Fact Book - Now You Know

Enhance your General Knowledge

Many tribes around the world have practised trepanning since the Stone Age. It involves drilling a hole in the skull, often with a stone, to ease headaches by letting out evil spirits. People frequently survived, as many skulls have been found with several such holes, some partially healed.

In 1962, a Dutch doctor decided to try trepanning. He used an electric drill to make a hole in his own head.

Sundew plants have lots of sticky tentacles. When an insect lands on them, it can't escape and the glue on the plant digests the insect's body, feeding the plant.

In 1986, 92 people were killed in Bangladesh by giant hailstones weighing up to 1 kilogram (2 pounds 3 ounces) each.

Sometimes frozen blocks of toilet waste flushed from aeroplanes fall to earth.

The scientific name for fear of slime is blennophobia.

The English rhyme Ring-a-Ring-o'-Roses dates from the time of the bubonic plague.The �roses' refer to red spots that appeared before boils started, the �posies' to flowers people carried around to counteract the bad air that they thought caused plague, and the sneezing was an early symptom.

In the Middle Ages, people thought they could cure the medical condition rheumatism by carrying a dead shrew in their pockets.