Puzzling myths and incredible theories abound in this world, and many are hard to accept as true. But from time to time, the world shocks us with the unexpected discoveries it offers.
We have put together a selection of strange theories that turned out to be true but which until just yesterday we all thought were make believe.
Forgot your bank card? No sweat. The automated teller machine pans a camera across your eyeballs to verify your identity. Checking out of work? Just press your palm on the surface, and your hours are clocked.
What sounds like high-tech fantasy is starting to show up in real life, giving rise to a new class of futuristic gadgets that can scan a person's eyes, hands or voice and instantly verify identity.
Among other uses, the "biometric identity" devices are being tested in automated teller machines as a substitute for plastic bank cards and personal identification numbers.
The trend is driven by improvements in technology that are pushing down costs, as well as by heightened fears about security.
Painter Pablo Picasso wanted to keep his name short and simple, but his real name is a mouthful: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.
Fluoride is so toxic and dangerous that it has the ability to eat through metal and concrete. A fluoride spill results in the use of haz-mat suits to clean up.
Drinking fluoridated water has never been scientifically proven to reduce tooth decay.
Research has found that fluoride affects normal endocrine function, causes kidney disease, bone weakness, dental fluorosis, cancer, lowering of IQ, calcification of the pineal gland, arthritis, immune deficiencies, skeletal fluorosis and much more.
Lambert & Butler Truth: It’s obvious that drinking hot tea causes your body heat to increase, though eventually you’ll return to normal, which may account for your brain “tricking” you into think you’re cooling down.
Twenty-first Century Truth: When an NPR executive producer told one of her writers to find out why hot tea cooled the body, the writer balked, saying that couldn’t possibly be true. The producer, Madhulika Sikka, replied, “Trust me. I’m Indian, I’m English. One billion Indians can’t be wrong. They drink hot tea in hot weather.” The journalist found out that receptors on the tongue tell the brain that the body is hot, which triggers the body’s cooling systems, particularly sweating. In fact, you sweat disproportionately to the amount of heat you’ve ingested, resulting (as long as that sweat can comfortably evaporate) in a cool down.
"If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician," Einstein said. "I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music."
Of course, Einstein succeeded as a physicist - but he still played a mean violin.
Simple carbohydrates and refined sugar that cause a sharp increase in glucose levels in the blood are the source of danger here. A group of researchers reached the conclusion that adrenaline is produced in children at higher blood sugar levels compared to that of adults. This has an effect on their concentration and impedes their ability to absorb information and control their emotions. Jamie Oliver has called for sugar consumption in children to be reduced as much as possible in order to avoid the dangers of obesity, tooth decay, and other illnesses.
EXPERTS are warning parents to limit their children's juice intake as research finds the sugary drinks could lead to obesity, diabetes and heart disease
This advice has been issued as research found that many fruit juices marketed at kids contain more sugar than Coca Cola.
Fruit when consumed ‘whole’ is both naturally sweet and good for you, as it contains fibre and vitamins.
But when processed into fruit juice drinks, the sugars (fructose) in the fruit cell walls are released as ‘free sugars’ which damage your teeth and provide unnecessary calories, which means you take in more calories without feeling full.
Current UK guidelines state that a small glass of unsweetened 100% fruit juice can count as one of your five a day, but Action on Sugar believe this recommendation is wrong and should be withdrawn.
Pregnant women and new moms who are around babies can automatically begin lactating when they hear the baby cry - even if it's someone else's kid.
Diamonds are not, in fact, that rare. This is essentially just an ordinary rock, and extracting it has become much less arduous over the past 150 years. However, over a long period of time, the De Beers company has controlled supplies of diamonds and has therefore been able to artificially raise the prices for them. They have been helped in this task by advertising campaigns depicting diamonds as extremely expensive precious stones that should always cost a large amount of money in order to be considered authentic.
