We’re unfortunately living in an age where negativity and toxicity are in abundance whenever we go online. You’ll see it in hateful social media posts, divisive political commentaries, and blatant misinformation, among others.
Fortunately, there is still a less-explored part of the internet that can remind us to hold more optimism. This recent Threads post is one of them, where people shared beautiful, encouraging facts that may sound too good to be true but are actually real.
You can always do your own research to verify this information if you wish. Nonetheless, hopefully these can brighten your day in some way.
#1
I learned on Bird Threads that baby spoonbills are called teaspoons.
#2
There’s a colony of puffins who stand on one foot.
This is not a normal puffin habit. But some ornithologists had put a few dummy puffins in the area to draw the puffins there for observation. The live puffins noticed that their hosts stood on one foot (it was a little stick, holding the toy puffin up) and, as a gesture of politeness and friendly adoption of the local customs, the real puffins assimilated.
#3
Dogs exist.
#4
There is a new form of bacteria that eats only plastic. It’s currently having lunch at the great plastic island floating in the middle of the ocean.
#5
A group of fireflies is called a sparkle.
#6
A study done on dogs revealed that their brains release more endorphins from human cuddling than from getting treats.
#7
A cat purrs at a frequency of 25 to 150 hertz, which matches the frequency at which muscles and bones can repair themselves.
#8
People in all 50 states still access abortion pills discreetly by mail. They’re safe, effective, and affordable. Because of robust distribution networks and hard working advocates and researchers, people are still getting the care they need, no matter where they live.
#9
Dogs evolved to have eyebrow muscles so that they could better communicate with their humans
#10
An HIV positive person in Kansas City, MO had cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. The donor had something in their 🧬 that eats HIV. The man is 100% cured. Not undetectable, but cured.
#11
Some species of jumping spiders can hold rain drops on their head like little hats, and other larger spiders sometimes keep frogs as pets to eat the bugs that try to eat the spider babies
#12
Archaelogists excavating a cave in Iraq in the 50s found the skeleton of a man who lived about 40,000 years ago. He had experienced multiple life threatening injuries and medical conditions including blindness and paralysis, but had survived them and lived for several years because his community cared for him (Shanidar 1 if you want more info). Love and support has been around a long time 🩷
#13
a group of ladybugs is called a loveliness
#14
There are people alive today because a complete stranger chose to donate blood.
#15
When cows have a “best friend,” they become significantly less stressed and perform better on cognitive tasks when paired together.
Never miss a story that brings joy to the world. Follow on Google News
#16
Last year South Korean scientists discovered a way to alter genetic code to revert malignant cancer cells back into normal benign healthy cells. they’ve done it successfully with Colon Cancer, and are currently experimenting on other cancer cells to replicate the same effect.
#17
There’s no record of cheetahs evwr attacking a human in the wild. In fact, it’s not unusual for them to lay down around a wildlife photographer trying to get some shots out on the savannah. Also, they’re somewhat anxious babies, especially in zoos, so it’s not unusual for them to have emotional support dogs 😁
#18
A group of bunnies is called a fluffle!
#19
It always makes me giggle to think that humans have to pretend to sleep before they can fall asleep. Like, close your eyes and be really quiet, so your body gets that it is time to go night night
#20
While the news will certainly convince you otherwise, you are living in the safest, most prosperous time in the history of humanity. Violent crime and warfare have never been less likely.
We live in the antibiotic/vaccination revolution, in which fatal diseases have been eradicated and life expectancy has skyrocketed. The average human born today will have better access to education and healthcare than any time in recorded human history.
#21
cats will eventually mimic communication and bond with you, if you speak to them regularly
#22
If you have chickens they have probably named you. They can recognize and remember up to 100 different faces on average! They also have personal favorite treats!
#23
The Norbertine Canonesses of the Bethlehem Priory of St. Joseph are a cloistered order in Tehachapi, California. They make cheese and breed dogs and sell sheep and cows. And once each night, they wake up and pray together for an hour for new mothers who are also awake, caring for their babies.
#24
Seahorses mate for life and they dance with each other every morning 🥺
#25
Trauma might rewire your brain but so does healing. Work that neuroplasticity kids, it’s worth it!
#26
King Tutankhamen’s favourite tunic (that he was coronated in) had ducks on it
#27
Jumping spiders become fond of the humans they live with. You don’t see them while they often see you. It sounds scary I know. But the reality is that they learn your patterns and try to respectfully stay out of your way. If they make their presence known to you, it’s because they are fond of you. 🥲
#28
Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn.
#29
That the same level of pain can be perceived (by our brain) as less painful if we are holding the hand of a person we feel safe with.
(See emotionally focused therapies and the study they did with fmri and electric shock)
#30
Humans used science to create reciprocal IVF, where a fertilized egg can be placed inside a different uterus and it will grow. It will allow two uterus having partners to create a baby that is biologically part of both of them.
And in 2027, my wife and I get to implant our embryos!
#31
When California Condors were being saved from the brink of extinction, caretakers had to use hand puppets that looked like other Condors to keep the babies from getting attached to humans. I frickin love these birds so much
#32
During pregnancy, some fetal cells manage to cross the placenta and they become part of the mother’s body. It’s called fetal microchimerism.
We are carrying parts of our children inside our bodies way after birth too. They are a part of us.
#33
You haven’t met all the people who will love you, yet.
#34
Someone you’ve helped years ago still remembers it, even if you don’t.
#35
Someone remebers you listening to a song you recomended, or quoting a phrase of yours. Just as we do with other people, people remeber us in some contexts that make them happy 🙂
#36
Technically, only non avian dinosaurs went extinct 66 million years ago. We still coexist with dinosaurs.
#37
Laughing is contagious. Best medicine for the soul! Fun fact about babies; they laugh for the first time in 3 months, they can trigger laughter in adults ❤️
#38
It only takes a 20 second hug to release oxytocin, the love chemical that makes you feel bonded with another
#39
No other person on Earth in all of time has your exact fingerprint pattern, not even an identical twin. Created in the womb, it is an absolute mathematical miracle.
Every time you touch a cup, hold a hand, or leave a mark on the world, you carry a tiny signature of your own existence. About 117 billion humans have lived throughout all of history. Because the possible variations in a fingerprint are so vast, your specific design has never existed before you, and it will never exist again.
#40
Song birds sing for many reasons, but sometimes they sing just because they are relaxed and enjoy the act of singing.
#41
Otters sometimes fall asleep holding hands so that if they are swept away by a sudden flood at least they won’t be alone.
#42
When a baby grows in the womb, part of their DNA remains behind after they’re born. So for anyone who has ever lost a child they carried, part of them quite literally lives on in you. You carry them everywhere you go. ❤️🩹
#43
Your reflection in the mirror is the actual truest appearance of yourself. Not the unflattering photo someone tagged you in.
#44
My baby blows raspberries when she’s sad. It doesn’t fix climate change, world hunger or poverty, and it does morning if you don’t like babies. But goodness me, it’s hard to believe the world is inherently evil when it happens.
#45
Elephants get the same endorphins looking at humans that we do when looking at baby animals. Elephants quite literally find us as adorable as a puppy!
#46
baby elephants suck on their trunk the way that baby humans suck on their thumb 🥰
#47
There’s a Brazilian research and medicine developed with more than 5 people being treated after accidentally becoming paraplegic that are now walking again 🙂
#48
Baby girls develop all the egg cells they’ll ever have while they’re still in the womb, by around 20 weeks of fetal development. That means when your grandmother was pregnant with your mother, part of what would one day become you already existed inside your mom.
So when Grandma says you’re her baby… maybe she’s not just being sentimental. Maybe it’s because she really did carry you, too. 💛
#49
People perceive you as being 20% more attractive than you think you are.
#50
Some of the best days of your life haven’t even happened yet.
#51
Researchers in Japan have found a way to regrow adult teeth and are preparing to release this to the public
#52
Pronoia, the opposite of paranoia, is the delusion that everyone is secretly plotting your success.
#53
“Fake it till you make it” has some real science behind it. Even a forced smile can make your brain feel a little happier.
Sometimes your body teaches your mind. Smile first, and your brain often starts looking for reasons to believe it.
#54
Diamond rain: Deep inside the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, the intense pressure turns carbon into real diamonds that fall like rain.
Had to look it up cause I couldn’t think of anything
lol
#55
Golden retrievers produce more oxytocin (the cuddle hormone) than any other breed.
#56
That smell…that you love it’s called petrichor…and it in fact can reduce stress, anxiety and actually improve your mood.
#57
I’ve always like the idea from The Watchmen that any given human life is a thermodynamic miracle. The odds of you existing are about the same as the odds that the air you’re breathing will randomly turn into gold. So your very existence is a miracle.
#58
This is about me, personally. I should have died in 2009
In late 2009, I was in the hospital, following a brain surgery gone wrong. I don’t remember 3 months. A week after the brain surgery, I went into cardiac arrest and coded. I was paralyzed. The hospital is 3 hours away from me so I don’t remember any of the staff, though I am friends with the nurse on Facebook. I asked her once, “had I not been in the hospital when all that happened, would I still be alive?” Her response, “no”
#59
We’re close to a cure for colon cancer thanks to tree frogs and scientists in Japan. Not only did it have a 100% success rate, but when cancer was reintroduced, the treatment showed to act like as vaccine.
#60
During pregnancy a baby’s cells can travel into a mother’s body and repair injured tissue 😌
#61
That I was a part of my mother since the day she was born 🙂 even tho eggs have half the genetic material, that still means that a part of me survived since 1964 and lived on 💗
#62
Time is not linear. Past, Present and Future are all an illusion we’ve created ourselves. You only truly have the Present moment so live fully!✨
#63
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” ~Rumi
#64
Sunflowers always face the sun but when there’s no sun in the sky they turn to face each other
#65
Trees are green bc the sun us green! We just cant see it with our eyes, it comes to us as bright white in space, and yellow when filtered through the atmosphere (sky is blue, sun looks yellow, blue+yellow=green) the intensity is too high for us to decipher so it looks bright white, but is actually green.
#66
NEWS is an acronym for North, East, West, and South; because news comes from all directions.