the living world is full of weirdness just look at goblin sharks and platypuses
biology can account for a whole lot of why things are the way they are but every once
in a while something happens that leaves biologists just shrugging their shoulders
number ten handedness are you a lefty or a righty a whopping ninety percent of people
are right handed so if you're a lefty consider yourself a bit of anomaly now ask yourself
why you're either one if you can't think of an answer don't worry science can't explain
that one either the notion of handedness is a little quirk of human evolution that
seems to prove nothing at all why should one hand be dominant in your everyday activities
it's not a conscious choice by any means and it looks to not just be biological but genetic but
that still doesn't explain why it happens at all one theory deals with speech and language centers
in the brain they're in the left hemisphere and that hemisphere also controls the right hand
we use our hands in communication and in particular for writing and therefore the
right hand became dominant in most of us as part of this evolution of communication different gene
alleles may also explain how handedness occurs and why despite that first theory
there are still left-handed people out there if a person is born with a certain gene allele
then they could go left or right however this is still theoretical and not definite by any means
9. the devil's cigar not only does the devil's cigar mushroom have a cool name it's also given
scientists a problem to solve by virtue of where it grows in the world the mushroom can be found in
texas and japan there have also been a few found in oklahoma an acid the fact that the japanese and
texas variety seemed to have split from each other genetically speaking about 19 million years ago
makes this a really weird quirk indeed the mystery of exactly how and why these mushrooms only grow
where they do is unknown the japanese variety has shown some ability to be cultivated and grown
indoors but the texas variety does not they're not edible so it's not like someone was ever trying to
establish a crop of these things and again it was 19 million years ago so there was no one around
the mushrooms grow on almost the same latitude in both japan and texas but there's
11 000 miles including an ocean separating them number eight genes genetics is a fascinating
branch of biology and uncovering the human genome has given us a lot of insight into why we develop
the way we do not to mention how and why some diseases develop and also how we can treat them
it's estimated humans are between twenty thousand and twenty-five thousand different genes a tomato
on the other hand has around 31 760 genes so how come a tomato is more genetically complex
than a human humans as it turns out have about as many genes as a nematode worm the prevailing idea
in the past was that the more complex the organism the more genes it should have but obviously
this isn't the case now we're considering the idea that tomato may just have more genes as a result
of how it evolved they branched out from an early ancestor in several forms and that means several
kinds of genes being developed that over time were not necessarily needed for anything the humans
genes are still more complex just more efficient we get by with less because they work better so
to speak but all of this is still speculation and the quirk of why seemingly simple organisms are
genetically complex continues to be studied 7. a cat's purr cats were domesticated close to 9
500 years ago so we've had a long time to try and understand why they do what they do and if you've
watched enough cat videos online you'll know that we've made pretty much no progress one area that
mystifies science is the cat's purr we know how a cat purrs the muscles in a cat's larynx will
constrict and dilate causing the air within to vibrate creating a purring sound so that's
the mechanism but what's its purpose many of us would say that a cat purrs to show happiness but
that's not always the case cats have been observed purring in high stress situations and even while
they're dying some cats never purr and other cats will purr at the drop of a hat if you leave a cat
in a room with a camera and no stimulation at all it's very possible you'd film it purring all by
itself for seemingly no reason it's possible carrying covers a wide range of explanations
kittens purr when they're feeding and it's been observed that cats will purge more loudly
when they're hungry and trying to get humans to feed them they purr while they're grooming each
other and it may offer a kind of self-soothing function as well but that's a lot of maybes and
very few solid answers so for now we'll just have to be content with the idea that it mostly happens
when they're happy even if it means a hundred other things as well number six cow orientation
how often do you watch cows when they're grazing most of us don't and that's probably why most of
us have never noticed that the vast majority of cows orient themselves north to south in fact
based on satellite imagery from all around the planet researchers have observed that
upwards of 70 of all cows will be constantly found in the north to south orientation in every country
on every continent where you can find cattle you'll find them facing in the same direction
which has led some to speculate that cows have a sort of internal compass animals with internal
compasses is not an unusual idea it's speculated many migratory animals have some kind of similar
ability but that's just a guess for cows it could just be something as simple as them wanting to sit
at the broadest part of their bodies are being hit by the sun or avoiding it for the sake of comfort
it's not that cows have to face this direction as 30 will be doing something else on windy days
the cows tend to face into the wind wherever it's coming from but the researchers were able to help
discount weather effects in their findings to show that barring anything else influencing them this
is how most cows like to hang out 5. yawning for most of us three things are guaranteed to
produce a yawn being tired being bored or seeing someone else yawn the first two seem related and
the third one is just that insidious contagious yawn thing that nobody likes but regardless
of what's going on when you start yawning it's worth noting that from a biological standpoint
the yawn makes no sense both humans and animals share yawning as a common behavior and even if
it does indicate that you're tired the reason why it would do that is a mystery what would be
the point of this wide mouth gesture in dealing with being tired hormones released when yawning
provide a very brief increase in heart rate which gives a slight pick-me-up when you're tired which
is a confusing effect of a gesture that indicates sleepiness the fact that you yawn when you wake up
as well as when you're ready for sleep makes this all the more confusing so the actual function of
a yawn has not been adequately nailed down at all 4. how tylenol relieves pain most people
have taken acetaminophen at one time or another to reduce pain it takes all the way back to the
1800s and has been one of the most reliable and widespread medications in the world for mild pain
and headache control it's also one of the leading causes of liver failure thanks to people taking
too much of it but that's neither here nor there as a painkiller it's definitely in the
weak category that's part of the reason it's an over-the-counter medication and readily available
at corner stores it's mainly for minor aches and pains and the method by which it does this
is weirdly unknown you'd think that science would now know how medication affects the body of a
human especially with a widespread medication but the method through which tylenol eases pain
is up for debate most non-opioid analgesics of which tylenol is one along with other painkillers
like aspirin and ibuprofen eases pain by blocking production of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase but
tylenol doesn't do that it is unable to reduce inflammation like those other painkillers
as a result and whatever it does do is still unclear obviously it works and maybe it prevents
a kind of cyclooxygenase from forming but also maybe not number three why we cry
when you're a baby you'll cry if your onesie tugs your elbow funny as a child you'll cry when
you get a skim knee and even the best of us weep over onions but that's just because
of the chemicals released for a baby that crying gets attention and they need it babies
can't do much for themselves so that's how they get attention but why does a sad movie make us cry
emotional tears from a biological standpoint don't make sense they don't do anything for us you can
argue that crying is cathartic and releases those chemicals that make you feel comforted or safe or
or whatever is after the fact but the tears themselves don't do that and they aren't needed
for that you can cry tears of rage or fear or sadness but whatever the emotion that brought them
on science doesn't have much of an explanation for why it happens at all physically all they do is
lubricate your eyes they get contaminants out of there and they keep things clean but beyond that
who's to say number 2. the dancing forest pine trees are some of the most widespread trees in
the world if you're in the northern hemisphere chances are that you live near one they're found
in the united states canada russia china are pretty much everywhere else in the north as well
and in general they all look the same as trees are want to do except in one place russia is home to a
place called the dancing forest lots of pine trees grow here but unlike anywhere else in the world
the trunks grow in bizarre and contorted ways they twist and curl and spiral upwards like someone was
tying them in knots the trees in question were planted in the 1960s and they weren't meant to
be unusual there are theories about how they formed so oddly from the loose sandy soil to the
idea that certain caterpillars damaged their early buds and make them grow wonky other theories have
included wind and just some clever cobait arborist manipulating the trees as they grow so far however
nothing definitive has been determined number one why do we have fingerprints the first use
of fingerprinting science to help convict criminal dates all the way back to 1910 an argentine police
officer is credited with starting the first fingerprint database as far back as 1891. so
we've understood the uniqueness of fingerprints for years but we don't have them expressly for the
purpose of getting us caught for committing crimes in fact no one really knows why we have them as
far as quirks go it's hard to find a more unusual one everyone in the world has a unique fingerprint
pattern and not a single one of us can explain what they do for many years the prevailing theory
was that they helped us grip things except when this theory is tested it just doesn't hold up the
texture of a fingerprint does not actually lend itself to creating friction between our fingers
and the objects we're holding if anything fingerprints reduce friction and make it
harder for us to grip things than smooth skin would because the valleys between the ridges
don't make contact thus limiting the surface area the other theory about fingerprints is that they
aid in perception your fingers are very sensitive to textures and other sensations we can identify
things as rotten or stale just with a touch sometimes you've no doubt notice that you're
able to glean a good deal of tactile information just by touching something but is that what their
purpose is to help us learn more about objects when we touch them well maybe it's just the best
dance that we have here so i really hope you found this video interesting if you did please
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you