10Manchineel The manchineel (Hippomane mancinella) is a fruiting tree found in the coastal regions of the Caribbean, including the West Indies and Central America. The locals of Spanish speaking countries refer to this tree as “arbol de la muerte” or the tree of death. This ominous name does not come lightly to this simple tree. The manchineel is extremely toxic. The tree produces a sap which can ooze from the bark, leaves, fruit, and even twigs that have snapped from the tree....

At 4 light-years away, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Earth (other than our own Sun, of course). With conventional rocketry, it would take around 137,000 years to get there. The goal of these designs is to accelerate the ships to a fraction of the speed of light to allow the trip to be completed in less than a human lifetime. All these designs have been proposed as feasible solutions that may actually be put to use in the future....

See Also: 10 Good Things We Owe To The Black Death One threat, though, has remained unchanged for as long as we can remember, and we still don’t take it too seriously. The coronavirus story is breaking as we write this, with cases reported in countries around the world. It has completely broken-down services in China and nearby countries, catching one of the most technologically developed countries – and the rest of the world – by surprise....

However, scientists have difficulty tracing our most distant origins—that is, our basic building blocks. Even though it sounds straight out of a science fiction movie, it’s hypothesized that life, including human life, initially came from outer space. That’s right, aliens may be our ancestors. Panspermia, the transfer of viable organisms between planets, is considered a serious hypothesis by planetary scientists. It seems utterly bizarre, but this idea is so highly regarded in the scientific community that it’s being funded by NASA, MIT, and Harvard, to name a few....

10Burping Under normal conditions, gravity causes liquid to collect at the bottom of your stomach, while gases rise to the top. Because there’s no gravity in space to make this happen, astronauts tend to have what are called “wet burps.” Something as simple as a burp easily expels from your stomach all those liquids that gravity fails to hold down. Because of this, the International Space Station doesn’t stock carbonated drinks....

Many of our world treasures are housed in climate- and light-controlled rooms in specialist museums and galleries. Necessary restoration work is often undertaken by teams of specialists, who painstakingly preserve these artworks and artifacts for the future. However, there have been a number of restorations in recent years which have caused art and architectural historians to ask, “What were they thinking?” In the past, these restoration failures may have been hidden from view....

Okay, so these cats aren’t as ridiculously tiny as the other entries on this list, but they warrant inclusion for being so completely ridiculous and adorable looking. Despite their short legs, they can move quickly, particularly while running around corners. They can also stand on their hind legs to get a better look at things, like meerkats. They can even solve puzzles, be taught tricks and have earned the nickname “Magpies”, as they have a habit of stealing and storing shiny things....

Not this time. Many of the best finds—the history changers and mystery makers—came from places that have been excavated for years. Pyramids bearing palaces, identical towns, and recycled monuments are just a few of the finds that recently came to light. 10 A Hidden Passage The city of Teotihuacan is a historical gem. Located in Mexico, this pyramid-filled metropolis once saw around 125,000 inhabitants. During ancient times, Teotihuacan also ranked among the busiest places that received visitors....

To say that shark myths abound would be a severe understatement. Finding material that does more than induce dread and anxiety, instead providing positive, accurate, and useful information about these remarkable animals, can be a venture in contradiction. Unfortunately, within all of the falsehoods projected about sharks, the modicums of truth are usually enough for us to cast away rational thought, instead giving full credibility to unsupported, third-hand accounts that are nearly always mistaken or distorted....

10 First Major Plague in Recorded History The Justinian Plague, which began in AD 541, is considered the first pandemic in recorded history because it swept across three continents. The plague may have started in Egypt and was carried to other continents by merchant ships infested with disease-carrying rodents. When the plague reached Constantinople, it killed roughly 300,000 people there in the first year. The plague got its name from the Byzantine emperor Justinian, who reigned from AD 527 to 565....

10 The iPhone Troll When New Zealand professor Christoph Bartneck received an e-mail inviting him to submit a paper on nuclear physics for a conference in the US, he was a bit puzzled. After all, he had almost no knowledge of the subject and had never been invited to speak in such a capacity before. Undaunted, he set out to write the requested paper in a novel fashion: using iOS autocomplete....

10 Fraser Doherty: Grammy’s Jam “I can’t be preoccupied with the money,” he says. “I make jam because it’s what I love to do. Success is pretty sweet too.” 9 Ashley Qualls: Layout Loot In 2004, 14-year-old Ashley Qualls launched WhateverLife.com as a means to show off her design work after a few years of studying HTML. Her site had virtually no traffic until she began offering free custom Myspace layouts to fellow classmates....

10The USS Wasp There have actually been several ships dubbed the USS Wasp, but perhaps the strangest is the Wasp that disappeared in 1814. Built in 1813 for the ongoing war with Britain, the Wasp was designated a “sloop-of-war”—a fast-moving ship with a square sail, 22 guns, and a crew of around 170. Apparently, she was considered quite beautiful. Ably commanded by Navy veteran Johnston Blakely, the Wasp fought 13 successful engagements and was a valuable asset to the United States Navy....

Although members of the LGBT community are gaining increasing respect and acceptance in the modern world, violence against them is still very much an issue. According to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), a record number of LGBT homicides occurred in the US in 2017 as of mid-August. That record refers to NCAVP’s 20-year period of data collection and shows almost one murder per week in the LGBT community during the first eight months of 2017....

In 1838, however, the state of Missouri entered into a full-scale war against the Mormons. People were slaughtered. Whole villages were razed. It’s the last thing you’d ever imagine to be part of the history of those nice men who go door-to-door in white shirts. 10 Joseph Smith Was Tarred, Feathered, And Nearly Castrated Before Missouri, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, lived in Ohio. The story starts with him getting chased out of the state in 1832....

10The Lord Chamberlain’s OfficeBritain For nearly 200 years, all the way up until 1968, the Lord Chamberlain’s Office was the undisputed ruler of the British stage. It was originally created in the late 15th century, and the man who held the post of Lord Chamberlain was just in charge of entertainment at Court. But by the middle of the 17th century, the Office began to interfere in and censor public theaters, often for political or religious reasons....

Even today, they are still romanticized by Hollywood, with interest in their crimes renewed since the release of Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, in 1967. Yet, the real story of their infamous lives will always remain more shocking than any fictional account. 10 Bonnie Was Already Married To Another Criminal Born on October 1, 1910, in Rowena, Texas, Bonnie grew up in West Dallas. Before she met Clyde, she was married to her high school sweetheart, Roy Thornton....

It’s a fact that goes against a lot of what we think we know. But there’s only one reason those numbers are so surprising: For years, our definition of “sexual violence” has been designed to say that men can’t be victims. The government specifically defined “rape” as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” There was no mention of male victims until 2012. Even after that, most studies worked off the idea that it’s only rape if the victim was penetrated—eliminating men who have been forced to penetrate their attackers against their will....

Needless to say, Scientology is a religion with unorthodox beliefs. It has also had some concerning and unusual deaths connected to it. 10 Shawn Lonsdale One notable nemesis of the Church of Scientology was Shawn Lonsdale, who lived in Clearwater, Florida, home to the Spiritual Headquarters of Scientology. Lonsdale first got on the church’s bad side in 2006 when he started videotaping Scientology workers outside their offices and then airing the footage on public access television....

10Dinosaur Eggs Were Colorful Dinosaurs were a lot more colorful than we give them credit for in horror movies. You probably already know that some dinos sported flamboyantly hued feathers, but now we have strong evidence that even their eggs looked fabulous. Oviraptor eggs, for example, were a soothing greenish-blue, according to a 67-million-year-old clutch of eggs found in China. Most fossilized dinosaur eggs have been stained dark as a result of minerals seeping into the shell over time....