One who eats bees is apivorous, while one who eats onions is cepivorous. An eater of seaweed is fucivorous, while a snake-eater is fumivorous. Lignivores eat wood. Oryzivores eat rice. Radicivores eat roots. Sanguivores drink blood

"Life on the Mississippi," written by Mark Twain, was the world's first submitted typewritten manuscript. Twain used a Remington machine.

The Spanish Inquisition...read more

Christopher Columbus may have discovered America, but Amerigo Vespucci generally receives credit for noticing that Columbus had stumbled upon a new continent. Contrary to popular belief, however, Vespucci didn't name the continent after himself. Instead, a little-known German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemuller, did it for him in 1507. You might say he put Amerigo on the map

British comedy writer...read more

The English political parties - Whigs and Tories - originally were known as the Country Party and the Court Party. But the members of each party coined nastier names for their political opponents. Tory, the name applied to the Court Party, is a word for an Irish plunderer. Whig, the name applied to the Country Party, is a word for a Scottish cattle rustler

The best-selling art poster in America is...read more

The "Mona Lisa," stolen from the Louvre in 1911, was returned in 1913. But some have questioned whether it was the original or a copy that was returned, and since then, five other versions of the painting have been credited as being the original

There are about 16,000 species of bees, and most of them live solitary lives. Only about 5 percent of all bees socialize in hives.

Although female...read more

The queen bee used to be called the king bee. But in the 1660s, Dutch scientist Jan Swammerdam found ovaries while dissecting a hive's big bee, making it clear that the king was actually a queen

The average baby cries about 2.2 hours each day while the average parent loses about 200 hours of sleep in the baby's first year.

A new mother blue whale produces up to 94 gallons of milk each day...read more

As part of the Stealthy Insect Sensor Project, Los Alamos scientists have trained bees to recognize explosives

In the 1960s, 90 percent of all U.S. children were out of diapers by age 2-1/2. But not even a quarter are toilet-trained by that age now. Up to 40 percent of all children today are still in diapers at age 4.

Both killer whale and bottle-nosed dolphin parents may go without sleep for up...read more

In 1994, NASA purchased six plastic owls at Walmart in order to protect the space shuttle from woodpeckers

Bees fly an average of 15 miles per hour, and their wings move at a rate of approximately 11,400 strokes per minute.

The tilapia mother knows how to deal with a threat. The female fish sucks her young into an oral cavity and keeps them there until the coast is clear.

A proper strike in bowling...read more

Though long rumored to be poisonous, poinsettias were determined by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1975 to not be harmful to humans

Around the world, there are more than a million industrial robots now in use. Nearly half of them are in Japan.

Biologists have found that maternal attention makes a difference. For instance, rats brought up by attentive mothers are more adventurous...read more

Female marmosets, elephants and bottle-nosed dolphins have all been observed assisting others of their species during labor

In a home with a new baby, researchers report that the mother kisses her baby twice as often as she kisses her husband.

The Mars robots "Spirit" and "Opportunity" have logged more than 13 miles, moving across the Martian landscape for more than 5 years...read more

When the "Titanic" went down on April 19, 1912, there were between 1,490 and 1,635 deaths. Only about 100 of those were women

Scientists have observed that among Iberian red deer, mothers produce milk with higher levels of protein for male calves.

Only one character appears unchanged in all six "Star Wars" movies: R2-D2.

Bowling balls come in weights of up to 16 pounds.

In...read more

Although the egret is only capable of raising two chicks, she generally has a third as backup. As soon as it is clear that the first two will survive, the mother egret lets them kill the third sibling

In the United States, almost 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. In China, 117 boys are born for every 100 girls.

Japan's NEC System Technologies and Mie University worked together to build...read more

Researchers have successfully trained rats to count as high as 45

Physicist Lise Meitner was nominated 13 times for the Nobel Prize for her development of the calculations that led to the discovery of nuclear fission. But she never won. Instead, Otto Hahn, her collaborator, took the prize in 1944.

Although it's widely believed that throwing rice at weddings causes birds to explode, the truth...read more

Thai food terms include the following: Tom (soup), Khao phad (fried rice), Neua (beef), Muu (pork), Kai (chicken), Plaa (fish), Phet (spicy or hot), Phat (stir-fried), Kuaytiaw (noodles), Yam (salad) and Khing (ginger)

Chewing gum, when swallowed, will stay in a person's digestive system for an average of about 20 hours.

Paul Greengard won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2000 for his discoveries...read more

There are at least 200 euphemisms for death in the English language, including "to be in Abraham's bosom," "just add maggots" and a "Star Trek" favorite, "sleep with the Tribbles."

Almost every single one of the original Harlem Globetrotters was from Chicago, not New York. That's because the team was founded in Chicago in 1926. "Harlem" didn't...read more

The word "whiskey" comes from the Gaelic term "usquebaugh," which translates as "water of life."

Baseball may be America's favorite pastime, but it's certainly not the country's favorite spectator sport. In a 2004 survey, 10 percent of Americans reported that they most liked to watch baseball. Basketball was chosen as the top spectator sport by 14 percent...read more

Smallpox, which killed more than 100 million people in its day, first showed up as a mutation of cowpox, a disease commonly found in the auroch. What's an auroch? It's the ancient European animal from which today's domesticated cows are descended

The electricity required to operate all the exit signs in U.S. buildings costs about $1 billion per year.

In all cases of human death, the...read more

The Spanish city of Pamplona publishes safety guidelines each year for participants in the Running of the Bulls. Some quotations from the brochure include gems such as, "Do not stand still," or "making the run on a drunken spree is totally out of order." But potential participants should take special care, according to the guide, because "if you get up right in the path of...read more

A 19th-century railway expansion in Egypt resulted in so many unearthed mummies that they were used as fuel for locomotives.

The Greyhound bus line got its start in Hibbing, Minn. The town is even home to a museum, housing 11 retired buses. But there's no longer a Greyhound stop in Hibbing

The idea for best-selling game Trivial Pursuit was hatched by two Canadian reporters, Scott Abbott and...read more

Roman soldiers chewed garlic before battles in the hope that it might give them courage

Tobacco-related illnesses kill 17 Americans each year for every one American who is murdered.

In the United States, roughly 80 percent of all deaths occur in hospitals.

The word "scrabble," as in the board game, means "to grope frantically."

School buses are painted a shade known as National...read more

Not every pop band gets its name right the first time. For instance, Chicago got its start as Big Thing, and the Beach Boys were originally billed as Carl and the Passions. Polka Tulk eventually changed its name to the better-known Black Sabbath. Creedence Clearwater Revival started out as The Golliwogs.

In England, about 65 percent of all beer is consumed in pubs and other public places. But in...read more

Meteoroids don't become meteorites unless they hit the Earth.

Orange carrots may be the most common, but the vegetable also comes in white, yellow, red, green and purple

All U.S. presidents have had at least one sibling.

Citing "The Butter Battle Book" by Dr. Seuss as one of the most influential anti-arms-race books of the 1980s, experts point out that the rhyming and rhythmic challenge...read more