6 Dragonflies are the most efficient predators on Earth with near or at a 95% hunt-to-kill ratio.

Who is the world’s most deadliest hunter? The question immediately brings to mind some of the big cats such as the tiger or cheetah. Undoubtedly these animals contribute to the daily death tally by an impressive amount. But a relatively smaller animal has a much larger death tally to its credit. They are army ants. A single colony of army ants can capture up to 30,000 prey in just one day.

But the crown of the world’s deadliest hunter goes to dragonflies. According to a study at Harvard University, Massachusetts, US in 2012, it was found that dragonflies caught up to 95% of the prey they chased. This remarkable success rate of dragonflies is due to their complex eyes which can detect black spots against the sky and their wings which are powered by individual muscles resulting in amazing acceleration and agility. But according to neuroscientist Anthony Leonardo, it’s due to the dragonfly’s brain that uses highly optimized hunting strategies to predict where the prey is going. (1,2,3)

7 Samsung is responsible for 25% of South Korea’s GDP.

Talk about Samsung and people will tell you that it’s an electronics company that is well known for its smartphones. Actually, the mother conglomerate is the Samsung Group based in South Korea. In South Korea, Samsung is a chaebol—one of the large, family-controlled conglomerates that have dominated the country’s economy for decades. Samsung has integrated itself into almost every part of South Korea’s people’s life. They own medical centers, apartment complexes, appliances and electronics manufacturers, funeral parlors, and even an affiliated University. In 2017, Samsung accounted for more than 20% of the entire market value of the Korean Stock Exchange. (1, 2)

8 Beef production is the reason behind 80% of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest deforestation.

The next time you are having beef hamburgers, just remember that your simple diet might be partly responsible for the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Over the last three decades, the Amazon region has lost about a fifth of its forest. There are many factors causing deforestation, but the main reason is cattle ranching, particularly in Brazil. Trees are being cut down to convert the land into pasture for cattle grazing.

The lands are also being cleared to produce food for cattle consumption. According to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 24 to 25 million hectares of land in Brazil is used for soy production, 80% of which ends as animal feed. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of beef. As the population is increasing, so is the per-capita meat consumption. To curb the growing deforestation, the Brazilian government is taking multiple steps to reduce forest clearing. (1,2,3,4)

9 As many as 15% of Google searches every day have never been searched before.

Google is an integral part of the life of every Internet user. Google processes 100 billion queries every month and returns the result within microseconds. But, if you think that Google has an answer to all the queries in the world, then you are wrong. According to John Wiley, the lead designer for Google Search, every day around 500 million queries are submitted that have never been seen before by Google’s search engine. Surprisingly, this has been going on for more than 15 years. (1,2)

10 Innocent people will admit to a crime they never committed 43% of the time.

When an innocent person is wrongly accused of a crime, they believe that their innocence will save them. But, the reality is quite different. During an interrogation, an innocent person might actually end up confessing to a crime they didn’t commit. To better understand the psychology involved in this situation, two Iowa State University researchers, Stephanie Madon and Max Guyll, conducted a study. They found out that when first accused of a crime, the stress level of an innocent person os lower than a guilty person. This means that they will defend themselves less vigorously during the interrogation.

In the beginning, the innocent person defends themselves, but when the interrogation goes on for several hours, the person starts to wear down. According to Guyll, the pressure starts to take a toll physiologically and there’s a greater chance that the person will give up and confess. Typically, an interrogation lasts only 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. But it has been found that in the cases of false confessions, the suspects were questioned for up to 24 hours. (1,2)