Every Day on Earth (Introduction)

Another day has slipped away. What transpired? Did you miss it? Where did it go? You might have been too engrossed in other matters to notice, but each day inevitably passes. Have you ever heard someone say, "I'm counting the days" until an event occurs or a period ends? How many days remain until your birthday? The holidays? The start or end of school or work? If your calendar isn’t marked with at least one significant day, are you truly utilizing it effectively?

The pressing question is: what are we doing with our days if we are merely counting and crossing them off? Shouldn’t they mean more? Aren’t they worth more? Imagine if, instead of simply counting the days, you began to acknowledge what occurred throughout each one. Perhaps you might find something significant that transforms a day from just a numbered square on a calendar into something meaningful. But how could you possibly monitor everything that transpires in a single day? The Earth is vast, filled with innumerable events happening around us, whether we appreciate them or not!

Recording every occurrence would be an overwhelming endeavor, requiring countless libraries to document what happens on any given day. Every Day on Earth gathers intriguing and mind-bending facts that we believe will captivate readers. Many facts may seem unbelievable or bizarre; if so, then the book has achieved its goal.

However, our aim is not simply to perplex you. The primary purpose of this book is to cultivate a greater awareness of our planet: to appreciate its marvels, promote responsible interactions with it, and safeguard its future. A great starting point is to stop merely counting the days ahead of you—believe us, there are many— and instead invest time in observing and savoring the numerous delights each day brings. In short: Don’t count the days—make each day count!

Curious about what Every Day on Earth has to offer? Ignite your curiosity with eight fascinating facts from the book’s eight chapters. If you enjoy these insights, follow Curiosity Every Day on Earth for more Curiosity-Based Thinking activities inspired by the 2011 publication of Every Day on Earth.

Living Things

What do anteaters chew? Nothing at all, since they lack teeth. So, how do they eat? With their 2-foot-long (60 cm) tongues! Anteaters aren't being rude when they stick out their tongues; in fact, they can consume up to 35,000 ants and termites daily! These remarkable creatures can flick their tongues over 160 times a minute while hunting for lunch. Despite having 4-inch-long (10 cm) claws, the giant anteater doesn’t destroy the anthills or termite mounds it visits; it simply opens them enough to use its tongue, feasting on a few, and returns later for more.

Earth

Yuck! When a young koala weans off its mother’s milk, the mother offers her joey (the term for a baby koala) a special kind of soft poop known as pap. An adult koala consumes approximately 18 ounces (510 g) of eucalyptus leaves daily. These leaves contain potent toxins, requiring the koala's stomach to detoxify them. By eating their mother’s droppings, joeys gradually learn to process these toxins as adults.

Food

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. While this might hold some truth, apples may be better at keeping the dentist at bay due to their teeth-cleaning properties. Americans consume about 685,000 bushels (2.4 million liters) of apples and apple products daily. This means the average American eats around 16.9 pounds (7.7 kg) of apples each year.

The Human Body

What’s the most misunderstood product of the human body? Have you heard of bile? Often associated with anger, your liver produces between 27–34 oz (800–1,000 ml) of bile every day to sustain you. Where is this bile stored? In your gallbladder. What is bile composed of? Bile consists of water, bile salts, cholesterol, and phospholipids. What is its function? Bile aids in fat breakdown, facilitates the absorption of vitamins A, D, E, and K, and helps regulate cholesterol levels.

Pop Culture

What would people do without their phone apps? Over 1 billion apps were downloaded within the first nine months of their release on Apple’s iTunes—that’s around 3,703,703 downloads daily! The billionth app, named Bump, allowed two iPhone users to transfer information by bumping their devices together. As of June 2010, total app downloads exceeded 5 billion, with new apps being created at a rate of over 309 every day.

Space

Every day on Earth? How about half a year on Mercury? On March 17, 2011, the Mercury Messenger space probe embarked on a two-Mercury-day mission around the planet closest to the sun. Confusingly, these two “Mercury days” span a little over four “Mercury years.” How is this feasible? Mercury rotates slowly; it takes 176 Earth days to complete one rotation on its axis. However, due to its proximity to the sun, it only takes 88 Earth days to orbit it. Thus, during its 12 Earth months orbiting Mercury, the probe will experience roughly two Mercury days or four Mercury years while observing our solar system's smallest planet.

Technology

The latest innovation in TV, as of 2010, is the 3-D set. Thanks to South Korea’s involvement in the 2010 World Cup, the nation’s two largest flat-screen TV manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, sold 9,000 3-D sets in June alone. This averages out to more than 300 3-D TVs sold each day! By the end of 2010, Samsung aimed to sell an additional 26 million 3-D TVs globally, translating to over 142,000 sets daily. Watching 3-D soccer can be thrilling when the ball appears to leap out of the screen, but it's certainly preferable to watching 3-D boxing!

Sports

During a typical 90-minute soccer match, an average player covers about 6.2 miles (10 km). That’s equivalent to running the length of an NBA court 350 times! If that player were to compete in an all-day match—a dream for any soccer enthusiast—they would run around 99 miles (160 km). However, they would likely be too fatigued to score any goals, as covering that distance is akin to running from New York City to Philadelphia in a single day!

Intrigued? This introduction to Every Day on Earth merely scratches the surface of the many peculiar, fascinating, and curious events that unfold throughout an ordinary day.

If you wish to delve deeper into the myriad happenings around you and within you each day, stay curious with What If Curiosity as we explore how Curiosity-Based Thinking can help us create whatever we can envision—including a better society!