A list of curious facts
One: Rohini Balakrishnan—a scientist at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore—has two crickets named after her. One native to Mexico: Oecanthus rohiniae. And one found in Kerala: Teleogryllus rohini. The Print has her story.
Two: The first ever dinosaur bone fragment was found in 1676 in a limestone quarry in Oxfordshire, England. No one knew what this giant chunk of bone actually was. A chemistry professor decided it must belong to some ancient race of human giants. And a hundred years later—studying the good professor’s drawing—gave it a suitably scientific name: Scrotum humanum. Yup, that’s the official name of the first dino we found: balls. It would later be more suitably renamed Megalosaurus. Sad. See the misleading drawing below. Mel Magazine has more details and links.
Three: There’s a grasshopper trapped in one of Vincent Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, ‘Olive Trees’. If you care, it was already dead when he accidentally painted over it. There’s a fabulous interactive version of the painting here—be sure to scroll in the gallery to Figure 13 to check out the hapless grasshopper. Smithsonian has the backstory.
Four: You know that tiny ‘coin’ pocket inside the front pocket of your jeans—the one that seems entirely pointless? It dates back to 1879, and here’s why it exists:
According to the Levi Strauss website, ‘this extra pouch has served many functions, evident in its many titles: frontier pocket, condom pocket, coin pocket, match pocket and ticket pocket, to name a few.’ But it was originally called a ‘watch pocket,’ and when attached to a fob (the other end clipped to, say, a belt loop or vest’s button hole), the pocket watch would be easy to retrieve—unlike coins, for instance.
Five: An Archie comic from 1997 correctly predicted what schooling will look like in 2021. Note the astonishingly accurate sign on the wall: “Video monitor must remain uncovered at all times.” Check it out here. (h/t founding member Kruthika Ravi Kumar)
Six: Lots of times when we declare a species extinct what we really mean is that Western scientists assume it is extinct. For example: The high-altitude starry night harlequin toad—which is called gouna by the South American tribe that reveres and protects them. After tribal members reluctantly shared news of their existence with Western conservationists, they are working together to save this endangered toad. National Geographic has this lovely story. Gizmodo has a list of seven species that ‘returned’ from extinction.