Johnson Jr. in 2019, and with her class later petitioned state legislators to
36:13
declare the accused witch as innocent, once and for all. When Matt Liddy, a production manager for the Minneapolis TV station WCCO, was looking
36:21
at video footage of the city's 1970 teacher strike, he noticed a familiar face. It was
36:26
Prince—yes, THAT Prince—at age 11. The future superstar, known to his friends as Skipper
36:32
was being interviewed about his opinions on the strike. And folks, Prince was all for
36:36
it, explaining that teachers deserved better pay and education opportunities because they
36:40
put in so many extra hours. Amazon's Alexa technology has progressed to the point where
36:45
it can now mimic the voice of any person, living or dead. Whether or not they'll make
36:49
this option available depends on whether anyone wants it. According to a survey from Preply, Americans have a tougher time understanding Tom Hardy
36:56
than any other celebrity. The Venom star's garbled delivery is pretty infamous. Vulture
37:00
even once made a highlight reel called, Tom Hardy needs to learn how to enunciate. But
37:05
But he was born into—no, I can't do it. In a world where most film and TV properties seem to be based on existing IP rather than
37:14
original ideas comes a story about one zombie that just won't die—MoviePass
37:19
The all-you-can-watch-for-a-flat-monthly-fee service, which at one point allowed subscribers to see one movie per day for a mere $10 a month, was founded in 2011 and went under in 2019
37:30
But in summer 2022, the service was resurrected, this time with tiered pricing plans that go
37:34
towards credits for seeing movies. There's still a lot we don't know about how this
37:38
iteration of MoviePass will work, but no matter what happens, there's one thing we know for sure
37:44
Heartbreak feels good in a place like this. With this year's release of Uncharted and a trailer for HBO's upcoming miniseries The Last of Us
37:51
it seems that video game adaptations are experiencing a bit of a boom. So maybe it's
37:55
not a massive surprise that The Oregon Trail—every 80s and 90s kid's favorite educational game—is
38:01
set to hit the silver screen at some point in the near future. And folks, it's going
38:05
to be an original movie musical. For those unfamiliar with the game, you can check out our episode of Throwback, covering
38:10
its history. The musical is to be written by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the songwriting
38:15
pair best known for La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Broadway's Dear Evan Hansen
38:20
Stay tuned for the show-stopping 11 o'clock number, you have died of dysentery
38:24
Few cars are as iconic as the DeLorean, the stainless steel gullwing model made by automaker
38:29
John DeLorean in the early 1980s that later served as Doc Brown's time machine in Back
38:33
to the Future. Earlier this year, DeLorean rights holder Yost DeVries unveiled a new prototype DeLorean
38:39
this one electric. It can reach 88 miles per hour in just 4.35 seconds, but you might need Biff's Sports
38:45
Almanac to afford one. If it comes out and 2024 is scheduled, the rumored retail price is $175,000
38:53
Three people took America's most epic road trip this year. Texas residents Peter, Pasha, and Abdullahi attempted to break the record for fastest time
39:00
to visit all 50 states. The previous record was held by two YouTubers who did the trip
39:04
in five days and roughly 16 hours. This ambitious trio? Five days, 13 hours. Record acquired
39:12
Boomers often joke that millennials never move out of their parents' houses. And while
39:16
that may not be true, that generation isn't exactly moving very far. According to researchers
39:20
from the U.S. Census Bureau and Harvard University, 80 percent of young adults live within 100
39:25
miles of their hometown. Race and class were factors. White and Asian millennials were
39:30
most likely to fly a bit farther from the nest, as were those with wealthier parents
39:34
Finland was named the world's happiest country for the fifth year in a row, per the United
39:38
Nations 2022 World Happiness Report. Nordic nations dominated in general, with Denmark
39:43
Iceland, Sweden, and Norway also making the top 10. Okay, but do any of them have mullet
39:48
championships for kids and a millipede named after Taylor Swift? U.S. News & World Report released its official 2022 rankings for best countries—very normal—and
39:57
the top spot this year went to Switzerland. The rankings are based on 73 country attributes across 10 sub-rankings—quality of life
40:05
entrepreneurship, agility, social purpose, movers, cultural influence, open for business, adventure, power, and heritage
40:13
Switzerland apparently knocked it out of the park, with high rankings across the board
40:17
Iceland wasn't ranked anywhere on the list, but I'm sure its out-of-office policy would
40:21
have put it pretty high up there. Iceland wanted to make travelers feel better about
40:24
taking their PTO this year, so the country recruited some horses to help
40:28
For the Out Horse Your Email campaign, Visit Iceland built a giant, functional keyboard
40:33
that horses could step on—excuse me, type on. Anyone could sign up for the out-of-office
40:37
email service by submitting their name, email, and the dates of their vacation through an
40:41
online form. The body of the automated message consists mostly of nonsense written by the horse of
40:46
their choice. A good reminder that we should all probably take our away messages a little
40:50
less seriously. And if you want to make your email password easy enough for a horse to guess
40:55
set it as 123456. According to an ysis by mobile security software company Lookout
41:00
that's the password most commonly leaked on the dark web. It's followed by 123456789
41:06
QWERTY, password, and 12345. Also in the top 20 were default, zero, and I love you
41:12
Aww. But also, change your password. As part of a joint project to spotlight encrypted Victorian
41:18
newspaper ads, mental floss contributor AJ Jacobs cracked the codes on a bunch of messages
41:22
sent between lovers One leading theme as he told us earlier this year was Write me back please I haven heard from you and am freaking out A different kind of Victorian ghost story King Charles III has always been busy even before he became king
41:36
this September after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. During a financial briefing
41:40
in June, it was revealed that the then-prince wrote more than 2,400 letters a year. The letters
41:46
were a mix of official business, like correspondence with various heads of state
41:50
as well as responses to the many members of the public who wrote to him. Elsewhere in royal communication news, the British Museum has a curious collection of
41:57
ciphers relating to King Henry VIII. They're all contained within sketches of jewelry and other decorations that were commissioned
42:03
from the court painter Hans Holbein. Vanessa Braganza, a PhD candidate at Harvard and a contributor to MentalFloss.com, may
42:09
have cracked the code for one of them. According to her research, one mysterious cipher spells Henrikus Rex, which means Henry
42:16
the King, and Catherine. Based on the time Holbein was at court, Braganza believes that the Catherine in question is
42:22
Catherine of Aragon, the king's first wife, and the first of three named Catherine. In that case
42:27
it means the design was likely created around the time Henry VIII was trying to ditch Catherine for
42:32
Anne Boleyn. So Bruganza theorized that it was Catherine, not the king, who commissioned the
42:37
pendant, maybe as a way of asserting her place as the true queen. In August, a batch of personal
42:42
letters written by Charles Dickens were publicly displayed for the first time, and they showed that
42:46
the popular Victorian author had some pretty diva-like tendencies. In one, he ended a dinner
42:51
invitation with a hefty flair of drama. Say no, and I never forgive you. In another, he complained
42:56
about his town considering ending their Sunday postal service, and even threatened to leave over
43:01
it. I should be so hampered by the proposed restriction that I think it would force me to
43:06
sell my property here and leave this part of the country. Seems like a pretty intense reaction to
43:10
just one day without mail. This year, an unpublished book penned by Charlotte Bronte
43:15
was rediscovered and put up for auction. Last seen more than 100 years ago, when it was bought at
43:19
auction for $520, the tiny volume is smaller than a playing card and titled A Book of Rhymes by
43:25
Charlotte Bronte, sold by nobody and printed by herself. Inside are 10 poems written when Bronte
43:30
was around 13 years old. The future Jane Eyre author kept it humble, writing that
43:35
The book sold for $1.25 million to Friends of the National Libraries and was donated to the
43:46
Bronte Parsonage Museum in Yorkshire. Chief curator Anne Dinsdale told the New York Times that
43:51
it is always emotional when an item belonging to the Bronte family is returned home
43:56
and this final little book coming back to the place where it was written after being thought
43:59
lost is very special for us. This year, we also found out how irritated Jane Austen fans will
44:05
become when an adaptation strays too far from the source material. The fleabagification of
44:09
Netflix's Persuasion adaptation, which included lines delivered to camera like, now we're worse than exes. We're friends. Caused an uproar among Janeites, and critics
44:20
weren't much kinder. As Constance Grady at Vox put it, as an adaptation of Jane Austen's
44:25
persuasion, it's a disaster. Where Austen's original is devastating in its restraint
44:30
this film is broad in its humor, shallow in its emotions, and ham-fisted in its characterization
44:36
Ouch. Long before he found acclaim with works like Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood
44:40
Truman Capote was just a lowly copy boy at The New Yorker. That is, until he ran afoul of Robert
44:45
Frost and ended up in the celebrated poet's proverbial burn book. Accounts differ over how
44:50
it all actually went down, but most agree that the offending incident took place in 1944
44:55
during Vermont's annual Bread Loaf Writers Conference. During Frost's reading, Capote, either because of a fever or a pesky bug bite, ended up bent over and tried to sneak out. In
45:04
response, Frost hurled a book at him. In certain retellings, Capote claimed the flying literature
45:09
struck him, while other times he claimed it didn't. In some versions of the story, Frost
45:14
proceeded to write a scathing letter to the New Yorker's then-editor-in-chief, who promptly
45:18
fired the copyboy and future bestselling author. On May 26, 1,369 people dressed as vampires convened at Whitby Abbey to celebrate the 125th
45:28
anniversary of Bram Stoker's Dracula. The 13th-century monastery was an inspiration for
45:33
the book. The event broke the Guinness World Record for largest gathering of people dressed
45:37
as vampires. The previous mark was 1,039. In the list of things that I personally learned this year
45:43
there's a Guinness World Record for largest gathering of people dressed as vampires. In 2021, 1,597 books were banned from libraries, schools, and universities
45:52
according to the American Library Association. This marked the highest number of attempted book
45:56
bans in two decades. This year, in response, the Brooklyn Public Library launched their Books
46:02
Unbanned initiative to help young people read what they like, discover themselves
46:06
and form their own opinions. This initiative allowed teens outside the state of New York
46:10
to apply for free digital Brooklyn Public Library cards for the first time
46:14
In physical library book news, we learned that people use some weird stuff as makeshift bookmarks
46:19
Sharon McKellar, a librarian at Oakland Public Library in California, is maintaining a digital repository of things left and then found in returned books
46:28
Dubbed Found in a Library Book, it's a fascinating compilation. Class photos
46:33
vintage vacation snaps, and some interesting illustrations courtesy of younger visitors. Robot Daddy is what it sounds like. Mr. Poopy Loopy Stinky Butt, an epic, if rather crude
46:43
graphic novel, could be the beginning of an incredible film franchise. In September, biologists estimated that there are about a kajillion ants on Earth
46:52
Okay, that's not the scientific term, but it might be pretty close. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
46:58
researchers at the University of Hong Kong yzed previous estimates of the planet's
47:03
population of ants, which encompassed all continents, biomes, and habitats. They came up with a count of 20 quadrillion ants on Earth or roughly 12 megatons of dry carbon the same as 63 blue whales Knowing how many ants share the planet with us is important for scientists to
47:18
gauge the health of ecosystems and the species that call them home, and to ensure that I cannot
47:23
fall asleep as I try to picture 63,000 blue whales' worth of ants. Fake news reaches some
47:28
pretty far-flung corners, even those cobwebby ones in your attic. According to a study published in
47:33
journal Current Biology, internet misinformation is making spiders out to be much scarier than they
47:39
really are. After yzing more than 5,300 news articles published between 2010 and 2020 involving
47:44
spider-human interactions, researchers found that 43% of them featured sensationalist language, terms like nightmare, panic, murderer, and devil. Nearly half of all the stories contained actual
47:56
errors. For instance, an article could include a photo of a spider that's much bigger, hairier
48:01
and more dangerous than the one being discussed. A misguided arachnid aversion can also cause
48:06
people to make some very poor choices in trying to keep their properties spider-free. On at least a
48:10
few occasions, including two separate incidents in California, men have set their houses on fire
48:15
while using blowtorches to clear out spider webs. If there's any bug out there worth hating on
48:20
ticks are a pretty good contender. Lyme disease may be more pervasive than was previously believed
48:25
A meta-ysis found that out of 158,000 study participants, roughly 14.5% had contracted the
48:32
tick-borne illness at some point in their lives. The numbers were highest in Central Europe
48:37
where one-fifth of the subjects had antibodies from the infection. Take that as a reminder to
48:41
always check yourself for ticks after going for a hike. Or perhaps any time you leave the house
48:46
Microscopic robots that swim into your lungs and cure pneumonia might sound like something out of
48:50
a sci-fi novel, but this year we learned that we may be getting closer to that reality
48:54
Engineers from the University of California, San Diego, tested their microbots in mice lungs
48:59
helping the test subjects achieve a 100% survival rate from a particularly dangerous pneumonia-causing
49:05
bacteria. Even cooler, the tiny robots are made of algae cells. Not all robots are that nice
49:11
though. One physically harmed a child this year. During a chess tournament in Russia
49:15
a 7-year-old participant was playing opposite some artificial intelligence that had a mechanical arm
49:19
for making moves on a physical chessboard. Instead of grabbing a game piece, the arm pinched the
49:24
kid's finger and broke it. Organizers of the event were quick to deny responsibility
49:29
saying the finger-snapping menace was being ranted, and even speculated that the boy may
49:33
have been rushing the robot. That robot malfunction was, and probably not the most
49:37
outlandish chess controversy of the year. When world chess champion Magnus Carlsen abruptly
49:41
resigned near the start of a game against Hans Niemann in September, people immediately began
49:46
speculating that the move was a response to allegations that Niemann had cheated in previous
49:50
matches. A week later, Carlson seemed to confirm these rumors in a statement, saying
49:55
I believe that Neiman has cheated more, and more recently, than he has publicly admitted
49:59
The most ridiculous chapter of the saga, which is still very much unresolved, developed in part
50:05
on Reddit. Some users there speculated that Neiman might have used a remotely controlled
50:10
vibrating sex toy to receive illicit computer-generated chest tips during matches. I should
50:15
say that this speculation is, as far as we can tell, completely unsubstantiated. But it was too
50:20
far out there. Or is that in there? For us to ignore. Neiman refuted the accusation, saying
50:27
if they want me to strip fully naked, I'll do it. Hopefully, we'll have information to report on the
50:31
inaugural Nude World Chess Championship by this time next year. We learned of a risk associated
50:37
with reusable contact lenses, thanks to a study led by scientists at the University College London
50:42
and Moorfields Eye Hospital. A specific type of corneal infection is almost four times more likely
50:46
in reusable contact wearers compared to their disposable lens-wearing counterparts. You don't have to throw out your reusable contacts just yet. The condition still only
50:55
affects less than 1 in 20,000 contact users in the UK every year. But if you do favor reusable
51:00
contacts, it may be worth devoting a bit more attention to proper hygiene, including washing
51:05
your hands before switching out your contacts and avoiding water, like pools and the ocean
51:09
while your contacts are in. The purported world's heaviest potato just took a DNA test
51:14
Turns out it's 100 percent not a potato. When New Zealander Colin Craig Brown dug up a knobbly
51:20
mass in his garden during the summer of 2021, he said this
51:23
Holy snapping turtle teeth, what's going on here? What he thought was going on was that he'd just
51:28
unearthed a new Guinness World Record winner. The world's current heaviest potato weighed in just
51:33
shy of 11 pounds. Craig Brown's challenger, named Doug for obvious reasons, tipped the scales at
51:39
17.4. But after running tests on the potential tater earlier this year, Guinness World Records
51:44
determined that it wasn't a potato at all, but the tuber of a type of gourd. Though the Craig Browns
51:49
had never planted gourds, they had tried growing hybridized cucumbers. And they guessed that these
51:54
may have once been crossbred with gourds. Gourddammit. Gourddammit. Gourddammit. Finally, 2022 was a big year for Barbie fans. Not only did we get a sneak peek into the Greta Gerwig
52:08
Barbie movie. Controversial, but I think a bleached blonde Brian Gosling looks nice
52:13
But Mattel also released some new dolls for their Inspiring Women collection
52:17
An Ida B. Wells doll was released in January, and Jane Goodall got the Barbie treatment in July
52:22
The latest addition to this collection is Madam C.J. Walker, often credited as America's first
52:26
female self-made millionaire. The doll was designed with the help of Walker's own great-great
52:30
granddaughter, Alelia Bundles. According to Bundles, Mattel's design team graciously welcomed me throughout all steps of the process, from hair development to packaging, to capture and
52:40
celebrate the legacy of this trailblazing Black businesswoman. I can't wait for a new generation
52:45
to be inspired by her story and to tell their own stories through a role model who came before them
52:50
Tell us in the comments what fun fact you learned in 2022. And thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube. We'll see you in 2023

100 Interesting Facts We Learned in 2022 | Mental Floss

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